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It is not acceptable for any public ordinary high school not to offer Mathematics to learners. In a democratic South Africa much has been done to transform the education system, we are at a point where almost all schools offer mathematics, and great strides have been made to reintroduce Mathematics in the Further Education and Training (FET) Phase (Grade 10, 11 and 12). The DBE is committed to supporting all schools in this endeavour.
As part of the strategy to increase learner participation and performance in the MST, the DBE developed the Mathematics, Science and Technology (MST) Sector Plan pronouncing national and provincial targets. The targets are a deliberate move by the DBE to increase the number of learners taking Mathematics in order to meet the National Development Plan (NDP) targets of increasing the number of learners eligible for bachelors programme with Mathematics and Science to 450 000 by 2030.
Setting of targets revealed that there were schools in the country that had dropped the offering of Mathematics in preference to Mathematical Literacy. The Audit conducted identified 353 of such schools. These schools were not offering Mathematics in Grades 10-12. In verifying these numbers, the analysis of the 2013 DBE EMIS data confirmed that the number was not 353 but 227. The reasons for the differences in numbers were that some of the schools had been merged as part of the rationalisation process.
The Minister issued a directive actioned by the Acting Director General, that all public ordinary schools had to offer at least one Mathematics class from grade 10. Through the various interventions of the DBE the number of schools not offering mathematics has already been drastically reduced, with many of the schools already as early as 2015 reintroducing mathematics. The DBE is working closely with the remaining schools to ensure that they are able to implement the directive come 2016.
A Plan has been developed for monitoring and support Curriculum Coverage (2015-2019):
Schools which are being supported, offering Mathematics in Grade 10 for the first time will receive special support.
Trained teachers will also be supported on-site and guidance will also be provided in their classrooms, in addition to scheduled, pre-training diagnostic assessment and remedial, group training sessions, including post-training impact assessments of teachers and learners.
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Source: AllAfrica.com
