Mathematics Education System in South Africa

*Zingiswa Jojo*

### **Abstract**

The teaching of mathematics in South African schools has been pronounced to be among the worst in the world. Unacknowledged poor teaching of mathematics in a majority of public schools deprive many learners access to both higher education and modern, knowledge-intensive work skills. The chapter resumes by outlining mathematics curriculum redress and changes in the post-apartheid era, the exploration of mathematics education, democracy and development, together with the introduction of Mathematical Literacy as an alternative compulsory subject to learners incompetent to do mathematics. The chapter further interrogates how mathematics education, in terms of mathematical knowledge, skills, values and attitudes, is distributed in society and thereby shapes educational possibilities together with the research trends and their effect on mathematics education in South Africa. Mathematics teacher training and empowerment are discussed together with shortcomings in the system that leads to learners' poor performance in Mathematics. How South Africa compares in performance with other countries is also examined in this chapter. The closing remarks of the chapter suggest some improvements that the mathematics education system in South Africa can embark on.

**Keywords:** mathematics education, mathematics curriculum, mathematical literacy, mathematics knowledge, democracy, research, development

#### **1. Introduction**

There has been a significant reform in the South African mathematics curriculum such that the mathematics education research community has also grown markedly. The trust and focus of this chapter is to unpack the mathematics education system in South Africa in the post-apartheid era. The author draws and builds envisaged result bearing changes in the system in the country from various scholars. The curriculum reform in South Africa has been generally political driven. Consequently, the country has experienced reduction of education for the past 20 years to, economic ends, coupled with the conflation between mathematical prowess and problem-solving skills for the knowledge economy, which has resulted in mathematics being isolated as essential knowledge in South Africa. Thus in the post-apartheid era in the country, a redress was effected to ensure that all students will have been exposed to some form of mathematics by the time they complete matric.

After the 1994 democratic elections and post elections in South Africa, many changes took place and the biggest change by necessity has been in the area of education. Initially, curriculum 2005 (C2005) which was driven by the Outcomes Based Education (OBE) was unveiled by the department of basic education. It was mainly characterized by cooperative group instruction which made it difficult for teachers to identify struggling learners in mathematics understanding at all levels. Outcomes-based education was introduced in 1997 to overcome the curricular divisions of the past, and was reviewed in 2000 after the experience of its implementation by stakeholders yielded bad results [1]. The Revised National Curriculum Statement (RCNS) Grades R-9 and the National Curriculum Statement Grades 10–12 was then implemented in 2002. Consequently, according to [2] the RNCS system failed because the educators did not understand it and quite often did not see the difference between C2005 and the RCNS. The result was that the implementation challenges of RCNS were the same as those of C2005 [2]. It also transpired that RCNS was highly loaded and fell short of its expectations, used vague complex terminology and inadequate training of teachers and district officials. In 2012 it was reviewed again and replaced by the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) which was rolled out in all phases. According to the authors [3], OBE is still the underlying philosophy which underpins CAPS. Currently, CAPS is the curriculum practiced in the country as a measure that redresses the inequalities and imbalances of the past. With effect from January 2012, a single comprehensive Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement was developed for each subject to replace Subject Statements, Learning Programme Guidelines and Subject Assessment Guidelines in Grades R-12.

CAPS in general aims to produce learners that are able to:


Consequently, the learner develops (a) correct use of Mathematics; (b) number vocabulary, number concept, calculations and application skills; (c) learning to listen, communicate, think, reason logically and apply mathematical knowledge gained; learning to investigate, analyze, represent and interpret information, pose and solve problems; and (e) building awareness of the important role that Mathematics plays in real-life situations, including his/her personal development [1]. The intended CAPS prescribed various topics and the content areas to be covered in each grade with time allocated specifics together with the weighting of the content areas in each phase, outcomes and relevant assessment examples. Mathematics is taught at foundation (grades 1–3), intermediate (grade 4–6), senior (grade 7–9) and further education and training (grades 10–12) phases. Ramatlapana and Makonye [4] assert that although the teachers were free to teach the previous curricular as they saw fit, CAPS was prescriptive and demanded uniformity in implementation across the country. This prescription was enforced because the freedom with the implementation of changed curricular were

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time they finish school.

