Address by DM Gina in Limpopo Education Trust launch with business
MEC for Basic Education, Mme Mavhungu Lerule-Ramakhanya.
The Head of Department and Senior Officials.
The business Leadership.
The Trustees of the Limpopo Education Trust.
Stakeholders in the Education Sector, as a whole.
Esteem guests
Ladies and gentlemen.
I want to take this opportunity this morning to thank the MEC for extending an invitation to me and the Department that I am privilege lead.
Secondly, I want to shower the MEC and the Department with praises for this initiative of Limpopo Education Trust. For the province to conceive of this initiative, is a demonstration of leadership and being visionary.
The government fiscus cannot be enough to address all the urgent needs for Education in this country. Instead of us complaining about Treasury allocations, we must find creative ways to address Budget deficits, including knocking at the doors of the private sector. Today, as this Department, you are exactly doing that and I hope other provinces will take some lessons.
It is against this background that we are here this morning to call on the business to be a strategic partner with the provincial Department of Education in driving the STEM revolution in our schools, through resources to the Education Trust. South Africa is far behind in the production of engineers, computer science specialists, geologists and many of the professions and skills that whose prerequisites is STEM subjects.
The Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA) released a report recently titled “Our Digital Horizons Report”. The report found, amongst other things, South Africa must double its current level of science, technology, engineering and mathematics graduates to become globally competitive in the digital platform economy. The report reaffirm World Economic Forum article produced by Statista that STEM graduates make up only 18% of the total in South Africa, compared to 30% in India, South Korea and Arab Emirates.
The CEO of Business Leadership South Africa, Ms. Mavuso Msimango was quoted in Mybroadband.co.za as saying that “We don’t have an unemployment problem. We have an unemployability problem. It can’t be right that South Africa today, we still have schools that don’t teach maths and science because they don’t have maths and science teachers”
This state of affairs requires strong partnership with business. The corporate sector must invest in foundation phase of education, so that rural and township schools can each have equipped science laboratories infrastructure, computer laboratories and connectivity. These needs are no more a nice-to-have in the era of the 4th industrial revolution where innovation and digital economy has grown through leaps and bounds. These learning aids are a requirement in schools as textbooks are a requirements for learners. I am calling for business community to set-aside budgets for investments to schools on a continuous basis.
The Department of Science, Technology and Innovation is part of the ecosystem of education, training and we therefore emphasize science, technology and innovation. We are interested in the system of basic education because the end-product after grade 12 must feed into our own system.
We have taken a decision to elevate the promotion of STEM subjects in schools. We will be going to all nine provinces in this 7th administration working with your departments. We need to change perceptions about mathematics and science in our schools. We need to insist on learners taking pure maths, not maths literacy. Our economy need a generation equipped with these subjects.
In doing so, of cause we need to work together on issues of increasing numbers of teachers majoring with these subjects in schools. We need laboratories as well for science. As a department, we have science weeks campaigns where we cluster schools to promote sciences, and this year is going to be held in November month.
The feedback I received from the department is that we have a strong working relationship with this province and there are initiatives planned as part of interventions in our schooling system on maths and science. I can commit here to the MEC, that we are going to keep you busy in the next 5 years.
Science Engagement Strategy (SES) flows from the White Paper on Science and Innovation (2019), which adopted that the skills for the future of work, is foundational to the work done through the SES.
The DSI’s science engagement has adopted a specific manner of how it relates to the basic education system. There is an overall agreement between the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation and the Department of Basic Education, signed by the Directors-General. In addition to this, there are individual collaboration agreements between the DSI and provincial departments of education, with seven provincial departments having since signed, including this province.
There are 5 areas of collaboration included, namely :
- Improve learners’ attitudes towards Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects;
- Create opportunities for learners to physically and mentally engage in science, technology and innovation;
- Familiarise learners with intellectual property management and the innovation value chain;
- Enhance the learning and teaching environment; and
- Expose educators and learners to enquiry-based learning and teaching approaches that create a stimulating learning environment.
We are committed in building from this work and lift up STEM subjects in schools, and make them fashionable to young people, especially in rural schools and increase the numbers for girls.
In this province we work with and provide support science centres, which work with and offer various services to the public, which include schools, teachers and learners. Vuwani Science Centre, in Vhembe District provide support by going to schools and offer opportunities for learners to complete the experiments as is required.
The participation in the Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics & Innovation (STEMI) Olympiads and Fairs are consistently good in the province. However, since the Covid-19 pandemic there has been a drop in participation. Our focus on the Olympiads and Fairs are about increasing participation.
The main STEMI activities are the National Science Olympiad (Grade 10-12), Natural Sciences Olympiad (Grade 4 – 7), Astroquiz (Grade 7), Eskom Expo for Young Scientists (Grade 5 to 12). Mathematics Challenge (Grade 4 to 7) and South African Mathematics Olympiad ( Grade 8 to 12). Over the years, Limpopo schools have participated in these activities and often also produced some winners.
In this regard, I invite the business to this journey and provide us with all the support needed in pushing the needle to our next generation for our country.
I hope that donors and the corporate in general will respond in kind, and put resources to this Education Trust. Donating resources for education is the best investment that the private sector can ever make. It is an act of patriotism and planting a seed that they will reap later through recruitment of skilled professionals in the future.
Good luck to the Department. Thank you.
