In a first of its kind for the African region, over 5 000 learners from all 9 provinces in South Africa as well as African countries, including Tanzania, Zimbabwe & Zambia, will be #Coding4Mandela on July 18.
Around 45 sites are being prepared for this annual event, spearheaded by Nelson Mandela University's Computing Sciences Department & the Leva Foundation as part of their engagement project known as Tangible Africa.
Grade 6 to 9 learners from diverse backgrounds and different schools across the African region will all be playing the same offline coding game on Mandela Day, in an effort to create more awareness about coding.
“Tournaments have proven a very successful way to create excitement & participation amongst learners and teachers,” said Computing Sciences Professor, Jean Greyling, adding that while various physical & virtual coding tournaments had been hosted since 2018, it has never been done at this magnitude.
While learners do not need any initial background to play the coding game, many teachers & learners have been practicing during the school holidays. The biggest participating region is KwaZulu-Natal, with around 2 600 learners expected to code at 15 different sites across Durban & the KZN Midlands.
KZN #Coding4Mandela organizer & Fairhaven Primary School headmaster, Krish Govender, said he felt challenged to “go big” with this event.
“The empowerment of children & teachers with 4IR is very important & this coding game can be played in a semi-rural and remote area. It doesn’t have to stop at Mandela Day but once the coding bug bites, learners can study and pursue careers in IT. This is a small way of ensuring that our children are moving forward in the 4IR,” said Mr Govender.
Mr Govender also approached sponsors for meals and selected prizes for some of the KZN sites, of which one site is the historic Nelson Mandela Capture Site outside Howick.
The anchor sponsor for #Coding4Mandela is AWS In Communities and various other regional sponsors have also come on board including the Mandela Bay Development Agency, S4 Integration, AWS South Africa, MiX Telematics, Transaction Junction and Cennergi.
For more information follow: Tangible Africa