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The Young King of ‘Let's Learn To Code’ Movement In Bangladesh

Coders are in demand globally. In fact, coding is one of the most sought after skills in 2013/14 and will be for many years to come. Bangladesh, being a country of huge population, this kind of technical soft skill may enable many young people to become self-reliant while earning foreign currency as well. There is no short supply of work for a good coder. Even better, it gives you freedom to work from any part of the world. Physical presence becomes unnecessary. Although there is no shortage of online platforms that offer courses on learning coding but there is almost any in Bangladesh. Moreover, we are barely aware that coding is the education of future. Our parents are still busy with making their offspring doctors and marketers. On the other hand, there is a change going on. The risk lies in somewhere else. If we remain oblivion we might even miss the train.

IT industry is growing rapidly in Bangladesh. We have just crossed 01 billion in revenue last year. The projection says there is a bright future ahead. We need to get ready for it. But how? Sumon thinks helping young people to learn coding is one of the ways we can do this.

Sumon is 22 now. A young man with long hair and scattered beard. He is thin and tall. He just completed his undergrad recently. A coder by himself, Sumon is also a co-founder of a tech startup called Kodeeo and a very active member of Dhaka startup community. He is almost an omnipresent figure in all tech and startup events in Dhaka.

Sumon first fell in love with coding in 2009 right after his HSC exam. It was a quick love but lasting one. In following months he kept coming back to it making himself an independent learner of coding. The love was intense. While learning code all by himself he got enrolled at Titumir College in Mathematics. But he seldom gets time to study math because he was spending most of his waking hours behind learning coding. It was a difficult but interesting journey. Gradually he came to realize that coding is his calling. That made him to change his track of education. Subsequently he quit Math and enrolled himself at the International University of Business, Agriculture and Technology at the CSE department. That’s where his formal education on coding begins from 2011.

Sumon is 22 now. A young man with long hair and scattered beard. He is thin and tall. He just completed his undergrad recently. A coder by himself, Sumon is also a co-founder of a tech startup called Kodeeo and a very active member of Dhaka startup community. He is almost an omnipresent figure in all tech and startup events in Dhaka.

LLC
LLC

[su_dropcap style="simple" size="5"]W[/su_dropcap]When I was asking him about his initiative ‘Lets Learn Coding’-an event based community organization that promotes and teaches coding to young people, Sumon says it was a really difficult journey for him. Learning is more of a collaborative process. One needs structure, materials, guidelines and motivation to get past hurdles. But when learning all by own, it becomes difficult to keep up the spirit. Moreover, coding may be boring thing to learn if you can’t get into it.

“When I started learning coding it was a very personal journey for me. I learned it all alone. There was no physical peer group, no community events and nothing where I can go and talk and ask for help but only online resources. It was a hard work. I felt like I was left alone. This is what inspired me to start something to help Bangladeshi young people to learn coding. Coding is going to be a very indispensable education in coming days”-says Sumon.

Sumon first fell in love with coding in 2009 right after his HSC exam. It was a quick love but lasting one. In following months he kept coming back to it making himself an independent learner of coding. The love was intense. While learning code all by himself he got enrolled at Titumir College in Mathematics. But he seldom gets time to study math because he was spending most of his waking hours behind learning coding. It was a difficult but interesting journey.

Sumon started his mission with a personal blog named ‘Lets Learn Coding’ in 2012. He started to write blog post on basic subjects of coding. It went well but at some point he felt it was kind of insufficient. One of the reasons was that there were many other online resources to take help from. But one can only go so far with online material. We need something more engaging and intimate to learn and internalize things. That’s how the idea of forming Lets Learn Coding came to my mind, said Sumon.

LLC
LLC

Lets Learn Coding (LLC) organizes free events in universities and communities on different programming languages and technology topics to create awareness about coding and also to help code learners with their journey. So far LLC organized 06 workshops along with few curated events. Sumon asserts that this is just the start and he has good tech friends like Anam Ahmed, Ahmad Firoz and Asif Khan along with him from the very beginning with the team. Big companies like NewsCred Inc. and bdjobs Limited are also supporting them with their initiative. Team LLC has grand vision for what they want to do.

[su_dropcap style="simple" size="5"]T[/su_dropcap]There is a growing demand for coders in Bangladesh. Moreover, with coding skill getting a job is easier than many other disciplines. But the reality in our schools is different. Parents and students are not aware about the importance and opportunities that come with learning coding. Top of that, the perception is that coding is a supremely complex skill thus it is not for all.

Sumon is quite ambitious. He believes this perception can be changed. More importantly, it needs to be changed.

This year team LLC plans to promote coding in school level. Plan is to start moving around and organizing more events in schools and colleges. Learning requires structure and peer support. LLC events aim to provide both by providing learning materials and also by engaging and connecting participants. Similarly, Sumon dreams of creating an online treasure trove of contents in local language for people who want to learn coding. There is no shortage of materials if you want to learn coding, says Sumon, but almost all of these materials are in English. We want to create materials in Bangla so that all of our people can be benefited.”

Future belongs to the curious. There are more opportunities to take. With growing access to technology Bangladesh will be a lot different in coming decades. But we are yet to make ourselves ready. Sumon aims to contribute to that grand work of making us prepared for coming days so that we can take the opportunities future has to offer.

Mohammad Ruhul Kader is a Dhaka-based entrepreneur and writer. He founded Future Startup, a digital publication covering the startup and technology scene in Dhaka with an ambition to transform Bangladesh through entrepreneurship and innovation. He writes about internet business, strategy, technology, and society. He is the author of Rethinking Failure. His writings have been published in almost all major national dailies in Bangladesh including DT, FE, etc. Prior to FS, he worked for a local conglomerate where he helped start a social enterprise. Ruhul is a 2022 winner of Emergent Ventures, a fellowship and grant program from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. He can be reached at [email protected]

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One comment on “The Young King of ‘Let's Learn To Code’ Movement In Bangladesh”

  1. Really he is a 1st class coder in bangladesh.Students who are studing programming language should follow his path

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