We live in a digital-first world, where our children need a basic understanding of how to navigate coding and robotics, regardless of what career they end up going into. That’s why the Department Education has put forth a proposal to begin implementing such courses at both a primary and a high school level.
Teaching coding and robotics offers children skills that will be critical throughout their lives, particularly because no one knows what the future will look like just yet. Learning to code not only teaches logic and the ins and outs of sequential programming, but also helps children to learn to think outside of the box and problem-solve, while working in a team to achieve a specific outcome.
Implementing a syllabus that impacts all learners from Grade R through to Matric will also assist in bridging the digital divide that has become so apparent in the age of remote learning. It is worth noting that the Department of Education is launching test syllabi in public schools around the country, roughly 100 in each province.
Preparing for tomorrow
Coding teaches children skills that may seem disparate: it teaches resilience and creativity, teamwork and logic.
When presented with a coding challenge, children (and software developers) are required to break the problem down into smaller parts to find the issue and ultimately solve the problem before they can move forward. This aids in teaching resilience and patience, as children learn that if one potential solution turns out not to be correct, they just need to keep trying until they find the right one.
Learning to code can also assist in fostering a love of mathematics, not typically a favourite subject among the youth. Starting early can help build the foundational principles of maths in a child’s mind, setting them up for greater success in the future.
Learning to code is fun and different and offers great potential to foster creativity in children while preparing them for the future. Coming up with a clever solution to a tricky problem not only encourages that sense of creativity, but also rewards children for innovating and learning.
Setting South Africa on the right course
By implementing coding in school, not only are we preparing our children for a digital future, but our society as a whole. There is a shortage of good coders around the globe and building an education system around coding can set the country up for incredible success in the future. Interested in education? So are we! Read about the solutions we’ve built for the Department of Education here.