The Eastern Cape Department of Education hosted the Natural Sciences and Technology Olympiad 2017, where 51 learners participated from 17 Education districts, at the Education Leadership Institute in East London on the 25 August 2017.

This initiative started in 2014, and learners compete on three different levels, first they compete within their schools, where 3 top performers are chosen to represent their schools at district level.  “Today we see the winners of the districts competing in the Provincial Olympiad,”said  M Zihlangu, Subject Advisor at Amathole East.  According to him, the Olympiad gives learners exposure and prepares them to participate in the national programmes of South African Association of Science and Technology Education (SAASTE) “Since the inception of this programme, the participation of districts has increased,” added Zihlangu.  “It has also helped improve learner performance, the questions in Olympiads open the minds of learners about the content of science,” concluded Mahlangu.

Each participating learner was given a common paper with about 60 questions to complete within a certain amount of time; thereafter marking and moderation was done immediately to determine the winners.  Should there be a tie, as experienced in today’s Olympiad, learners are given a rewrite until there is a clear winner.  In this case two rewrite had to be done as one refused to back down.  After a nail biting session only one became victorious.

Subsequent to an intense three rounds of silence there was an eagerness for results which saw three learners emerging as the overall winners, taking the number 1,2 and 3 positions.  The number one spot was taken by Ayanda Ntantam from Mthatha, followed by Sebabatso Manka from Sterkspruit and ended off with Uviwe Sinomthombo from Queenstown, who took second and third place.

With a noticeable amount of districts that do not participate in the Olympiad, the Department has made it a priority to employ subject advisors and Education Development Officers (EDOs) that speak to these programmes.  A bulletin has already been put out for all the aforementioned posts.

According to Subject Advisors, young minds need to be nurtured hence these programmes.