President Klaus Iohannis on Friday joined 23 school children in a computer programming class as part of Hour of Code 2015.
“I am very happy that you have come here today and I like what each of you has done,” Iohannis told the attending children.
Iohannis walked from one student to another to see what they were doing on computers.
“Why do we need all these commands?” Iohannis asked a young programmer. “To make the game work,” the child answered.
And the President continued to challenge the students. “Is everything all right here?” he asked another child. “I have to program planting small leaves,” a girl told the President, with the President saying that he likes what he sees.
The attending children in the campaign hosted by the Cotroceni Presidential Palace were aged 5 to 14 years.
“By holding this event and supporting the Hour of Code 2015 campaign, Romania’s President wants to bring back to the public opinion the importance of digital skills and investment in the development of children and adults’ programming skills as part of the lifelong learning process,” the Presidential Administration reported in a press statement.
The tutorials followed by the attending school children are posted on the official website of the project: ro.code.org.
“They prove that coding is a logical combination of logics and mathematics, work and perseverance and is accessible even at small ages. Romania’s performance in the IT area has unequivocally proved the need to stimulate the country’s native talent in this area,” reads the statement.
Hour of Code Romania is organised by the ADFABER Association, which managed in 2014 to get involved more than 400,000 Romanians in coding events.