**development**

*Mathematics Education System in South Africa DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85325*

counter-productive since learners' performance continued to be poor in mathematics. This was evidently reflected from national school assessments and also in the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS) [5] together with Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ ) [6], Government officials and mathematics subject advisors are able to monitor the present curriculum. This is because the mathematics content to be taught is explicitly delimited, paced, and sequenced with prescribed mathematics textbooks that point to certain examples. However, Ramatlapana and Makonye [4] argue that the said prescription restricts the mathematics teachers' professional autonomy. This curriculum is favored in the country because it is helpful in the teaching of low achieving learners from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds using a more structured teacher directed instruction [7]. In addition, systematic efforts to change the practice, attitudes and beliefs of mathematics teachers in the classroom so as to effect the learning outcomes of students and familiarize teachers with the implementation of the curriculum are effected through Mathematics Continuous Professional Development programs. Those programs were geared to address the quality of mathematics education, improvement of quality of mathematics teach-

ers, numeracy and mathematics teaching in lower grade levels.

**2. The exploration of mathematics education, democracy and** 

The connection in the triad of mathematics education, democracy and development brings critical engagements with the country's developmental features like poverty and inequality. One of the reasons why mathematics was made compulsory was in the fact that in this day and era, it is used by people, institutions and agencies through all types of applications that come to produce and result in a formatting of society. It therefore requires a more sophisticated mathematically literate person to question the applications within a democracy since an increasing amount of some mathematics is found in all areas of life today. The recently introduced new Mathematics and Mathematics Literacy curricula for grades 10–12 in South Africa

Reference [8] suggests changes to the way mathematics is perceived. Those changes include: (i) In 1994, mathematics was a compulsory school subject until grade 9, and beyond that it was not compulsory. Those who registered for it at matric level did it on either higher or standard grade until 2007. (ii) In 2001 and 2002, the Outcome-Based Education (OBE) and the Common Task for Assessment (CTA) was introduced to high school learners, but was shortly discontinued due to serious challenges in terms of its implementation. (iii) In 2005 another curriculum change in the form of an "outcomes-based" approach was introduced. This change had a major impact in the learning and teaching in the GET (grades 7–9) due to the fact that it was very vague in terms of what had to be taught in different grades [8]. (iv) Curriculum change over the years has also affected the content to be taught in different grades. Changes involved moving content from one grade to another; removing some content and introducing new content. Recently, Technical Mathematics and Technical Science in technical schools in grade 10 from 2016 has been introduced. This clearly indicates that curriculum change in South Africa is a continuing process. Coupled with the change in curriculum was also the introduction of Mathematical Literacy as an alternative to be done by students who were not competent to do mathematics in the FET phase. This was done to cater for those students who could not do pure mathematics and to retain the compulsory status. This then ensures that all learners are exposed to some form of mathematics by the

#### *Mathematics Education System in South Africa DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85325*

*Education Systems Around the World*

Assessment Guidelines in Grades R-12.

tion of problems;

effectively;

effectively; and

CAPS in general aims to produce learners that are able to:

• use critical and creative thinking in making decisions of identification and solu-

• manage and organize themselves in handling their activities responsibly and

• use visual, symbolic and/or language skills in various modes to communicate

• recognize that problem-solving contexts do not exist in isolation and demonstrate an understanding and interpretation of the world as a set of related systems [1].

