Coding Challenge in upper secondary schools
About the programme
The British Council in Albania is implementing the ‘Alternative Pathways’ programme – Reducing Irregular Migration from Albania to the UK by providing alternative routes for young Albanians), a new project funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, represented by the British Embassy in Tirana. The programme engages directly with adolescents (aged 13–18) at migration hotspots in northern Albania, providing them with alternative paths to irregular migration by combining skills and capacity building, media engagement and community action to build capacity, trust and create opportunities at local level.
To achieve this goal, the programme has developed professional development programmes for the training of lower secondary education teachers and for upper secondary education teachers in the eight municipalities of North Albania (Dibër, Kukes, Mat, Bulqizë, Klos, Has, Tropoje, Malësi e Madhe), where the integration of cross-curricular and comprehensive skills will enable them to effectively teach students critical thinking, problem-solving and coding skills during the classroom lesson but also to create Extracurricular Clubs in the schools included in the programme.
The project also aims at the direct involvement of school principals and increasing their skills for leadership, management and promotion of school activities by collaborating with the community to meet their needs and by developing opportunities and skills for students in the areas of critical thinking, problem-solving and coding.
The programme is developed in partnership with educational institutions in Albania, ASCAP – the Agency for Quality Assurance in Pre-University Education, the Ministry of Education and Sports, the Ministry of Youth and Children and the National Youth Agency.
The Alternative Pathways programme will enable students to learn alternative ways in a fun, interactive and innovative way, but also to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills, learn practical coding skills and have the opportunity to practice coding through the use of micro:bit devices, pocket-sized computers that can be programmed and used in various teaching subjects to solve everyday problems.
About the Challenge
As part of the ‘Alternative Pathways’ Programme, the British Council in Albania will be organising a Coding Challenge for all students aged 15 to 18 (grades 10, 11 and 12) in the upper secondary education – AML schools participating in this programme.
The challenges will be organised at local (city) and regional level (in schools in the eight municipalities included in the programme).
The challenge aims to involve students/children from all schools in the city in the eight municipalities of Northern Albania, (Dibar, Kukës, Mat, Bulqizë, Klos, Has, Tropojë, Malësi e Madhe) and to inspire young people to solve everyday life problems faced by their schools and communities through the programming of devices.
The challenge will provide the opportunity to use the BBC Micro:bit device to enable students to participate with a project that responds to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and explores solutions to everyday life problems.
Schools are strongly encouraged to develop innovative solutions to protect the environment, save energy and combat the impact of climate change.
The Coding Challenge is organised in partnership with the Agency for Quality Assurance in Pre-university Education and under the Co-operation Agreement with the Ministry of Education and Sports of Albania.
The Coding Challenge
The Coding Challenge is open to all participating schools from eight municipalities of North Albania, (Dibër, Kukes, Mat, Bulqizë, Klos, Has, Tropoje and Malësi e Madhe) involved in the ‘Alternative Pathways’ trainings, implemented by the British Council from October 2023 to March 2025.
Please refer to Appendix 1 in the ‘Downloads’ section below for the list of schools eligible to participate.
All students aged 15 to 18 (grades 10, 11 and 12) who are part of the Coding Club or Extracurricular Clubs from eligible schools are encouraged to participate in the competition.
The British Council is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion.
Note: Each school in this phase will have the opportunity to compete with the schools in the city/district with a project proposal/idea (by applying the regulations specified in this announcement).
In the second phase, schools will have the opportunity to compete at the regional level with the schools in the eight municipalities included in this project.
Before starting the application process, you must first express your interest by completing Appendix 3 and sending it to this address: emarilda.leti@britishcouncil.org.
You will then be sent a link where you can complete and send your personalised file and upload your application with all the required documents.
Coding Challenge rules and competition deadlines
The Coding Challenge competition opens on 20 December 2024 and closes on 26 January 2025.
Note: To be eligible for project evaluation, projects must be submitted by representative teams from each school, consisting of members of the Coding Club together with the school’s co-ordinating teacher(s).
The project presentation on the day of the competition will be made by only two students and one teacher who will also be team representatives.
At least one girl should be part of the presentation in each team.
Application, evaluation and organisation phases of the Coding Challenges
The challenge will be evaluated in three phases by professionals in the fields of technology, education and research, and innovation selected by the British Council and ASCAP.
