Johannesburg - The Science Forum 2016 will kick off on Thursday, the 8th and Friday the 9th of December 2016 at the International Convention Centre of the CSIR in Pretoria. Minister of Science and Technology, Naledi Pandor spoke to Independent Media about the importance of the forum.
“We hope to keep this conversation alive. It supports the initiative – our intention to be linked in to the world because if you do science on your own, your science won’t matter. Science has become very much an area of collaboration, not just between countries but collaborations amongst scientists all over the world, as well as collaborations amongst disciplines – you’ll have a physical science area, like nano-technology and the ethical side, so we’re seeing this integration of disciplines happening. We, by hosting this forum are enhancing our contact with the rest of the world and promoting this notion of science diplomacy,” said Pandor.
Minister Pandor said like the first forum in 2015, they will be going out into the communities to allow people to interact with scientists.
“One of the things we’re doing is not keeping the forum debates to the break-away rules at the International Convention Centre of the CSIR. With the first forum we went out into the community, and similarly, we’re going to be in Church Square, we’ll be in Daveyton. We’re taking the scientists out there so that the people can also engage with them,” said Pandor.
“We want to get young South Africans involved in Science to meet established researchers early in their science careers. We want to feature science and we want our young people to know science as opportunity, we want them to meet role models and mentors and we want them to engage in the debates and know what the issues of the day in science are. We hope that the people of South Africa will be as excited as they were last year,” Pandor added.
When asked what is it that she would like for people to take away from the experience, she said she would want everyone to feel inspired, and for parents to motivate their children into doing maths and science in school.
“I hope that they would get home and say, “’Mntanam’ (my child) you are going to do mathematics at school and you will succeed in physical science. It is absolutely necessary because Minister Pandor has pointed out the importance of these things to me. For schools, I want for teachers to say, “I’m going to be more serious about ensuring that the children of South Africa achieve well in Maths and Science. For international partners, it would be: “I must partner with Africa.” And for all the delegates, I would like for them to go away asking, “When’s the next forum?” she concluded.
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