Consequently, the learner develops (a) correct use of Mathematics; (b) number vocabulary, number concept, calculations and application skills; (c) learning to listen, communicate, think, reason logically and apply mathematical knowledge gained; learning to investigate, analyze, represent and interpret information, pose and solve problems; and (e) building awareness of the important role that Mathematics plays in real-life situations, including his/her personal development [1]. The intended CAPS prescribed various topics and the content areas to be covered in each grade with time allocated specifics together with the weighting of the content areas in each phase, outcomes and relevant assessment examples. Mathematics is taught at foundation (grades 1–3), intermediate (grade 4–6), senior (grade 7–9) and further education and training (grades 10–12) phases. Ramatlapana and Makonye [4] assert that although the teachers were free to teach the previous curricular as they saw fit, CAPS was prescriptive and demanded uniformity in implementation across the country. This prescription was enforced because the freedom with the implementation of changed curricular were

• work effectively as individuals and with others as members of a team;

• collect, analyze, organize and critically evaluate relevant data;

mainly characterized by cooperative group instruction which made it difficult for teachers to identify struggling learners in mathematics understanding at all levels. Outcomes-based education was introduced in 1997 to overcome the curricular divisions of the past, and was reviewed in 2000 after the experience of its implementation by stakeholders yielded bad results [1]. The Revised National Curriculum Statement (RCNS) Grades R-9 and the National Curriculum Statement Grades 10–12 was then implemented in 2002. Consequently, according to [2] the RNCS system failed because the educators did not understand it and quite often did not see the difference between C2005 and the RCNS. The result was that the implementation challenges of RCNS were the same as those of C2005 [2]. It also transpired that RCNS was highly loaded and fell short of its expectations, used vague complex terminology and inadequate training of teachers and district officials. In 2012 it was reviewed again and replaced by the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) which was rolled out in all phases. According to the authors [3], OBE is still the underlying philosophy which underpins CAPS. Currently, CAPS is the curriculum practiced in the country as a measure that redresses the inequalities and imbalances of the past. With effect from January 2012, a single comprehensive Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement was developed for each subject to replace Subject Statements, Learning Programme Guidelines and Subject

**130**

counter-productive since learners' performance continued to be poor in mathematics. This was evidently reflected from national school assessments and also in the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS) [5] together with Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ ) [6], Government officials and mathematics subject advisors are able to monitor the present curriculum. This is because the mathematics content to be taught is explicitly delimited, paced, and sequenced with prescribed mathematics textbooks that point to certain examples. However, Ramatlapana and Makonye [4] argue that the said prescription restricts the mathematics teachers' professional autonomy. This curriculum is favored in the country because it is helpful in the teaching of low achieving learners from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds using a more structured teacher directed instruction [7]. In addition, systematic efforts to change the practice, attitudes and beliefs of mathematics teachers in the classroom so as to effect the learning outcomes of students and familiarize teachers with the implementation of the curriculum are effected through Mathematics Continuous Professional Development programs. Those programs were geared to address the quality of mathematics education, improvement of quality of mathematics teachers, numeracy and mathematics teaching in lower grade levels.

Reference [8] suggests changes to the way mathematics is perceived. Those changes include: (i) In 1994, mathematics was a compulsory school subject until grade 9, and beyond that it was not compulsory. Those who registered for it at matric level did it on either higher or standard grade until 2007. (ii) In 2001 and 2002, the Outcome-Based Education (OBE) and the Common Task for Assessment (CTA) was introduced to high school learners, but was shortly discontinued due to serious challenges in terms of its implementation. (iii) In 2005 another curriculum change in the form of an "outcomes-based" approach was introduced. This change had a major impact in the learning and teaching in the GET (grades 7–9) due to the fact that it was very vague in terms of what had to be taught in different grades [8]. (iv) Curriculum change over the years has also affected the content to be taught in different grades. Changes involved moving content from one grade to another; removing some content and introducing new content. Recently, Technical Mathematics and Technical Science in technical schools in grade 10 from 2016 has been introduced. This clearly indicates that curriculum change in South Africa is a continuing process. Coupled with the change in curriculum was also the introduction of Mathematical Literacy as an alternative to be done by students who were not competent to do mathematics in the FET phase. This was done to cater for those students who could not do pure mathematics and to retain the compulsory status. This then ensures that all learners are exposed to some form of mathematics by the time they finish school.
