Maths and physics initiatives critical to unlocking potential of pupils

AS THE executive dean of the Faculty of Science at Nelson Mandela University in the Eastern Cape, I want to congratulate the top maths and physical science matriculants in South Africa, both from Limpopo.

Takalani Bambela from Tshivhase Secondary School in the rural Vhembe district is the number one national achiever, followed by Khodani Wonderful Nemalamamgwa from Thengwe High School in Mutale.

Congratulations also to Limpopo’s Anza Tshipetane from Mbilwi Secondary School in the Vhembe district, one of the overall top matriculants in the country. Vhembe District is the top performing district in Limpopo in terms of quality passes and top achievers.

According to the matric results released by the Department of Basic Education, Limpopo has the highest number of top national achievers (five), featured eight times across various categories, followed by the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and the Western Cape with three top achievers each.

Mpumalanga, the Northern Cape, North West and the Free State have one top achiever each.

Most of Limpopo’s top achievers are from the Vhembe district, a poor rural area that routinely demonstrates its resilience despite its circumstances and the problems it experiences.

An example is the district’s Vuwani, Vhuronga 1 circuit, where 30 schools were torched in 2016. Yet, in the 2016 matric results, Vhuronga 1 circuit emerged as the top-performing circuit in Limpopo and Vhembe as the top-performing district.

What repeatedly stands out in the matric results each year is the performance of three high schools in the Vhembe district – Mbilwi Secondary, Tshivhase Secondary and Thengwe Secondary. Their principals and teachers need to be recognised for the work they are doing.

We also need to recognise the communities in Vhembe, as they play a central role in the success of the learners, as do the Department of Education administrators in the district.

The schools in Vhembe are getting it right and we need to emulate what they are doing, throughout South Africa.

In my role as a physics researcher, maths and science teacher, immediate past president and international liaison councillor of the South African Institute of Physics, and executive dean of science, I am concerned about the state of maths and science education in South Africa.

It cannot continue along its current trajectory of poor performance. What schools like these in Limpopo demonstrate is that our learners are every bit up to outstanding achievements when given the right kind of guidance.

I know the schools well; I am from rural Limpopo and have worked with them. In a one-week science festival in Vhembe District, my faculty visited all three schools last year. Nelson Mandela opened a block of classes at Tshivhase Secondary. The schools are achieving up to 100% pass rates in maths and science – quality passes with distinctions, which is what we want in all provinces.

This is one of the key reasons I took up my position at Nelson Mandela, driven by my vision for science in the country. I want to help change the state of maths and science education in a province like the Eastern Cape. As academics, we cannot sit back and watch our learners fail at school, fail to gain entrance to university and fail at university.

What is encouraging about the 2017 matric results is that the Eastern Cape is starting to produce top achievers, following Limpopo.

The three most under-resourced provinces, including KwaZulu-Natal, produced top quality learners, and we need to build on this. We have the plan.

Before joining Nelson Mandela University, I was the founder and director of the University of Johannesburg Soweto Science Centre, where I was based from 2010 to 2016. My team and I demonstrated that significant successes in maths and science are possible.

From 2011 we offered focused maths and science mentoring and inspiration to about 1 000 Grade 8 to 12 maths and science learners from Soweto and the surrounding areas.

Many matriculated with distinctions in maths and science, contributing to the quality of passes in Soweto and boosting Gauteng’s performance by township schools and the number of university entrants.

The first cohort graduated from universities throughout South Africa in 2015. They are part of our research pipeline, joining the global community in addressing leading scientific questions, including at our own Square Kilometre Array.

At the same time, the UJ Soweto Science Centre and the SAIP also mentored and inspired learners and teachers in Limpopo, notably from the Vhembe district. Together with colleagues fromthe University of Venda and University of Limpopo, we engaged with their principals and teachers over several years.

We collaborated on outreach projects and sciences camps at schools in Limpopo, in Soweto and North West, attracting girl and boy learners into physics and stimulating an interest in the subject by showing them that studying physics can be fun. Physics is the basic science underpinning all sciences, engineering and technology.

While they are in school, learners are introduced to possible careers in physics, science, engineering and technology and ways to obtain funding to further their studies, including introducing them to companies that offer sponsorships, bursaries and internships.

They have also been exposed to science expos, science exhibitions and the Science Olympiad. Many of the learners have gone on to be top achievers. In 2015, a student from Mbilwi Secondary, Hamandishe Mathivha, won a silver medal in SAIP’s Physics Olympiad and became the top maths and physical science matriculant in South Africa.

Last year, a student from Mbilwi Secondary, Anza Tshipetane, won the Science Olympiad and went to London to represent South Africa. As mentioned earlier, she is now one of the top overall 2017 matriculants.

Now that I am at Nelson Mandela University, our faculty’s flagship Science Education, Communication, and Outreach Programme is focusing on science education from Grade R learners to undergraduate university students, with outreach programmes for learners, teachers and communities across the Eastern Cape.

This year, as part of the university’s Mandela centenary celebrations, we will be visiting and hosting maths and science exhibitions, expos and the Science Olympiad throughout the province. We will be cultivating the key ethos of “it takes a village to raise a child.”

‘As academics, we cannot sit back and watch our learners fail at school’