The National Finals of the Robotics Innovation Contest 2021 organized by the Central Committee is the shining occasion of Binh Gia High School (Lang Son province) with the achievement that both robot teams won the third prize. It is a worthy result of the tireless efforts of teachers and students in a highland district of the poorest type in the country.

From the equality of geographical regions…

Located in Binh Gia town of Binh Gia mountainous district, Lang Son province, about 170 km from Hanoi, in the 2020-2021 school year, Binh Gia High School has actively established a robotics club with 20 students and at the same time removed the programming blindness for 100% of students throughout the school through ROBOTICS lab lessons during information technology lessons. Excited with the initial results, after the Third Prize in Robotics, on December 27, 2021, a group of Binh Gia high school students joined with their friends at Cao Bang and Lang Son specialized high schools to start a course on Python programming language, the most popular programming language currently in major universities in the United States and around the world. The robot lab of Binh Gia High School is better equipped than most high schools in big cities with outstanding infrastructure conditions.

The transformation of the secluded school was initiated by the enthusiasm of the School Managers when renewing the alumni work in the direction of educational innovation for digital transformation. In March 2021, the families of former students bought 12 robot boxes produced by Vietnam’s Kidscode Stem Academy with a total value of nearly 30 million VND. In December 2021, the Binh Gia High School Talent Incubation Fund was donated by former students and benefactors, adding a set of Vex IQ robots, a gift that made Binh Gia stem robotics lab have the top robotics set in the US. In the last few days of 2021, Binh Gia high school students began using Python programming language to program vex robots, an achievement that can be compared to American high schools. The results in Binh Gia show that the challenge of removing programming blindness is easily solved when the school clearly defines the goal and is determined to act, regardless of the lack of initial conditions.

The robot competition simulates the Victory of Pho Lu by Bao Thang upland district students in Lao Cai province in April 2021.

…to leaders of the education industry to snatch an opportunity

Binh Gia High School easily rose in the trend of eliminating programming blindness because the Lang Son Department of Education and Training (DOET) has always paid attention to promoting stem education for many recent years. It is the determination and professionalism of the provincial education leaders that strongly affect the alumni to sponsor more than 100 robots for all 30 schools. Currently, 100% of high schools in the province have at least 3 robot boxes in each school. Lang Son Department of Education and Training also invited a group of stem experts of Master Hoang Van Dong (Kidscode STEM Academy) to train robot programmers for teachers of all 30 high schools in the province in online and face-to-face form. All high schools are ready for the province-wide robotics contest in early 2022, if it is not postponed due to the Covid-19 epidemic, this contest will be held on December 14, 2021.

Fortunately, not only Lang Son, but 100% of high schools in Cao Bang province have also been given two boxes of robots by former students. Cao Bang Department of Education and Training has invited stem experts to train teachers in all 30 high schools in the province on the topic of robot programming and preparing for a province-wide robot competition in 2022. In the final round of the national robotics competition, Cao Bang Specialized High School won the second prize. Previously, at the end of the 2020-2021 school year, after the families of former students donated 10 robot boxes to the stem club, the school successfully organized the first robot programming contest in May 2021. Lang Son and Cao Bang have kicked off the process of removing coding literacy in all high schools with the enthusiasm of education leaders, alumni, and benefactors.

From the experience of collaborating with the Departments of Education and Training of Cao Bang, Lang Son, and Lao Cai provinces, right in January 2022, members of the stem Alliance, Dr. Dang Van Son and Master Hoang Van Dong continue to implement the plan “Supporting the development of stem education to promote digital transformation for Ha Giang high schools”. Also in January, teachers and administrators of all high schools in Ha Giang were trained by stem experts. A benefactor asked the stem Coalition to buy 180 robot boxes of Kidscode stem Academy to give to all 36 Ha Giang high schools, each with 5 robot boxes to set up a robot lab and a robot club to help Ha Giang schools have enough robotics labs with a minimum of 5 robotic boxes as prescribed for the topic “Computer Science”, an elective topic in the new program of Informatics in grade 10. Even if the equipment is minimal, it helps Ha Giang succeed in eliminating programming blindness (Coding Literacy) for 100% of students and teachers in the province right in 2022. The province plans to organize a robot programming competition on the scale of all high schools on the occasion of the March 26th anniversary of the Youth Union. The examples in Lang Son, Cao Bang, and Ha Giang show that the enthusiasm and serious working attitude of DOETs is the first requirement for former students and benefactors to buy and donate hundreds of robot boxes, together to make the dream of eliminating blindness for highland students come true.

Students of Cao Bang Specialized High School stem Club to watch a robot performance of guest Do Hoang Minh, head of programming (course 2019-2020) of Hanoi-Amsterdam Specialized High School Gart 6520 Robot Club, May 2021 in Cao Bang city.

Spread throughout the country

In August 2017, Mr. Trinh Van Nha, Chairman of Thanh Chuong District People’s Committee, Nghe An Province (then Vice Chairman of the district), and 17 teachers, teachers and staff of the district People’s Committee seriously sat in a class to remove stem blindness and remove programming blindness to get acquainted with new knowledge as well as experience in promoting stem education in Thai Thuy district (Thai Binh province), Nam Truc (Nam Dinh), localities with access to stem education from the 2014-2015 school year. Immediately after that session, Mr. Trinh directed the Department of Education to plan to invite stem training experts for nearly 400 teachers and principals of schools in the district. When seeing the District People’s Committee and the education sector full of excitement promoting stem education and eliminating programming blindness, alumni and benefactors bought and donated schools in the district in 2017 with more than 200 robotic boxes and 15 3D printers. Since the 2017-2018 school year, Thanh Chuong has always organized robot competitions and stem festivals throughout the district with about 50 teams participating, a bright spot that has been replicated in the area along the Vietnam-Laos border.

From the initial optimistic records in mountainous, highland, and border schools, to eliminate programming blindness among students nationwide, the first thing that all levels of government and the education sector need to do is clearly define the goal. The elimination of programming blindness for students needs to become the criterion that determines the level of completion of digital transformation tasks by the authorities and the education sector at all levels. Calling for donations from alumni and philanthropists will not be a problem because a robotics lab with a minimum of five robotic boxes (with a total value of 10 million VND) can teach programming to 40 students in a stem robotics lab. If more robots can be bought, teaching will be more convenient. For most high schools, mobilizing 10 million VND from social resources is within reach. Defined Objectives will be conveniently scheduled to Eradicate Programming Blindness. Before getting involved, still confused and confused, the Education and Training Office of Yen Thanh district (Nghe An) called for alumni to support. Former student Yen Thanh immediately contributed funds for teacher training and borrowed 80 robot boxes for 5 months so that each school had at least one robot box to learn to program and compete in robots. After a few months, all of Yen Thanh’s elementary and junior high schools participated in the district’s robot programming competition. Experience from Thanh Chuong helps Yen Thanh get involved quickly and effectively…

The fact from hundreds of schools in rural and highland areas shows that training teachers in programming topics is not as difficult as standing outside looking in. Informatics teachers are often well-trained in programming, so they apprehend very quickly when switching to robot programming. Today, the technology of teaching programming through robots is increasingly perfected, programming languages such as SCRATCH drag and drop are so simple that first graders can also learn easily. The biggest challenge to eliminate programming blindness and promoting stem education is the awareness of education leaders and authorities at all levels in directing educational innovation and implementing the task of digital transformation.