R5m centre for science education
5 October 2005
A R5.2-million world-class institute, aimed at improving the quality of mathematics and science education in South Africa, was opened at the Wits Education Campus in Johannesburg on Monday by Wits University Vice-Chancellor Loyiso Nongxa.
The Marang Centre (Marang meaning radiating, light, sunbeam, illumination) aims to address the low number of African candidates obtaining university entrance passes in mathematics and science and the inadequate prior training of teachers in these subjects.
R4-million has been donated by Standard Bank over the next three years, while Wits University has contributed R1.5-million.
"The Marang Centre will provide a unique model for combining excellence, innovation and leadership in research and teacher development," said centre director Mamokgethi Setati. "Coupled with a professional outreach arm, the centre will focus on providing solutions to the mathematics and science education problems in the
country."
The centre will address the lack of successful role models in mathematics and science education, the role of English in teaching maths and science, and the need to transform leadership in these areas.
Setati said the centre would focus on research in multilingualism and the learning of mathematics and science in school, mathematical literacy, public awareness in science, mathematics and science knowledge for teaching, and effective methods for teaching mathematics and science.
According to Setati, there is a significant relationship between language and learning, and between proficiency in the language of instruction and success at school. "While this relationship is well known and often talked about, details of the precise effects of language - disentangling this from poverty, for example - are not well understood."
Standard Bank Group chairman Derek Cooper said the bank's commitment to the project was aimed at ensuring that the Marang Centre
became a centre of excellence for educators throughout South Africa.
"In the past decade, Standard Bank has been intimately involved with a range of education and heritage projects," Cooper said. "Through these projects, the bank has always sought to develop a common thread that will positively contribute towards creating a better life for all citizens."
SouthAfrica.info reporter
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