In small town Telangana, an attempt to embed coding skills in students

Every evening, 14-year-old Tasnia Tasneem eagerly awaits her father’s return home, seizing the opportunity to borrow his Samsung smartphone. This device serves as her gateway to a realm of mobile phone games, not for playing, but for honing her skills in creating new ones and exploring the intricacies beyond mere gameplay.

Residing in Makthala, a small town in Telangana’s Narayanpet district, Tasneem, a Class 9 student, had no prior knowledge of computer basics until a month ago. Unfamiliar with the intricacies of animation and game development, she recently completed a two-week online coding course organized by the Telangana Information Technology Association (TITA). Tasneem, aspiring to become a scientist, now feels confident that she has taken the initial steps in the right direction.

Alongside 25 other students and 13 teachers from 13 government schools in Makthala, Tasneem completed the coding course, earning certification as Telangana Early Coders (TEC) from the University of Texas in Dallas (UTD) after an online assessment.

Expressing her excitement, Tasneem shares, “I never got an opportunity to learn computers. Though there were initial hiccups, my parents are very happy and proud that I could make a few games and animation stories on my own using my father’s phone. The course was an exciting experience.”

The global president of TITA, Sandeep Kumar Makthala, outlines the initiative’s goal: “The plan is to impart coding literacy to one lakh students in Telangana before 2022.” Citing projections from the World Economic Forum, which anticipates 65% of current primary school students engaging in jobs that do not yet exist, Makthala emphasizes the importance of introducing coding as a foundational skill.

The training program focused on students from Classes 8 and 9, along with a teacher from each of the 13 schools. Participants delved into Scratch and Python programming languages, creating games, calculators, quizzes, and more. The chosen simplicity of Scratch programming aimed to help students grasp the underlying logic of coding.

Certified students are now tasked with educating 10 peers each, with ongoing tasks and hackathons to maintain their connection to the course. The success rate in the online assessment by the University of Texas at Dallas has been notable, with 40% of students scoring above 80%, and all students surpassing the 60% mark.

Despite debates on the potential stress on children and competition at a young age, the district collector of Narayanpet, Harichandana Dasari, sees the course as a confidence-building extracurricular activity. She highlights its potential to unveil new opportunities for students and advocates for its extension to schools across the district.

In collaboration with the Department of School Education and the Department of Information Technology, TITA’s initiative represents a proactive step toward introducing coding as an accessible skill, positioning it as a valuable asset for students in the evolving landscape of future employment opportunities.