You are currently viewing Teaching programming from primary school in Sweden : how to create your digital future ?

Sweden ranked 3rd among the 27 EU member states in the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) in 2021. 72% of the population have at least basic digital skills and 46% have higher digital skills. The overall level of digital maturity of the population, the public sector and businesses is found to be high. 

The Swedish education system is one of the most digitalized in the EU, especially because the primary school curriculum includes computer programming since 2018. 

At the age of 7, a Swedish is already introduced to computer code. The Swedish government believes that the digital skills of future workers must be acquired at an early age. 

Many training courses now exist to facilitate the learning of « programming ». The scratch program, for example, was developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten research group. It is a new computer language that facilitates the creation of interactive stories, cartoons, games, musical compositions, digital simulations and their sharing on the Web. 

This school program, introducing children to digital practices, pursues the national goal of becoming a digital leader in Europe. By training these young generations in computer program, Sweden secures qualified and local programmers and coders. This allows Sweden to promote innovation within its own country and to offer its « know-how » internationally. 

For that matter, Swedish education is a model to follow. France wishes to set up the teaching of programming and computer code as well as digital uses from secondary school. This initiative will allow France to train its own professionals in the digital sector. 

 

Ludine WAGNER

M2 Cyberjustice 2021-2022

 

Sources :

Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) 2021 Sweden

https://www.lasuedeenkit.se/apprendre-la-programmation-en-meme-temps-que-lecriture/

​​https://primabord.eduscol.education.fr/initier-les-eleves-de-l-ecole-elementaire-au-codage-et-a-la-programmation

https://programmation.scola.ac-paris.fr/