School of Education hosts Minquiz KZN Regional Competition 2015

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The School of Education on the Edgewood campus hosted the Minquiz Regional Competition, an annual national Science and Mathematics event for Grade 12 learners.

About 150 high school learners, accompanied by their teachers, attended and participated in the competition which has written and oral sections. Mintek sponsors the event, providing meals, prizes, accommodation and air tickets for the top KZN team to participate in the national finals. 

According to UKZN academic and coordinator of the Quiz, Dr Nadaraj Govender, the school has hosted the completion for the last 15 years. The competition aims to encourage interest in careers in science, engineering and technology, especially in minerals and metallurgy, and to promote an awareness of the importance of minerals and metallurgy in South Africa. 

‘Minquiz is entertaining for the learners participating, the accompanying educators and the audience.  At the same time, it conveys the importance of mathematics and science as foundational subjects for a career in the minerals and metallurgy industries, other sciences and for promoting interest in science and mathematics teacher education,’ he said.  

Ten UKZN staff and 15 pre-service science students were involved in planning the event and also advising learners on programme offerings by UKZN. 

Govender explained that participating learners wrote a preliminary multiple-choice question test, followed by competing as a team during a live, on-stage oral quiz, also with multiple-choice questions.  

‘Semi-finals are held in all nine provinces on the same day and the final is held in Johannesburg on 13 July. Questions are in the fields of physical sciences, mathematics, and general knowledge in science, engineering and technology, and are in line with the National Curriculum,’ said Govender.  

Speaking at the event, Mintek Engineer, Mr Thulasizwe Patrick Ntuli, encouraged all learners to pursue careers in science, engineering and technology. He advised teachers to maintain passion for the sciences and to reflect their passion in their teaching.

 Winners of the regional competition were grouped into Gold or Platinum categories based on the school’s historical resources and results.  

The top two in the written quiz in the Platinum category were Daverin Nadesan of Star College and Samuel de Beer of Westville Boys and in the Gold Category they were Malusi Ngidi of Adams College and Letisha Girdhari of Apollo Secondary.  

The top three schools in the oral quiz in the Platinum category were St Mary’s DSG, Star College and Westville Boys. In the Gold category they were Adams College, Wiggens Secondary and Amangwane High School. 

Melissa Mungroo