CHEMICAL Society of the South Pacific (CSSP) president Dr Francis Mani has encouraged students to read more and develop critical thinking.
He made the comments at the CSSP 2016 annual awards ceremony on Saturday where the winners of the the National Titration competition, Chem Knowledge Battle and ChemQuiz competitions were awarded.
“While running the competition today, some students came up to me and said that they found the questions a little difficult, more application type and ambiguous,” Dr Mani said.
“I would like to encourage students to develop critical thinking.
“Reading extensively and widely helps to facilitate critical thinking and critical analysis for enhancing understanding of the particular concepts involved.
“Knowledge is indispensable and readily accessible these days with the availability of internet on your mobile phones.
“I plead with all the students here to spend more time reading rather than spending time on social networking sites and playing games.”
He said one of CSSPs aims was to generate interest in chemistry among high school students, getting then to pursue further studies in the area.
Dr Mani said, those competitions were a way to do that.
“We at USP are now seeing a slow but steady rise in our chemistry undergraduate numbers,” he said.
“This year we organised several competitions such as titrations, chem quiz, biobattle and chem battle which were primarily sponsored by the Faculty of Science Technology and Environment, Vodafone, Rosy Hearts and CDP. The preliminary rounds were held in June in the Central, Western and Northern divisions and the finalists were invited to take part in the finals today (Saturday) held here in Suva and also in Labasa.”
Speaking at the awards ceremony, permanent secretary for the Ministry of Education Iowane Tiko said the ministry was in need of more chemistry teachers and he was encouraging donors to provide science scholarships for students.
