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Search for Maths & Science Teachers of the Year

Mr Alli Alli from Telkom hands a computer to KZN winner Mr Tusani Mchunu of Fundokhle Secondary School. Looking on is Mr Hennie de Bruin

The country’s most prestigious technology-inclined education award, the MATHS & SCIENCE TEACHER OF THE YEAR AWARD annually attempts to unearth dedicated teachers who are making a difference in these subjects in disadvantaged schools in South Africa.

The winning teacher of each province takes home a desktop computer and a cash prize. In addition he/she gets an opportunity to compete in the national finals in which a further four computers can be won for his of her school. Both practising and retired teachers (there is a separate award for both) may be nominated and forms are made available from schools and provincial education departments early in the year.

The Telkom foundation supports education by promoting Maths, Science, and Technology. One of the Foundation’s biggest projects is the Telkom Supercentre project, which established computer centres liked to the internet into 100 schools throughout the country. The CEO of the Telkom Foundation Mrs Nkhethelend Vokwana said, Education remains the cornerstone of our modern civilisation, it is thus incumbent on all of us to do the little that we can in ensuring that each and every South African child gets an opportunity to quality education. Our competitiveness and survival as a country depends on quality standards of our education. The Maths and Science Teacher of the Year Award is one of the many education projects sponsored by the Telkom Foundation.

2002 Provincial Winners
Mr Thusani Mchunu, of Fundokuhle Secondary School, Imbali, Pietermaritzburg was the winner for KwaZulu-Natal in the practising category. This is what he said, "WHEN an international education expert came to Imbali township in Pietermaritzburg to study the impact of social ills and assumed that Fundokulile Secondary School, located right in the centre of the storm, was the worst amongst the lot, his research showed the exact reverse - the school marked higher on Aids Awareness and ability to deal with social ills than the others. I told him it was that we empower the learners with the skills necessary for life and to keep striving for excellence." When asked how the school came out tops. For when Mr Mchunu sees his classroom charges becoming doctors and engineers, he received the power to carry on. Outside of the classroom, Thusani (a father of two girls) teaches at weekends Protec monitoring workshops, helps learners with remedial work and, when he gets the time, indulges in chess or body-building.

Ms Adele Khoboso Khonyane of Pietermaritzburg was the winner in the retired category. For 39 years she was a maths teacher at Pholela Institution, a Presbyterian Mission School in Bulwer. "I’ve been very greatly humbled - I never thought anybody would remember me!" said Mrs Khonyane. "Maths is a living subject - we use it in the house, walking in the streets and so on. That is what I taught them." Although retired, Mrs Khonyane never stopped working towards the alleviation of poverty, initiating the Ifafa Educare Project in Ixopo as well as being President of the Zenzele Do-It-Yourself Project (where numerous women have been given the life skills to succeed). "There is so much about fraud today but I think the worst fraud is to cheat a child - to deprive him or her of a future. So I think my greatest satisfaction is that I did my work honestly," she said.

Plans for Next Year
The Telkom Foundation will be looking to pilot a Saturday school for KwaZulu-Natal in 2003 in line with the objectives of this competition.

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