South Africa’s mathematics and science education was ranked low (128th out of 137 countries) in the 2017-’18 World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Index.
With this in mind, Kolomela Mine is working hard at improving the score in its community.
Together with the Imbewu Science Foundation, Kolomela Mine has collaborated with the Department of Education to expose all Gr. 5 learners of schools in the Tsantsabane Area to the wonder of science.
“Education is one of the key focus areas within the Kolomela Mine community development strategy,” said George Benjamin, manager of public affairs.
“For our mine to access skilled workers from our communities, and for South Africa to become globally competitive, we need to feed the pipeline of successful students from primary school through to secondary and tertiary level.”
The mining company saw the recent low ranking of mathematics and science education in South Africa as a call to make these subjects a priority, as they open a world of career possibilities.
A science programme benefitting eight primary schools in the Tsantsabane Area was intended to encourage learners to be more interested in science and to pursue technical skills.
The learners were reportedly exposed to interesting science experiments and guided to complete scientific projects and present their own projects at the science fair in September.
Each learner received a quality science kit to take home to do experiments in their own time.
According to Kolomela, the fair attracted 275 learners of 19 schools, whose projects were adjudicated by 43 judges.
Lesedi Monnanyane of the Postmasburg High School won a laptop for being one of the top gold winners.
Projects of the Khosi, Refentse and Postmasburg Primary School won prizes in the outreach category.
