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Creag
The Boar's Rock
- Joined
- May 19, 2009
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Pretoria – Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has encouraged learners to discover space through the new planetarium at the Sci-Bono Discovery Auditorium in Johannesburg.
“We want them to learn as much as they can from this planetarium,” she said at the launch of the planetarium on Monday.
The Minister said she wants children to learn as much as possible about celestial bodies, the planets, stars, moons, comets and asteroids.
“The importance of learning about these is mainly how they affect our own planet and its inhabitants currently, and how they could affect it in future,” she said.
The planetarium is a result of a cooperation agreement between the Department of Basic Education and China. The agreement also covers curriculum development and implementation; mathematics, science and technology education; teacher training and development; vocational education and training, and research and development to improve training.
As part of curriculum development and implementation, the Minister said the process of formalising the policy for the teaching of Mandarin at South African schools is at an advanced stage.
“I am happy to announce that 2 000 textbooks will be donated by the Chinese government to assist in teaching Mandarin in schools until a South African textbook is developed. We are also looking at establishing e-learning classrooms for the pilot schools teaching Mandarin,” she said.
The Gauteng Department of Education is piloting the teaching of the Chinese language in some schools in the Tshwane South District.
There are 14 schools which are currently teaching the language and a list of 13 new schools has been proposed for 2016.
Dr Lan Xiaoming, a Chinese language teaching expert, is now based at the department to develop an institutional framework for Chinese language teaching. - SAnews.gov.za
Source: http://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/new-planetarium-opened-sci-bono-centre
“We want them to learn as much as they can from this planetarium,” she said at the launch of the planetarium on Monday.
The Minister said she wants children to learn as much as possible about celestial bodies, the planets, stars, moons, comets and asteroids.
“The importance of learning about these is mainly how they affect our own planet and its inhabitants currently, and how they could affect it in future,” she said.
The planetarium is a result of a cooperation agreement between the Department of Basic Education and China. The agreement also covers curriculum development and implementation; mathematics, science and technology education; teacher training and development; vocational education and training, and research and development to improve training.
As part of curriculum development and implementation, the Minister said the process of formalising the policy for the teaching of Mandarin at South African schools is at an advanced stage.
“I am happy to announce that 2 000 textbooks will be donated by the Chinese government to assist in teaching Mandarin in schools until a South African textbook is developed. We are also looking at establishing e-learning classrooms for the pilot schools teaching Mandarin,” she said.
The Gauteng Department of Education is piloting the teaching of the Chinese language in some schools in the Tshwane South District.
There are 14 schools which are currently teaching the language and a list of 13 new schools has been proposed for 2016.
Dr Lan Xiaoming, a Chinese language teaching expert, is now based at the department to develop an institutional framework for Chinese language teaching. - SAnews.gov.za
Source: http://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/new-planetarium-opened-sci-bono-centre