Why the Indian Schools Need to Teach Kids Coding?

In a report titled ‘The Future of Jobs’ by World Economic Forum last year, the organization had predicted that 65% of children entering primary school in the near future would end up working in job types that would be completely new and which do not exist currently.

The world technology is changing rapidly, and with automation becoming mainstream in the next decade or so, software is going to take up much of the tasks that humans perform. In order to avoid a scenario where jobs would be hard to find, it is important to learn to code and interact with machines.

India grapples with a situation where the school education system is conventional and promotes rote learning of subjects. The school curriculum is very one-dimensional and does not promote inculcation of leadership skills, communication skills and project-based learning. The changes in the approach are slowly changing, with India having jumped 53 places to the 35th position in the Future of Jobs rankings in 2019.

With skill-based jobs becoming more and more prominent, the Indian schools, which currently focus on traditional subjects such as Mathematics, Science and History that are no doubt important but do not offer the kind of curriculum which focus on experiential, trial and error based learning, and hence need a big revamp.

Countries like the USA and China have made computer coding for kids necessary from the kindergarten to high-school level, and it has become as indispensable as learning your mother language and mathematics. Realizing the need to make their kids ready for the future, parents are now turning to coding schools and boot camps for children of all ages in cities such as Mumbai, Bangalore, Gurugram and Chandigarh. These coding schools employ innovative concepts such as coding games, puzzles and quizzes to make learning programming concepts such as nested loops, easy and fun.

Since schools are back in session already, and the fever of homework and assignments catching up with children across age groups of 5 to 18 years, after-school learning and activity is something which can help them not only learn a new skill, but also build critical thinking, leadership skills and analytical mindset.

With the onset of 5G technology, and its economic impact expected to be at $112 trillion by 2035, requires specialized, new-age skills for the future. NimbleQ offers children digital tools and experiential learning programmes focused on AI, Machine Learning, and Robotics among others from kindergarten to elementary school level.