IDA Wants Sinkies To Compete Against Ah Neh IT Programmers!

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

Quote:
The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) wants to introduce software programming classes in public schools and get students to learn coding skills.

IDA hopes to set up these classes in the next few months.

And the aim of IDA to bring programming into schools seems to be to prop up the Singapore economy.

“Infocomm technology is getting to be more pervasive, and we all recognize that it’s going to be a strategic catalyst for [Singapore’s] competitive advantage,” assistant chief executive of the government chief information office at IDA James Kang said.

IDA told Tech in Asia that it is in initial talks with the Ministry of Education on how programming can be taught to students but does not know if it will become part of the curriculum or continue to be extra-curricular activity.

There are already extra-curricular activities in schools where programming and 3D printing are already taught.

IDA currently has courses on “advanced computing concepts” in schools where about 1,500 students in Radin Mas Primary School, Nan Chiau High, and Greenview Secondary School are taught to use 3D design software and 3D printers.

Hwa Chong Institution and Dunman High have been teaching their student Python programming language.

But the schools which currently have such programmes are still the better-placed schools. According to IDA, it hopes that a wider range of schools would be able to learn programming as well.

There are also currently private institutions which also conduct workshops to teach programming.

“[Parents want their kids] exposed to this, so it makes it easier for them to make a career choice earlier. We also see many polytechnic and university students coming in because they found it challenging when they directly face programming in college first,” a trainer at Kore Infotech said.

Kore Infotech has been providing IT training for students. Two years ago, it decided to use SiMPLE to teach children basic programming.

It hopes to bring its courses into schools.

http://therealsingapore.com/content/...-boost-economy

Lucky my son already left secondary school. He told me that in many secondary schools, only the Normal Technical students, the bottom of the heap, study some sort of computer skills. The better students can always pick it up on their own.


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