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Microsoft, Facebook Declare European Kids Clueless About Coding, Too
theodp writes: Having declared U.S. kids clueless about coding, Facebook and Microsoft are now turning their attention to Europe's young 'uns. "As stewards of Europe's future generations," begins the Open Letter to the European Union Ministers for Education signed by Facebook and Microsoft, "you will be all too aware that as early as the age of 7, children reach a critical juncture, when they are learning the core life skills of reading, writing and basic maths. However, to flourish in tomorrow's digital economy and society, they should also be learning to code. And many, sadly, are not." Released at the launch of the European Coding Initiative — aka All You Need is Code! (video) — in conjunction with the EU's Code Week, the letter closes, "As experts in our field, we owe it to Europe's youth to help equip them with the skills they will need to succeed — regardless of where life takes them."
Translation: We need to flood the job market so we can hire cheaper workers. Is anyone actually buying this?
Indeed! It was horrendously bad in the 1990s in the Netherlands. I have a friend who was graduating from 'teaching school' then. She sent me emails riddled with spelling errors and crooked sentences. Amazingly she got her degree no problem. Later, in the early 2000s the govenment finally found out that something had to be done and they settled for a mandatory writing and math test for everyone who wanted to teach 4 - 12 year olds. The majority of the people who took those tests failed miserably. Things have improved a lot since then. My friend also improved and I get messages from her with normal Dutch sentences and well-spelled words. She even teaches dyslectic kids how to read and write now.
-- Cheers!