A free tool has been developed to assist teachers in excelling at teaching coding and robotics at all primary schools across South Africa.
As part of the Tangible Africa Teacher Support Programme, a WhatsApp chatbot was launched in December to provide weekly lessons to teachers from Grade R to 7, preparing them for the future implementation of the new coding and robotics curricula.
Government’s efforts to have a coding and robotics learning framework from as early as grade R in public schools across SA were solidified last year after the Department of Basic Education (DBE) gazetted an amendment to the National Curriculum Statement grades R-12, which is the policy statement for learning and teaching in South African schools.
To address SA’s critical skills gap, government, including the DBE, has made concerted efforts to increase skills development and competencies to prepare learners for the fourth industrial revolution.
The DBE believes a coding and robotics curriculum will develop learners’ ability to solve problems, think critically, work collaboratively and creatively, function in a digital and information-driven world, apply digital and ICT skills, and transfer these skills to solve everyday problems.
Tangible Africa, an engagement project of Nelson Mandela University Computing Sciences Department and the Leva Foundation non-profit organisation, is known for coding games and training used to teach and encourage computational thinking and problem-solving skills across Africa, and many other parts of the world.
Designed for teachers, by teachers
Prof Jean Greyling, Tangible Africa founder and associate professor at Nelson Mandela University Computing Sciences Department, says one of the best parts of the new Tangible Africa Teacher Support Programme is that it is designed for teachers, by teachers.
“The lessons are developed by a team of qualified teachers with extensive experience. The programme is completely free, tailored to the CAPS Coding and Robotics curriculum, suitable for teachers without prior coding experience and offers opportunities to earn valuable Continuing Professional Development points,” says Greyling.
“The easy-to-follow weekly lessons with support is free to teachers from well-resourced and under-resourced schools. Active participation in the programme can also earn teachers tangible resources.”
Kelly Bush from Tangible Africa, who designed the chatbot navigation, says its functionality provides a seamless interaction platform for registered teachers.
In addition to delivering weekly lessons and archives of previous lessons, Tangible Africa says the chatbot enables teachers to provide feedback and ask questions.
Greyling is excited about the positive teacher response to the Tangible Africa Teacher Support Programme thus far, but the team wants as many teachers as possible to try it out.
“We have committed to providing weekly lessons during the first term of 2025. The continuation and expansion of the project will literally depend on how many teachers register and implement the lessons in their classes,” says Jackson Tshabalala, engagement manager for Tangible Africa.
Conraad Basson from Shalom Akademie in Ladismith expressed gratitude for the innovative teaching tools: “I am inspired by the passionate Tangible Africa team to continue raising a generation of problem-solvers.”
Megan Gratz from Stirling Primary School in East London adds: “Using the WhatsApp platform is wonderful since everyone has WhatsApp. I downloaded all the lessons I needed and think this will specifically be helpful for teachers and schools who do not have resources.”
Offline benefit
Alley McPherson, founder of ECD’s United for Greatness, says the lessons are simple to understand and follow: “The chatbot application is amazing. It navigated me through everything I wanted to know with ease. Us, as an organisation, have been waiting for something like this for years, and it is finally here, without all the intimidation that coding and robotics usually comes with.”
Tangible Africa notes that all initial lessons will be offline and interactive, focusing on introducing coding principles and problem-solving skills. It points out that this approach ensures accessibility, especially for schools with limited resources.
Ryan le Roux, CEO of Leva Foundation, explains: “We believe that this way of teaching has been proven to be the most effective within the country’s environment where many schools do not have computers, internet connectivity, or electricity. The chatbot will play a pivotal part in all of this, since we have found that e-mails are not the best way to communicate with our teachers.”
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