Coding Secrets, a unique educational project helping teachers and schoolchildren from boarding schools, rural and small schools who want to make first steps in the world of digital technology and learn the basics of programming, has wrapped up its second season. The project is supported by the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ and the Academy of Innovative Education and Development.
Fifty teachers and over 400 schoolchildren of different ages from 20 Russian regions participated in the second course of the program.
The five-month course consisted of Python programming skills, related IT tools and student projects. The participants explored full-stack development, from the initial concept to the final presentation of a project. They took part in competitions and attended lectures on internet architecture and the domain industry.
This year’s training season focused on practical tasks and self-learning. Unlocking the Code Director Ilona Yuryeva noted that the second intake showed significantly better preparation and higher engagement:
“The kids are much more confident in doing their project work. Last year, many were reluctant to take on difficult challenges and expected ready-made solutions. But this time, the participants showed much more initiative, proposing their own ideas and seeking their own ways to implement them. For example, they used additional techniques such as visual programming and AI algorithms. I’m particularly pleased to see that children have learned to work in a team and are not afraid of making mistakes, which is a crucial skill in programming. Teachers were also widely involved in the course, supporting their students and learning programming skills, too.”
Career guidance meetings covering some modern IT niches were an important part of the training. The participants learned about in-demand IT jobs, computer science teaching, careers in development, including in products for internet users with visual impairments, jobs in analytics, design, digital project management, IT marketing, and blogging. Some prominent representatives of these careers were invited to speak about the prospects for the IT industry, required skills and professional growth opportunities. They helped the children better understand how to build a digital career. The recordings of the meetings are available in the VK community of the Study the Internet & Govern It! educational project.
The project rounded up with a programming competition. The participants handled several tasks based on a “legend” about a space research station called Orion-7 that spent many years in the orbit of a faraway planet exploring unknown forms of life, weather anomalies and signals from deep space. One day, the station’s mainframe experienced a serious disruption causing outage in communication with the Earth and a shutdown of several modules. The crew could not restore control without external help. The young programmers offered their help. By solving coding tasks, they gradually restored the spacecraft system’s operation. Not only did the teams successfully handle some extra difficult challenges, some of their projects also received high scores from the jury for originality and technical implementation.
The Unlocking the Code project continues to grow. There will be more intensive workshops, practical tasks and opportunities for learning new digital skills. The third intake will open at the end of 2026.
