News Room
The Star 06 January 2009 Siyanda Mhlongo
It is mainly African schools in rural areas and townships who perform badly.
The Star 03 January 2009 Brenda Seery
Something like 15% of matriculants country-wide got a university entrance pass in 2007. Yet, of those who go to university, more than half fail their degrees, most of them falling out in the first year.
The Star 10 December 2008
"Only 1,5% of Africans pass Mathematics on HG in Gr12" -
Sunday Times 23 November 2008
"Wanted now: 94 000 teachers – By 2015, 18 000 will die, 42 000 will retire, while 2000 emigrate annually"
Mike Chapin CEO Geocon, Inc – Bnet July 2008
"Algebra is a critical building block in learning the mathematics and science needed for high technology careers. In my industry and most other high tech fields, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find qualified scientists and engineers. We will benefit greatly in the long-term by increasing the pool of eighth-grade students proficient in algebra, preparing them for greater success in high school classes and, ultimately, their careers."
Shocking maths, science lag - Oct 03 2007 12:44 – Fin24
"Half of South Africa's secondary schools failed to achieve a single HG maths pass."
Message from the Western Cape Education Department December 2007:
"The number of candidates who passed Mathematics on the Higher Grade declined from 4 137 in 2006 to 3 990 this year. The number of students who passed Physical Science on the Higher Grade declined from 4 053 in 2006 to 3 687 in 2007."
Engineering News: By: Brindaveni Naidoo 16 Nov 07
"According to the CDE, in 2006, some 33% (174 413 out of 528 525) candidates failed the senior certificate examinations, and only 16% (84 564) passed with grades needed to enter university. Only 4,8% (25 633) of students passed higher grade maths, and only 5,7% (30 174) of students passed higher grade science.
The report notes that using receiving country statistics to adjust official emigration data shows that between 800 and 1 000 South African teachers emigrated yearly from 1999 to 2002, rising to 1 700 in 2003."
The Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE) – December 2004:
"In 2004, 467,985 learners wrote senior certificate with 39,939 writing HG maths. Of these only 5% (24,143) passed HG maths, of those, only 1.5% (7236) of passes were obtained by African students and a mere 0.5% (2406) achieved a 'C' or better."
André Gaum, Western Cape Education Minister - 18 February 2003
In fact, they experienced considerable difficulties with maths on the Grade 1 and 2 levels. This means that they simply did not have the foundation in maths that they should have acquired to cope in the more senior grades.
No man is wise enough by himself – Titus M Plautus
Author: E.J. Pretorius (Dept of Linguistics, UNISA) November 2001
"Problem areas in the reading of mathematics texts were identified, and cluster analysis was used to explore the relationship between reading ability and performance in mathematics. The results showed that students who failed their mathematics examination tended to have weak reading skills; the stronger the students' performance in mathematics, the stronger they performed in the reading test. The findings suggest that while reading ability does not guarantee a pass in mathematics, poor reading ability constitutes a learning barrier that impedes access to the proper understanding of mathematical information. A strong reading basis would thus seem to be a necessary but not a sufficient condition for successful performance in Mathematics."
Dweck, 1986; Willis, 2000
There is considerable researched evidence that girls and women generally express less confidence about their mathematical capabilities than boys and men.
