The things that we need in the future, should be taught to students today. Programming should be taught to every secondary school student.
In the past programming was considered a niche topic that only attracts to certain people. Instead I’d rather have everyone have a knowledge of what is pertinent to our society in the future, and programming is a large part of that.
At the very least we should be teaching coding to every student.
I bet when algebra and calculus first came around, it wasn’t taught to everyone, because it was thought to be too focused. And not for the general masses. But today we teach calculus–a maths that is largely based on theory. Why not teach something that has more practical use? Programming.
The focus should be more on ‘information literacy.’ Given a simple language, like python, it’s not unreasonable to expect a student to be able to do basic arithmetic and string functions. Building on that, being able to find and digest documentation (such as to use an API) would be pretty important.” —sparxmind
Programming is a skill that can be used in almost any job. You can always be more efficient at certain tasks if you knew how to programme. Any person whose job it is to sit in front of a computer should know how to programme.
Some might argue against learning how to programme because we have Graphical Interfaces to make things simple. However by using that excuse, we are denying what the true function of computers are. There is so much more that every person can leverage from their computer if everyone knew how to programme.
Now before you start bringing up negatives, “not everyone is smart”–don’t even go there. Don’t start with the negative. Instead think of the positive. Think what would happen if we had a society where everyone knew how to programme. Just imagine it.
Let’s not treat ourselves like dummies. Let’s make Nigeria become smarter. Let’s teach our students how to programme.
