**4.2 The prerequisite matriculation subjects for admission to physiotherapy, occupational therapy, and biokinetics**

Final school year academic performance is positively correlated with strong tertiary academic prowess in so far as the final school year is an essential foundation for subsequent education [13, 20, 21]. Good results enhance the admissions eligibility of prospective students enabling them to pursue studies in their chosen career-path at HEIs [21]. The aforementioned Health Science professions have identified the need for satisfactory mastery of Mathematics, Life Science, Physical Science, and English (**Table 1**), and these subject requirements are in line with international prerequisites for analogous professions [22].

i.McNaught and Hoyne have suggested that secondary schooling Mathematical prowess can be applied to many collegiate academic programmes that require critical analysis and problem solving, such as Health Sciences and Engineering [23]. However, many South African matric scholars experience challenges that adversely impact upon their Mathematics performance [24]. The 2019 results reflected a dip in Mathematics performance where the academic pass rate

*Factors Contributing to the Academic Challenges Faced by South African Physiotherapy… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.107491*

dropped by 4%, falling from 58% the previous year [24]. In 2018, 6763 scholars achieved distinctions in Mathematics, as compared to the 4415 Mathematics distinctions which were awarded to the 2019 class, yielding an average 2% decrease in performance [24]. The South African Mathematics class of 2019 was furthermore significantly (17.9%) smaller than the 2018 class, indicating that fewer students are pursuing secondary school Mathematics [24].


Academic performances in Mathematics, Life and Physical Sciences and English in the course of the final school year are strong predictors of the tertiary academic performance of prospective Health Science students [21, 22, 26]. Many South African scholars struggle to achieve strong grades in Mathematics, Physical Science, and English, which eventually adversely impact on their tertiary academic performance [24]. Many South African tertiary students studying Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy experience academic challenges as evidenced by Govender *et al* who reported that Occupational Therapy students with lower academic matriculation admission scores took longer to complete their degrees as compared to students who possessed higher academic matriculation scores and maintained better grade average scores in the course of their studies [27]. Similarly Mabizela *et al* concur that secondary school competency strongly influences the academic success of Physiotherapy students [17].
