ABU DHABI // Abu Dhabi Education Council has teamed up with Google to introduce user-friendly computer programming lessons in classrooms across the emirate.
Computer Science First, or CS First, was launched on Sunday to give 250,000 public and private-school pupils the tools and support to learn the basics of coding through a program called Scratch. The initiative gives students the opportunity to join after-school coding clubs and enter coding competitions.
The two-year project started out as a pilot for 100 pupils from grades 5, 6, 7 and 8 in three public schools. In September, the scheme was expanded to 30,000 pupils in grades 4, 5 and 9 across all public schools.
The goal is to reach every grade in all schools over the next two years, said Dr Mugheer Al Khaili, director general of Adec.
“This will cover one quarter of a million students who will learn and interact with this program in Abu Dhabi with public or private schools,” said Dr Al Khaili.
About 300 teachers have received training to teach Scratch in their ICT classrooms and Google “gurus” have visited schools to introduce the program to students and staff.
Scratch is a free online tool developed by the MIT Media Lab that teaches schoolchildren the foundations of computer programming through a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface.
It allows users to band together blocks of script or commands to create interactive stories, animations and games.
rpennington@thenational.ae
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