New SA coding curriculum risks "disastrous failure"

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Jamie McKane

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New SA coding curriculum risks "disastrous failure"

Learning how to code is a popular hobby among tech-minded people who want to learn valuable new skills that can help them in the job market.

However, South African school learners are only provided with the opportunity to learn coding from Grade 10 onwards, through the Information Technology subject choice.
 
Jamie McKane said:
New SA coding curriculum risks "disastrous failure"

Learning how to code is a popular hobby among tech-minded people who want to learn valuable new skills that can help them in the job market.

However, South African school learners are only provided with the opportunity to learn coding from Grade 10 onwards, through the Information Technology subject choice.
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Make sense. Was like that in 2006 when I selected I.T. as my subject. Only 30 people were allowed as well. 2008 we ended Matric with 15 of us left. You also had to be excellent at maths to get into the class.

But making it compulsory is K@K. Not everyone can handle it.
 
Hellhound105 said:
Make sense. Was like that in 2006 when I selected I.T. as my subject. Only 30 people were allowed as well. 2008 we ended Matric with 15 of us left. You also had to be excellent at maths to get into the class.

But making it compulsory is K@K. Not everyone can handle it.
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A fact many don't understand. It should certainly be introduced as encouragement early on.
 
Also:

"Most importantly, the teaching and learning of coding requires teachers who are able to teach it. "

Good luck with this one. With pupils that aggravate teachers everyday good luck finding people who can actually teach this subject.

*Hats off to my teacher I had - He knew his stuff
 
I'm fascinated at how the government has 'decreed' this.

While I agree it's great to try and push tech skills at a younger age, I just wonder how this programme is going to actually be implemented.

There are so many schools that don't have adequate classrooms/bathrooms/access to electricity/substandard teachers that I cannot even imagine how they will be rolling out devices to be used for coding.

Lets not forget that there are major issues in getting textbooks out each year...
 
Well they'll have to attempt to learn coding on a abacus as any pc or tablet will just be stolen.
 
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We started in Standard 6 (Grade 8). By Grade 10 my buddies and I had a agreement with the Teacher. We hand in our assignments on time and stop correcting him - and we get to sit in the back of the class and do other stuff.
 
Like everything in the S.A. education system, it is bound to fail...by the way, have those text books arrived in Limpopo yet?
 
Compton_effect said:
We started in Standard 6 (Grade 8). By Grade 10 my buddies and I had a agreement with the Teacher. We hand in our assignments on time and stop correcting him - and we get to sit in the back of the class and do other stuff.
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^^^ This - started in std 7 as my compulsory 6th subject. my teacher threw out the syllabus and got us doing 1st year CS with textbooks from Tuks, said he couldn't stand how rubbish the syllabus was.

That was in '91

and I see he was recognised for that recently... https://www.iitpsa.org.za/eastern-cape-it-experts-honoured-by-it-professionals-organisation/ (Keith Gibson) - probably the best teacher I had.
D
 
Does this mean that Mathematics and Physical Science will become compulsory subjects? You need Mathematics for Computer Science and as for Robotics you will need Mathematics, Physics and probably Computer Science.

What does this mean for our esteemed pass mark of 30%, all of these subjects will have to be higher grade and require a minimum of a 50% pass mark how are our illogical, I mean revolutionary, learners going to apply there minds to grasping the logical concepts of programming and robotics.

Off topic though how is this going to be decolonized, both of these are Western Concepts after all?
 
Ja well at least you will probably be required to only know 30% of the languages classes and libraries, as well as only have a 30% clue about what happens when you push your newly vomitted code to production.

Useless twats are useless, this will fail like everything else related to our "education system"
 
Sarg3_ZN said:
Does this mean that Mathematics and Physical Science will become compulsory subjects? You need Mathematics for Computer Science and as for Robotics you will need Mathematics, Physics and probably Computer Science.

What does this mean for our esteemed pass mark of 30%, all of these subjects will have to be higher grade and require a minimum of a 50% pass mark how are our illogical, I mean revolutionary, learners going to apply there minds to grasping the logical concepts of programming and robotics.

Off topic though how is this going to be decolonized, both of these are Western Concepts after all?
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Exactly this .. on the one hand the government wants to support Maths Lit and Science and Maths must fall .. but then coding is compulsory ?? Thats like journalism without a Language ?? I just cant see it .. just prepping more kids for failure IMHO
 
Sarg3_ZN said:
Does this mean that Mathematics and Physical Science will become compulsory subjects? You need Mathematics for Computer Science and as for Robotics you will need Mathematics, Physics and probably Computer Science.

What does this mean for our esteemed pass mark of 30%, all of these subjects will have to be higher grade and require a minimum of a 50% pass mark how are our illogical, I mean revolutionary, learners going to apply there minds to grasping the logical concepts of programming and robotics.

Off topic though how is this going to be decolonized, both of these are Western Concepts after all?
Click to expand...

I don't think they have thought that far ahead yet...
 
There are so many other more basic priorities than this that is laughable that anyone would seriously consider making coding compulsory. Students still have to crap in holes at hundreds of schools, let alone receive any halfway competent basic education in foundation subjects from teachers who barely attend classes, many of whom don't even have a sufficient grasp of the subjects they are teaching. Who in their right minds would decree compulsory coding in that environment?
 
Step 1: drag South Africa up from second-to-last in the world in maths and science, maybe try for third-to-last?
Step 2: there isn't money for computers, so maybe teach computer science instead?
Step 3: now that you're down with boolean algebra and finite state machines, now you can start to code
Step 4: (bonus round) try not to be second-to-last in the world with code, like with maths and science
Step 5: well that didn't work, so just watch old ArsDigita / Shai Simonson videos for free
 
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