PUTRAJAYA, Aug 11 — Students in both primary and secondary government schools will learn all about computer coding from next year, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced today.

He said a total of 9,200 teachers are currently being trained for the new curricula, which will be known as computational thinking to Standard 1 students, and Computer Science subjects to students in Forms 1 and 4 when the new school year begins.

"Computational thinking and Computer Science is also being integrated into teacher training colleges and Institut Aminuddin Baki that trains principals and headmasters. In the future all graduating from teacher training colleges will be equipped with these skills,” he said at the launch in Sekolah Sultan Alam Shah here.

The new curricula is being taught under the My Digital Maker Movement programme.

Najib said that approximately 1.2 million students will benefit from its implementation in 10,173 schools nationwide.

He added that Malaysia will be the first in Asean to carry out such a programme.

The PM also said the digital economy made up 17 per cent of the country’s GDP in 2014, and that this move will help see this percentage grow in the future.

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