Nexus of Good: Accessible dreams

‘Coding for Everyone’, a free for all 400-hour computer programming initiative, was launched for high and higher secondary government school students in District Dewas, Madhya Pradesh. Designed in collaboration with CodeYogi, this self-paced course is structured in the Hindi language. The initiative was implemented in all 183 high schools of the district with the aim of imparting computer programming skills to students in accordance with NEP 2020, completely free of cost. More than 16,000 students in Dewas are learning HTML, JavaScript, React, and NodeJS.

The best aspect of the initiative is that students are learning to code with the help of mobiles and Telegram applications only. It does not require expensive laptops/PCs for learning programming. As an added incentive, well-performing students are provided with keyboards, mouses, and mobile stands through public participation and CSR donations. Weekly monitoring of student performance is carried out through auto-generated student-wise progress reports. Cost-saving is one of the underlying mottos of the mission.

Under the ‘Coding for Everyone’ initiative, students are being taught, at no cost to them, state-of-the-art programming tools like NodeJS. In contrast, similar training by private players such as WhiteHatJunior or NIIT is imparted after payment of expensive fees ranging in lakhs of rupees. Additionally, since the course is taught in Hindi, it is one of its kind. As this program is developed with CodeYogi organisation as their CSR initiative, no cost is being borne by the Education Department. Thus, this model presents a wonderful example of a public-private partnership.

CodeYogi, an institution for learning programming, founded by IIT Delhi alumni, has been involved right from the commencement of the initiative to develop a self-paced curriculum in Hindi to impart industry-level skills. A teacher from each school, identified as a mentor, also enrols for the course. CodeYogi has created bots on the Telegram application installed on students' mobiles. This application imparts programming skills through video lectures and provides a platform for assignment submission. Artificial Intelligence (ChatGPT APIs) is being utilised to answer student doubts and check assignments, ensuring that any question on the limit of students in the e-classroom does not arise.

Monthly reviews with students and mentors are conducted to refine content. Using the Telegram Bot (Telegram is an open-source API messaging platform service that allows developers to create their own specialised tools, like bots, to integrate services), modules are provided as video lectures and an assignment submission platform. AI (integration with ChatGPT) is being used to answer doubts of students as well as to check the assignments, thereby ensuring the scaling of the learning platform.

A teacher from each high school, identified as a mentor, who is enrolled in the course, observes on a daily basis the progress of students. Monthly-level reviews of mentors are conducted at the district level. With multiple levels in each module, gamification techniques have been integrated into learning (similar to Khan Academy).

Accordingly, this initiative is truly unique in the following contexts:

1. Complies with NEP 2020 by imparting skills in industry-standard programming in JavaScript, NodeJS, and React.

2. Hindi-based curriculum evades language barriers, and the self-paced course structure ensures that regular studies are not hindered.

3. It is based on the Free Telegram Application, and it only requires a smartphone to learn.

There were a number of bottlenecks that were faced in the beginning:

1. Trigger: It came from observing the looming levels of unemployment in educated youth due to the absence of industry-level skills, thereby the need for imparting skills at a young level, which led to the start of Coding For Everyone.

2. Challenges: Learning programming usually requires a laptop/PC, which is inaccessible for the majority of rural students. Therefore, it was decided to use mobiles (which are much more capable devices than computers of the 1990s). As there was no possibility to engage dedicated teachers online, it was decided to use AI for learning and a shift to a Telegram Bot was made.

3. As the majority of programming courses are in English, hindering the learning of students, lectures were shifted in Hindi in coordination with CodeYogi.

The initiative has now gained momentum:

1. Students are performing better than expected. Many have completed the first module on HTML and CSS and have now shifted to advanced JavaScript in a period of 3 months.

2. As coding assignments require a large amount of typing, district administration is trying to provide programming kits (keyboards, mouse, mobile stand, and mobile connectors) to top-performing students with the help of CSR funds.

3. With a monthly online interaction with well-performing students, nodal teachers, and principals, based on their feedback, constant modifications in modules are being carried out.

4. With online performance reports readily available, a competition has been triggered in the students to be the first to complete the course.

What has been achieved in this remote district, Dewas, under the inspired leadership of this young collector, Rishav Gupta, is truly remarkable. The model is replicable in the true spirit of Nexus of Good through public-private partnership. This would not only help the education of poor students in government schools but will also make them employable. The efforts of the entire team deserve to be applauded.

Views expressed are personal