First Code x Google Project: Teaching Coding to Ethnic Minority Students
“I never thought that it will be so much fun to make my own app” said Suleman, a Form 3 student from CMA Choi Cheung Kok Secondary School. Suleman, together with 32 student minorities, made their first app in a special AppJamming workshop co-organized by First Code Academy, Google and the US Consulate General in Hong Kong on Jan 21.
Ethnic Minority students in Hong Kong - An Under-served Community For the 30,000 ethnic minority students in Hong Kong, Chinese is one of their biggest challenges both in and outside of school. Given the status of Chinese as one of the two official languages of Hong Kong, proficiency in the Chinese language is a must for the Ethnic Minority students to enter a local university, apply for jobs and move up the social ladder.
However, given the different family backgrounds and a lack of second language learning support tailored for the Ethnic Minority students, many of them ended up struggling in local schools. Despite a range of policies aiming to support Ethnic Minorities in Hong Kong introduced by the Chief Executive in the latest Policy Address, the responsibility of making sure that no student get left behind should not be solely beard by the government. With the support from various third parties across different sectors, we could help to improve the situation.
Bringing Ideas to Reality through Coding One of such efforts is the AppJamming course this Spring semester, conducted by First Code Academy, with the support from Google and the US Consulate General HK. The goal is to equip the Ethnic Minority students from S.1 to S.4 with the necessary tools and knowledge in bringing their idea to reality by making their own apps.
While just a semester of training is far from enough to turn the students into professional programmers, the course aims to show students what’s possible in the future when they master coding, the literacy for the next generation.
What’s more, the ability to think logically, the resilience in debugging a program without giving up, the creative confidence to implement new ideas and the curiosity to explore unchartered paths, these skills and experience that the students gain in the learning process will stay with them even after the workshop.
Globally, More Programming-Related Initiatives Are Catered for Under-served groups
This partnership is the first programming-related initiative that targets Ethnic Minority students in Hong Kong. Though Chinese will remain a high priority in school for them, we hope that this course, online learning platform and student community will open up an alternative path for the students outside of school.
In other parts of the world, similar initiatives were also created to support minorities by teaching them computer programming. Examples include Google’s Women Techmakers Program and Black Girls CODE.
We are excited to partner with Google and the US Consulate General Hong Kong in serving this segment of the community together. We can't wait to share with you what our students made by the end of the course soon. Stay tuned!
What’s your view on teaching minority students to code? Have you ever joined one of the initiatives mentioned above? Do share with us in the comments below, or on twitter using #firstcode or #appjamming!