Page 31 - EngineerIT September 2022

EDUCATION

SAS and UKZN launch

Teachers4DataAnalytics programme

AS has partnered with three South head of the School of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science, for the College
African universities to launch the of Agriculture, Engineering and Science at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN).
STeachers4DataAnalytics programme, Professor North has been highly influential in statistics education in the country, having
a teacher training initiative that aims to served as the chair of the South African Statistical Association Education for 17 years,
reach hundreds of teachers and provide and played a seminal role in defining the statistics content of the school curriculum
them with the knowledge and tools to since statistics was first introduced into the school curriculum in 2002.
inspire their students to pursue careers Professor North teamed up with Professor Christine Franklin, a world-renowned
in data analytics. Teachers4DataAnalytics expert and leader in teacher training, to optimise the uptake of statistical concepts
will also form part of a bigger SAS driven at school level and produce a booklet that would guide teachers in their training,
programme focused on secondary to bring renewed insight into learning from data that takes into account the
education, providing a bridge/feeder complexities of teaching in a country that is both developing and modern, with less
for the company’s successful Global than ideal infrastructure and access to laboratories for teaching. SAS® DataFly is the
Academic Programme in partnership with software of choice in this programme, as innovative use of the versatile software will
local universities. allow the teacher to use SAS DataFly despite constraints and realities of teaching in
Despite one-third of South African less affluent schools.
university graduates and almost 60% of Professor North says school curricula require students to learn how to perform
learners who successfully complete grade statistical calculations, but the time available to complete the year’s work limits
12 failing to find jobs and meaningful learners’ ability to engage with the context of such calculations or their usefulness
employment, a massive skills shortage beyond school.
in technical sectors persists. With “This ‘dry’ method of presenting the curriculum does little to encourage curiosity
economies digitalising rapidly, creating and passion about statistics, which plays a role in reducing the number of candidates
roles for entrants with data analytics and entering technical undergraduate qualifications and, ultimately, the number of
statistical skills, SAS became increasingly university graduates who can fill important roles in a modernising economy. The
concerned that school learners locally sustainability of the skills value chain depends on learners being aware of career
are largely unaware of the existing opportunities before leaving secondary school.”
and emerging potential vocations that According to Zitzke, SAS’s historical roots in academia are part of the reason the
can offer them exciting and gainful company is so involved in connecting talent with industry. “It’s not enough to get
employment opportunities and future- involved at universities, because we need to generate passion for STEM careers among
proofed career paths. learners so that they can make informed choices about what they want to study at
Andre Zitzke, Manager: Global tertiary level. We need teachers onboard to do this, because the passion will be created
Academic Programmes in Africa for in the classroom,” he says.
SAS, says this is the first programme of “We have considered the South African context in which many school learners
this nature, scale and size focused on will not have access to computer laboratories or mobile devices. The free SAS DataFly
secondary schoolteachers and learners visualisation tool can be run on the teacher’s single laptop and learners can record
to be launched in a SAS operational data written by hand on cards that can then be fed into the tool to build graphs and
region outside of the US. The aim is to analytics in real time. When learners watch the data fly in and populate histograms or
empower teachers with the knowledge scatterplots, that is where the magic happens,” says North.
and tools to be better placed to reach “These projects will require learners to capture data from their everyday lives,
more students, encourage their curiosity such as their activities or emotional states through the course of a day, to connect data
and provide them with exposure analysis with the real world. Seeing it in action, with the capability to add fun features
on practical applications behind the like colour and emoji customisations, heightens engagement with calculations and
curricula in STEM subjects, so that demonstrates their usefulness in understanding the world around us. Each class will
learners become more informed on the then create a poster showing how they’ve analysed the data,” North adds.
careers available to them in the digital “It is our genuine hope that exposure through such projects will captivate the
and data driven age. curiosity of learners on the process and purpose of capturing data for analysis, while
The Teachers4DataAnalytics introducing the skills that learners will need once they reach the time for a
programme was conceptualised by professional career of their choice, whether that is business, academic or any other
Professor Delia North, former Dean and field,” says Zitzke. n

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