Headlines
'Learn to code' project for school kids in Kerala
Kochi, Feb 19
Thousands of school children
across Kerala will be given computer programming kits and trained to
write software code under a project designed to create a resource pool
of skilled IT professionals and entrepreneurs.
Chief Minister
Oommen Chandy will Saturday launch the pilot phase of the state
government's 'Learn to Code' project here under which 2,500 selected
students will be given Raspberry Pi computer programming kits and
trained by IT experts to write code.
The Raspberry Pi
distribution is the first such project in India and currently the only
state-sponsored programme of its kind in the world.
It is being
implemented by the Technopark Technology Business Incubator (TTBI) in
association with Kerala's IT@School project and Kochi-based mobile
internet technology incubator Startup Village.
Computers will
also be distributed to the selected students in all districts of the
state and the inaugural will be followed by a training session handled
by the faculty of IT@School.
It will be telecast live to all district venues of IT@School through the Victers educational channel.
The
government under the scheme will distribute 10,000 kits annually to
students, primarily in eighth standard, and follow it up with focussed
training and mentoring sessions and competitions.
"Information
Technology, is one of the growth engines of Kerala's economy and the
project has been launched with the long-term goal of making our state a
global technology hub in coming years," Industries and IT Minister P.K.
Kunhalikutty said.
The TTBI has spent over Rs.one crore on
procuring the Raspberry Pi kits. Each kit costs Rs.4,324 and consists of
a Raspberry Pi B+ board, Enclosure, eight GB SD card, HDMI cable,
HDMI-to-VGA cable, USB keyboard and USB Mouse.
"We require
skilled employees for India to become a manufacturing powerhouse, who
can build products for industries such as electronics and ICT. To build
these products, we need excellent coders and they are the key to
building startups which will turn into billion dollar companies," IT
Principal Secretary P.H. Kurian said.
The Raspberry Pi is a low
cost, credit-card sized computer that plugs into a display unit
(computer monitor or TV) and uses a standard keyboard and mouse.
It
can carry out most functions of a regular desktop, including word
processing, playing games and videos, and internet surfing, besides
enabling users to learn programming in languages such as Scratch and
Python.
The students will first be given basic training and
encouraged to experiment with the Pi. Focused coding sessions will start
after the examinations in March.
Each student will be assigned a mentor, starting in April to guide them through the learning process.
"We
will evaluate the pilot project in six-month time, improve upon it and
extend it to more school children," said C. Jayasankar Prasad, TTBI CEO.