Programming skills have become just as necessary as reading and writing in today's digital age. Pope Francis is advocating for coding education for children, particularly those within the Catholic Church community.
The endorsement came after the Pope backed a global initiative by a Polish tech entrepreneur to introduce more children to computer programming.
Miron Mironiuk, founder of Cosmose AI, introduced the "Code with Pope'' initiative. He emphasizes how coding transformed his own life and how he intends to do the same. His project will empower kids with the skills to code and transform their lives.
Will this be a Global reach?
The "Code with Pope'' initiative will have a global impact, offering educational content in Spanish, English, Italian, and Polish. It will benefit children in South America (except Brazil), as well as English-speaking nations in Africa and South East Asia. The project would overcome language barriers because it offers coding education in multiple languages.
This program will be accessible in Spanish, English, Italian, and Polish, with the aim of reaching children throughout South America (except Brazil) and English-speaking nations in Africa and Southeast Asia. The involvement of the Pope is expected to attract Catholic countries.
This initiative will promote free coding education through an online platform for students aged 11-15 in Europe, Africa, and Latin America. It's not Pope Francis's first interest in inspiring young children, especially those from the catholic church doctrine, to explore coding. In 2019, he even contributed to writing a line of code together for a United Nations project.
Pope Francis has also given his blessing to the positive potential of AI. He met with Microsoft President Brad Smith, who is a board member of Code.org, to sign the Rome Call for AI Ethics earlier this year, just before Microsoft's $10 billion investment in OpenAI. He also declared "Artificial Intelligence and Peace" as the theme for World Day of Peace 2024 in August.
The Code With Pope” Initiative
Statistics from the World Economic Forum in 2023 highlighted that "most of the fastest-growing roles are in the tech field." Despite this, there's a global shortage of technological skills, with about 85 million job positions predicted to go unfilled by 2030. This would make high-quality programming education more accessible, especially in low and middle-income countries which are from the catholic church doctrine.
The "Code with Pope" initiative, encouraged by Pope Francis, is a major stepping stone to advancing coding education. It explains the importance of giving young students vital digital skills in our tech-driven world.
By offering free coding education and getting rid of language barriers, this initiative has the potential to empower the next generation and contribute to a more technologically inclined society.
After 60 hours of well-detailed learning, kids will be able to understand the fundamentals of Python, a widely used coding language.
Mr. Mironiuk is scheduled to meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican to talk about the “Code with Pope” initiative. Although the tech entrepreneur doesn't expect the Pope to become a Python expert, he expects the Pope to receive a certificate recognizing his contribution to launching the program.