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South African School Students To Study Coding And Robotics From 2020

South African School Students To Study Coding And Robotics From 2020

Coding as a school subject will be piloted at 1,000 schools across South Africa in 2020 in an effort to provide youth with skills to prepare them for a tech-enabled world.

At least 43,774 teachers have already been trained in computer skills. Training will begin in June 2019 for the new coding curriculum, according to Businesstech.

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Adding computer programming as a mainstream subject will give students the foundations for future work and equip them with skills for the changing world, the South African government says.

Robotics will also be introduced as a subject for South African school students in the final three or four years of their schooling.

The curriculum will be based on engineering and will enable learners to build and operate robots through the programming of code, ITWeb reports.

school students
South African school students to study coding and robotics from 2020. AP Photo – Denis Farrell

The University of South Africa has partnered with government by making available their 24 ICT laboratories throughout the country for the training of 72,000 teachers in coding, IOL reports.

Private and public enterprise will collaborate to develop a coding platform that uses artificial intelligence to customize teaching and learning.

In addition to coding and robotics, South African schools will be adding maritime sciences, aviation studies, mining sciences and aquaponics, the department of basic education revealed.

The new subjects form part of a new push from government to expand the training of both educators and students to respond to emerging technologies, as referenced by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in his state of the nation addressin February.

Ramaphosa also said that government will provide every school child in South Africa with digital workbooks and textbooks on tablet devices before 2025.