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    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home » News » South Africans dismal at basic science

    South Africans dismal at basic science

    By Sapa Reporter10 March 2014
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    stupid-640

    One in three South Africans don’t know that the earth revolves around the sun, according to a test with 10 basic science questions, a newspaper report said on Sunday.

    The average South African only cracked half of the questions, put to a thousand people via Media24’s online Forum24, Rapport said.

    The 2 200 Americans who answered the same questions by the National Science Foundation got 6,5 out of 10.

    South Africans were worst at the question: “Antibiotics kill viruses and bacteria, true or false?” with only 28% knowing the answer — white, English speakers faring best at this question (56%).

    South Africans did best on the true or false statement “the centre of the earth is very hot”, with 78% getting it right.

    On the question of whether man evolved from animals, 49% said “yes”, 41% “no” and 10 percent said they did not know.

    George Claassen, a science journalism lecturer at Stellenbosch University, said a weak knowledge of basic science is not a joke. It can kill people and lead to exploitation through quackery, he said.  — Sapa



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