This year’s Eskom Expo for Young Scientists competition was marred with controversy as some schools participated without authorisation from the KZN Education Department.
School principals in KwaZulu-Natal North Coast defied a district director’s order not to attend the Eskom Expo for Young Scientists, saying the instruction was based on “personal bias”.
The annual expo, which takes place across the country, was among 24 science and engineering-related competitions that KwaZulu-Natal education head Nkosinathi Ngcobo had announced early this year for school participation.
However, King Cetshwayo District education director Welile Nzama issued a memo that all schools in her district should not participate, without giving reasons.
This led to expo executive director Parthy Chetty accusing Nzama of being “vindictive” by banning the schools’ participation. He circumvented the order by approaching all the schools in the area to convince them to participate. Chetty said 25 out of 31 schools attended the event at the University of Zululand on Thursday.
Provincial education spokesperson Muzi Mahlambi said those principals would have to account for disobeying Nzama.
“The district director’s point is that if Chetty goes directly to schools, just because he is bringing money, principals of those schools (that participated) will have to account.
“You cannot just leave school, as parents must be informed, the education circuit does not know of their participation, and the district does not know. We are not going to deal with Eskom, we will deal with principals as they know that Chetty cannot just come from Eskom to them without them being authorised by the department,” said Mahlambi.
He said Nzama had banned schools from going to the competition because she said Eskom broke its own rules for the competition. He said certain schools were selected for the competition without first participating at a lower level and were parachuted to the district level.
“Certain schools protested and requested the event to be postponed because some of the schools told the district director they would rather not participate if there is favouritism,” said Mahlambi.
He said the schools that participated did not have excursion indemnity to go to the competition. He said Ngcobo had granted a blanket authorisation, but this did not mean the processes should not be followed.
“It cannot be a free-for-all and when children get injured, we are the ones to answer, not Eskom.”
Mahlambi said Nzama tried unsuccessfully to negotiate the rescheduling of the event.
He said other districts held their competition because no one saw there was “a problem”.
Chetty had accused Nzama of sabotaging an opportunity for pupils from the district to participate in the event, which would see winners travelling the world and gaining knowledge that might brighten their future.
Chetty accused Nzama of “being vindictive” when she instructed schools in the district not to participate.
The expo, whose motto is “Discover Your Future”, has volunteers who facilitate the competitions in districts across the country.
Chetty suspected that Nzama withdrew the schools’ participation because she was unhappy with one of her colleagues in the district being withdrawn from volunteering this year.
“In February, we issued a notice to say there would be new volunteers because if volunteers don’t cooperate and work towards common goals, they must step down and we would appoint new volunteers who are energetic and work for the common goal,” said Chetty.
The event has been held for 20 years.
Chetty said there were more than 2 000 schools between quintiles one to five participating in the competition. He said TVET college students were also accommodated.
Seventy percent of learners were from previously disadvantaged communities, said Chetty.
The expo’s objective was teacher and learner development; resource material development; and ensure to high standards of participation at local and international science fairs.
According to exposcience.co.za, the competition for Zululand, Northern KwaZulu-Natal and Umkhanyakude districts happened last month while those for KwaZulu-Natal Central, Ugu and Harry Gwala would be on August 8, August 13 and August 15 respectively.
“She is denying those people opportunities as we had learners in the past that have won bursaries, scholarships and been overseas. Teachers worked hard (to prepare pupils for the competition).
“The expo provides life-changing opportunities and for some reason this district director is denying these pupils,” he said.
He said there were 38 regional expos across the country with up to 7 000 pupils competing.
The top 350 entrants would compete in the international science fair in Boksburg, Gauteng, in the last week of September.
“The brightest kids in the country come to compete for all the prizes,” said Chetty.
The competition went ahead at the University of Zululand’s King Bhekuzulu Hall on Thursday as per Chetty’s schedule.
Chetty said the competition continued after he and his staff had gone behind Nzama’s back to directly encourage 30 schools and about 200 pupils in the district to come to the competition.
“I had to intervene and I got my staff to phone all the schools to tell them that the expo was still happening. We got the catering, we got the tables set up and everything was done (on Wednesday). We told them they could not take this opportunity away from learners.
“About 10 schools did not participate because I think they were intimidated by the memo (from Nzama),” said Chetty.
He said out of 31 schools in the district that registered for the competition, 25 with 128 pupils participated.
A teacher in the district, who asked not to be identified because of fear of intimidation, said Nzama was “most unprofessional and unethical”.
The teacher said Nzama had denied “hundreds of young scientists (pupils)” an opportunity to have a bright career in the sciences that the country urgently needs.
“It seems she has an issue with the organisers and has gone against instructions from the HOD of the province,” said the teacher.
The teacher said the expo had in the previous year afforded life-changing opportunities to many pupils, who won scholarships to Germany, full university bursaries, cash awards, laptops and international competitions.
“Most recently, S’qiniseko Mpilenhle Mpontshane, a Grade 12 pupil at Mandla Mthethwa School of Excellence in Ndumu, KwaZulu-Natal (far north), represented SA in the international science fair in Indonesia where he won a silver medal.
“Many schools and hundreds of pupils would be disadvantaged if they did not attend because of the unilateral decision of the district director.
“This issue is of public importance because this director is using her personal bias to disadvantage our pupils,” said the teacher.
In a circular in February, Ngcobo told principals that the competitions were funded through conditional grants. He said the events were crucial to provide support and resources to schools, teachers and pupils in line with the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) for the improvement of maths, science and technology teaching and learning at selected public schools.
However, another teacher in the district said most teachers were sceptical about the competition.
“They said it was disturbing the syllabus especially when the Grade 12 pupils are preparing for exams,” said the second teacher.
Mandla Mthethwa School of Excellence principal Jabu Mngomezulu said all her 11 pupils won gold and silver medals at the Umkhanyakude District competition on Wednesday.
“They were competing at the regional level and now they are going to the provincial competition.
“We are not another ordinary school as we are a focused school that specialises in pure maths and engineering. All our pupils do pure maths and physical science from grade eight to 12,” she said.
She said the school, which opened in 2018, had already produced pupils who had since enrolled at tertiary institutions for medicine and engineering studies.
“One of our core values is innovation and to see if they have innovation skills and of inventing something from scratch using their ideas. Competitions such as Eskom expo are important,” said Mngomezulu.