Programming is the language of the future
It is high time that more young people are introduced to programming early in life. This is nothing new. Several countries have already realized it and it is time for Sweden to do the same, writes Christine Johnson, IT-Gymnasiet.
For Sweden to strengthen its competitiveness and develop into the knowledge nation we need to become, we all need to learn a new language: program code. As important as English has been for the last 75 years, code will be for us in just a few years. The primary school curriculum needs to adapt to a new reality. It is time to introduce programming as a compulsory subject in primary schools.
Today, the language of code is present in almost every technology we own and use. Knowledge of code is not only important for developing new technologies, but also for being a savvy consumer. Code is part of our everyday lives and our future, and it is high time that more young people are introduced to programming early in life. This is nothing new. Several countries have already recognized this and have made a big push for programming in school education. In Vietnam, the United States, Estonia and China, children are already learning to code at an early age. In Sweden, you can - at best - choose programming in upper secondary school.
In the new curriculum for compulsory education, the Swedish National Agency for Education has clarified the responsibility of compulsory schools to ensure that every pupil can use modern technology as a tool for seeking knowledge, communicating, creating and learning. Schools are buying computers and tablets like never before. Teachers are being trained. Principals are being trained. Everyone is learning how these things work. But no one is learning about the technology behind it.
The effort to digitize schools is of course good. But it is far from enough.
There is plenty of support for this view - although no one has proposed the exact solution we do:
- The Swedish Public Employment Service report "Where are the jobs?" it is clear that over the next ten years it will continue to be difficult to recruit IT architects, software and systems developers, testers and test managers.
- Almega IT & Telecom and the Swedish Agency for Higher Vocational Education recognize the same needs in different reports.
- There will be one million more programming jobs than programmers in the world by 2020, according to Code.org (a non-profit organization that promotes programming education in schools).
- Minister for IT Anna-Karin Hatt has appointed the Digitalization Committee, whose mission is to ensure that Sweden is the best in the world at using the "opportunities of digitalization".
The Swedish labor market expresses a huge need for programmers, while at the same time almost nothing is done to solve the demand. Around the country, there are a few enthusiastic teachers who are testing different tools such as Kodu and Kojo with children of different ages on their own. Therese Raymond and Karin Nygårds are two of them who, with their Teacherhack initiative, want to help children not only become consumers of digital tools, but also understand that they can influence the design of the tools.
IT-Gymnasiet is the secondary school that has been dedicated to training young people in programming for almost 15 years. However, this is a drop in the ocean compared to the need. We cannot rely on a few specialized high schools and enthusiasts like Therese Raymond and Karin Nygårds to defend Sweden's position as one of the world's most innovative countries.
We are now demanding that the Swedish National Agency for Education and the Minister of Education Jan Björklund take another step into the future and realize the importance of learning to code. It is not enough for everyone who finishes primary school to be able to use new technology, already today most ten-year-olds teach their parents how different devices work. We need to give our children a basic understanding of how IT works by introducing programming as a subject already in primary school. We need to make sure they learn the languages of the future.
CHRISTINE JOHNSON
Head of Operations, IT-Gymnasiet