A hands-on look at a career in robotics

WITH the world going digital, pupils at Matseke Primary School in Atteridgeville, Pretoria, got a taste of robotics, coding and other advanced subject matter to prepare them for the future.

The event, which took place on Friday and was a brainchild of the Dr Gwen Ramokgopa Foundation, was attended by stakeholders including the National Youth Development Agency, Department of Education and Unilever.

Pupils were also given the opportunity to operate and fly drones.

ANC treasurer-general Dr Gwen Ramokgopa spoke of how pupils, if properly nurtured, had the ability to change the world. She said the Fourth Industrial Revolution had arrived and education had to adapt to equip children with the skills needed to survive.

She said the foundation took an initiative last year to create a programme named Adopt-a-Class to improve the school’s long-neglected infrastructure.

So far, the programme has helped renovate many classrooms as everyone got the opportunity to pick a classroom and decorate it in order to give pupils “a place to dream”.

“We need to make our education system future-ready and future-proof, and this is why we need to invest in robotics, in artificial intelligence, in maths because maths gives you the tools to resolve the problems in a systematic manner,” said Ramogkopa.