COUNTRY FOCUS: TUNISIA
While on an exchange programme in the USA, a Tunisian
software engineer became inspired to build something that
would make a real difference in her home country.
Faten Ghriss subsequently set up Young Tunisian Coders
Academy and her passion prompted recognition by the
Obama Foundation Leaders: Africa programme. Intelligent
CIO spoke to her about that and how technology is being
used to boost the Tunisian economy.
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Young coders lead
the way in Tunisia
F
aten Ghriss was born and raised in
Tunis and has lived there ever since.
The 26-year-old studied computer
network and telecommunication engineering
at INSAT in Tunisia’s capital city, which
included a one-year exchange course at
Minnesota State University in Mankato.
However, when she returned to Tunisia,
Ghriss noticed the stark differences in
education and technology so decided to set
up Young Tunisian Coders Academy.
“The differences between the USA and
Tunisia is terms of education is mainly how
flexible I felt education is in the US,” said
www.intelligentcio.com
“
OUR GOAL IS TO
SUSTAIN OURSELVES
SO THAT WE CAN
BE ABLE TO CREATE
PROGRAMMES FOR
UNDER PRIVILEGED
AREAS IN TUNISIA.
Ghriss. “For example, in Tunisia, if you enrol
for a certain programme, everybody will
have the same schedule and will attend the
same classes for three, four or five years.
I loved the fact that you can choose your
classes and schedule them in the US, which
makes you able to do other activities in
parallel and have a versatile experience.
“Tunisia is still behind when it comes to
education and access to educational tools.
“In many cases, we only start teaching
children about computers when they’re
16 years old and this is too late. I believe
that it is essential that we show them how
INTELLIGENTCIO
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