"Potaka" is a programming language for the new learners. All the syntax of "Potaka" is written in Bengali. The syntaxes are organized in such a way so that people can read the code as a meaningful Bengali sentence. In other words, "Potaka" discloses a native Bengali sentence into programming logics. The main goal of "Potaka" is, giving the basic concept of programming and motivating the beginners to learn to program. "Potaka" comes with a simple game for the kids, that they can solve by using programming logics, which surely enhance their interest towards programming. It also contains a code repository which is open source and anyone can contribute to it.
দেখাও("থাকবো নাকো বদ্ধ ঘরে দেখবো এবার জগতটাকে");
In first world countries, kids and youngs can start to learn to program from the every early stage of their education. But very few of us (Bangladeshis) have got the opportunity to do so. Most of the students are introduced to the programming not before they start their university life. As they do not have any basic idea about programming, they try to memorize the codes to pass the examinations. This is very shameful and they are deprived of tasting the art of programming. Suddenly, it comes to their realization that, they need to have minimum knowledge about programming to get a good job.
At present, the higher secondary level (HSC) students are introduced to the C programming language as per their curriculum. There is no doubt it is a very good initiative. But the problem is, the scope of learning is limited to the examination papers and the books authorized by the education board. To get good numbers in the examination, they used to memorize the codes and write them down to their examination papers. The things related to the programming, they don't understand, they try to avoid those things. This lack of knowledge due to lack of interest leads them not to do programming or choose it as a profession. That's why for most of the students of HSC level, learning programming is a very tough ask. Not only for the HSC students but also for many university students, they memorize the codes before the exam night and deliver them in the exam hall.
Why they are afraid of programming? These are the following reasons we have collected from our field test:
- It seems like understanding the concept of conditional statements, loop and array are hard for the students. When they try to memorize the concept of conditional statements, they find it very difficult when they need to memorize the rest of the things as well. Then they stop to think about the logic building which kills their interest in programming.
- It is very important for the new learners to visualize the things in their learning process. They hardly have any idea which line of code is executing and why. They do not have the combined view of their coding.