Queensland Teenagers Build Coding App to Bridge the Digital Divide

Computer coding captured Neth Dharmasiri's 11-year-old imagination when his father handed him a beginner's guide to Python — one of the world's most popular coding languages. "Here I am, six years later still coding," the now-17-year-old said. "It is difficult ... [but] that appeals to me because I have a curiosity within myself to fix problems." A year ago Neth took on his biggest challenge yet. Taking a leaf from Microsoft founder Bill Gates' playbook, he set himself the task of building his own basic programming language. "I've been developing it for the past year and doing a lot of user interface changes on it but it's a fully functioning programming language," Neth said. Education experts say knowing how to code is becoming as important for students as numeracy and literacy. But Neth, who migrated to Australia from Sri Lanka, knows learning the foundational computer science skill is a luxury not available to every student. "I can look around and there are tonnes of monitors around me, whereas [in rural Sri Lanka] a lot of them come from farming backgrounds. They don't have a lot of resources, definitely don't have a lot of technology." A eureka moment On a trip to his parents' homeland of Sri Lanka last year, Neth had a eureka moment; an idea to take his new programming language global and make a difference. While stopped at a tiny rural village, Neth stumbled across a computer lab. "They had six computers and the kids were watching YouTube, doing tutorials and stuff on it," he said. "I just felt the technology was really empowering them and I thought that everyone should have access to this education." When he returned to Australia, Neth and his friend Chinmay Lal, also 17, started work on 'Thadus' — a digital learning tool that teaches coding to beginners. Fast forward to 2026 and the computer app — purposely built to run offline in areas with patchy internet connection — has now been released to market. It is split into three courses aimed at giving users a basic understanding of coding concepts and how they relate to real world industries. "Course three is data science and I think that's the most important course," Neth said. "Considering data science is a really important skill because of the AI boom at the moment." Loading... The young entrepreneurs have now teamed up with renowned Sri Lankan philanthropist Kushil Gunasekera. Mr Gunasekera's work in trying to bridge the country's urban-rural divide has earned him international recognition, including a 2018 humanitarian award from the British government on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II. He was excited by the app's potential. "The fact [the boys] want to share the app at this very early stage gives them that special edge and I feel when you help those who cannot repay the favour, it's a true hallmark of their character." Mr Gunasekera said he could help get the app into the hands of thousands of students by way of 22 computer labs set up by his Foundation of Goodness charity and dotted across rural Sri Lanka. "Most of [the students] don't have computers at home ... it's about 18 per cent in the real estate areas, in the Up Country it's about 5pc perhaps." While Neth's start-up Thadus CodeLabs is a for-profit venture, he said the app is free for not-for-profits and charities. Bridging the 'digital divide' University of Southern Queensland science education lecturer Dr Louise Puslednik said tools like 'Thadus' were an important step to bridging a "digital divide" impacting all parts of the world "Around a quarter of Australia's population don't have great access to digital products and services," she said. "What that means for students in those regional areas is that they're not able to easily engage in things such as coding programs and develop those digital competency skills." Dr Puslednik said Neth and Chinmay's creation of Thadus showcased the critical thinking benefits of coding. Neth believed, with the right attitude, anyone could learn to code. "I'm not gifted, I'm not particularly intelligent," he said. "There's so many resources at our disposal, it's just a matter of making sure everyone has access to them."