HT Codeathon: Coding helps the young shine in today's tech-driven world

With each one of us riding the way of digital transformation, devising a pragmatic road map to reap benefits today by embracing the innovation of tomorrow has become a necessity.Coding is the new literacy mantra to thrive in today's technology-driven world. Its use has permeated deeply in our lives, making it a requisite skill set for students to succeed in the 21st century by giving them a competitive advantage and enhancing logical thinking through research and collaboration.Codeathon is a wonderful initiative by HT that will give aspiring technocrats a platform to ideate, innovate and invent computer applications besides hands-on learning with the experts.I appreciate this initiative launched by HT to introduce the technical self-learning initiative for budding coders, thereby opening new vistas of success.Alka Awasthi, Principal, Mayoor School, Noida'NEED OF THE HOUR'Coding is one of the 21st century skills which is the need of the hour. It is basic literacy in today's digital age. It triggers the grey cells of the mind and develops critical thinking in individuals. The Codeathon activity organised by HT is an initiative which our students have wholeheartedly welcomed as they realise that it gives them an opportunity to be ready for a future which relies heavily on digital tools.Alka Kher, Principal, St Mark's Sr. Sec Public School, JanakpuriTechnology, which has permeated deep into our lives, has gifted us a variety of gadgets that make lives so convenient and easy going. The list of devices that we use each day is never ending. Our future will be rewritten by fast emerging technologies like AI, robotics, big data, IoT, machine learning etc. The need of the hour is to train and prepare our future generation for the challenges of tomorrow. They need to be given a taste of coding at a very young age in order to generate interest and curiosity among them to explore the vast pool of opportunities. I am thankful to HT for providing students with one such opportunity through Codeathon – India's first Coding Olympiad.Suneeta Jena, HOD, computer science, Mayoor School, NoidaI am very curious to learn coding as it is basically used for communication with computers. Coding is becoming a basic literacy in this digital age and it is very easy for me to understand and utilise the technology around me. I am now learning to create games using Python and Pygame. Earlier I used to play games on my computer, phone and laptop, But after joining the HT Codeathon I'm now learning how to create games which is very good for my future.Tejaspreet Kaur, Class 9 student, St. Marks School, Janakpuri