WITH digitisation being well and truly the axis on which the world spins now, the stark reality was that most South African schools were not engaged with this phenomenon.
A US-based NGO with strong South African roots has made strides to get local pupils connected to the digital way of the world by unpacking free coding and robotics training programmes for teachers which has made a big impact on hundreds of pupils.
NGO Keep a Child Alive (KCA) will make further inroads into the Durban South area with their coding and robotics information sessions on Wednesday, to explain to teachers and others how the programme worked and enrolling for a free training course in the subject.
The sessions for teachers and principals of schools with Grade R to 9 pupils will be held at the Blue Roof Life Space, a community centre in Wentworth.
The venue was once a nightclub but has been reconfigured by the KCA and US singer and songwriter Alicia Keys, who is a founder of the organisation.
Historically, KCA was involved with youth empowerment, providing international healthcare support for diseases like HIV and TB. However, since the Covid-19 pandemic, its focus has changed to 4IR (Fourth Industrial Revolution), particularly digital inclusion.
The KCA devised their “Digital Democracy” programme, to teach coding and robotics and digital literacy at under-resourced schools.
Kate Coleman, the head of KCA’s local marketing and publicity initiatives, said the organisation was currently focused on Durban as part of their national rollout over the next five years.
Coleman said they were constantly expanding and worked closely with the Department of Education.
She said in about June 2022, it had been intriguing to collaborate with one of their overseas partners, Raspberry Pi, a leading coding and robotics software and hardware manufacturer from the UK.
Coleman said their relationship with Raspberry Pi gave rise to Digital Democracy, but there was scepticism in some quarters when they started a coding and robotics programme at the Blue Roof.
“Initially we wanted to see children’s appetite and enthusiasm for this. The kids loved it and we had about 120 children involved. It was a thing of beauty.
“We realised that if we didn’t bring teachers on board, by the time the Department of Education officially made coding and robotics compulsory for schools (in June), they would have been on the back foot.”
Their anticipation ensured that the schools they worked with were properly equipped when the department made their announcement.
Coleman said she had worked with NGOs in the education space for the last 12 years and at symposiums the talk usually centred around nutrition and reading for meaning.
“When you talk about robotics you get an awkward look because educationists were focused on the dire need for literacy.
“Coding and robotics is something completely different and is needed urgently because of the world of work.
“The department realised the gap we are about to have in our workforce and it was unfolding every day. Therefore, they mandated it for inclusion in their standalone timetable as a subject.”
Coleman said many teachers had no idea where to start, so they offered training.
“In the next five years, seven out of every 10 jobs will be based on coding.
“People think it’s about robots: no, it is production, it’s your washing machine, car and will cover every aspect of life.”
She said there was great demand for their assistance, mostly in far-flung corners of the province, while the schools in urban areas were not as responsive.
“Thus far about 40 schools with 405 teachers and about 10 000 pupils have come on board over the last 15 months.”
She said it was not necessary for schools to have an entire computer lab to teach coding.
“If a school has five computers, that is sufficient. You could have three children working around a computer. That is great for social interactions, team building and problem solving. And it can be done unplugged (without devices) with younger grades.”
She said their drive to upskill teachers came from recent research which revealed that of the 25 000 South Africa schools, 60% of pupils had no computer access, 80% of schools were not connected online, yet up to 70% of available jobs today were digital.