India’s National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 has made coding a mandatory subject from class 6. In a highly digitised post-pandemic world, the inclusion of coding in the school syllabus is expected to bring a new revolution in the education system of India. Coding is a software programming language instructing a computer how to perform a task. Python, C and JavaScript are a few examples of coding languages. Children as young as six or seven can start learning the basics of coding as this is the period of creativity. That’s why the NEP plans to catch them young.
Is coding a step in the right direction?
Sneha Priya, Co-Founder and CEO, SP Robotic Works said, “Absolutely yes! Just like Math and Science, Coding has become a necessity in today’s world. Every child today is already born with tech, they are users of tech from as young as possible. Teaching them from young on how to create technology based solutions through coding, not only encourages them to gain knowledge in that sector but also ensures that they become responsible users of technology. Math and Science is important so that as we grow we would choose the right career path, take a wise decision with enough exposure in place. Coding today has become equally inevitable and its high time students start getting their exposure from young.”
In fact, according to Sumeet Mehta, Co-founder & CEO, LEAD, this is a step 5 years late in coming. “But better late than never. India and in fact the world has a big dearth of capable engineers. Given that coding is the language for humans to create digital solutions, manipulate machines and automate repetitive and sometimes dangerous manual tasks, it will be great for India to be the source of capable tech talent. Including coding in the syllabus is a step in the right direction and should be implemented rapidly by all schools. This will be a big enabler for the future of Digital India,” he affirmed.
Currently most of the CBSE and IB schools have already introduced coding (for past 4 to 5 years) to their students from Class 6 – this step was taken by the managements to ensure they are providing relevant education to students which will be important for their future. The government’s NEP move now helps regulate it across all schools and ensure that every child is provided equal opportunity in the advanced sector.
How can coding benefit school kids?
Coding is not about learning the coding language – it’s about framing algorithms, understanding logics and improving the logics based on the outcomes. Sneha pointed out, “Whether it’s Python or html or C language, coding skills ultimately help a school kid to develop problem solving skills, logical thinking and debugging skills which are highly essential and needs to be introduced from young to shape their thinking skills in the right direction.”
Sumeet added, “Teaching children coding and computation at an early age boosts their cognitive and reasoning skills, creative thinking, data analysis and visualisation, and problem-solving abilities. In today’s world, computational skills and algorithmic thinking are as important as literacy and numeracy skills. So coding, which is the language of algorithmic thinking, is definitely going to make our children ready for life.”
So how do Indian kids compare internationally with coding capabilities? Most schools in India don’t teach coding and hence very few students pick this skill unless and until they go to an engineering college. “A lot of schools also have outdated computer science curriculum and need to upgrade to coding & computational skills. Moreover, coding programs currently available are very expensive and are offered outside of school, directly to students and hence afforded by very few. On the contrary, internationally, most high PISA ranking countries offer coding in schools,” explained Sumeet.
The SP Robotics Community has seen a lot of their kids who learnt coding perform exceptionally better than other children internationally. Sneha personally, feels that Indians are born with more logical thinking and reasoning skills. She added, “Let’s try to explain that through our most significant achievement today – the IT industry. Indian IT industry growth is primarily driven by our penchant for logical thinking. We are creating algorithms, we are coding and we are debugging for the whole world. It comes naturally to us and we can do it faster and better than anyone else in the world.”
But at the top end of the IT business, which is about creating new products, innovative applications etc, our share is not very significant. Sneha opines that to improve this, our curriculum has to change and we need to provide the kids with the right level of exposure at a young age thereby letting them think creatively from as young as possible. Introducing these courses at an young age, can let these kids not just be coders but become creators and problem solvers, she feels.
LEADing the way
With an objective to transform the old computer science curriculum, Sumeet’s LEAD was the first to introduce CCS in schools. This was even before the NEP guidelines were put in place to make Coding a part of student core curriculum. He believes LEAD’s Coding and Computational Skills program will go a long way in democratising the access of it to children even in smaller cities and ensure their holistic development.
Sumeet informed, “After the second wave hit us and online schooling gained momentum, there was a real challenge to take high quality CCS to middle income families who don’t have a dedicated computer for their child. So we recently launched India’s first ever Coding program that can be learnt over a mobile phone. With this, parents in small towns will not have to worry about spending thousands on coding programs because their LEAD Powered School will bring it to them as a part of their school curriculum itself.”
Schools have been ecstatic to run this program. Since its launch, 1200 partner schools have shown interest in signing up for this module with LEAD; and 1600 teachers from 900 schools have already begun their training. However, this is just the beginning and there is a long way to go, says Sumeet.
Coding in action
SP Robotic Works coding courses have also been developed with a lot of research with industry experts and accredited internationally by STEM.org. Sneha explained, “How one learns to code is also equally important, especially when such a skill is to be introduced to a young mind at Class 6. Every course at SP Robotic Works has been structured in such a way that a child can visually see their code in action, for example – the code can be used to command a robot or drone to do a particular task. This way coding is introduced in a fun and easy to visualise manner to a child who can now understand clearly what his/her codes can do. This opens up a whole new world for the child to dream and start building on.”
SP Robotic Works has robot and drone kits that can help learn from simple Scratch programming, C programming to Python and C sharp languages too. “We have seen huge responses to our courses especially since there is a do-able element along with it – rather than merely typing codes in screen and seen something come up on the screen alone!,” said Sneha.
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