In 2021, the Department of Basic Education piloted its coding and robotics curriculum across 1 000 South African schools, kick-starting an initiative to drive digital competency within the education system. UNICEF and the Department of Education established the TechnoGirl mentorship programme in 2005 in order to identify high-school girls between 15 and 18 from disadvantaged communities who were doing well academically.
The girls were offered mentorship in STEM subjects. More than 5 000 young women have received university or college scholarships as a result and TechnoGirl now operates in all nine provinces of South Africa. Ericsson has joined with the TechnoGirl programme to drive the Connect to Learn (CTL) project. Connect to Learn technology implements ICT in schools where resources are frequently poor. It helps to enhance access to teaching and learning resources in a safe, cost-effective, user-friendly way. Teacher training kits are available.
Code for Change is an NPO that focuses on bringing coding into secondary schools. From 2018, it has partnered with Microsoft to bring its CodeJIKA initiative to 60 schools across five provinces in South Africa. Microsoft has partnered with AI in Africa to realise the DigiGirlz initiative, which equips female learners with critical skills in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) fields.
The bootcamps target girls from previously disadvantaged communities, aged 15 to 18. In 2019, the State IT Agency (SITA) selected five Free State schools to pilot its software engineering academy in Bloemfontein. The SITA School of Software Engineering aims to equip learners with software development, coding and other ICT skills
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