When CBSE introduced coding and computational thinking as a subject for Classes 6–8 in 2021, it was widely covered as a watershed moment. India's young people would enter the workforce prepared for a digital economy. Classrooms would produce a generation of builders, not just consumers of technology.
Four years later, the reality is more complicated.
The implementation gap
A 2024 audit by the Central Square Foundation of coding education across 200 CBSE schools found that in 67% of schools, the subject was either not being taught at all, being covered in a single period per week by a teacher with no computer science background, or being assessed purely through multiple-choice theory questions about what code is rather than through any actual coding.
The curriculum exists. The infrastructure largely does not. Many government schools have computer labs that are locked, outdated, or without working internet. Private schools have the hardware but frequently lack teachers who can actually teach programming rather than MS Office.
What good coding education looks like
Schools where coding education is working — and there are clear examples, primarily among well-resourced private schools and a handful of government schools with engaged principals — share several characteristics.
They teach coding as problem-solving, not syntax. Students who understand that a loop is a way of telling a computer to repeat an action until a condition is met have understood something. Students who have memorized the Python syntax for a for loop but cannot explain what it does have not.
They have dedicated teachers with actual programming experience, not general computer teachers reassigned.
They assess through projects — things students build — not through theory papers.
What parents can do
If your child's school covers coding as a theory subject, supplement with platforms that teach through building: Scratch for younger children, Python through project-based platforms like Replit for older students. The goal is not that every student becomes a software engineer. The goal is computational thinking — the ability to break a problem into steps, identify patterns, and think algorithmically. These skills transfer across every domain of work your child will enter.