Early introduction to computers will always play a positive role in school students’ development and learning.

There are many testimonies today, across disciplines, which lend credence to this fact. One of such great testimonies in progress is Tosin Amuda. Two things made him lust after computers: the opening of a computer lab in his secondary school and movies that made nerds look cool. Tosin Amuda’s introduction to digital tech was via learning to draw shapes using Logo turtle. He went ahead to study Computer Science at the University of Lagos.

Years later, he’s part of Project Leer, a digital platform that seeks to stem WASSCE failure rates by helping West African secondary school students prepare better for their O’ Level exams. We had a brief chat with him about his tech life, Leer, and work as an Enye student.

When did you decide you were going to make software engineering a career ambition? 

One thing that worked out for me was that I had an idea of what I wanted to get out of my computer science degree. This guided the elective courses I took in University. It guided the events I attended as a student, the boot camps, the internships, the hackathons.

What made you join Enye?

Before Enye, I was familiar with ES5 and AngularJS, but that was all. I struggled to catch up with the hotter programming languages, languages like ES6, NodeJs, Typescript, and ReactJs. I’d tried different tutorials, but they weren’t exactly beginner-friendly. Many of them assume you are familiar with Node.js and npm. So, when I saw Enye’s ad online, I knew it was time to demystify the world of JavaScript. I’m glad to say, now, that I have moved from being scared of ES6+ to building the entire backend of an application with JavaScript.

What did you find most challenging about being at Enye?

Before Enye, I had not used tech like Git Flow, PR/MR, Code review, CI/CD (Travis), et cetera. I had a rough start. In my team, I was the newest to NodeJS & React so I had to wait for someone with more experience to set up the codebase before I could join in. I used spent one week brushing up on ES6+, node tutorials, and reading the codes of my teammates. Once, I got the pattern, though, I zoned in. I picked up Mongoose, Auth0, Socket.io in 4 weeks. These and many more skills I learned at Enye have turbocharged my career. 

Why Leer?

In Nigeria, teachers aren’t trained to handle Generation Z even though Gen Z’ers account for all secondary school students today. Thing is, Gen Z’ers were born with digital technology. They will never know what life was without the internet. Gen Z’ers don’t see technology as a tool; they see it as a regular part of life. Every learning approach has to be tailored to suit them. The coronavirus has exposed the reality of the stinging lack of resources and training to do that. We have to adapt quickly to prepare for the future of learning.

Leer means ‘learn’ in Afrikaans; it is a web application that will slot in this gap nicely, presenting high school students a platform to learn in a fun way via a gamified learning experience. We’ll do a pilot launch of Leer in some schools to get feedback from the students and improve on the idea.

How do you see the Nigerian tech industry in the near future, and how does Enye feature in that tech future?

The tech industry here is booming, especially since the launch of initiatives like GDG, Mobile Monday, CcHub, and Google Nigeria. Innovative startups are doing well too, from Fintechs to OkadaTech. In the future, I think there will be a lot of acquisitions by global firms and local firms. Nigeria is set to be the African melting pot for global tech talents, from Software engineers to QA specialists, Machine Learning Engineers, and product managers.

Enye will play a major role in terms of developing world-class talents in the industry. And I also see them move from just training also actively investing in ideas.

To find out more about the Leer project, please contact us. Connect with us on Facebook and LinkedIn