Basic literacy: reading comes before coding - The Mail & Guardian

In his State of the Nation address earlier this month, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that this year South Africa will be introducing coding and robotics in grades R to three in 200 schools. This is the first step in the department of basic education’s plan for integrating the subject into the grade R to nine curriculum.

Someone who can code can leverage computational power by telling a computer what to do, they can use technology to be more effective in their day-to-day activities and they can even create new technology. Undoubtedly, coding is a skill that holds power. The average primary school child in our country does not have the basic skills required for all future learning and problem solving; 78% of grade four learners cannot read for meaning in any language and 61% of grade five children cannot do basic mathematics. This deficit has to be addressed if we want to teach coding.

So no coding for South Africans? No, we are already seeing high-functioning schools start teaching coding and robotics with success. With good teacher training, many schools will be able to implement the new curriculum to great effect. My concern is how the policy affects vulnerable schools where learners might end up with neither the skill of coding nor literacy, which will set them even farther behind.

Coding should be an add-on to what learners are taught. Today the tech world is movimg very fast to blockchain with programming & coding soon to be obsolete. AngieMotshekga & DBE_SA needs to be supported to intro this now especially in the forever slow NorthWestZA

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