Centre launches app-based coding programme for schoolchildren

Principal scientific adviser Vijay Raghavan’s office on Monday launched a two-week training module titled CodeIndia on application-based programming for middle and intermediate level students across the country. Through CodeIndia, students will get to learn programming skills and develop an aptitude for building applications for various sectors like business, neuroscience, nuclear physics, artificial intelligence, aerospace and others.

“If data is the fuel for the engines of artificial intelligence and machine learning, being able to handle data puts you in the driver’s seat. With CodeIndia, we hope to open the doors of opportunity to our school children to learn cutting edge computer science fundamentals. This can make them future-ready in every discipline,” Raghavan said.

The module will be taught by a group of specialists and students will also get to interact with experts from scientific organisations like Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire (CERN), Geneva, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Stanford University and others. It will be bi-lingual, conducted both in English and a regional language, depending on where the training is taking place.

CodeIndia will be utilised to develop a model curriculum for the human resource development ministry to be later introduced in the curriculum.

The first school to implement CodeIndia module is Navodaya Vidyalaya in Jaffarpur Kalan, West Delhi. It will be taught through open-source tools and platforms so that schools and students can use the software later as well without any licensing issues.