Agreement to Bridge Digital Education Gap for Vulnerable Groups on the 19th
STEM University Student Mentors Provide 15-20 Weeks of Coding Education
Coding Contest Held with Over 1,000 Students Nationwide Participating
[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government is partnering with Aramco Korea and Midam Scholarship Foundation to launch the ‘Seoul Run x Aramco Coding School.’ Through the online learning platform ‘Seoul Run,’ high-quality coding education will be provided free of charge to elementary and middle school students from underprivileged backgrounds.
On the 10th, Mayor Oh Se-hoon signed a ‘Memorandum of Understanding to Bridge the Digital Education Gap and Foster Future Talent for Underprivileged Groups’ with Aramco Korea and Midam Scholarship Foundation at Seoul City Hall. Aramco Korea is the Korean branch of Saudi Aramco, a global energy and chemical company, and Midam Scholarship Foundation is an organization that conducts various educational donation activities for underprivileged youth.
Under this agreement, Seoul City will be responsible for discovering and recruiting participants for programs such as the coding school, Aramco Korea will provide funding, and Midam Scholarship Foundation will manage and operate the programs.
The ability to create programs using computer languages (coding) is utilized in various advanced industries such as artificial intelligence (AI), big data, and robotics. It is considered a core technology driving national competitiveness in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. In Korea, software education for elementary and middle school students has been gradually mandated since 2017, and coding education is being implemented. However, the number of education hours, institutions, and teachers is still insufficient compared to countries like China, Japan, and France.
Seoul City plans to provide educational opportunities to underprivileged students so that those with interest and talent in related fields can develop their capabilities and grow into future talents. The ‘Seoul Run x Aramco Coding School’ consists of coding classes and coding contests. The coding classes are programs where students can learn programming comprehensively from basics to applications. About 150 members (elementary and middle school students) registered on ‘Seoul Run’ will be selected to participate in classes running from September for 15 to 20 weeks. Seoul City plans to recruit and select about 150 elementary and middle school students registered on Seoul Run to participate in the coding classes within this month. All participating students will receive certificates of completion and awards.
Through the classes, participating students will gain knowledge about energy, environment, and climate change, and practice app development using 3D printers, tablet PCs, drones, etc., while also developing solutions related to climate change issues. The coding classes will be conducted both online and offline by mentors who are science and engineering university students from prestigious domestic universities such as Seoul National University. The classes will use Swift Playground and Xcode Playground to teach programming comprehensively.
Additionally, coding contests will be held. This coding competition involves about 1,000 elementary, middle, and high school students nationwide, including those who have built skills through the coding school. The coding contests will be held in two formats: Coding Hackathon (November) and Coding World Cup (December), with participation from both coding class students and about 1,000 students nationwide.
Mayor Oh said, "Seoul City is striving to provide software education programs through Seoul Run to nurture creative future talents in the Fourth Industrial Revolution fields," adding, "I hope the educational cooperation promise between Seoul City, Aramco Korea, and Midam Scholarship Foundation will bring real changes to the lives of underprivileged students and become an opportunity for them to grow into future talents."
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