Coding is already part of school curriculum

WE refer to the letter “High time to include coding in school curriculum ( The Star, June 19). We would like to thank the writer for voicing his/ her views on the need to introduce coding in the Malaysian education system and agree that programming, which includes coding, is an important skill to be imparted to Malaysian students to prepare them for careers in STEM related jobs or as a way for us to adapt to the rapidly changing technological world.

Computational thinking is an important element in the new primary and secondary school curriculum – Primary School Standard-based Curriculum (or KSSR) and Secondary School Standard-based Curriculum (or KSSM). KSSR was implemented in 2011 and KSSR (Semakan) and KSSM were rolled out in 2017.

Coding is currently offered to Year 6 students through the Module on Programming within the subject of Information, Communication and Technology (ICT). In this module, students learn to use their logical and computational thinking to solve problems given to them using programming applications such as Scratch. Students learn to create algorithms (pseudocode and flow chart) and develop simple programs.

From 2020 onwards, coding will be taught through the Design and Technology subject to Year 4, 5 and 6 students.

In Design and Technology, students learn to create algorithms (pseudocode and flow chart) and develop simple to more complicated pro- grams. Students are also required to program hardware such as Arduino and Micro Bit, which is an introduction to Robotics and Artificial Intelligence.

Coding is also taught in secondary schools through the Basics in Computer Science (Asas Sains Komputer) subject offered in lower secondary schools and Computer Science (Sains Komputer) subject in upper secondary schools.

Students are exposed to the use of application software such as Microsoft Visual Basic, JAVA, HTML, Javascript, Microsoft Access, MySQL, XAMPP, and Notepad. CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT DIVISION Ministry of Education Malaysia