The Communication and Multimedia Ministry has plans to set up a computer programming school for students after completing secondary school.
This initiative is intended to train the younger generation to be more IT savvy and to give them a more competitive edge in the digital age, said Communication and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo.
The ministry is looking at various education models to building and developing a suitable computer programming syllabus for schools in Malaysia, according to Bernama.
It is hoped that a test run for the computer programming school can be implemented in Kuala Lumpur and Penang by the end of the year.
Paving the Future with Computer Programming
Gobind said that he had visited École 42, a prestigious computer programming school in Paris, and wants to try to bring the model here to Malaysia. The working visit was conducted on October last year.
École 42 is the brainchild of French billionaire Xavier Niel. As an entrepreneur, he sought out the best and brightest talent, but struggled to find suitable candidates. In 2013, he declared that France’s education system was broken and decided to take matters into his own hands.
The institution is known for being a teacher-less coding school that strongly emphasises on project-based learning and peer-to-peer learning. Students are given projects to work on with a time limit of 48 hours, and have to figure it out themselves with no guidance from any authority figure.
The school is fully merit based. Admission is limited to about a thousand students, and competition is fierce. Those who are successful attend for free for three to five years, and 100% of students are employed by the end of their study.
Digital technology can present people with borderless opportunities and chances to make changes to their life. Gobind added that there is a critical need to prepare the youths of today for the world of digital technology and for them to remain competitive.
Part of the reason for implementing a specialised computer programming school is to equip Malaysian youths with the right skills set and thinking approach that will help them remain relevant in the future workforce.
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