goIT CHALLENGES SCHOOLS TO SOLVE WORLD PROBLEMS

South African learners, especially those attending under-resourced schools have precious little opportunity to engage with 21st Century tech learning.  While their counterparts in many other countries are engaged with coding and robotics from primary school years, South Africa is still currently battling with launching a curriculum.  In essence, this lack means that a generation of our children haven’t had the chance to develop the skills most needed by our changing 4IR world.

However, learners from twelve schools in the Western and Eastern Cape provinces entered the country’s first goIT Challenge to come up with app ideas that could change the world for the better.  A technology awareness programme of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the goIT Challenge has been designed to inspire the workforce of the future.  Over more than a decade, the TCS goIT challenge has been rolled out in North and South America, Asia, Australia, the UK and Europe.  Partnering with STEM education specialist, Sakhikamva Foundation, TCS brought the innovative 21st Century learning programme to South Africa.

393 learners, from nine high schools and three primary schools engaged in the programme which involved teams coming up with ideas for apps that can help solve real-life problems.  Set in the context of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the learners, who are from disadvantaged communities, grappled with the question of how science and technology could help to solve challenges that have real impacts on their lives.

The TCS goIT Challenge, ran from October into November, culminating in a virtual judging event which took place last week.  The winning high school team was made up of Grade 9 – 11 learners from Goodwood College in Cape Town. The team of four took top honours with their app called ‘Tech-U-cation’, under the SDG theme of Quality Education. Their app provides free textbooks, mathematics tutorials and career advice for those not sure which paths they’d like to pursue after school. 

A team of four Grade 7 learners, from De Wavaren Primary in Ruyterwacht, won first place in the Primary School category, with their app called ‘Baunk It’. As part of the SDG theme of No Poverty, they created an app to help provide shelter to those in need, either who are about to be evicted from their homes or to assist the homeless. Anyone in need of a place to stay, can register on the app and Baunk It will provide shelter options, relevant to the user’s GPS location.

Nikhil Dabhole, HR Head of TCS South Africa says, “As an IT service provider, the goIT Challenge is close to our hearts.  It’s an opportunity for these schools, which traditionally have had few resources to build 4IR skills, to get their learners, educators, parents and their community at large involved in an exciting, relatable and relevant tech education programme.  The goIT Challenge will strengthen their communities today, by empowering their own digital innovators of tomorrow.”

Past goIT Challenges have resulted in the development of remarkable apps by students who see the challenges in their communities and grapple with how situations can be improved.  Examples include a helping hands location app that connects vulnerable people such as seniors to young people who can help them with shopping and chores; and a sustainable living app that enables a community to buy and sell more responsibly, rating the carbon footprints, ethical production values and resource use of a wide range of products.

This was an opportunity for South African learners to unleash their creativity and ingenuity in the country’s first TCS goIT Challenge. Twelve teams of learners got to present their app ideas to a team of judges, who choose the top three in each category.The challenge included four in-depth training sessions and ongoing mentoring, which led up to a shark-tank-style entrepreneurial pitch event which was held via ZOOM.  As they progressed through the programme, learners developed prototypes of their ideas on paper and used the MIT App Inventor in a hands-on experience of how science, technology, engineering and mathematics intersect with our daily lives.  

Founder of Sakhikamva Foundation, Fatima Jakoet says, “Children and young people are all natural-born scientists, full of curiosity and problem-solving abilities.  All they need is the chance; knowledge and resources to come up with world-changing solutions.  We are delighted that TCS has brought the goIT Challenge to South Africa, and we are thrilled to partner with them to launch the first programme in the schools where we work with fantastic educators and principals dedicated to 4IR learning.  If we want our South African communities to achieve the milestones of sustainable living, we must engage our school children now in the development goals, and let them be change agents while they are building their 21st Century skills.”

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Discover the Future of Kids’ Safety and Connectivity — Meet the Freedom 2

It’s a Saturday morning at a bustling shopping mall in Johannesburg. Little Thando, full of curiosity, wanders off while his mom browses the toy aisle. In seconds, panic sets in — that heart-stopping moment every parent dreads. But unlike most stories, this one ends differently. Thando’s mom opens the Freedom 2 app, taps “Locate”, and within moments, she sees his exact position — just outside a nearby store. Relief floods over her as she spots him, still holding his ice cream, completely unaware of the worry he caused.

In a country like South Africa, where safety is always top of mind, the Freedom 2 isn’t just a gadget — it’s peace of mind on your child’s wrist. With increasing concerns about public safety, this smartwatch gives parents a practical way to stay connected and prevent tragedy before it happens.

