Hyderabad: TITA's pilot project to introduce coding at school level begins

Hyderabad: Industry body Telangana Information Technology Association on Monday began the pilot project for introducing coding in schools. The six-day programme will be held in 18 Government schools in Makhtal constituency covering Atmakur and Amarachinta mandals in Wanaparthy district. The training in coding will be offered to select students by TITA members.

Speaking on the occasion of the launch, TITA Global President Sundeep Kumar Makthala said the training will be for six days. Under this, two students- one from class VIII and one from class IX and one teacher from the school, who are part of the Innovation Club at the school, will be trained in Scratch programming, Phython.

Makthala said TITA will prepare a report on the outcomes and make recommendations to the Government to scale up the programme and introduce coding in schools from the next academic year. The report is expected to be made ready by the first week of February as the pilot will go till end of January. A three-member TITA team had earlier in December made a ground level assessment for the pilot project.

Telangana IT Minister had earlier asked the departments of School Education and IT to collaborate and devise a programme to introduce coding at school level. The objective of such collaboration is to ensure that students are exposed to possibilities in coding. This will lay a foundation for coding at the school level and also open up opportunities in entrepreneurship as they graduate to higher classes.

The TITA representative said that kits have been given to the participating members for learning Scratch. This apart, the members will also be given another kit that resembles Legos. The training will be offered from nodal centre, MV Rama Institute in Amarachinta. Once the six-day training is over, other students will be trained through a TITA mentor.