The Future of Education

The 21^st century has been characterized by major technological innovations and reliance on digital platforms to conduct business. The shift to technological reliance has its own benefits and challenges, yet it is unavoidable. This study explores the impact of digitization on South African Secondary School Education, especially in the context of high levels of inequality, exclusion, inadequate funding, inadequate skills, and the absence of a clear integrative national strategy by the Department of Basic Education. The study maps the challenges faced by South African secondary schools regarding the relevancy of the current education curriculum as well as its effectiveness on current practices, which were brought by the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) era. The study contributes to the ongoing discourse on 4IR in the South African education system and brings a nuanced perspective regarding the effects of technological changes in schools as well as how best the secondary school system can take advantage of new technologies.  Data collection for the study is ongoing and follows a mixed methods approach which strikes a balance between the breadth of challenges faced by secondary schools as well as in-depth understanding of the way schools are handling the challenges. Preliminary findings indicate that a revised curriculum that includes coding, robotics, and data analysis that has been introduced in Foundation Phase and Intermediate Phase must be further developed up to secondary school level. Therefore, there is a need to review the current curriculum to align it with the 4IR practices.

Keywords Curriculum Development, 4IR, Department of Education, Industry 4.0, Secondary Schools

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