Serbia losing the IT race – Programming should be taught since early childhood

(Snezana Markovic) Information technologies are one of Serbia's greatest opportunities for development, but the lack of human resources is the greatest obstacle to its realization.

According to Goran Obradovic, Delivery Unit Manager of the IT company Endava, which employs 2,700 people around the world, of which 370 in Belgrade, it is precisely the lack of resources that is the main cause of the impossibility of further expansion of business activities.

- We could grow and export to the markets of the Western Europe and America much faster, but we are limited by the low number and lack of availability of human resources – pointed out Obradovic.

At the eKapija round table “IT Human Resources – Potential for or Obstacle to Development”, held on June 14, 2016, in Belgrade, Snezana Markovic, Assistant Minister for secondary education at the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, emphasized that, to the end of having the education system meet the demands of the market and educating enough competent IT experts, the Ministry had prepared a new program by which, beginning in September 2016, the study of informatics should be mandatory, not elective, in the fifth and seventh grades. The proposal of the workgroup will be deliberated once more by the National Education Council of Serbia on June 27.

The total annual class load would be 35+30, of which 30 would be realized through a “movable schedule” - 15 block classes spread throughout the school year. This would also change the Technical-Informatics Education (TIE) classes, as they would for the most part lose their informatics component. The class load would change as well and the school year would last a week longer for the seventh and eighth grades.

Markovic even thinks that there won't be any need for extending the school year, unless the proposal of the ombudsman to reduce the daily class load in order to relieve the students is adopted. If the class load remains the same, the school year won't be extended.

The new education system program was already deliberated by the National Education Council on June 7, but the teachers took a stand against the modern program. The dissatisfied TIE teachers, which were supported by the Union of Education Workers of Serbia, criticized the quickness of the procedure of such big changes and that it was being discussed during the technical mandate of the Minister of Education.

Snezana Markovic pointed out that TIE teachers and those who taught informatics as an elective course, would continue to work, as they were competent in the field, and that they could teach the new course, Informatics and Computer Science, whereas other TIE teachers would need to choose between Technical Education and Informatics or switch to other schools.

The Assistant Minister especially emphasized that it was necessary that the community help and understand the necessity of introducing the course. As she explained, high school students only start learning how to program at 17, which is too late for the development of algorithmic thinking.

- Our children are digitally skillful, but not digitally competent, which is why we need to work on improving the school system when it comes to informatics. The research which was carried out on eight grade students last autumn showed that 60% of them hadn't correctly answered the questions from the Informatics and Computer Science course, that 50% of them had never used the computer to study, whereas they spent 5 hours in front of the computer on work days and seven hours on weekends – said Markovic.

Vedrana Miholic, the president of the Programerko association and the sales director of CROZ from Croatia, who used to work as the education and consulting director at CROZ, pointed out that, to increase the number of IT human resources, the focus should be not just on instigating children to study technical sciences, but also on working on the development of skills in children, like problem solving and creativity, which started developing at 6 or 7 and in time became crystallized.

Secretary General of the National Council for Higher Education Miodrag Popovic agreed that it was necessary to change the way of thinking in young people, in order to ensure that the faculties got quality students, since the pool of potential students was of insufficient quality.

- We could double the admission quotas if we had the human resources and the capacities. I'm sure, however, that only around 10% of the enrolled students would finish the senior year, since children would be coming from high school lacking in motivation and knowledge – Popovic believes.

Assistant Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications Sava Savic said at the round table that the Minsitry was carrying out an array of projects in order to increase the number of IT experts in Serbia. In addition to informatizing the education system to the end of having each school equipped with digital cabinets and computers with fast internet access, one of the priorities is to increase the number of future students of technical sciences through the Digital School program. In 2013, 242,000 students enrolled in various faculties, of which 11% in technical, computer science and mathematics courses, and more than 5,000 graduated from those courses that year.

The Ministry is also realizing the teachers competitions Digital Class and the Safe & Smart program, meant for the youngest pupils, about risks on the internet, and one of the Ministry's most important plans is to set aside 2 million dinars for retraining unemployed women for work in the IT industry.

Milovan Suvakov, Assistant Minister for development and higher education at the Ministry of Education, believes that, in order to provide human resources who can meet the demands of the market, it is necessary to act quickly by organizing informal courses. This kind of education takes little time and it would align the needs of the economy, potential education institutions and available financial means of the state to the end of creating a better economic climate for further development.

- We need to change the financing model to meet the demands of the labor market and to act quickly – emphasized Suvakov and added that a possible short-term solution might lie in public-private partnerships, especially in 2- and 3-year courses, more precisely, through dual education and the connection between the economy and the school system.

- Another possible solution is additional education, which the state can finance or manage in its entirety – pointed out the Assistant Minister.

The demand for services in the IT sector is growing in the whole world and there are no indications that the trend will reverse, as IT is entering all areas of life and work. As pointed out by Milan Solaja, the director of Vojvodina ICT Cluster, there are no programmers registered at the National Employment Service and quality IT experts are especially in demand, so however many graduate will find jobs.

- It is necessary to introduce informatics at all levels of education, the state should increase admission quotas and we should popularize these professions among the young. At the same time, we need to define the methods and find the way to keep the quality educators, who would “produce” new IT experts, and who are at the moment leaving their faculties for better paid jobs – emphasized Solaja at the eKapija round table.

All participants of the round table agreed that, in order to meet the demands for human resources of the local IT market and create conditions for the arrival of new investors in this field, it was necessary to make a plan and take a strategic approach. The mutual estimate was that occasional activities of the Ministries couldn't meet the demands of the market when it comes to senior IT human resources and that a long-term reform of the education system was needed. The first step towards this is the introduction of informatics as a separate, mandatory course, cocluded the participants of the eKapija round table “IT Human Resources – Potential for or Obstacle to Development”.

I. Bezarevic – M. Andrejic