Computational literacy is the ability to understand, use and question computational processes: how data is represented, how instructions run, and what a system can and cannot do. It is broader than writing code in one language.
It sits beside, but is not the same as, ICT skills (using school software) or a single coding course. Last reviewed: 31 August 2026.
What it includes
- Breaking a problem into steps (an algorithm, even on paper)
- Seeing patterns and data, not only tools
- Knowing that a computer follows instructions and will also follow bad ones
- Enough scepticism to ask what a system was trained or programmed to do
Computational thinking is the problem-solving habit inside this. Coding is one way to practise it. Unplugged tasks can be another.
Classroom use
In Foundation Phase this can be sequences, patterns and simple robots or paper algorithms. Later it can be data, models and actual programs. Age and curriculum decide the depth. See computational thinking in African schools.
What it is not
- Not “every child must be a programmer.”
- Not AI literacy as a synonym. AI systems are computational, but this page is the older, wider skill.
Sources
- Wing, J. Computational thinking as a general problem-solving approach, not only coding.