SAILIng into the future

SAILI's comets blaze back into our part of the universe this Saturday.

The comets include students like Wendy Batyi from San Souci Girls High School and Anderson Chimphango of Pinelands High, seen here studying the MTE Studios' poster on the glider designed by Abbas ibn Farnas, the Muslim world's answer to the brilliant Leonardo da Vinci.

The Comets, 49 students in grade eight and nine, come here every other Saturday as part of SAILI - the Scientific and Industrial Leadership Initiative. It's a successful programme which encourages students who show promise in maths and sciences, and nurtures them, says MTN Sciencentre's Ruby Frans, who co-ordinates the programme.

The MTN Sciencentre offers the enrichment programme to early high school SAILI learners, known throughout the Sciencentre as the SAILI Comets, a very weak pun with strong science underpinning it. Still don't get it? Think of Halley's Comet, and all will become clear.


''When the students start here, they just know classroom science, but they learn so much more,'' says Ruby.

Ruby's organised lots of exciting speakers for the students, including archaeologist Sarah Wurz from Iziko Museums on September 15 as part of African Origins Month.



''The kids ask really relevant questions - even 'how much do you earn?' - and SAILI broadens their minds in terms of where they want to be one day. Science becomes comes so real, so applicable to them.''

In October, which is astronomy month, Ruby is bringing in astronomer Lea Labuschagne from the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO).

Initiated in 2003, the Comets have been visible for five years now. Learners showing potential in maths and science start in the catchment programme at grade 6 level, hang out at the science centre for two years and then continue through high school and even at teriary level at other science education institutions.

By grade 7, the SAILI Cometeers are groomed for greater things by being placed in better, well-resourced, quality schools, such as Livingstone High School in Claremont and South Peninsula in Diep River. Other schools utilised by SAILI stars include Pinelands, Hottentots Holland or San Souci Girls High School, said Robbie Gow-Kleinschmidt, SAILI's director.



SAILI started in 1996. It's a Western Cape project, operating under the auspices of a section 21 non-profit company, the Cape Higher Education Consortium (CHEC), a project close to the hearts of the people who began it, the vice-chancellors of the four universities in the region, who had grown frustrated at the lack of trained talent for their own classrooms and laboratories.

Much of SAILI is funded by the Gatsby, a charitable foundation in London which has been a stalwart from the beginning.



For more information on SAILI, contact Robbie Gow-Kleinschmidt 021 763 7161 (his direct line) or 021 763 7163 (switchboard), cellphone 083 441 8105 email, robgk@chec.ac.za