Durban — An educational institution has recently addressed the way science is taught in South Africa and believes that the education system should change its approach in order to diminish the skills gap.
Centennial Schools released a statement that focused on creating Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) experts; which will provide ways to address this topic.
Shaun Fuchs, founder and CEO of Centennial Schools said science is all around us and it is the basis for everything we use, wear, eat and drive.
“Science can and is used in almost every career and is a career path which is poised for growth, and we need to be teaching it that way,” he said.
The South African education system needs a new approach to teaching science to ensure that it meets the STEAM requirements of the country, Fuchs said. He said the country was short of STEAM professionals.
“We produce so few STEAM experts, many jobs in the sector are outsourced to large multinational companies. What is urgently needed is homegrown STEAM talent. To achieve this, there needs to be a dramatic change in the narrative around science, and the way in which it’s taught in our schools,” he says.
Centennial School’s science teacher Lyn Haupt offers a new perspective on teaching science and show students the importance of data analytics.
Haupt said her biggest concern about traditional science teaching methods is that it reduces the subject to a set of fragmented facts, which is good for writing an exam, but really bad for a full understanding of what it all means in a real-world context.
The solution to this is simple and needs to start as early as Grades 7, Haupt said.
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