But Jacqueline Lee is no average person; which explains why she started CodeJuniors four years ago to teach coding to children so as to encourage creativity and critical thinking – components said to be missing at school.

Coding or programming, which is the practice of writing code using a programming “language”, is the backbone of digital applications Malaysians use every day.

This “language” refers to a certain combination of letters, numbers and symbols, which work together to tell digital applications such as a mobile app, website, computer software, and an animation, how to run.

There are many programming languages for all sorts of purposes. One of the most popular and user-friendly is the Python programming language, which is what Lee’s workshop uses.

Lee has a business background, but has always worked closely with the Information Technology (IT) industry. Lee, who underwent training for coding as part of her work, conducts the sessions with a partner, who works as a programmer.

Their workshops, held every Saturday and during school holidays, teach children from ages 5 to 15 how to code to create games and colourful animations.

“I wanted to do something different, something that we don’t have in Malaysia,” she said.

Looking at Singapore and the US, she realised Malaysia had yet to have a programme that taught coding to children. So she ventured into this.

“I think demand is picking up,” she told FMT, adding she had noticed more parents becoming aware of the importance of coding.

“Parents would send their kids here for them to learn how to design games, instead of merely playing them. A lot of the kids like to play video games, but they’re not putting their time into something productive,” she added.

Lee said teaching coding to younger children would encourage them to think harder to solve problems.

“A lot of times, when there is an error in their code, they would be forced to de-bug them,” she said, adding that the children would need to retrace their steps to find the error.

She said the children would also learn how to program robots during the workshops.

“They have to think about how they can program the robot to walk in a square, or to turn right or left and at what angle. It’s not like there’s a remote control, everything needs to be programmed in a sequence beforehand,” she said.

Teaching code would also encourage the children to learn sequential thinking and develop foresight, Lee added.

“For example, maybe you might need 20 steps to solve a problem in your code, or to make a robot move in a circle or a square. Kids, especially younger ones, won’t have the foresight to think so far ahead,” she said.

Coding could help them develop this foresight, she argued, as they would be trained to imagine how they wanted a robot to move before it even started moving.

Lee added that the parents, who were often programmers themselves, would be surprised to see that her workshop was able to teach young children such skills.

“It’s not so much about teaching difficult coding; it’s how you are able to relate to the younger kids, and making the class interesting instead of just spewing boring programming talk,” she said.

But conducting workshops outside of urban areas was a problem, she said, as the parents needed to be educated enough about this to send their children to such workshops.

“It takes time to explain to parents what coding is and how robotics work. I think it’s important for kids to start learning coding,” she said. But looking at the current education syllabus, she argues that it is static, and has not been revamped to reflect the rapid technological advancements.

“Are we merely coping with the current syllabus or do we actually have room to grow and explore beyond the syllabus?” she asked.

She recommended that the government compare the national syllabus to that outside of the country, to see if Malaysia was catching up. She noted, for example, that in 2017, Singapore introduced an O-level computing subject for secondary school students, which includes programming in its framework.

“The impact will be on the kids, unfortunately, if the education industry is not prepared to face the current and future technological changes,” Lee added.