{"id":458952,"date":"2021-01-05T10:21:09","date_gmt":"2021-01-05T08:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=458952"},"modified":"2021-01-05T10:21:09","modified_gmt":"2021-01-05T08:21:09","slug":"why-south-africa-is-getting-new-school-subjects-instead-of-updating-the-ones-it-has","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/technology\/458952\/why-south-africa-is-getting-new-school-subjects-instead-of-updating-the-ones-it-has\/","title":{"rendered":"Why South Africa is getting new school subjects &#8211; instead of updating the ones it has"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Basic Education minister Angie Motshekga has provided more information on the introduction of coding and robotics as subjects at South African schools &#8211; and why these topics were not incorporated in existing school subjects.<\/p>\n<p>Responding in a recent written parliamentary Q&amp;A, Motshekga said that the coding and robotics curriculum for Grades R-9 has been developed as a stand-alone subject for the following reasons:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There is not enough space in the Natural Science and Technology curriculums to include enough of the new content without removing too much content in the existing curriculum;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Adding coding and robotics in the existing subjects might require reducing the content of the other subjects and might affect the articulation, flow and progression of the subject;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The notional hours are linked to the Annual Teaching Plan (ATP), and the new content will interrupt the flow of the content;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Teachers may fall back to what they are comfortable with, meaning that the new content in the curriculum may never reach the learners effectively if the government adds it;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Infusing the new subjects into Life Skills, Natural Science and Technology would involve updating three different curriculums as opposed to creating one new one;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The Coding and Robotics curriculum is more skills-focused than theory focused, meaning there is still a large need for the theory knowledge contained in Natural Science and Technology;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The fourth-industrial revolution needs more skills taught to learners and not just a change in focus of subjects that are already offered &#8211; more time is needed to prepare learners.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Motshekga said that the draft Coding and Robotics curriculum for Grades R-9 has been presented and approved at Heads of Education Committee (HEDCOM) and Council of Education Ministers (CEM) and has been submitted to the regulator Umalusi for evaluation and quality assurance.<\/p>\n<p>She said that the draft Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) will be piloted in 2021-2024 for Grades R-3 in 200 schools, and for Grade 7-9 at 1,000 schools. Full implementation across all grades will commence in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>The minister added that the\u00a0Department of Basic Education has secured initial funding for the Grades R-3 for an amount of R77 million.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A business plan was submitted to the National Treasury requesting funding for the strengthening of Technology subject in Grades 4-9 through the integration of Coding and Robotics. The amount approved by National Treasury for the request was R60 million.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In November, Motshekga published a curriculum policy <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.education.gov.za\/Portals\/0\/Documents\/Legislation\/Call%20for%20Comments\/3%20stream%20subjects\/Call%20for%20written%20submissions-on%20draft%20CAPS%20for%20thirteen%20New%20Garde%208%20and%20%20subjects.pdf?ver=2020-11-30-140644-303\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">document<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>for public comment which will introduce a number of additional subjects at the country\u2019s schools.<\/p>\n<p>Many of these subjects are aimed at directly helping school-leaving pupils who will not necessarily complete Grade 12 or enter university. The proposed subjects cover a wide range of fields including agriculture, art and various technology subjects, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Agricultural Studies;<\/li>\n<li>Ancillary Health Care;<\/li>\n<li>Art and Design;<\/li>\n<li>Civil Technology;<\/li>\n<li>Consumer Studies;<\/li>\n<li>Digital Technology;<\/li>\n<li>Electrical Technology;<\/li>\n<li>Hospitality Studies;<\/li>\n<li>Wholesale and Retail.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/449305\/homeschooling-vs-online-schooling-in-south-africa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Homeschooling vs online schooling in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Basic Education minister Angie Motshekga has provided further clarity on the introduction of coding and robotics as subjects at South African schools.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":292484,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9878],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-458952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458952"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":458976,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458952\/revisions\/458976"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}