Local learners move on to national coding tournament
One of the participating schools in the coding tournament was Clarence Primary School, who emerged victorious.
On Monday, July 18, a Mandela Day Coding Tournament was held at Orient Islamic School, where 10 Durban schools from the Durban Central District came together to participate and compete in coding competitions and some Durban University of Technology’s robots came out to play.
The competitions were played with the RANGERS coding app which was developed by a postgraduate student at Nelson Mandela University, Byron Batteson. The purpose of the app is to introduce coding concepts to learners without the use of computers. The desperate shortage of software developers, combined with the challenge of thousands of schools that do not have computer laboratories, makes this project very relevant in South Africa.
One of the participating schools in the coding tournament was Clarence Primary School, who emerged victorious. Fifteen learners represented the school, competing against 150 learners from 9 neighbouring schools from the Durban Central Districts: Greyville Primary School, Addington Primary School, St Augustine’s Primary School, St Anthony Primary School, Hartley Primary School, Orient Islamic School, Anjuman Islam Primary School, Al Azhar Primary School, and Al Falaah College.
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Read some comments from learners on the winning team:
Eureka Mashukano: “I am so grateful for the opportunity to be the first champion of a great competition. It was indeed an amazing feeling to bring this trophy home.”
Salman Gani: “The key to winning was teamwork.”
Tiana Phillips: “I was so happy to have been chosen to do the first coding for the Mandela tournament.”
Himnish Parag: “I am very proud to have won my first coding trophy.”
Buntu Mlita: “It was an amazing experience, and I have learned new and beneficial skills.”
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Teacher’s comments
Mrs. Sukdeo (departmental head): “We applaud our learners for placing our school on the map. Our school has a wealth of talent and is most certainly moving forward in the world of coding.”
The winning team from Clarence Primary School will proceed to the National Tournament that will be organised by the Nelson Mandela University and Leva Foundation. During the event, learners were wowed by the robotics demonstration performed by the DUT technicians and their students. It was an eventful and inspiring day for both educators and learners as they left with a very enriching coding and robotics experience at the Orient Islamic School.
