Coding to Be Taught in Australian Schools from a Primary Age.

Coding to Be Taught in Australian Schools from a Primary Age.

Educational institutions throughout Australia are planning on enforcing a new digital technology curriculum that has recently been adopted by the Ministers of Education. This new nation wide curriculum involves teaching the basics of 21^st century coding and programming to children as young as 7 years old.

This change comes after a recent push to improve the STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) programs that currently exist in the Australian school systems. Former Education Minister Christopher Payne was a key player in the campaign to focus on improving STEM related programs throughout schools. His intent was to prepare the general public for the future economy as well as the future job market, “High quality STEM education is critically important for Australia’s productivity and economy wellbeing, both now and into the future”(Payne). Because of this movement, the government in Australia is set to invest around 12 million dollars into STEM related programs that will hopefully develop the minds of young students to be more geared towards information technology. 

 I believe that this is a very important initiative that will not only influence the way future Australian’s will operate, but how all future generations will learn and impact technology. Currently in the US, there are very few students in middle school and high school who are being taught code and how to program. I think that the idea to teach students how to code and program is revolutionary idea because these students will inevitably grow up in a world where technology is evolving at an exponential rate. Teaching children this sort of knowledge from such a young age will cause it to become second nature to them, such as learning the alphabet and how to do simple mathematical equations. I can only imagine the kinds of creations we can expect from students as young as 16 years old after having a solid 7-10 year background learning and writing code. Every digital device on the planet relies on a set of programs or codes that give it life. No hardware can operate without the correct software. Knowing how to create these kinds of software is a skill that is generally overlooked and ignored, yet can greatly influence the life as we know it, if adopted by the masses.

Works Cited:

"Coding to Be Taught in Australian Schools from Primary Age." Mashable. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Sept. 2015.

"The Department of Education and Training Media Centre." Ministers' Media Centre, Australian Government. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Sept. 2015.

Links:

http://mashable.com/2015/09/21/coding-schools-australia/#60S738Y.sGk.

https://ministers.education.gov.au/pyne/taking-action-now-revitalise-stem-study-schools