The Goa government’s thrust on introducing coding in schools, would bode well for students because coding improves logical thinking ability and would make them well-equipped for the future job markets, according to Sricharan Tadepalli, co-founder of Hyderabad-based edu-tech company byteXL.
ByteXL on Saturday hosted AiGENDA, a symposium on ‘AI in Education’, where speakers included faculty from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Goa, the Goa Directorate Higher Education, along with pan-India leaders in the education and technology space, edu-tech sector venture capitalists, skilling experts and talent acquisition, who spoke about how artificial intelligence (AI) is not the disruptive behemoth it was initially perceived to be and has the potential to fill curriculum gaps, upskill engineers from India’s technical campuses and make them job-ready.
“I think that’s a good way of doing it (introducing coding in schools) because of what’s happening in real life. I think coding improves your brain’s thinking power as well. One of the reasons is, of course, mathematics. It’s very good that students at an early age start working on it, understanding it,” Tadepalli said.
The symposium also witnessed the launch of byteXL’s ‘Nimbus,’ a self-hosted cloud-based coding environment. The platform quickly sets up workspaces, allowing students to start coding with templates in Visual Studio Code.
Speaking on the sidelines of the symposium, Shrinivas Joshi, representing the Agnel Institute of Technology and Design, Assagao, said that contrary to the popular perception of AI as a disruptor, the technology actually acts like an additional aid for coding.
“In fact, there is an increase in jobs when we talk about AI and because there are a lot of jobs related to AI, it may prompt more engineers to come up. So, with respect to that, there is a lot of increase in the job market (expected),” Joshi said.
Dr Niyan Marchon, professor, at the state’s Directorate Higher Education, said that Goa is one of the first states to introduce coding and robotics in schools and is introducing tech to children at a young age, which suggests that the state education apparatus has put AI high on the agenda, keeping in line with the country’s vision for a ‘Viksit Bharat’.
Marchon further said that AI is not merely an academic subject, but a transformative force that will shape the future of education and industry.
“By embracing AI, fostering ethical use and promoting inclusivity, we can prepare a generation ready to lead and be innovative in the AI driven world of tomorrow. Let us work together to harness the full potential of AI for a brighter and more advanced future,” Marchon said.
Dr Shitala Prasad, Professor at the IIT-Goa, said that while coding is critical to the current scenario, in the near future, things could evolve further. “I believe that the whole market for coding will change. More creative ideas will be there to code or do similar jobs,” he said.
Dr Malineni Perumallu, chairman of the Andhra Pradesh-based Malineni Lakshmaiah Women’s Engineering College, speaking at the symposium, put the spotlight on states with high literacy like Goa and Kerala, which he said had a strikingly high 28 percent unemployment rate.
“This disparity points towards the large gap that exists between academics and industry,” he said, adding that while the existing focus was on training students, in reality, it is the faculty “that needs more training.” “The honest truth is that faculty is grappling with the advancement of new technology,” he added.
