South Africa government adopts coding curriculum after Kenya rolled out the syllabus
The government of South Africa will become the second country in Africa to roll out coding syllabus after country’s Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies Khumbudzo Ntshavheni indicated they seek to establish Artificial Intelligence Institute to enhance teaching of coding in public schools.
Speaking at the G20 Digital Economy Ministers Meeting in Bali, Indonesia early this week, Ntshavheni said the institute will be established in partnership between the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies and institutions of higher learning including the Johannesburg Business School of the University of Johannesburg and the Tshwane University of Technology.
“It is essential that we invest significantly to provide our youth with access to modern training, skill sets and formal education. To achieve this, our Department of Basic Education has introduced robotics and coding as school subjects in primary and high schools,” she said.
The institute will seek to enhance the teaching of robotics and coding in public schools.
Early last month, outgoing Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta presided over the countrywide roll-out of the coding curriculum in both primary and secondary schools.
Speaking during the occasion at State House, Nairobi, President Kenyatta commended the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) for approving and implementing coding as a critical skill within the new Competency Based Curriculum (CBC).
“…today, Kenya becomes the first country in Africa to approve coding as a subject of study within the official curricula for primary and secondary schools. I applaud the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development for leading our nation to this landmark achievement, by implementing coding as a critical skill within our new Competency Based Curriculum,” President Kenyatta said.
ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru said since the launch of the coding curriculum barely two months ago, the private sector swiftly took it up and more than 317 private schools are already deploying the KICD approved coding curricula.
He added that a European based maritime equipment manufacturer, Med-Marine, has confirmed full sponsorship for eight public schools to benefit from coding using the approved curricula.
The schools include Starehe Boys Centre (Nairobi), Sparki Primary School (Mombasa), Manyatta Primary School (Kisumu), Nomads Primary School (Isiolo), Mararal DEB (Samburu), Chereta Primary School (Laikipia), Icuga secondary School (Nyeri County) and Kitondo Primary School (Machakos).
For both countries, the new coding syllabus will seek to impart a digital skills set to enable the young people to become more innovative including creating platforms to support and promote digital content creation by the youth and small and medium enterprises, especially start-ups.
“In this regard, South Africa will launch an app store to be known as DigiTech on September 13, 2022. We have undertaken to our sister countries within Africa to ensure that content producers from the rest of Africa can have their apps enrolled on the DigiTech App Store.” Ntshavheni noted.
The minister also announced that the government is extending email addresses to all learners in public schools and their parents as part of the requirements of its basic e-learning agenda.
In March, the South African Department of Education announced that it will introduce coding and robotics into the country’s school curriculum for Grades R to 3 and Grade 7 in 2023.
Full-scale implementation for Grades 4 to 6 and Grade 8 is planned for 2024 and the Grade 9’s will follow suit in 2025.
Last month, the Kenyan government also announced that it was introducing coding as a subject in schools.
In Kenya, the coding syllabus was officially launched in June this year thus becoming the first country in Africa to moot the initiative aimed at boosting digital literacy for learners.
This is the first coding syllabus online platform for children of ages 7-16 to develop their critical thinking and algorithm in building skills while learning the robust programming language python offered by Kodris Africa.
