Cracking the code to Ivy League success

By Bolor-Erdene Battsengel is Vice Minister of the Ministry of Digital Development and Communications of Mongolia. For more information on the Girls for Coding programme, please see www.girlscode.mn.

The Girls for Coding or Girls Code programme brings girls from remote locations and disadvantaged regions of Mongolia together in order to train them in ICT (Information Technology and Computing). The initiative has been a huge success since it was first launched last year. In fact, 80 graduates have already completed it. I am so happy to be part of its success as several of these have progressed to Ivy League universities in the United States while others have furthered their studies in China and Japan.

The programme is organised as a coding ‘boot camp’ in Mongolia’s capital Ulaanbaatar for two and a half months each summer. Training is very intensive as it involves 12 hours of coding and English language classes each day. It’s certainly not for the faint hearted! Participants are appointed mentors from the ICT sector and get to witness the workings of a tech company first-hand. Through inviting Mongolian Ivy League graduates as guest speakers, the programme advises students on how to apply to international universities as well as how to write inspiring and eye-catching admissions essays. Instruction is provided by the top computer science educators from the National University of Mongolia.

As a measure of the programme’s success, nine out of 30 of the first year’s cohort of girls are now studying for software engineering or computer science degrees at Ivy League schools. I feel this is a quite remarkable achievement considering only 16 per cent of students starting at Harvard and 15 per cent starting at Columbia in Autumn 2022 were international students. This year’s group of 50 girls are no less ambitious or successful, as they are creating apps that UN Mongolia have expressed an interest in using.

The figures for a rural population is reached by calculating the difference between the total population and the urban population. While the Mongolian rural population figure has increased year on year for the past number of years, its rate of increase has lessened. For example, this figure was 1,039,235 in 2021, a 1.14 per cent increase from 2020 when the figure was 1,027,515, a 1.28 per cent increase from 2019.

The current population of Mongolia is just over 3.4 million. This means that almost one in three people currently living in Mongolia form part of a rural community. Girls for Coding aims to reach the most remote and disadvantaged of this population.

I witnessed the gap in education between rural and urban areas when I was growing up in the rural town, Bulgan province. At the time, little did I know that this tiny spark of inspiration would, with help from my team, develop into the Girls for Coding programme. I firmly believe that education is one of the key tools in helping to lift one’s life. Technology can certainly be used to fill the existing gaps in the world, including gender inequality. The majority of the Mongolian parliament is male and only three female members are part of its cabinet. I am one of the few women in a leadership position in Mongolia. I am also one of the youngest. It seems wholly unfair to me that someone should not enjoy the same advantages as others simply due to their gender, age, geographical location or financial circumstances.

Mongolia’s enviable location between two giant neighbours (China and Russia) in Central Asia, connecting the Eurasian territories means we have huge potential to develop digital strategies. Mongolia’s ICT sector has boomed in the past decade and continues to grow rapidly. Its young and adaptable population has embraced IT products for personal and professional use. This is particularly evident with the huge rise in mobile cellular subscriptions, which enjoyed an increase of 133 per cent in 2020 and 137 per cent in 2019.

I am delighted and very excited to announce that after a recent visit to the UK the Girls for Coding programme has received backing from Oxford University to expand internationally. I feel it goes far beyond a mere training programme. We are not just providing computer science knowledge and skills for girls who are from remote areas. We are building a community of future female leaders in tech. My greater mission is to build a digital ready society where everyone has access to the wonders of digital technology regardless of where they are from.