President Piñera introduces the Education Ministry’s Innovation Center that will enable programming to be taught in 3,000 schools
The President has announced the first initiative to be developed by the Education Ministry’s new Center: The National Digital Languages Plan. A total of 4.5 billion pesos is to be invested in stimulating innovation in schools.
Accompanied by 16 seventh grade students at the Arturo Matte Larraín school in the San Ramón district of Santiago, teachers and Education Minister Gerardo Varela, President Piñera presented the Education Ministry's Innovation Center and its Digital Language Plan, which was born as a result of a public-private partnership involving the participation of Hub Chile Program representatives.
The National Digital Languages Plan will be the Innovation Center’s first initiative. Its goal is to foster digital transformation in Chile by training teachers to use tools that promote computational thinking and programming in the classroom.
“We are investing more than 4.5 billion pesos in implementing this program and, meanwhile, we have contributions from civil society and some very important private companies who are helping with this great task. And we are doing it with the Scratch Program, which is an innovative, successful and tried and tested program and I’m sure will be very useful for our children,” the President added.
Implementation of the plan will begin in 2018 and it is anticipated that at least 3,000 schools will be teaching computational thinking and programming by the end of the current government's administration.
“And why are we putting so much emphasis on teaching programming and digital language? First, because it teaches us how to improve skills, to use our brains and exercise our talents. Second, because it is a very important language and, as it's associated with the English language, students will be learning two languages at the same time - languages that are going to be very necessary in the future. And third, because it is a great tool for the job market of the future,” explained the President.
The goal is to train 100 teachers from public and private subsidized schools in the Santiago districts of Estación Central, La Pintana, Lampa and Huechuraba, in a pilot program that will work hand-in-hand with NGOs Fundación Kodea and Fundación Telefónica.
The President highlighted the great step forward that is being made by the Education Ministry. “We are sure that this Plan and the Education Ministry's Innovation Center are a way for Chile to catch up and to take a great leap forward, so that Chile will stop looking backwards and start to prepare for the future, for the times to come.”