KEETMANSHOOP – Oranjemund Private School and Suiderlig Secondary School received awards for top primary and secondary schools respectively, at the //Kharas Region Science Fair.
The fair started in Keetmanshoop on Wednesday, and ended on Friday.
The two schools each walked away with a data projector donated by the Anglo Foundation and the Debmarine-Namdeb Foundation. From the 77 projects presented at the fair, Vilho Ashipala from the Suiderlig Secondary School was the overall winner, and walked away with a laptop after showcasing an electronic passport to be used by health facilities for effective and efficient service delivery.
In an interview with Nampa, Ashipala said: “I did this because the health passports currently in use are prone to getting lost, and when a patient does present a passport, doctors cannot render effective services because of the lack of background of the patient. With this device, all the patient information is kept electronically. When visiting a health facility, the patient’s information will be available at the press of a button”.
The device has features to protect everyone’s information, and can only be accessed by a secret password that is kept safely by the patient.
He was also the overall winner in the senior secondary category.
Joseph Markowitz from Oranjemund Private School took the junior primary overall winner award. At the same time, Albertina Shaanika from Ambrosius Amutenya Primary School and Joy Linane from Oranjemund Private School shared the Senior Primary overall winner award. Aiyana Abed from PK de Villiers was the best overall winner for the junior secondary category. Speaking to Nampa, the science fair chief judge Connie Willemse said the fair has improved over the years, adding that there were fewer but higher-quality projects entered this year.
“This year, our learners came much more prepared. We had fantastic topic choices, and the investigations were on another level. There was an improvement in innovation and models that can be used in the industry when refined – that’s how good they were. Artificial intelligence is on the horizon, and we want to encourage that. We are very serious about science, technology, engineering and mathematics education in our region, and reinforcing the 21st-century skills with our learners. This is the best platform,” she said. Meanwhile, 12 learners were chosen to represent the region at the national science fair taking place in September in Windhoek.
-Nampa