Coding, or programming, is now considered the heart of every new innovation or creation that we come across in this world. It is believed that the future jobs will be almost all done by robots, that’s why parents, and even teachers, are trying to prepare their kids’ skills in order to meet up with the future needs and avoid their displacements by those robots.
There are now different courses, programs, and even online platforms that teach kids coding, but not all the countries adopted this method yet, a lot of countries are still in the initial phase.
When it comes to coding, there are some specific countries that have paid hard work since a long period of time and are still achieving, and there are those countries still taking their initial steps in coding education as part of their attempt to prepare their kids for the needs of the future and the jobs coming along with it. Israel for example started its coding education journey since 1970 and it is still working hard towards educating its citizens.
The different countries that might be considered the champions when it comes to coding might surprise you, because the first two to come up on your mind which are the United States and India, are not found on the top of the list. The only thing that brings these different countries together at the end is that they all take coding seriously.
1- China
One important thing that China considers when it comes to coding education is that it always links coding to the future, and that’s how they come as the leaders and stand on top of the list. The best programmers out there are located in China and this goes back to their accuracy as well as speed. Since 2014, more than 100 companies have been formed to teach computer programming to kids including Beijing’s VIOCODE, Shenzhen’s Codemao, and Hangzhou’s Ultrabear.
Even though China comes on top of the list when it comes to computer programmers, it also makes it difficult for regular or less wealthy children to learn coding since all these offered courses could be afforded by wealthy students only, and that’s where China needs to think more critically and make coding accessible by all economic classes.
2- Russia
Second on the list of countries that are considered best in coding is Russia. One of the negative things related to coding — or programming in general — is hacking. Hacking is part of programming and Russia is known with the most famous hackers in the world, coming next after China. It is known that the best hackers out there should have the topmost level of programming skills, and Russia’s programmers proved to be the best when it comes to algorithms, even though China scored fullmark in the world of computer programming.
3- Poland
At first, you might not even think about Poland in the world of coding or even consider it as one that comes on top of the list, but actually it is. What places Poland as one important country in the world of coding is the fact that it teaches coding to lower classes in schools and that is the reason why students come out eventually from schools with full knowledge about programming that include Python and JavaScript. Generally, looking more deeply into Poland education, you will find that it has an excellent education system out there when compared to different other countries around the world.
4- Switzerland
Switzerland is known to be the motherland of the famous programming language, Pascal, which is one of the first computer programming languages to appear. Based on a study done by HackerRank, a website that measures coding skills according to some challenges it gives to programmers based on their speed and accuracy, Switzerland scores on the top 5 in nine out of the top 15 challenges it provides programmers with.
It is important to mention that Switzerland has headquarters of multiple international tech companies and it is also among the leading countries in the Global Innovation Index.
5- Hungary
Thinking about the top countries in the world of programming and coding is definitely impressive because there are lots of those countries out there which you might have never thought about their efforts to promote coding and those which we have always thought they come on top of the list, but eventually find something else. Hungary is one of the countries that stand on the top-5 list for the countries with the best programmers out there, it even introduced programming in primary and secondary schools which made children more interested in coding and want to become the programmers of the future.
One of the important things that made Hungary reach the top 5 on this list is the educational system that it follows, those who learn something from an early age could decide whether they want to master it in the future or not, and that’s exactly what happens with programming in schools.
This list of top countries in the world of coding places Japan, Taiwan, France, Czech Republic, and Italy just after Hungary ranking them from 6 to 10 in the same order.
Since technology is considered the future of jobs and a lot of careers demand employees with tech skills, some countries started to teach coding and programming to kids in schools to prepare them from the early beginning and avoid their replacement by robots and machines in the future.
From the countries that are paying extra effort to make coding part of their educational curriculum, there is:
- United States
The United States is always thought of as one of the top countries in coding, even if other countries might be taking the lead, U.S. is still trying to make coding and computer science education part of its school curriculum. The country invested $200 million in 2018 in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), including computer science education since 80% of professions are expected to need STEM education skills in the future.
- Israel
Israel is the leader when it comes to the world of coding and this goes back to when they actually started. Israel started to teach coding in schools in the middle of the 1970s, which is considered a decade earlier than most of the European countries.
In 2017, Israel introduced computer and robotics classes to fourth grade and there were even two kindergartens in the country that teach computer and robotic skills; that’s why it is considered the leader. From the best schools that teach coding in English in Israel, there is Israel Tech Challenge (ITC), Developers Institute, Elevation Academy, and Le Wagon.
- Australia
90% of the jobs in Australia require basic knowledge of IT jobs and that’s why Australia is investing in coding education in its different schools. The country has made efforts in order to make coding one of the mandatory subjects taught in schools. It all started with making coding compulsory for primary classes, while those between ages 7 and 8 will be required to learn coding language under new science and technology syllabuses.
The country is investing with AU$3.5 million to introduce computer science education in schools. The efforts of the country were not just delivered through schools, but through online education as well, such as the Australian Digital Technologies Challenges which are online teaching and learning activities available for free to all the Australian students in years 3 to 8.
There are a lot of different other countries around the world which is adopting computer science education in schools, such as England, which was the first to take the lead back in 2015 among all the countries in the European Union. Adding to the list of countries which are trying to prepare the kids in order to meet the demands of the future when it comes to technology and coding, there is the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, India, and many others.
It’s important to understand the importance of coding education to your kids, take the lead, and start searching for schools that will help avoid their displacement by robots and machines in the future.
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