Grace Ashiru
Through constructing an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Institute, the government of South Africa seeks to improve the teaching of computer programming and robotics in the country’s public schools.
Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies of South Africa, recently attended the G20 Digital Economy Ministers Meeting in Bali, Indonesia, where he announced that the AI Institute would be established through a partnership between the Department of Communications and the Department of Digital Technologies well as educational establishments such as the Johannesburg Business School of the University of Johannesburg and the Tshwane University of Technology.
We must invest significantly to offer our young people access to contemporary education, skill sets, and formal training. To accomplish this goal, our Department of Basic Education has incorporated coding and robotics into the curriculum of elementary and secondary schools, according to Minister Ntshaveni.
The minister did not give a date for when the institute would be set up.
The minister also stated that the government’s emphasis on digital skills involves establishing platforms designed to encourage and promote the production of digital content by young people as well as small and medium businesses, in particular start-ups.
On September 13, 2022, the South African government has scheduled the release of a new app store called DigiTech.
We’ve promised our sister countries in Africa that app makers from the rest of the continent will be able to get their apps on the DigiTech App Store,” she said.
As part of the prerequisites for the government’s core e-learning plan, the minister also stated that the government would provide email accounts to all learners and students enrolled in public schools, as well as the parents of those pupils.
The South African Department of Education announced in March that it plans to incorporate coding and robotics into the curriculum of the country’s schools, beginning in Grade R and continuing through Grade 3 in 2023. It is anticipated that the full-scale implementation of the new standards will take place in the years 2024 and 2025 for Grades 4-6 and Grade 8, respectively.
Last month, the Kenyan government said it would add coding as a subject in schools.
