What's your code?

Preparing learners for a digital future is not as simple as just adding a new school subject

- Jenny Retief

As with many countries, South Africa is seriously considering including coding in the national curriculum. In fact, earlier this year, Cyril Ramaphosa made it very clear that inclusion will be an objective he intends to see come to fruition during his presidency. This is commendable – but is it realistic?

The truth is that including coding alone will not prepare our children to face the coming technology tsunami known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution and, as things stand today, there is no disputing that we are producing school-leavers who are ill-equipped to operate effectively in a digital world. So the answer is probably not. At least, not right now.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is going to bring both massive opportunities and new challenges, and education should be an instrument to prepare tomorrow’s workforce. But, to get there in South Africa, we’ll need to see a fundamental shift in education and a return to the basics.

Added to the mix

The younger generation are referred to as digital natives, because they’ve had access to technology since they were old enough to hold it. This exposure needs to be ramped up, and one way of doing this is to give them access to better equipped early learning facilities. There are endless studies on the advantages of providing children with a strong foundation in numeracy and literacy at a pre-school stage, and if we start preparing them here, via digital platforms, we’ll already be ahead of the game.