Date: 02/07/2009

Source: Department of Science and Technology

Title: SA: Pandor: Address by the Minister of Science and Technology at the forty-fifth National Science Olympiad Award Ceremony

Programme Director
The Executive Director of SAASTA, Ms Beverley Damonse,
School Principals and Learners,
Distinguished Guests,

I'm delighted to be here this evening.

South Africa has strengthened its programmes for identifying, nurturing and
expanding talent in mathematics and science.

The Olympiad is part of this vital search for talent.

The SAASTA unit in the NRF is the lead organisation for the Olympiad. Their
efforts have made a significant impact.

SAASTA monitors the progress of previous Olympiad winners. You can read
about previous Olympiad winners in the book, Unearthing SET Talent. The book
is being launched to-day. Many of you will be in future editions of the
book.

I'm hopeful that all Olympiad award winners and participants will go on to
become our leading scientists. It's important for you to begin thinking of
yourselves as South Africa's future.

We need to alert you and other learners to the potential you hold for South
Africa when you pursue careers in science, technology and mathematics. With
these subjects you have the potential to become engineers, statisticians,
economists, inventors, environmentalist, microbiologists, doctors,
innovators and paleantologists.

I'm pleased that we are able to work with countries in our region in
expanding scientific success.

The Olympiad draws participants from all over South Africa, and from beyond
our borders. Learners from two other members of the Southern African
Development Community (Lesotho and Namibia) are among the prize-winners this
evening. A special word of welcome to you.

This is a further strengthening of our science-based links with these
countries in the area of youth development. Since 2007 the DST has
participated in Lesotho's Science and Technology Week, and we also
collaborate with Lesotho in the training of science centre staff.

This is the 45th year of the Olympiad. That is remarkable on its own, but
the Olympiad is much more than a science and biology exam competition. As I
said before, it's part of our endeavour to lead SADC into a new growth path.

Our economies will recover and we must have young men and women who are
ready to tackle the challenges of development and create a new foundation
for improving the lives of all our citizens.

The organisers tell me that over 500 schools participated in the Olympiad
and that thousands wrote the tests. The Olympiad is a prestigious national
project. Yet we should do more to encourage every high school learner to
write it in grade 11 or 12. We have begun to see more young people doing
maths at school. We now need to support them to succeed.

One of the areas we must address is the access of rural schools to these
opportunities. There are many talented young people who miss out on
programmes such as this one just because they live in a rural part of our
countries.

We are all aware that many of our schools do not have infrastructure to
study these gateway subjects. We are in the process of addressing this as
well. The DST is forging stronger links with the education department to
ensure co-ordinated interventions.

There's much to be proud of in South African science.

Not only do we have the best science and engineering projects in Africa, but
we also play a leading role in some global projects.

The SKA initiative has captured the imagination of many. We will become the
main world focus for astronomy researchers. I hope some of you have visited
the large telescope and SKA various sites. We are working hard to beat
Australia in the bid to host the Array in the Northern Cape. Winning will
give us the opportunity to lead the world in radio telescopy.

Gautrain is a large scale transport and civil engineering project that will
astound our 2010 visitors.

We've research councils that are the envy of the world. The Council for
Scientific and Industrial Research, Agricultural Research Council, the
Medical Research Council, Council for Geosciences and MINTEK are ideal
places to start your science careers and progress to world-renowned
researchers and scientists.

South Africa has a 3,000km coastline, giving us opportunities for research
and development programmes, for farming along the coast to address our food
needs.

South Africa is rich in biodiversity - we have more than 25,000 indigenous
plant species, which still needs so much research to find extracts and
ingredients which can be cures for disease.

Not only do we have projects underway that are jaw-dropping in their scale,
but we are also an innovative nation.

South Africa is known for the cat scan that observes soft tissues in the
brain, for Pratley putty that holds objects together, for the Kreepy Krauley
that cleans swimming pools, and for Sasol's oil-from-coal technology.

I challenge winners and participants here this evening to lengthen the list
of innovations for which South Africa is known.

The Department of Science and Technology is putting in place plans,
programmes and agencies that will support present and future innovative
thinkers.

Yet remember this: we can all make a contribution to science. There are
thousands of individuals and institutions making a contribution each day.

"Tomorrow's Science and Technology is in our Youth's hands". If I am not
mistaken the Science Week motto is still in use this year? Let me add, in
the words of Moses Kotane, "... The future of South Africa is in your hands,
and it will be what you make of it".

In closing, I want to pay tribute to the team at SAASTA for their continued
hard work.