Explained | Here's how coding and data science will be part of CBSE curriculum from 2021-22

The education ministry wants students to learn coding and data science from the school level itself.

As part of this initiative, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has partnered with technology major Microsoft to help Class VI-VIII school students work on coding-related modules from the 2021-22 academic year itself.

This is part of the implementation process of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 which said that as part of early-age skilling, coding will be introduced as a subject from the sixth grade.

Moneycontrol gives you a lowdown on how the new system to offer coding in school will work:

What is the coding module?

Coding involves telling a computer what to do. It is use in making websites and apps and to process data. CBSE is of the view that coding will help build computational thinking, develop problem-solving skills, critical thinking and exposure to real life situations to solve issues in various realms.

So, coding is being introduced as a skill module of 12 hours duration in classes VI-VIII. The idea is to simplify the coding-learning experience by nurturing design thinking, logical flow of ideas and apply this across the disciplines.

"The foundations laid in the early years will help the students to build the competencies in the area of artificial intelligence (AI), data sciences and other disciplines," said CBSE in a statement.

Schools will be nudged to offer this from 2021-22 onwards. Teachers will also be trained in this area through material developed by Microsoft.

How does the module work?

Faculty and student handbooks have been created with support from Microsoft, so that the students can work on applied projects and integrate coding across multiple subjects.

Under this, the faculty resources will empower the faculty for teaching these concepts. The handbooks cover real-life examples on coding, build exposure to ethics of coding, and provides exercises and applications using the open source MakeCode platform.

Will there be allied skill-based subjects?

CBSE will also introduce data science for students in Classes VIII. This is to ensure that students be provided a solid foundation on data science and technology to be industry ready.

The objective of this curriculum is to lay the foundation for data science, understanding how data is collected, analyzed and how it can be used in solving problems and making decisions.

It will also cover ethical issues with data including data governance and builds foundation for AI-based applications of data science. It is being introduced as a skill module of 12 hours duration in Class VIII and as a skill subject in classes IX-XII. Even here, the handbooks and teaching material have been created with support from Microsoft. These subjects are already offered as 'skill subjects' for Class XI and XII students.

To give an impetus to skill education in schools, it has been decided by CBSE to waive off the application fee for introducing new skill subjects at senior secondary level.