Keyboard before pencil: China kids learning coding even before primary schooling

China has a huge number of children across the country who are learning to computer codes even before they enter primary school.

Private schools crosswise over China are taking advantage of a developing interest from guardians' goal on setting up their kids for a world commanded by data, robots and computer programming.

Even the World Economic Forum has anticipated that 65% of kids entering grade school today will eventually end up working in totally new work types that don't exist yet. The reason behind this large change is computer software programmes.

This picture taken on November 8, 2019 shows a parent waiting outside a classroom at a children's computer coding training centre in Beijing.(AFP Photo)

China has been making huge investments in robotics and artificial intelligence (AI), with the government issuing in 2017 an AI development plan which suggested programming courses be taught in both primary and secondary schools.

China published its first AI textbook last year, while eastern Zhejiang province listed programming as one subject for its college entrance examination.

Parents who do not have the skills to help can send their children to coding agencies, which are booming thanks to demand from China’s middle-class families looking for the best skills for their children.

The value of China’s programming education market for children was 7.5 billion yuan (US$1.06 billion) in 2017 but is set to exceed to 37.7 billion yuan by 2020, according to Analysys, a Chinese internet analysis firm.

(With inputs from AFP)