Telangana: About 600 students of class IX from six state-run schools from different parts of backward districts are learning coding skills without using a computer. The initiative has been taken up by the education department in alliance with a Hyderabad-based startup Next Skills 360 EdTech Private Limited.
The students come from government schools in Buruguguda village, Asifabad Mandal, Government Zilla Parishad High School (Boys), Government Zilla Parishad High School (Girls), a Government school in Jankapur, TS Model School in Asifabad, and Ashram School in Wankidi mandal center. The programme will continue till the end of the academic year.
“Two teachers and 60 students were selected and trained for a week in virtual mode by the start-up. The teachers and students, known as master trainers, are now teaching the basics of coding to their peers during one of the class periods every day. The programme is being implemented in the district for the first time,” district education officer P Ashok told Telangana Today.
With the help of mobile phones and a scratch programming language, master trainers can teach coding to the students. Through the kits provided to the students, they are exposed to concepts of programming and coding.
Sharing their experience two students – Veda Sri and Abhijith – students of Telangana Model School in Asifabad said that they could easily understand the basics of coding with the help of kits.
“We could learn the various foundations of coding such as innovating thinking, critical thinking, logical thinking, problem-solving, etc. without depending on computers,” they stated.
