We measured electron-impact excitation and recombination rate coefficients at the Stockholm Electron Beam Ion Trap (S-EBIT) with Highly Charged Ions (HCI) such as Siq+ and Sq+ that are of astrophysical interest. The experimental method was a combination of photon detection from the trapped ions and subsequently extraction and time-of-flight analysis of these ions. This allows to obtain recombination rate coefficients separately for every charge state, and together with the photon spectra of these ions also the excitation rate coefficients. Particularly electron-impact excitation measurements are rare, although important for astrophysics, and their description are challenging for theory. Here we compare the experimental results* ** with calculations of recombination and excitation rates for Si10+-Si13+ and S12+-S15+ ions*** **** using relativistic distorted-wave approach*** ****. The direct and resonant excitation (EIE) cross sections associated with 1s nl core excitations are calculated for the ground states of Si10+-Si13+ and S12+-S15+ions3*** ****. The different recombination and excitation channels and differences between experiment and theory are discussed.