Our unscientific pupils

As Grahamstown hosts Scifest 2017, it is ironic and sad to note that one of the most failed subjects at Grade 12 (matric) level in the Grahamstown Education District is Life Sciences.

That is to say, as young people from all around the province and the country descend on the city to develop and enhance their understanding and awareness of science, we should be mindful of the fact that many young people in our midst, many young members of our own community, do not have enough knowledge of the subject to achieve 30% in their final matric examinations. The extent of the irony becomes even more apparent when we recognise that this city has outstanding science resources. Only last year, Rhodes University opened its new Sciences Building which houses wonderful facilities, apparatus and equipment.

The university offers outstanding degree and postgraduate courses in a wide range of sciences. Specialisations include botany, ichthyology, entomology, chemistry, microbiology, pharmacy, human kinetics and environmental sciences among others.

Probably the most influential and recognised academic at Rhodes is Distinguished Professor Tebello Nyokong. She holds the NRF Chair for Medicinal Chemistry and Nanotechnology.

Besides Rhodes, the city is also home to science facilities such as the Albany Museum and the Observatory Museum.

In this piece, I explore some of the reasons for the poor performance of Grahamstown matriculants in Life Sciences.

First, the public schooling sector in the Eastern Cape generally and in Grahamstown specifically produces very poor educational outcomes across all subjects.

In this regard, the district percentage pass rate in Life Sci- ences (in the vicinity of 70%) is on a par with that in subjects such as Agricultural Sciences, Geography and Mathematical Literacy. The reason that it is one of the most failed subjects in the districts is that many matriculants choose it as one of their seven subjects.

The second issue that we should explore therefore is subject choice. Why is it that as many as 465 2016 Grade 12 learners in the district had opted for Life Sciences?

This is best understood in relation to the pressure on teacher numbers and post allocations. Underlying reasons for this pressure include factors such as a bloated and ineffectual bureaucracy and a plethora of ghost teachers (that is, people who are on provincial teacher payroll despite the fact that they are not teachers and do not do any teaching).

Every year, province uses the infamous ‘Morkel Model’ to determine post allocations for each school. Invariably, schools are required to cut their numbers of teachers.

The undermining of public schooling in the Eastern Cape is relentless. One of the outcomes of this erosion and weakening of the public system is that learners have limited subject choice.

For historical and other reasons, many learners thus end up at the end of Grade 9 ‘choosing’ Life Sciences as one of their subjects for the final three years of schooling.

The reality is that most learners who ‘choose’ Life Sciences lack the scientific and general academic foundations needed to cope with the demands and requirements of matric Life Sciences.

It is widely acknowledged that learners progress from primary school without the requisite literacy and numeracy skills for coping with high school. Only a minority of learners who ‘opt for’ Life Sciences also take Mathematics and Physical Sci- ences. For example, of the 465 matriculants who wrote the subject last year, only 205 also wrote Physical Sciences. The other 260 learners were doing subjects such as Mathematics Literacy and Tourism. And so, many learners end up with incoherent packages of subjects. Unsurprisingly, these students battle considerably with Life Sciences. In order to solve the Life Sciences problem therefore, there would need to be considerable structural reform which will not happen any time soon. In the meantime, it is essential that all local people with scientific capacity and community empathy orient themselves clearly and decisively towards the local challenges. There are many examples of individuals within the science community making important contributions.

The following people immediately come to mind: Mark Bennett (who offers extra lessons to various local schools), Martin Hill (who runs an effective science internship programme for local learners, among other things), Ken Ngcoza (who founded the influential Khula project) and Joyce Sewry (who consistently runs the Khanya Maths and Science club every Saturday). These are some of the local people doing what they can do (very well) to mitigate the crisis. But it is not enough. In order to turn the tide, we need a more ambitious and substantial mobilisation and harnessing of local resources.

Indeed, the resources are in our midst. The title of one of Alice Walker’s bestsellers is informative in this regard: “We are the ones we have been waiting for.”

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could offer SciFest to the rest of the province, knowing that we are enabling the science learners of our locality to develop a sound understanding of the subject? • Leading the Vision is a series by significant Grahamstown

players meaningfully contributing to key areas of growth and transformation

in education, economic development, arts and culture

and local governance.

• Ashley Westaway is the Manager of Gadra Matric School