South Africa needs every pupil it can produce in the fields of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). Picture Henk Kruger/African News Agency (ANA)
Last year the government published a list of critical skills needed in the country, a register of 142 occupations considered necessary to stimulate economic growth and development.
No thumb-suck, the list was compiled after consultation between government departments, academics, professional bodies and businesses, and was intended to attract foreign nationals to work in South Africa in those occupations.
But it was also designed to point the way forward for pupils making subject choices, job seekers, teachers and employers.
Unsurprisingly, many of the occupations on the list require maths and physical science, two of the four STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths). Considered difficult or of little value in the real world, they are increasingly being avoided by pupils, says Nelson Mandela University’s Isabel van Gend. And schools are adding to the problem by getting pupils to take them at lower grades, or by phasing them out altogether because of the low demand and pass-rate pressures.
Any effort to attract pupils to these subjects should therefore be welcomed and encouraged, not spurned because of petty squabbling.
An education district director’s order barring 31 schools from participating in the Eskom Expo for Young Scientists was therefore as vindictive as it was selfish, intended to deny hundreds of pupils the opportunity to learn and to win life-changing bursaries and trips abroad.
There are times when authority must be defied, and the 25 principals who took their pupils to the expo are commended.
The benefits of the programme were demonstrated in this newspaper in May, with a report on Pongola teenager S’qiniseko Mpilenhle Mpontshane, who returned from an international science competition in Indonesia with a silver medal, having been nominated by academics and professionals at the Eskom Expo.
Using a solar-powered autonomous car which he built, S’qiniseko demonstrated a sustainable transportation model, indicating the potential waiting to be discovered if our children are given a chance.
People should just get over themselves and get out of the way of those trying to make a difference.