Empower teachers to be globally competitive, or fail at 4IR – expert

If South Africa wants to be a global leader and take advantage of the opportunities presented by the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), it needs to empower teachers to deliver high-quality education that is globally competitive, according to an education and technology expert.

Dr Corrin Varady, who is a global thought leader on education and chief executive of DEA Digital Education, said teachers played a crucial role in the development of schoolchildren and, subsequently, the country as a whole.

“From my point of view, it’s about delivering a globally competitive education system that will enable South Africans to compete internationally, and that starts with empowering teachers.

“Our work has shown that teachers who are properly engaged and supported tend to respond positively, and that will benefit the pupils,” said Varady.

He said with the rising numbers of unemployed youth, it was important for the country to properly define and understand what the 4IR was all about, so that they know what kind of skills will be required as there would be a scarcity of jobs.

The education technology entrepreneur said South Africa was dangerously ill-prepared for the 4IR and direct evidence of this was the fact that many university graduates were struggling to find suitable jobs because their degrees were not setting them up for success in the digital age.

“In South Africa, we have not really defined the Fourth Industrial Revolution correctly as a country. Therefore, we are unable to determine what skills are needed in order to take advantage of the opportunities presented by this digital change,” he said.

Varady said teachers have to be empowered and trained to use the latest teaching software so that they are proficient in educating pupils, who will be the employees in the near future.

“We do not need to change our education system or curriculum, but we can tweak it to include subjects like coding and robotics.

“The fundamental thing is to define it and empower teachers to deliver high quality education,” he said.

In line with Varady’s sentiments, local company Via Afrika, which produces digital and printed educational content, has launched an online training course to demystify the 4IR.

The course is aimed at providing participants with accurate information about the 4IR, while clarifying what it means to live and work in this new era of technical innovation.

Via Afrika group knowledge manager Michael Goodman-Mareme said the 4IR course was coming at a crucial time and would assist the education system in creating the required knowledge and skills for teachers to prepare pupils to be active citizens of this 4IR world.

“The Via Afrika 4IR course should be seen as an essential addition to all schools, professional development lists and tertiary institutions and teacher training curricula,” said Goodman-Mareme.

– gcinan@citizen.co.za

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