Staff Reporter
The Central University of Technology (CUT) and the Free State Department of Education will today host the Charlotte Maxeke Women-in-STEM Lecture as part of the Women’s Month commemorations.
The hybrid lecture will have a limited audience at the CUT Bloemfontein campus and will also be streamed live between 12:00-15:00.
STEM stands for Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics and the lecture will seek to promote the teaching and learning of these subjects from an early stage through to tertiary level.
“The lecture will celebrate and promote . . . STEM education in Free State schools whilst focusing on women in STEM,” says a joint statement issued by CUT and the provincial education department.
It said the lecture will celebrate the life of Charlotte Maxeke through the promotion of STEM subjects at primary and secondary school level.
Maxeke, one of the country’s struggle icons, was the first black South African woman to obtain a university degree.
The keynote addresses will be delivered by the head of the CUT Information Technology Department, Professor Muthoni Masinde, University of the Free State South Campus Principal Dr Marienkie Madiope and South Africa’s first female fighter jet pilot Mandisa Mfeka.