During the lockdown, a group of 30 school students from six different schools embarked on a coding course. Little did they know that by the end of the first phase of the Covid-19 pandemic, they would have developed various websites and applications to aid in the fight against the virus. Some of their projects include a Covid patient tracking app, a web platform for hospital management, and an online medical shop.
The course, which lasted three and a half months, was designed by educators and IT professionals to help the students make productive use of their time at home during the lockdown. It was offered free of charge to students from Sharda Vidhya Mandir, Country Side, Bhulka Vihar, Sanskar Bharti, Deep Darshan, and Madhavbaug schools.
Jayesh Chaudhari, a graduate from IIIT Allahabad, explained that the course was intended to make coding enjoyable and to teach the students from the ground up. Chaudhari, along with a few of his computer expert friends, took the opportunity to share their knowledge as they were working from home during the lockdown.
Sanjay Desai, the founder of the Country Side School, revealed that the decision to offer the coding course for free was a spur-of-the-moment one. While considering various ideas, they decided to run a trial course since the teaching of coding is now included in the new education policy.
One of the students, 12-year-old Himanshi Dayaramani, learned web development and created a website that consolidates Covid-19 news and information from different sources. Himanshi’s goal was to provide a single platform where individuals could gather information with the help of a chatbot.
Another student, 13-year-old Dhrovya Vithalani, whose father runs a medical shop, developed an online medical shop in just one week. Dhrovya wanted to address the challenges of social distancing and the lockdown while making it easier for needy patients to access the necessary medical supplies.
