DST to link 450 schools

Science and technology minister Naledi Pandor says her department is on target to connect at least 450 schools through a wireless mesh network in municipalities located in the Northern Cape and Limpopo provinces.

Speaking at her departmental budget vote speech, this week, Pandor outlined the Department of Science and Technology's plans for the coming year.

Pandor did not go into any details about the wireless mesh network and how it relates to projects touted by the Departments of Education and Communications to link up 500 “Dinaledi” schools (those with an emphasis on teaching maths and science), and ITWeb is still awaiting replies from these departments.

However, deputy science and technology minister Derek Hanekom later said the department is working closely with the Department of Basic Education in the implementation of its National Strategy for Mathematics, Science and Technology Education.

“It is in this context that the DST [Department of Science and Technology] has adopted 18 Dinaledi Schools - two schools in each province, in reasonable proximity to science centres. I have already started a programme of visits to our adopted schools in order to assess the situation on the ground and to find out how we can strengthen our support to them. At the same time, the department is drafting a comprehensive plan for support to the 18 adopted schools,” Hanekom said.

Pandor said the DST was also providing support to a number of technology transfer initiatives that are directed at addressing poverty. These are directed at innovative local technology solutions, creation of SMEs, sustainable job and wealth creation.

She said the department's most ambitious project is the challenge of trying to win the bid for building the world's largest radio telescope, the Square Kilometre Array.

“This astronomy project involves the construction of the telescope in phases. The first phase, KAT7, was completed in January this year - the construction and the demonstration of fringes are ahead of schedule. Construction of the demonstrator telescope - the 80-dish MeerKAT - will soon begin,” Pandor said.

This will be a key milestone in meeting the 2012 schedule for a site decision.

“If we are chosen as the site country, significant international funding will flow into SA and our partner countries on the continent. If we win the bid, the central location will be in Carnavon, in the Northern Cape, with other parts of the array as far as 3 000km away in eight African partner countries,” Pandor said.

Government would continue to invest in infrastructure even as it was developing a plan, Pandor added. An amount of R1.35 billion is provided for research and equipment infrastructure in the current medium term budget. Of this, R538 million is allocated to the South African National Research and Education Network (Sanren) and the Centre for High Performance Computing.

She said in the past few years, the National Research Foundation (NRF) has been assigned a wide range of mandates and strategic contracts.

“This may have distracted it from its core purpose of funding research, providing high-quality research facilities and promoting innovation. I will direct the DST and the NRF board to assess the impact of ring-fenced funding and contracts on the ability of NRF to execute its mandate. One area that requires attention is the development of black and women senior researchers - the NRF will advise us on steps to be taken to achieve higher levels of success,” Pandor said.

Marian Shinn, Democratic Alliance shadow minister for science and technology, replied by saying that the Academy for Science in SA warned of three new threats to academic freedom - the intrusive effect of government regulations, the excessive influence of private-sector sponsorship of universities, and the limitations of freedom of speech within universities.

“When the National Research Foundation instituted its now-failed disciplinary hearing against internationally renowned astronomer Professor Phil Charles, the nation's scientific organisations warned of our national scientific facilities falling victim to totalitarian control and of a bureaucratic blunder that jeopardised our standing in the international science community. I believe one of the main impediments our scientific community faces is political meddling,” she said.

Shinn also warned about the differences between “big science” and “big ego” projects, such as the Square Kilometre Array.

“I believe we need to spend our science funds on big science to inspire us to explore the unknown in knowledge and human endeavour. SA is spoilt for choice when it comes to what we can achieve. But it is time to focus our big science spend on fields where we can exploit our geographic uniqueness to play a leading role in international science projects,” she said.