The Indian government’s maneuver is intended to ensure that the acquisition of “21st century skills” begins as soon as possible. The new educational policy, which the government is announcing will come into force, therefore establishes the 10 to 11 year interval as the one that should mark this starting point. In a world of constantly changing information and communication technologies, opinions are divided on whether this is the right approach in terms of timing. The movement is also singled out as the cause of lower wages in the computer programming industry.
The adoption of the new education policy “2020” by the Indian government is the culmination of a process that began a few years ago. Indeed, the draft relating to it has existed since December 2018. It was then published in May 2019. Objective: to garner feedback likely to bring improvements to the new educational policy to which Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not. did not fail to mention.
“I warmly welcome the approval of the National Education Policy 2020! This is a long overdue reform in the education sector. It will transform millions of lives in the times to come! », He indicates. A highlight of the country’s new education policy: Indian students to learn computer programming from age 10, that is, when they have reached what would correspond to CM2 in the French system.
India is thus extending a fairly extensive list of countries. Indeed, since 2014, the UK has introduced a small digital revolution in education by becoming the first country in the world to mandate computer programming in primary and secondary schools. Children therefore begin to learn to write code from the moment they enter school around the age of five until at least around the age of 16, when they finish high school. In 2016, Japan felt that traditional skills like reading, writing and arithmetic were no longer sufficient to succeed in this new global economy driven by innovation. Also, the country had decided to make the teaching of computer programming compulsory from primary school. The country also planned to gradually generalize the learning of this discipline from 2020 for schoolchildren, 2021 for middle school students and 2022 for high school students.
It is a movement that joins the positioning of major players in the information and communication technology sector. Tim Cook for example, a few years ago, recalled his wish to see computer programming integrated into the school curriculum, and taught from CM1 or CM2, in order to educate new generations to technology. “I think coding is as important, if not more important, than learning a second language that many people learn around the world,” he said. For him, developing is “just another language that should be taught in school. “” Coding must be a requirement in school. We are not doing our children a favor if we do not offer them an introduction to programming, ”he added.
Halfway through the previous year, Liam Rosenfeld was still a high school student, but already had apps listed on Apple’s app store. The then 16-year-old did not fail to catch Tim Cook in the eye during a meeting (at an Apple Store in Orlando, Florida) in which the Apple CEO had quoted him. as an example of why he believes computer coding education should begin in the early years of school. Traditionally, the exercise as a developer or professional in the IT sector is conditioned by going through a classic course of diploma training in IT. It is in principle during this that the future developer or IT pro acquires the basic knowledge for the career he is considering. Building on Liam’s example, Tim Cook took issue with the statement that “he doesn’t think you need a 4-year college degree to master computer coding. He seemed to suggest that early exposure to computer programming may be enough to produce excellent workers in the industry.
Approaches like this (exposure to computer programming) are steadily gaining traction as forecasts point to high demands for IT talent in the coming years. In addition to sowing doubt on the quality of third parties from courses other than those of university degree courses that some companies say they no longer require, it appears as an additional setback. An applicant from a course in which we invest less time than we should will not be as demanding on salary issues as one who has spent years of hard work at university or in a high school to train . Consequence: this accelerated democratization could lead to a surplus demand for employment in the field of information and communication technologies; which will have the effect of lowering wages.
This is what The Guardian put forward in 2018 about promoting early childhood programming. The British daily warned that tech giants – the biggest employers of IT talent – are encouraging kids to learn coding, not for the sake of children, but rather to train a new generation of workforce. work cheap to lower the high salaries of coders who threaten the survival of Silicon Valley. The Indian government is in principle aware of these developments that could further advance its workforce in a global IT market that is already struggling enough.
Sources : indiatvnews
