Ben Ngubane
Elisabeth Lickindorf’s article “SA students are scientifically illiterate”(January 14 to 20) is based on the research results of a science literacy survey conducted on first-year university and technikon students in 1994.
Dr Rudiger Laugksch and Professor Peter Spargo at the universities of the North and Cape Town published the results of the survey in the South African Journal of Science.
This study is indeed an important contribution to our understanding of the system as a whole. Having these results published in Mail & Guardian assists in bridging the gap between scientists and society. One can only support and encourage this partnership, one that can stimulate and foster scientific and technological awareness.
Lickindorf highlights the following key findings:
l The level of scientific literacy reflects the legacy of apartheid education policy;
l The correlation between matric scores and the level of literacy;
l The kind and number of science subjects taken can influence science literacy ratings and including physical science in the combination of subject choice greatly influences ratings;
l In all population groups male students have higher levels of literacy than female, as female students tend to take combinations of science subjects that exclude physical science.
Laugksch and Spargo’s work adds to a number of other earlier studies in this field. These include a survey on public understanding of science and technology done by the then Foundation for Research and Development – now the National Research Foundation – which showed that the level of scientific literacy of the public in South Africa is low compared to developed countries. The Third International Mathematics and Science Study, which focused on pupils from grade eight to 12, revealed that their performance was far below that of their counterparts elsewhere. This telling story about scientific literacy in our country is confirmed by the recent performance in matric of a national average pass rate of 49%.
These studies are important in identifying the problem and determining its extent, as well as the possible causes. However, the challenge is to find appropriate solutions to these problems.
There is no easy, simple resolution to the complex problem of scientific literacy. At the centre of effective scientific literacy is a successful school system. This is the area in which the Department of Education has been putting a lot of effort. Curriculum 2005 addresses not only the issue of content in what learners are taught but, more importantly, how they are taught to acquire knowledge and how to create an environment where students learn to solve problems through applications of acquired knowledge. The Department of Education has set up a number of campaigns to improve the ethos in schools, including the Culture of Learning, Teaching and Service campaign and now lately, Minister of Education Kader Asmal’s “Tirisano” multi-point plan to bring back normality to our schools.
One of the top priorities of my ministry is to raise the public’s awareness of science, engineering and technology and find ways to encourage pupils and students to take up these subjects in the formal and informal arenas.
The Year of Science and Technology in 1998 was the kick-start to a series of programmes, projects and activities created to develop environments that are conducive to learning about and experiencing science and technology as part of daily life. In these promotional campaigns an important aspect of public awareness is the implications of science and technology for the future prosperity of South Africa.
The Public Understanding of Science, Engineering and Technology (Puset) is a priority within national policy. Over the past year we initiated the first national science and technology camp for girls, and the second Puset conference, which brought together science advisers, communicators, teachers and others, in order to start addressing and acting upon the low science literacy rate in South Africa. Workshops for teachers to acquire the skills needed to effectively teach science and technology in schools are being implemented.
During March, the national Set Week 2000 science, engineering and technology expo will take place in three provinces – the Northern Cape, Western Cape and North-West.
Laugksch’s remark that the pupils who achieved high scores in science were those whose parents had interest in science is pertinent. Parental involvement in their children’s education cannot be underscored.
One of the intentions of the Puset programmes is to create public interest in science and technology. Parents, as part of the public, should therefore become more involved in their children’s work.
One of the observations made by Laugksch and Spargo is that male students displayed a higher level of scientific literacy than female students. This is an important issue and it needs to be looked at closely if we are serious in building human resources in science and technology. Interestingly, the findings of a recent survey focusing on the grade seven to nine pupils by Professor Meshack Ogunniyi of the University of the Western Cape did not support the view that girls perform more poorly than boys. But, attrition occurs in the number of girls in science and technology at post-matric level. From a policy perspective, it is apparent that we may be looking at a complex issue with multiple causes and therefore in need of multi-pronged intervention strategies.
The girl’s camp for science and technology, the gender sensitivity programmes for science educators and conferences on women in science and technology are some of the initiatives the ministry has put in place. Activities and research programmes leading to improvement of the quality of life of women are now high on our agenda.
As part of broadening the scope of our activities in the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology, we have established a science communication sub- directorate to scrutinise the kind and quality of scientific and technological information going out to the public and various target audiences. The aim of this is to assess whether the messages being communicated are appropriate and effective for those audiences.
I am confident that through my ministry and that of education, science literacy levels in South Africa will improve. How soon we will see the results of our campaigns is unknown. I believe that Laugksch and Spargo have designed a model to effectively assess certain aspects of our future science literacy levels, and that we should encourage such surveys to continue not only in the Western Cape, but also throughout South Africa.
Dr Ben Ngubane is the minister of arts, culture, science and technology