While pupils in Europe are learning how to program, Serbian pupils are being trained to reset their computers

While Serbia is fighting to introduce informatics in elementary schools, European pupils are already studying programming. In Estonia, programming has been part of the core curriculum since 2012, whereas Great Britain implemented its new curriculum in 2014. Starting this autumn, Finnish pupils, aged 7 through 16, will also be studying the basics of programming, along with more general digital skills, in grades 1 through 9.

Representatives of these countries emphasize that the introduction of these subjects doesn't mean that pupils will start developing applications and games right away, but that they will teach children to develop technological skills and algorithmic thinking from an early age, which is more important.

The Finnish have always been at the forefront of adapting to new technologies, which makes the decision to introduce programming to other core subjects in primary schools in 2016 a logical move, since Finland already has the reputation of a country with one of the world's best education systems.

Thomas Vikberg, Counselor of Education at the Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland, said at the end of 2015 that programming or computing wouldn't be a separate subject, but integrated into other subjects instead.

The curriculum envisions teaching basic syntax in first and second grades, visual programming in grades 3 through 6, and full-blown programming languages in grades 7 through 9. The new curriculum also stipulates the implementation of digital technologies in various subjects with the focus on practical skills, content production, creative skills and safe use of technology. In crafts, for example, programming could aid the design and production. Still, programming will have the biggest role in mathematics, where there are clearly defined goals, from adopting a specific way of thinking to learning full-blown programming languages like Ruby or Python.

This will certainly provide a challenge to teachers. There are no plans for the introduction of special training at a national level, since this is rather a task for local educators. The National Board of Education funds several projects through which schools are developing the use of programming in teaching. There are numerous national initiatives in the area of programming in schools, run by private persons, universities and various associations, e.g. koodikerho, koodi2016 and koodaustunti.

Another key factor, they say, is time – for learning from other teachers, for self-study and for training and professional development.

The development of algorithmic thinking was one of the key arguments of the initiative of the Ministry of Education for the introduction of informatics to the core curriculum in primary schools in Serbia starting this September. As they say in the Ministry, high school students are only introduced to programming at 17, which is too late to develop algorithmic thinking, and the statement made by Snezana Markovic, Assistant Minister for secondary education, that children in Serbia are digitally skillful, but not digitally competent, has been reported in all media.

The National Education Council, however, didn't adopt the initiative and informatics will still be studied only by those pupils who choose to do so. The reason is, the Council says, that the proposal is not backed by sufficient information on the technical realization and human resources needed, as well as the fact that schools don’t possess sufficient capacities to include entire generations of students in the program.

Professionals see this as an example of lack of understanding of the importance of informatics in the society and emphasize that, although it needs to be taken into consideration who could teach the subject well enough and whether it would really bring pupils closer to the discipline, the proposal as such is good and, once it's realized, solving other problems arising from the process could start. This is what other countries have done in any case.

Finland has the reputation of being a technological giant, thanks to Nokia, Super Cell and the startup boom in recent years above all, and in introducing programming into the core curriculum in primary schools, the country is looking to further enhance its digital economy. The IT industry in Serbia is seen as one of the country's biggest opportunities for development, but in order to satisfy the need of the local market for IT human resources, whose lack is already apparent, and to create conditions for the arrival of new investors, a strategic plan needs to be made. What is necessary above all is a long-term reform of the education system, and the first step could be the introduction of informatics into the core curriculum.

I.B.

Ministarstvo prosvete Republike Srbije

Nacionalni prosvetni savet Republike Srbije Novi Beograd

informatics

informatics as a mandatory subject

informatics in primary schools

koodikerho

koodi2016

koodaustunti

education system in Finland

informatics in Finnish primary schools