Pope Francis Encourages More Children To Code, Especially In Catholic Countries

Pope Francis has backed a global effort launched by a Polish tech entrepreneur to encourage more children to learn computer programming.

Miron Mironiuk, the founder of the artificial intelligence business Cosmose AI, is drawing on his own life-changing experience with coding.

He stated that the “Code with Pope” program would help bridge “the glaring disparities in education” worldwide.

It is envisaged that the Pope’s participation will attract Catholic countries.

“We believe that the involvement of the Pope will help to convince them to spend some time and use this opportunity to learn programming for free,” Mironiuk said in an interview with the BBC.

The effort will promote access to coding instruction for pupils aged 11 to 15 across Europe, Africa, and Latin America by providing a free online learning environment.

Children will be prepared with the fundamentals of Python, one of the world’s most popular coding languages, after 60 hours of concentrated learning.

Programming abilities have become as important as reading and writing in the digital age.

According to World Economic Forum data issued in 2023, “the majority of the fastest growing roles are technology-related roles.”

On the other hand, a serious global scarcity of digital skills threatens to leave 85 million job openings unfilled by 2030.

As a result, expanding access to high-quality programming education has become critical, especially in low and middle-income nations, many of which are Catholic.

A sizable proportion of the Polish population is Catholic.

Mr Mironiuk, 33, told the BBC that he was proud of his Polish heritage and to be part of a generation of accomplished people working in technology.

Poland is making tremendous achievements in the IT scene, notably in AI, with companies such as Google Brain, Cosmose AI, and Open AI employing many Poles.

However, Mr Mironiuk is aware that many countries are less fortunate, and he hopes that this educational campaign will help to change that.

The program will be offered in the following languages: Spanish, English, Italian, and Polish. It is expected to reach children throughout South America, except Brazil, and in English-speaking countries in Africa and South East Asia.

This is not the Pope’s first time encouraging young people to learn to code; in 2019, he helped write a line of code for a UN program.

Mr. Mironiuk will meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican. He confesses, however, that he does not expect the Pope to replicate his students in learning new talents.

“I don’t expect him to know Python very well, at least,” he told me. “But he will get a certificate for his efforts in helping start the programme.”

SOURCE – (BBC)