IF your children are not learning how to program, now is the time to start now. Those were the words of a 27 year-old Information Computer Technology student from Dinokana village in Zeerust. Tsholofelo Botlholo is doing her final in ICT at Falsebay College in Cape Town.

She said it is important for programming to become a subject at many schools across the province.  

“Our children need to be taught mandatory computer programming education in schools. The ability in programming is taking on an unprecedented level of importance. Programming has not become this popular by accident. There is a growing understanding that knowing how to program is essential, especially for younger generations.

“I am teaching kids programming from the age of seven to 22 years. There is a challenge amongst the kids especially in rural areas. Hence we came up with this project called Kids In ICT. We have visited few schools across Ramotshere Moiloa local municipality and offered the course for free,”

Botlholo said they have also created few applications that could make life easier for people. She came up with an application called Bua which is a translator.

“The application helps kids to understand words easily. It also translates words into different 11 official South African languages. It also has an audio, so this will help kids to easily understand about what they talking about. However we are still waiting for licensing and we can be able to put it into use.

“We also created another application called Pulse App. We are already testing it in few hospitals in Cape Town. The Pulse App helps on filing system. We have realised that filing at many hospitals is still in analog and it is always difficult to find a file of a patient. But with this app, it will be easy to track down the file. Patients can be able to collect their medication from pharmacies and other institutions the health department agreements to fight backlog and queues at many hospitals,” she said.

Botlholo added that the educational system is changing to digital and other children should adjust before they were left behind.

“South Africa is now a global player. We need to move together with the world. These skills will enable children to succeed. Programming is a basic literacy in the digital age and kids are growing up in a very different world than that of their parents.

“We need to also understand the logic behind this. When learning to program, kids understand and tinker with the digital world they inhabit. Programming draws back the seeming magic of technology so they can truly understand the logic and science,” Botlholo said.

-TDN

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