Social Ventures in Asia (2)
CA Tech Kids
CA Tech Kids:
Providing IT education to kids
MAY 2018
IT education: changing times, changing needs in education
In recent years, an increasing amount of governments worldwide have been making changes to their public education curriculums to accommodate IT education. Finland, recognized worldwide for its high quality education, has made programming a required subject in the elementary school curriculum from 2016. In the U.K., programming for children over the age of 5 has become a requirement as well, starting from 2014. In 2015, President Obama announced a “Computer Science for All Initiative” which entails $4 billion funding for states and $100 million for districts to strengthen K-12 computer science instruction. In Japan, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) has announced that starting from 2020, programing education will be compulsory in elementary schools.
With the right to internet access being recognized as a human right by the U.N. in 2016, the proliferation of technology in our lives is inevitable. Such technological advances will spread through every industry, and may change life as we know it in the coming decades. In Japan, as countries all over the world, there is a dire need for more IT specialists. The supply is short of demand, especially when the demand is outpacing the number of students studying in related STEM fields. In 2016, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications announced the goal of training 1 million people in IT by 2025.
Snapshot of IT education in JapanIntroducing “CA Tech Kids, Inc.”
CA Tech Kids, Inc. was founded in 2013 by Tomohiro Ueno. The company operates the largest programming school for elementary school children and was found with the initiative of strengthening programming, or IT education as whole in Japan. By its operation, it aims to first raise awareness of the importance of IT education and ultimately be a catalyst in efforts to make the integration of IT instruction into Japanese public education.
Business model
Business Model Canvas of 'CA Tech Kids'Social Impact & Contribution to Public Education
In the year of CA Tech Kids’ founding, only 14 programming schools for children existed in Japan. That number has grown to over 25 schools from 2014. The emergence of such programming schools inevitably raises awareness of the need for children to learn programming, and normalizes such education. CA Tech Kids has partnered with multiple regional organizations and elementary schools to provide programming lessons for students, as well as programming training sessions for educators. Furthermore, it has collaborated with the government by making policy proposals regarding programming in public education. CA Tech Kids, Inc. CEO Tomohiro Ueno participated as a board member on multiple committees regarding the provision of elementary school education curriculum. His policy proposals led the Abe Administration to implement programming lessons into elementary school curriculum. In light of the change in curriculum, CA Tech Kids is also partnering up with university research projects to make the ensure the smooth implementation of programming education.
Food for thought: How is a social problem defined?
What exactly defines a social enterprise? How is a social problem defined?
As I researched social enterprises that utilized technology, I faced the dilemma of whether the lack of IT education for children was a social issue or not.
• While CA Tech Kids offers programming lessons to children and is a contributor to making positive changes to the Japanese public education curriculum, is it truly a social enterprise?
• If the only children who can afford the lessons are from families of well-off backgrounds, does that not create a disparity in the spread of knowledge?
• Does the label ‘social enterprise’ have to be self-defined by the business or can others classify it as such?
While Japan is known for its many technological achievements, as a student who attended a Japanese public middle school and high school (as well as currently attending Japanese college), the education was very much analogue. In comparison to my American education curriculum where the production of powerpoints was necessary even in elementary school, I never once had an assignment which required powerpoint throughout high school in Japan, other than computer class. My high school offered one computer room of around 30 old desktops for a school body over a 1,000 students. Teachers did not encourage the use of computers to work on assignments; rather, students were required to write essays by hand “to prevent plagiarizing” (a reasoning I still do not understand).
As technology advances exponentially, I believe it is essential to incorporate the use or instruction of IT in education. It is the responsibility of educators to prepare children accordingly to the changes in society, so that they may be equipped with the skills and knowledge to innovate and take charge of the next era.
Social Enterprise in Asia Case Presentation, CA Tech Kids, in <Asia Tomorrow U> ProgramReferences
CNN, B. B. G. (2013, March 7). Gates, Zuckerberg: Kids, learn to code. Retrieved May 22, 2018, from
https://www.cnn.com/2013/02/27/tech/innovation/code-video-gates-zuckerberg/index.html
ＩＴ人材 新たに100万人. (n.d.). Retrieved May 22, 2018, from
https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGKKASFS18H0Y_Y6A610C1NN1000/
Jiang, J. (2018, May 2). Millennials stand out for their technology use, but older generations also embrace digital life.
Retrieved May 24, 2018, from
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/05/02/millennials-stand-out-for-their-technology-use-but-old er-generations-also-embrace-digital-life/
Velocci, C. (n.d.). Internet Access Is Now A Basic Human Right. Retrieved May 23, 2018, from
https://gizmodo.com/internet-access-is-now-a-basic-human-right-1783081865
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