Ministry of Codes is a laudable initiative founded by Prapty Rahman with the aim to impart knowledge about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, especially programming and robotics, among children. It offers a wide range of products, like STEM toys, tutorials, and classes, depending on age groups.

This year, Prapty was named one of the nine Global Shapers, which is a community by the World Economic Forum that recognises talented individuals working in diverse fields, ranging from art and engineering, to climate change, human rights and animal conservation.

"When I was a first-year student back in 2019, I participated in the Bangabandhu Innovation Grant competition. For this, I developed the app Doctor AI, which detects skin diseases using artificial intelligence and a smartphone camera. When I received the grant for it, it made me confident to transform my other ideas into tangible actions," shared Prapty.

On April 24 last year, over a month after lockdown started in Bangladesh, she opened her YouTube channel and Facebook page, "Ministry of Codes". She started with C programming tutorials, which were all in Bangla because she believes that learning something in one's mother language is crucial. Prapty aspires to encourage young kids to use their skills in programming and robotics for practical scenarios, when they pursue their dreams.

She and her team created a STEM robot called KITTY, which can help kids to perform activities based on their basic knowledge of coding using visual programming language. Ministry of Codes has run many campaigns in different institutions, focusing on primary school children.

"Usually, a kid's learning capacity is wider than an adult's. This is why I want to instill confidence and knowledge among them from a very young age. My motto is to promote "learning by doing" so people can understand the practical implications of what they are taught. When I was younger, I did not have the ability to express myself or think outside the box. Thankfully, studying engineering made me a creative thinker because I was using my learnings in real life," said Prapty, who is currently in her final year at Daffodil International University, studying Computer Science and Engineering.

She received the BASIS National ICT Award for her work with Ministry of Codes.

She is currently writing a book about programming for kids, which will be out in next year's Ekushey Boi Mela.

"In the near future, I want Ministry of Codes to be available to underprivileged kids who don't have access to education as well as everyone else from the older generations," she added. For her graduate programme, Prapty plans to go abroad. "Many foreign countries have advanced in the education sector. I want to utilise their tools to teach kids, in the context of our country. I want to inspire every child to innovate without boundaries," she concluded.

The author is a student of BRAC University, and a freelance journalist. Email:shanzaychowdhury@gmail.com.