Milestones and challenges of the National Science Olympiad

Over the years, a number of milestones were achieved through the National Olympiad, in particular:

1. Reach:
   It is encouraging to note that participation of learners in the National Science Olympiad during the past seven years increased significantly as indicated below:
   
   

   LEARNER PARTICIPATION: 2003 - 2009
   Year	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
   Participants	9 117	9 614	13 971	17 538	15 538	19 438	20 364

   
   The significant increase was among others due to:
   • our aggressive marketing strategy that enabled us to reached more schools in rural areas that had not been reached before;
   • collaborations between the Department of Education and provincial level departments through Mathematics, Science and Technology (MST) coordinators; and
   • increased support by our partners in the business sector, in particular POSTNET, SMART, Innovation Fund and Justick.



2. Identifying and Nurturing Talent:
   In line with the Department of Science and Technology's Youth into Science Strategy and the Deapartment of Education's National Strategy for Mathematics and Science and Technology, the National Science Olympiad identifies and nurtures talent in SET. This approach contributes in increasing the human capital in the critical areas of Science, Engineering and Technology. This is being achieved through:
   • our consistent effort to expose learners to international events such as the London International Youth Science Forum (LIYSF) and the Australian Exchange Programme for learners;
   • hosting of Science Focus Week for top learners based on the Olympiad examination results;
   • our efforts to expose learners to the SET work environment through visits to industries, science councils and higher education institutions;
   • establishing an examination steering committee that comprises reputable professionals; and
   • organising camps for grade 10 and 11 learners from disadvantaged communities who showed potential during the Olympiad examinations. This is done on rotational bases; i.e. three provinces per year during the September holidays.

• On average, approximately 10% of the schools in South Africa participated in the National Science Olympiad over the past five years. The province with the highest number of participants over the years has been Limpopo, followed by the Eastern Cape Province. There is therefore an urgent need to increase participation in the National Science Olympiad.
• In most South African schools the Olympiad still has the greatest appeal to more able learners. Therefore there is a need to identify and nurture more learners who are talented, especially those who are from disadvantaged schools and communities.
• The poor performance of some learners who sit for this (syllabus-based) Olympiad examination raises an issue of concern, especially those who are from disadvantaged schools. While it is encouraging to note that there has been a steady increase in performance by girl learners in the Biology paper, it is worrying to note that girls are outperformed by their male counterparts in Physical Science. A comparison of performance in the Physical Science paper reveals that since 2006, only one female learner made the top ten (During 2007).
• There seems to be limited educator support in coaching and preparing learners to excel in the competition. In the near future SAASTA will invest in educator development in this regard.