South Africa intends to enhance the teaching of robotics and coding in public schools through the establishment of an Artificial Intelligence Institute.
Communications minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said the AI Institute is being established in partnership with institutions of higher learning, in particular the Johannesburg Business School of the University of Johannesburg and the Tshwane University of Technology, which are co-founder institutions together with the department of communications & digital technologies.
“It is essential that we invest significantly to provide our youth with access to modern training, skill sets and formal education. To achieve this, the department of basic education has introduced robotics and coding as school subjects in primary and high schools.
“At present, learners in over a thousand schools are designing and producing robots both for gaming and to complete tasks the learners find tedious for human completion.
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“Next year, learners in these and additional schools that will join this category will compete in a National Robotics Development Challenge,” the minister said on Thursday during the G20 Digital Economy Ministers Meeting in Bali, Indonesia.
Government is also extending e-mail addresses to all learners in public schools and their parents as part of requirements of basic e-learning.