ISSED and Statistics Department of Syiah Kuala University Collaborate to Enhance Digital Literacy for Students and Teachers in Pidie

Pidie - The Department of Statistics of Syiah Kuala University (USK) in collaboration with the Institute for Statistical and Socio-Ecological Development (ISSED) has successfully held a coding training at Sukma Bangsa School in Pidie on January 17-19, 2025. This activity is part of the joint service of the Department of Statistics FMIPA USK and ISSED, with support from HIMASTA and R-Ladies. This training is also a form of implementation of cooperation between FMIPA USK and the Aceh Education Office.

The training themed “Coding for the Future: Understanding Programming Languages to Improve Literacy and Numeracy” aims to improve the technological literacy of high school students through coding learning. The program is designed to support critical and computational thinking skills, basic data analysis skills, and information management. A total of 30 students and 30 teachers from various schools in Pidie participated in this activity.

The training covered three popular programming languages relevant in the era of digital transformation, namely Python, R, and MySQL. Python and R focused on strengthening data analysis, while MySQL was for database management. An experienced teaching team also supports the success of this program. Dr. Selvi Mardalena, S.Stat., USK Statistics Lecturer, who guided the session on the basics of R programming for statistical analysis and data visualization. Dr. Rumaisa Kruba, S.Si., and Dr. Asep Rusyana, S.Si., M.Si., led the session on Python, a versatile language for application development and machine learning. Meanwhile, Diaz Prasetyo, ST, MDS, from ISSED, provided MySQL training for modern database management.

This activity received a positive response from the partners and participants. Marthunis Bukhari, S.Pd.I., MA, Director of Sukma Bangsa School in Pidie, expressed his appreciation for the cooperation so that Sukma Bangsa school can be part of strengthening digital literacy, especially for the younger generation in Aceh. High enthusiasm was also seen from the participating students and teachers.

“The high school students and teachers in Pidie showed great seriousness and were able to absorb the training material well, even though coding is a challenging skill,” said Diaz Prasetyo, ST, MDS, one of the ISSED trainers who guided an intensive session on database programming with MySQL.

The Head of the Aceh Education Office, Marthunis, ST, DEA, was also present at the closing ceremony. In his speech, he expressed his appreciation for the implementation of this coding training which is considered very relevant to current educational needs. He emphasized the importance of the sustainability of such training, considering that one of the policies of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (Kemendikbudristek) is to strengthen coding and artificial intelligence (AI) learning at the junior and senior high school education levels.

It is time for coding training that emphasizes critical thinking and computational skills to be introduced to children from an early age. This training is expected to be a milestone to foster a sense of interest and curiosity about the technology they will encounter in the future. Activities like this are expected to give birth to superior seeds in Aceh in implementing technology massively, as well as opening up more quality job opportunities in the future.

Through this activity, the USK Statistics Department and ISSED hope to make a real contribution in building the competence of Aceh's young generation in the field of information and communication technology. This collaboration involving academics, government, and community is a strategic step to produce future technology talents.