✅ Why the Freedom 2 is a Must-Have

If you’re looking to give your child both freedom and safety, the Freedom 2 by Fabulously Fit is a standout. Designed with parents and kids in mind, this smart watch blends advanced technology with kid-friendly features — providing peace of mind for you and fun for them.

1. Stay Connected Anytime, Anywhere

With full 4G support, the Freedom 2 enables 2-way voice calls, video calls, text messaging, and even WhatsApp — letting your child reach you instantly, and you keep tabs on them with ease. 

2. Precision GPS Tracking for Added Safety

This smartwatch uses GPS + AGPS + LBS + WiFi to track your child’s position with 5–15 metre accuracy. Set up geo-fences — get alerts when your child enters or leaves a safe zone. Review their route playback. Activate an SOS alert if they need help. All this gives you real-time confidence. 

3. Dual Cameras, Smart Tools & Kid-Friendly Features

Your child can snap photos or make video calls with a dual-camera setup. The watch also includes smart tools: WhatsApp, MP4 player, voice recorder, class-schedule tracker, math games — blending safety with learning and fun. 

4. Durable Performance & Long Battery Life

Built on Android 4.4 with 2 GB RAM + 4 GB ROM, a Nano-SIM slot for connectivity, and a robust 1 000 mAh polymer battery. It also features a 1.69″ IPS colour touchscreen (240×280 pixels) and modes for vibration, voice or silent notification — ideal for in-class use without distraction. 

5. Designed with Kids in Mind

A “No Disturb” mode ensures the watch won’t interrupt learning time. A pedometer and sleep monitor support wellness tracking. Remote monitor and remote shutdown features let you discreetly check that everything’s okay. 

🎯 Why It Matters for Your Family

Modern parenting comes with a tough dilemma — you want your child to stay connected and safe, but you don’t want to hand them a smartphone too soon. Too much screen time, access to social media, and unrestricted internet exposure can harm focus, sleep, and emotional wellbeing.

The Freedom 2 offers the perfect balance. It gives parents the ability to call, message, and locate their child instantly — without placing a smartphone in their hands. Your child gets independence and responsibility; you get reassurance and control. It’s connection with boundaries — the healthy middle ground every family needs.

🛍 Get Yours Now

Available in Blue, Pink, and Black, the Freedom 2 is ready to become your child’s everyday companion.

Shop now at Be a Boffin 

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START YOUR CHILD ON THE CODING PATH, EVEN IF THEIR SCHOOL ISN’T THERE YET – EXPERT

There is a lot of talk in South Africa about the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and the need for education in the country to start preparing learners for the future world of work from a young age. Unfortunately in South Africa, resources are often lacking and many teachers are not yet equipped to teach coding. However this shouldn’t stop parents from encouraging their children to start with the basics of coding from a young age, an expert says.

“As we teach our children to read and speak our mother tongue language so we should start with coding at an early age,” says John Luis, Head of Academics at ADvTECH Schools, a division of South Africa’s largest private education provider.

“Parents who are not tech savvy may find this daunting, so the easiest way to start the children off will be to download some apps to their mobile devices which will use games to kick off the coding thought processes. Learning to code is like learning how to speak, read and write in a different language. Children are very good at learning a variety of languages from a young age so teaching them coding will be no different,” he says.

Luis says that the importance of preparing children for a technologically-enabled future cannot be overstated.

“Technology changes rapidly and our children must be able to adapt, be agile minded and most importantly prepared for the future working world. The 4IR should not be dismissed as a buzzword – it is real, and it is here where our lives will become intertwined with technology, the edges between reality and virtual worlds will blur and we need to ensure our children will be effective workers in this rapidly changing environment. 

“This means that in the future world of work, coding will be a fundamental digital skill which our children will need to be literate in much the same way we prepare our children with language, numeracy and physical skills. Coding is no longer a skill reserved for scientists, engineers and IT geeks.”

Luis explains that the fourth industrial revolution is characterised by a rapidly developing technological environment in which disruptive technologies, the Internet of Things, virtual and augmented reality, robotics and artificial intelligence are changing the way we exercise, play, study, live and work.

“Behind this technology, functionality is achieved using code. It is how we communicate with computers, build websites, mobile apps, computer games and instruct robots. The Internet of Things (IoT) is already becoming more integrated into our homes. Smart TVs and watches, automated home management and security are only some of the examples where IoT is already used.”

Like mathematics, becoming competent in the language of coding has many advantages beyond the obvious, he says.

“Coding also helps with maths skills, it fosters creativity, improves problem solving abilities and can improve language and writing skills,” he says.

Internationally coding has long been recognised as a future life skill and is offered as part of the normal primary school curriculum.  In South Africa, high schools have had the subject from Grade 10 to 12 as a subject choice (Information Technology) for many years, but it was mostly offered to select learners based on their mathematics marks. Still, only a small percentage of schools have been able to offer the subject as it requires dedicated infrastructure and highly competent teachers.

