Life Orientation irrelevant for education in digital age

AS AN EDUCATOR and academic in the tertiary sector, I am tasked with teaching students advanced document processing, spreadsheets, and programming and simulation software for broadly and complexly defined problems in the (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) STEM domain.

- MATTHEW SCHOUW

REPLACING Life Orientation with Computer Applications Technology will better prepare learners for university, employment, and life in the modern economy.

(Independent Newspapers Archive)

In this domain, students sometimes must integrate hardware and software systems and articulate this data with document processing, spreadsheets and presentations, amongst many other tasks skills that today's students require across disciplines. These competencies are no longer confined to engineering or technology fields.

Most students entering university still have challenges with navigating the operating system of a computer, let alone the basic Microsoft Office and Google suite packages. This computer illiteracy becomes a major barrier in higher education, as most institutions use learning management software to facilitate course contents and information. Students who had access to computers, have significant academic advantages compared to those with have limited access.

I argue that Life Orientation should be replaced with Computer Applications Technology (CAT) to better prepare learners for university, employment, and life in the modern economy.