- Phase 1 – initial selection of projects submitted online (deadline 26 January 2025)
- Phase 2 – for each city/region up to ten selected projects will be invited to participate in the local Coding Challenge event (deadline 31 January 2025)
- Phase 3 – organisation of the Coding Competitions and selection of one winning team and two accompanying teams (Coding Competition Week 5–13 February 2025)
Phase 1
In the first phase of the challenge, all submitted applications will be assessed against the eligibility criteria. To be eligible for project assessment, projects must be submitted by teams, consisting of only two team members and the co-ordinating teacher.
In addition, participants are invited to submit the following:
- Contact details – specified in the registration form
- Competition information privacy form and signed consent: Appendix 2
- Presentation document: Appendix 3 – brief description of the project, the problems it addresses, how it will help students, their school or communities and how the project relates to the Sustainable Development Goals.
(The project description must be submitted as a document in Word format. Photographs of handwritten letters will be marked with minimal points.) - Uploading the file to the Online Portal which will be sent to you by email and will be confirmed to you once the documents are uploaded and functional.
- Preparing a video of the project for the preliminary presentation of the project submitted to participate in the competition (2–5 minutes).
All required documents should be uploaded to the online file.
Please complete all documents in digital format. Any incomplete applications will be removed at this stage.
More information on how to select a project and how to prepare a video can be found in the ‘Guidelines for Schools’ in the ‘Downloads’ section below.
Phase 2
Complete applications submitted will be assessed against the following evaluation criteria:
- Overall purpose and impact of the project (20%) – Sustainable Development Goals. What is the change your project aims to achieve? How will it impact the community? (reference to written submission Q2 and Q3)
- Originality and creativity in solving a problem (20%) – How will you approach solving the problem in a unique way? (reference to written submission Q4 and Q5)
- Functional design of the project (20%) – How well is the prototype designed? Are there any flaws in the design? Does it work as intended? Are all the planned functionalities there? Did you try to build it? (reference to written submission Q6)
- Technical complexity of the code (40%) – Is the product functional? (reference to written submission Q7); (Appendix 4: Technical Complexity of the Code)
- Ability to follow instructions as defined in the Competition Rules.
The ICT expert jury members will select up to ten best projects to be submitted for the final phase of the challenge (Phase 3).
The Coding Challenge will be organised in the city, at a venue that will be confirmed during the final selection phase.
Phase 3
The teams with the selected projects will participate in the final phase, organised in their city.
- In the Coding Challenge activity, each team will have 5–7 minutes to present the project and answer questions from the jury.
- The presentation will be given in a one-on-one format where the two student representatives together with the co-ordinating teacher will be able to present the visual project (presentation of models through mock-ups, micro:bit, laptop etc.).
- The jury will have 2–5 minutes to ask questions about the project and will evaluate the projects based on general knowledge of the project content, technical complexity of the code and presentation skills.
The jury will select and announce one winning team and two accompanying winning teams of the Coding Challenge.
Only the winning team and the first runner-up team (second place) are eligible to participate and present their project in the Regional Coding Challenge.
The jury in phases 2 and 3 will use a scoring system with points (1–5) for each criterion and a percentage rating.
In the event of a tie, the jury will select the winning project based on the overall ability to meet the Challenge criteria. The jury’s decision is final.
Prizes
The first place winning team: will receive equipment (three laptops for the Coding Club) used with micro:bit devices (GOLD Robotics Kit) for their school and will participate in the Regional Coding Competition
The second place winner: will receive equipment (three smart boards for the Coding Club) used with micro:bit devices (SILVER Robotics Kit) for their school and will participate in the Regional Coding Competition
The third place winner: will receive equipment (three smart boards for the Coding Club) used with micro:bit devices (BRONZE Robotics Kit) for their school
Coding Challenge timeline
- Phase 1 – initial selection of projects submitted online (deadline 26 January 2025)
- Phase 2 – for each city/region up to ten projects selected teams will be invited to participate in the local Coding Challenge event (deadline 31 January 2025)
- Phase 3 – organisation of Coding Competitions and selection of 1 winning team and 2 accompanying teams (Coding Competition Week 5–13 February 2025)
Calendar
| Date | Activity |
| 20 December 2024 | Opening the Code Challenge Call and updating the website |
| 20 December 2024 – 26 January 2025 | Application for participation in the Coding Challenge |
| 29 January 2025 | Phase 1 assessment Initial selection of projects applied online |
| 31 January 2025 | Phase 2 assessment and notification Up to ten selected projects |
| 5–13 February 2025 | Evaluation in phase 3 Organising coding challenges (one-on-one) in the eight municipalities included in North Albania |
| 4 March 2025 | Regional Coding Challenge: Selection of AML regional winners |
Good luck everyone!