The situation looks better at progressive private schools, where coding has been introduced as part of the mainstream offering, from as early as pre-prep, where children are introduced via simple techniques and readily available software.

“While many schools are still in the starting blocks, and most haven’t even arrived for the race yet, parents must realise that academic excellence and individual competitiveness in future will require a solid grasp of the language of technology. So the question of a school’s offering in this regard should be one they take very seriously before enrolling their child.

“And where they do not yet have the option of enrolling their child in a school that incorporates coding as part of the mainstream offering – which is the reality for the majority of the country – they should ensure that their child isn’t left behind, by assisting them independently,” says Luis.

One of the options available to these parents, is to search for holiday camps in their area. And where those are not offered, parents can start by helping their child download some of the various free mobile applications and software (listed below) which help young children to start coding, he says.

* Scratch (https://scratch.mit.edu/educators) is a very effective free coding language that is designed specifically for ages 8 to 16 but can be used by people of all ages.

* Alice (https://www.alice.org/) is a block-based programming environment that makes it easy to create animations, build interactive narratives, or program simple games in 3D.

*Microsoft Minecraft Education an educational version of Minecraft, the game popular with children all over the world. (https://education.minecraft.net/) .

* Roblox (https://developer.roblox.com/resources/education/Resources) caters for children from the ages of 8 to 14.

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Brands on-board to help SA families build bursaries for school

As any parent knows, when it comes to affording quality education for our children, we need all the help we can get.  Escalating school fees, continual costs of uniforms and many extras make educating our children a significant, long-term family expense.   Quality education features high on the UN’s list of 17 sustainable development goals, and South Africa is a signatory to the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which recognises the vital role that education plays in improving lives.

There’s probably no more universally common drive than the one parents have to set their child on the path to a better world.  We know that education is a key to unlock opportunity and enable our children to grow into productive, fulfilled citizens.  But can we afford it?  According to Stats SA one in five qualified learners are currently unable to attend school or a tertiary institution due to lack of funds; and two thirds of pupils do not pay school fees, putting an additional strain on public funding.

Each child spends around 200 days a year at school.  Based on former Model C school fees, a South African school day typically costs R122.50, and a 200-day school year is R24 500.00 for one child.  As Millennials rise to become the majority parenting generation, how will these digital natives who embrace disruption and innovation save most effectively for their children’s education?

An option that is on the rise is the bursary-building platform School-Days. By interacting with brands and mobilising family and friend support, parents are actively saving towards the quality education of their children.  A School-Days bursary can be built for school, college and university.  Dis-Chem, recognizing the need for education funding in South Africa, were the first corporate entity to put their weight behind School-Days.  Lynne Blignaut, Group Customer Services Head at Dis-Chem expressed that purpose in telling “Our customers, and their families have education as the heartbeat of their homes, and partnering with School-Days is our way of supporting that.”

School-Days founder, Chris Nel says, “We’re delighted at the response and salute our partners like Dis-Chem, who have so far contributed R22.8 million to family bursaries, and together we have grown the number of paid for school days to 190 265 that can now be paid for.”

A major boost to the platform is the recent on-boarding of the Exact brand of TFG (The Foschini Group) which has 309 stores across the country.  Nikki Crous, Head of Marketing at Exact, says, “It’s a perfect fit for Exact to become part of the School-Days bursary platform.  As a brand, with family at the heart of everything we do, we know how much quality education means to our customers and South Africans want their consumer spend to be able to contribute to something meaningful and tangible in their lives. Exact cares and is committed to helping children across South Africa gain access to quality education, and the School-Days platform is the perfect means to empower families to make it happen.”

Other new School-Days partners include Day1 Health, an authorised financial services provider offering affordable private health care packages.  They will make a monthly contribution to their members’ bursaries based on a percentage of the plans ranging from R265 to R760.  Opportunities to build the family bursary will be further increased as premier florist and gifting service, NetFlorist and online computer store FirstShop also become School-Days partners in the upcoming months

The good news is that you as the parent do not have to go it alone.  The flexible platform enables your friends and family members to connect and contribute to your bursary.  This can be just through swiping their linked cards at the till points or by actively boosting the bursary with gift contributions that can be used towards both school and tertiary education.

“There’s a huge advantage for the modern family in having school days that are paid for” says Nel, “Educating our children well is one of the greatest concerns for parents, and society.  It’s a great opportunity to bring together brands that care and family and friends to give today’s parents more prospects to fund quality education of our future generations.”

School-Days is free to join, and it’s easy to build a bursary. Click here to join School-Days and start building a bursary for your family’s education: https://www.schooldays.co.za/#join-today. 

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