The South African government seems to be moving towards a more tech and development-focused curricula, and more programmes are emerging to help young learners build a solid foundation in skills such as robotics and coding. Education group Think Ahead is now opening holiday camps for children to help them learn and hone their skills in robotics, coding and digital media.
Learners as young as four years old may attend these camps, which last between one and three days.
The courses offered by Think Ahead aim to better prepare them for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, where automation and technology is predicted to impact jobs heavily. The coding course introduces the basics through Swift (Apple’s coding language) and covers looping, sequencing and debugging.
The robotics course uses a Sphero robot to illustrate how their code-writing can programme a robot. A course is also offered on digital content creation for YouTube specifically.
South Africa’s educational system is making strides towards equipping children with the skills they need for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The Department of Basic Education had previously announced plans to introduce coding and robotics as subjects to help learners build a future in STEM fields.
The introduction of coding is to help learners develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
Private schools are also making significant strides in this area, such as Curro, opening its first technology-focused school on Cape Town’s Foreshore at the start of 2019.
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