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2 August 2006

Out of a record number of 31 926 students from 433 schools around the country, no less than eight of the 15 finalists for this year's National Computer Olympiad are from the Western Cape - of which three each from Rondebosch and Stellenberg high schools. They will now compete in the finals on 16 and 17 September at the University of Cape Town.

The aim of the Olympiad is to promote the use of computers in the classroom and to encourage with reward of excellence. Although the competition is aimed at high school learners, any learner may enter under the name of a school.

The Computer Olympiad is one of the oldest and largest competitions of its kind in the world, and has been hosted by the Computer Society of South Africa (CSSA) for the last 22 years.

The sponsors of the Olympiad are Standard Bank and the CSSA. In addition the Shuttleworth Foundation offers R100 000 in prize money for participants using Open Source Programming Language.

Peter Waker, Manager of the South African Computer Olympiad has announced that a record number of 31 926 students from 433 schools took part in the first round. Of these, 3 873 students from 223 schools qualified to participate in the second round. Of those the top 15 students will participate in the final round next month.

Mr Waker is delighted with the results. "In 2003 we tripled the number of entries. This year we saw the entries double again. It is most rewarding to see the growth in participation. Many schools are using the first round of the Computer Olympiad as an aptitude test to see if learners should consider a career in Information Technology (IT)."

A great attraction for 2006 is the additional R100 000 in prize money made available by the Shuttleworth Foundation for participants using Python. Python is an open source programming language used by Mark Shuttleworth to write the computer software that made him a billionaire. Unlike commercial programming a language, Python is available free of charge. (http://www.python.org)

An unusual aspect of this year's competition is the domination of two schools, Rondebosch Boys' High and Stellenberg High, which have three learners each in the finals. It has been very rare to have two learners from the same school in the finals, let alone three.

Western Cape Education MEC Cameron Dugmore said, "Congratulations to all the Western Cape finalists for their excellent results. You have done us proud and we wish you every success."

While paying tribute to the finalists, he also paid tribute to their schools. "It is clear that our schools are providing excellent support for computer studies. The results reflect the skills of the finalists as well as the commitment of our schools to excellence and the professionalism of our teachers."

For further information contact: Peter Waker (Manager: SA Computer Olympiad)
Tel: 021-448-7864
Fax: 021-447-8410
E-mail: info@olympiad.org.za.

Issued by: Western Cape Provincial Government
2 August 2006