With this year’s final examinations fast approaching the 12 high schools in and around Khayelitsha are pulling out all the stops to ensure they achieve good results.
On Friday July 20 they held a science olympiad awards ceremony at Sinako High School, in Makhaza to acknowledge pupils who did well in the contest held on Sunday May 27, at the same school.
Science and maths pupils had been chosen by various schools to participate in the contest, where they were quizzed on the two subjects by teachers. Among others, pupils competed for the Best Young Scientist Award.
During the awards ceremony organisers and teachers encouraged their pupils to focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics. They urged the pupils to start early with their studies in order to deal better with pressure.
Cikizwa Mbombo, teacher at Sinako, called for pupils to be exposed to the subjects in order to attract more pupils to careers in maths and science.
“We decided to come together to encourage these pupils for better. This is the first science olympiad competition and we intend to continue with it. This will clearly help us and the children to understand the subject much better,” she said.
Silence Mapatwana, science teacher at Joe Slovo Engineering School, appealed to pupils to educate themselves and remain at school. He commended those who took part in the competition.
“We want them to go further in education. By this we want to inspire them. We want a top pupil to come from Khayelitsha at the end of the year. Khayelitsha must be represented at the National Senior Certificate awards,” he said.
Odwa Mpunga said the competition helped them to focus more. “This has prepared me for the coming exams. May all the grades do this next year.
“It helped me with a lot of things that I would not have known, and I guess others too,” he said.
Professor Goodwin Tafirei, a guest speaker from the University of Stellenbosch, said he was excited about the initiative because it was not often that township schools organised olympiads.
He said taking science and maths was not easy.
s“Coming up with an idea alone is critical. This is an achievement. The olympiad is to showcase pupils’talent and skills. I am happy for those who raise their hands to say I will be there first,” he told pupils.
Professor Tafirei told the pupils about the shortage of scientists and engineers in the country. He encouraged teachers to motivate pupils.