SOUTH AFRICA. The government has launched a Year of Science and Technology Campaign to stimulate awareness among schoolchildren. A roadshow to tour the country is aimed at enticing the young into studying science subjects.
Lionel Mtshali, the science minister, said the campaign had been prompted by the depressing results of the Third International Mathematics and Science Survey in which South Africa was ranked last among 41 nations.
“Our poor results are a legacy of apartheid,” said Dr Errol Tyombeka, chief director of the public science in the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology.
“The system was looking at less than 20 per cent of the population and the white authorities did not want to pass on these skills to blacks.”
The roadshow will begin in the Western Cape this month and over the next eight months will cover the other eight provinces. It will feature exhibitions which will be transported by the national railway company Spoornet.
Inigo Gilmore
