With the National Senior Certificate (NSC) 2023 June examinations underway, there are high expectations for the Class of 2023. They’ll be expected to beat the national pass rate of 80.1 per cent achieved by the class of 2022. However, mathematics pass rates (55 per cent national pass rate in 2022) continue to be a concern, nationally and in some provinces.

What needs to be done to resolve the mathematics conundrum in South Africa?

The class of 2022 had suffered many obstructions that could have contributed to a lower overall performance but they achieved a national 80.1 per cent pass rate. These learners were in grade 10 at the beginning of Covid-19; grade 10 is a pivotal year with learners choosing which streams they want to pursue. They would not have enjoyed the continuous in-person guidance and encouragement from teachers to the extent that this is usually available. The global pandemic had severe impacts on learning, teaching methods, and mental health. Its impacts spread beyond the school and into homes, churches and society in general. Therefore, it had a double effect on these learners as they progressed to grade 12. They have also been the recipients of harsh load-shedding schedules (from March 2021 to the present) which affected both general study conditions and study times.

The country waited with bated breath to see how these obstructions would affect the pass rate for matriculants, and the quality of the passes in sectors that need critical subjects like accounting, business studies, economics, mathematics, and physical science. To pass grade 12, a scholar must achieve a minimum of 40 per cent in their home language; 40 per cent in two other subjects and 30 per cent in four other subjects. , however, there is a diploma and bachelor’s pass.

The Minister of Basic Education said in her address on the release of the 2022 National Senior Certificate (NSC) Examination Results that the increase in the matric pass rate was indicative of a better education system: “This means that we are systematically addressing all imperatives related to the social justice principles, especially equity and redress”. This is true in as far as there was good achievement in all social classes, especially from non-paying schools, progressed learners, girl children and social grant recipients. However, when we take a closer look at pass rates in different subjects, mathematics is still in crisis.

The ‘pure maths’ subject has the least percentage of ‘achieved’ scores when compared to all of the other subjects, with only 55 per cent of scholars scoring 30 per cent in the subject;  36 per cent scoring 40 per cent, and only 22 per cent passing with 50 per cent or more, according to the NSC Exam Report 2022. The Department of Basic Education was proud to announce the high pass rates across subjects, with a national 3.7 per cent increase in the pass rate. This is inclusive of progressed learners (learners that previously have not met the minimum requirements to pass the grade but have been moved on to the next grade with support).

Similarly, good pass rates were observed at the provincial level, except in maths. The Eastern Cape and Limpopo are the provinces with the lowest pass rates in maths, with only 16 and 18 per cent respectively achieving over 50 per cent. The Western Cape and Gauteng achieved highest in mathematics with 37.8 per cent and 28 per cent  of the learner respectively passing with over 50 per cent. This is the mathematics conundrum: despite a low bar with a pass mark of 30 per cent, the DBE fails to ensure a high maths pass rate. This is especially concerning as maths is a key subject for other critical and STEM subjects, like physical science.

Poor performances in maths and science are a legacy of gross racial, gender and spatial inequalities and scholars often deregister from these subjects when they are  no longer compulsory. This can be observed in the consistent and significant decrease in pure mathematics registration numbers from the first year of high school up to grade 12. There are many possible reasons for this drop in registrations. In 2021, only 26.68 per cent of the learners who did maths in grade 8 continued with it in grade 12. Many learners drop the subject in grades 10 and 11 when it is no longer compulsory. In 2022, less than 40 per cent of all of the scholars in grade 12 took mathematics, according to the NSC exam report.

MISTRA’s book titled The Pedagogy of Mathematics in South Africa:  Is there a unifying logic? published in 2017, highlighted that indeed past inequalities are still prevalent in the teaching and learning of mathematics. There must be a concerted effort towards developing a unifying logic. It begins with investment in equipping the teachers of maths to gain the skills to support learners through some of the social matters that impact on learning,  and in developing specialised teaching methods for different kinds of learners. Alongside this, there should be an investment in support for parents and guardians to carry the baton into the home. A supportive home structure is important for improving mathematics learning. These 2017 arguments continue to bear relevance in South Africa today as the maths conundrum persists. As the Minister highlighted in her address, systematic methods are needed to address the continuous and still present problem.

MISTRA’s book also highlighted that the language in which mathematics is taught has been found to be a key factor in the learning of mathematics. As maths is a subject that relies on abstract concepts, stories and contexts, language has a significant impact on maths pass rates in South Africa. According to the NSC Diagnostic Report for 2022, it was evident in candidates’ responses that there is a general lack of reading and comprehension skills and candidates did not understand the vocabulary used in questions, extracts and comprehension texts. Therefore,  there should be support for mother-tongue education in classrooms right up until grade 12, not only from grades 1 to 4. Indeed there is a need for more development of mother tongue languages as integral to education, science and technology. Buy-in from all stakeholders (school governing bodies, educators, parents, etc.) will be required to develop and preserve these languages.

Another key recommendation from the MISTRA’s book, still relevant to the obstacles the class of 2022 faced, is the adoption of African indigenous tools into learning systems. Mathematics exists in cultural games and habits. Games like umlabalaba, which is based on examples of geometry and arithmetic principles, would assist with the understanding of mathematical concepts if they were to be adopted into the school curriculum. This approach would help make mathematical concepts accessible to learners by connecting these ideas to real-life socio-cultural experiences.

The crucial role of language in maths education was again confirmed when MISTRA conducted further focus-group fieldwork research in primary and high schools located in peri-urban and rural areas of Gauteng, Free State, Limpopo and Western Cape. Researchers’ findings were consistent with the recommendations made in The Pedagogy of Mathematics in South Africa, about the barrier that language presents for teaching and learning maths, amongst other factors. Broadly, maths learners’ and teachers’ needs are unmet because of a continuous failure to sufficiently reduce historical inequalities.

Mathematics is a diverse and practical subject that may be mastered by anyone, not only by the small numbers currently registering for and passing maths. There must be concerted investment into mother-tongue education into concepts,  and the utilisation of cultural games at home.

With the right approaches in place, South Africa and its mathematic learners may very well realise that success in matriculation mathematics is not just for the gifted or privileged few.

Written by Anelile Gibixego, Assistant Researcher at the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA)