SA-developed app lays foundation for coding in Ireland

Tangible Africa has done it again and expanded its reach more than 13,000km north with the luck of the Irish.

The offline coding game Rangers, developed in Gqeberha, will be in every primary school across the Republic of Ireland as a result of a recently launched landmark international educational research project.

The programme, Enabling Digital Technology in Primary School (EDTips), will provide thousands of Irish primary schools with free digital technology teaching resources and equipment to prepare for the introduction of the Digital Technology Irish Primary Curriculum Framework during the 2025/2026 academic year.

Pupils recently received a free offline digital technology kit equipped with Rangers and a BBC micro:bit — a pocket-sized computer for coding.

Tangible Africa founder Jean Greyling, department head and associate professor in the Nelson Mandela University computing sciences department, said Rangers would introduce pupils to intermediate computational thinking skills without the use of computers.

“Our unplugged coding games are mentioned in the same breath as Micro:bit, and seen as making a difference in a country such as Ireland,” Greyling said.

“That confirms our philosophy that coding without computers has a pivotal role to play — not only in introducing coding in SA and African schools, but schools across the world.”

Ryan le Roux, the chief executive of Leva Foundation — Tangible Africa’s implementing partner — said the Tangible Africa story had become an amazing journey of an SA innovation developed to close the digital divide on the continent and now being used in first-world education systems.

Irish education minister Norma Foley said EDTips would equip primary school teachers to deliver digital technology education and had the transformative ability to spark the imaginations of young minds.

EDTips principal investigator Dr Keith Nolan said the tools would improve teacher confidence as Ireland moved towards the new digital technology curriculum framework.

“If I had access to this, even in second level [high school] at the time, my skillset would have been a lot greater going into university,” he said.

“Having this in primary school now, it’s kind of changed the face of computer science in Ireland.”

The project, led by Computer Science Inclusive at Technological University Dublin, is funded by the Science Foundation Ireland Discover Programme and supported by the university’s industry partners, AWS In Communities and Workday.

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