StayQrious, an edtech startup building a revolutionary online learning platform for students focused on STEM foundations, technology and 21st century skills. Their aim is to be the most learner-centric platform in the world, creating millions of happy, independent learners for life.
Recently, the whole discussion around coding for children took a drastic turn when parents started to question the necessity of coding and labeled it as an additional burden on the kids. StayQrious and its leaders are very strong advocates of powerful learning content and online pedagogy and they want parents to believe that coding is actually not a burden on children but helps them in overall growth. It helps them in building analytical skills and reasoning. One of the prominent reforms announced in the NEP is making coding mandatory for students from class 6 onwards. It pushes students to question, observe, analyse and record everything around them thus breaking the old pattern of classroom education which is a restrictive and has one-way exchange of learning set-up.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5pzWbac98o&feature=youtu.be
Mr. Aanand Srinivas, Founder and CEO, StayQrious addressed this issue and explained in a video posted on his official YouTube channel: what coding actually is and how it can help your child build a fruitful career, while, side by side, instill so many wonderful life skills. Coding is a skill where you take instructions (the steps in a task) and translate it into a language the computer understands since computers do not communicate like humans. Computers, as we all know, communicate in binary digits – 0s and 1s. And considering how computers have become an integral part of our lives today, learning to code and learning through code, is both absolutely indispensable.
He also addressed parents and said all parents today, want their kids to learn important life skills at an early stage in life, but yet they are worried to not burden their child. So, coding helps children to learn important life skills such as teamwork, collaboration, effective communication, and creativity. But, this cannot be taught to the children in silos, but must be linked to subjects. The subjects are – Maths, Science and computer science.
Mr. Srinivas while explaining and busting myths around coding for children, also appeals to the parents that nobody else better than them can decide what’s best for their children, coding is great but it will be beneficial only if parents and student trust in the concept.
