The Launch of the Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition, Tanzania (YSTET)

The Combat Diseases of Poverty Consortium (CDPC) is pleased to announce the successful launch of the Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition, Tanzania (YSTET) in the week of 8^th November 2011.  The announcement in Tanzania comes as part of the fiftieth anniversary of Independence of the country, and the initial projects are being displayed in front of Ministers and dignitaries from many countries.  It is also comes at a time when Tanzania and east Africa more broadly are also developing into an important emerging market for Irish business.

The first of its kind in Tanzania, the programme aims to promote and popularize science and technology by linking these disciplines to social themes, such as active citizenship and the fight against poverty.  Participating secondary-school students will generate the ideas for their projects based on the realities in their communities, in the process of acquiring key learning skills and scientific practices.  These projects also have the opportunity to influence key domestic and local economic issues that are best addressed via science and the scientific method. 

The Tanzanian Exhibition develops directly out of the highly successful Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition in Ireland (YSI). Like the Irish event, now in its 48^th year, Young Scientists Tanzania 2012 aims to popularize science among young people through an annual exhibition in which both schools and students can take part.

The roots of the move of the YSI to Tanzania lie in Training Programme of the CDPC, centered at NUI Maynooth.  As part of that training, east African Scholars were involved in presentations to Irish secondary schools and the mentoring of Development-themed projects for the YSI, under the auspices of the CDPC Education Officer, Mr. Joe Clowry.  So impressed were these scholars with the Irish Programme that they asked requested that something like it be developed in their own countries.

Tanzania emerged as the best place to begin this work, and for the past two years the CDPC in Ireland has been working with its local partners to set up this launch.  The Consortium lined up continuing sponsored by the Pearson Foundation and Irish Aid.  Beginning early next year, participating schools will be supported through teacher workshops that provide mentoring and practical advice on appropriate research methodologies that can shape their students’ entries into a nationwide science competition. Students will subsequently be invited to submit project applications through July 31, 2012, and their best efforts will be showcased in a culminating two-day celebration of science, investigative learning, and teamwork at the Aga Khan Diamond Jubilee Hall in Dar es Salaam next October.  There are medium-term plans to regionalize the exhibition to neighboring countries.

Very much in the ethos of the CDPC, Young Scientists Tanzania seeks to link participating schools with appropriate mentors from academia, NGOs and the private sector. Participating schools will also receive stipends that will make it possible for their students to attend the culminating exhibition in Dar es Salaam, and provate sector support is being sourced for specific prizes. The network of CDPC-trained scholars and NGO workers in Tanzania has greatly facilitated this process.

“This new program encourages young people across Tanzania to get more involved in science and technology, and to explore ways that these disciplines can have direct impact in their own communities,” said Mark Nieker, Pearson Foundation President and CEO. We look forward to celebrating the results of the 2012 national competition, and—together with Irish Aid and participating Tanzanian ministries—we encourage secondary school students to take part in what we hope will be the first of a long tradition of local Young Scientists Tanzania exhibitions.”

“We all know that inside the young minds that surround us, lies the vast potential to use science and technology to improve our shared world in ways that our previous generations may never even have considered” said Lorcan Fullam, Irish Ambassador to Tanzania. “If, in time, the Young Scientist event helps to liberate a fraction of the genius among young Tanzanians, then the organisers can be proud of themselves for the considerable effort they have invested.”

“We feel pleased and privileged to have been a part of this process,” says Dr Jamie Saris, Co-Chair of the CDPC in Ireland.  “The YSI is perhaps the most successful national science exhibiton in the world, and one of the significant success stories of modern Ireland.  It works because of the strong ethos of engagement present in the Irish university sector – literally hundreds of lecturers give thousands of hours of their time to these projects,” he continued.  “The YSI also represents a very workable model of public-private partnership.  We have been very keen to encourage all of these elements in the YSTET.  The achievements of the YSTET that have been showcased this week also highlights the strengths of the Irish university sector, as well as the foresightedness of Irish Aid’s strategic partnership with Higher Education in Ireland launched in 2007.  In my experience at least, the collaboration between governement, universities, the private sector, and NGOs happens more easily and more fruitfully in Ireland than in any other country, and it has certainly been a significant part of the success of the CDPC,” he concluded.  “We are delighted that our trainees, having seen this model work in their time at Maynooth, are making such an impact in their home countries.”