Computing is ubiquitous and people from every walk of life will need to be familiar with computing in some form or the other. This will give rise to a huge demand for computing skills leading to a talent shortage. To address the skills’ demand created by the industrial revolution, the Sciences and Mathematics were included in the school curriculum in the early 19th century. Now as we participate in the digital revolution, we need to train our children on skills for the digital age. We need to train our children to be creators and inventors of technology and at the same time teach them to be socially responsible citizens. It is therefore imperative to teach computing, which promotes problem solving, computational thinking and critical reasoning skills, at par with Mathematics and Sciences.
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), a not for profit organization, is the world’s largest computing society and its education initiatives produce and update curricular recommendations. It has helped form Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA-US) that has recommended K-12 Computer Science Standards in the US. The ACM India’s Education Committee has started CSpathshala, an initiative to create a similar curriculum standard to teach computational thinking in India, with plans to roll it out to all schools across the country by 2030.
Vision
To prepare students to participate creatively in the digital age
Mission
To teach computing as a science to every child in every school in India by 2030!
Goals
To achieve the above, we will:
- Take steps to elevate CS to the level of other sciences and mathematics. Influence policy level changes to bring about shift from ICT to CS oriented curriculum,
- Shape computational thinking curriculum and develop teaching aids
- Provide pedagogical as well as content training to teachers
- Create and support teacher communities with active leadership and support from ACM local chapters
An overview slide deck: