STUDENTS are going online more and more and the popularity of social media sites is growing exponentially.
As parents and educators, it is our duty to ensure that we are helping to raise responsible digital citizens who can use online resources safely and effectively. This is also a good way to teach digital literacy as it is viewed as an essential component of modern education.
Coding, popularly known as programming, is a critical skill that every child should acquire to keep up with the rapidly changing technological world.
Many countries are starting to introduce coding as a foundation skill alongside reading, writing and arithmetic. Students as young as five years old are being schooled in coding for the future.
Teaching code is a great platform to interest kids in pursuing IT careers. Influential tech firms have called for programming classes in schools to ensure that future job seekers are equipped with appropriate industry skills. Many interesting and creative jobs all depend on a degree of coding ability. Coding helps children to learn thinking skills as they have to imagine coming up with a set of instructions to enable the computer to do something for them.
In 2014, Britain became the first country in the European Union to mandate computer science classes for all children between the ages of five and 16. More countries are now following suit.
Malaysia must ensure that its young are not left behind. We have so much hope now with our new Government wanting to do the right thing.
The time is right to review our curriculum to ensure that we are giving our young the best opportunity to succeed in future.
A good education is a fundamental right of every society.
As with any major change to the curriculum, teachers will first need to be trained to teach the subject. We should start on this now with a view to introducing this in our curriculum by 2021.
JASVINDER KAUR
Petaling Jaya
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