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A workshop on scratch programming held in Gopalganj for primary school teachers

A training workshop on scratch programming was held with the participation of a total of 226 teachers of Sadar Upazila at Gopalganj Sadar Upazila Parishad Auditorium in two phases. One ICT teacher each from 113 government primary schools participated in each phase of the workshop held on July 5-6 in the first phase and July 12-13 in the second phase.

In the workshop, teachers are shown hands-on programming using the block-based programming language Scratch and creating games and animations using various mathematical logics. The teachers expressed their excitement about participating in this programming workshop.

In this context, Nilkhi Government Primary School teacher Hafiza Khanam, who participated in the workshop, said that through scratch programming, children are interested in solving logical problems and it will encourage constructive activities by removing their mobile addiction. After the workshop, the teachers will go back to their respective schools and give students an idea about block-based programming language.

According to the organizers, a teacher has been giving lessons in the same institution for several years. So, organizing such workshops for teachers will motivate school students to learn information technology. 

At the closing ceremony of the workshop (July 13) appearing as the president, Gopalganj Sadar Upazila Nirbahi Officer Mohsin Uddin said, “Currently in this era of internet, there is an abundance of time-wasting content on social media. Through this, our children’s intellectual and innovative abilities are being destroyed. I believe our children will be able to come out of this situation with regular practice along with watching YouTube content related to Scratch programming.”

Director of the Institute of Information Technology of Dhaka University Dr. BM Moinul Hossain, while speaking as the chief guest at the closing ceremony said, “There is a term called leapfrogging, which means long jump. As much as the world has advanced in technology, if we follow them little by little, they will be much more ahead of us. To keep pace with the world in technology, we have to leapfrog. And I’m hopeful that you can do it.”

Mamluq Sabir Ahmad, Managing Director of CSL Technologies Limited, one of the partners of the event, said to the teachers present, “A new world is coming before us, that is the world of robotics, the world of artificial intelligence. Scratch programming will prepare our next generation for this world. You are the makers of this new path of the future.”

While addressing the meeting, Retired Major Saeed Raj expressed his desire to organize a similar workshop in his district Rajbari on the model of this workshop.

At the conclusion of the training workshop, Sadar Upazila Education Officer Parimal Chandra Bala, Assistant Education Officer Jamal Hossain Gazi and Gobra Union Parishad Chairman Shafikul Islam Chowdhury Tutul were present on behalf of Gopalganj Sadar Upazila as co-hosts. BRAC Bank Limited (PLC) Deputy Managing Director (DMD) M Sabbir Hossain, IT expert Kazi M Morshed were also present at the closing.

The two-day teacher training workshop jointly organized by Gopalganj Sadar Upazila Parishad and Scratch Bangladesh was supported by CSL Technologies Limited and Bangladesh Open Source Network (BDOSN).

BDOSN General Secretary Munir Hasan believes that regular organization of such training workshops will be helpful in programming education programs in the primary schools of the country and remove the fear of programming among the elementary students of all levels of the country and make them interested in solving complex problems.

Scratch Bangladesh team leader Mosharraf Hossain Tipu said – Scratch Bangladesh is creating very easy programming learning resources in Bengali language for students. Already 20 tutorial videos have been released on YouTube channel @ScratchBangladesh. Videos can be seen in this link .

Note that students need to know computer programming to be proficient in the technology field in the future. To this end, the Bangladesh government has already included information technology and programming education in the textbooks from the 3rd grade of schools. At present, the 4th and 5th class textbooks are trying to teach programming to students through Scratch programming language. BDOSN and Scratch Bangladesh are working to make programming practice popular and easy among the young students of the country.