This photo provided by Code Academy on May 17, 2017, shows a student working on programming at the private institute in southern Seoul.
SEOUL, Aug. 29 (Korea Bizwire) – The private coding education industry is scrambling to cater to an increase in demand after a recent government decision to nurture digital talent.
The government plan includes doubling the time spent on IT education at elementary and middle schools, introducing a programming course as a mandatory part of the curriculum and alleviating restrictions to allow universities to admit more students to IT departments.
In response, the private education industry has come up with a marketing strategy emphasizing the need to teach programming to children at a younger age.
Coding schools teach “block coding” to elementary school students. Middle and high school students are taught Python, C, Java and other programming languages.
Coding schools cost between 200,000-500,000 won (US$148-370) per month depending on the course and the age of the student.
Parents are concerned that IT education will be added to the financial burden of teaching English, mathematics and other major subjects to children through private education, since there is no guarantee that public schools will provide high-quality IT education and the education course will directly impact the student’s grades.
“Many parents don’t have the skills or knowledge to teach children about programming unless they studied it at university,” said a 38-year-old office worker surnamed Lee.
“The government has to realize that nurturing digital talent would also mean nurturing digital inequality.”
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
