SWAZI TEACHER SCOOPS OVER E200 000 GOOGLE AWARD

SIMUNYE – Giant technology company Google has awarded a Swazi teacher with E220 000 in recognition for his efforts in promoting Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics in the country.

Titus Mandla Sithole, a former teacher at Lusoti High School who now works for a private school, has pledged to use all the money in funding programmes for his organisation; STEM Education Foundation Swaziland.
The organisation, which was formally registered last year, aims to ‘broaden the participation of youth, especially girls/women, and high poverty rural youth in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics and entrepreneurship activities’. Explaining how he got to be recognised by Google, Sithole said he was nominated for the award by the University of South Africa (UNISA) early this year.

“UNISA is supporting STEM Education programmes in the country and I was also a student at the institution so they forwarded my name to Google,” he stated.
He said after he had been nominated, Google requested that he write a formal proposal, explaining how he would utilise the money should he win the award.
He said the proposal was successful as he received the award certificate from Google about two weeks ago.

Sithole said the Board of his foundation has decided that all the monies be channelled towards supporting upcoming projects of the organisation, which include the LEGO League innovation competition.
He explained that the LEGO League competition was more like the schools’ Science Fair competition, where pupils/contestants present their Science projects to a panel of judges.

“What happens in the LEGO League is that we first send invites to schools which want to participate. We then educate teachers on what pupils need to do. We further give participating schools material which the pupils use for their projects. We then release the competition challenge, outlining what the pupils need to do,” he explained.

He added that the participating schools are then called to an expo where pupils are allocated a certain period of time to demonstrate their projects in front of a panel of adjudicators.
He said the best pupils were awarded with medals and they further get a chance to represent the country in a similar competition in South Africa.

If the pupils win that competition, he said they were guaranteed a ticket to the USA to represent the country in the LEGO League global innovation competition.

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