Article: Fewer matrics take and pass Mathematics

While the overall pass rate for matriculants had increased, the number of students who sat the mathematics paper and then passed, dropped in 2010, the basic education department said on Thursday.

Basic education director general Bobby Soobrayan told media in Pretoria that the drop in the number of pupils writing mathematics was a concern.
 
The number of candidates who achieved a pass rate of 40 percent and above -- the pass rate required to be considered for university entrance -- dropped from 90,699 candidates in 2009 to 81,374 candidates in 2010 -- or a fall of 10.2 percent.

Only 30.9 percent of candidates achieved a mark above 40 percent.
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meaning the other 37% who passed matric might as well use their certificate for toilet paper.
 
Seriously, how could people possibly fail on such low pass rates?

Fail education system, fail teachers or fail students?

Remember when pass rate was still 50%? Even then it was easy to pass.
 
Alestorm said:
Unless you need it for your university entrance it makes no difference at all. Why take it if you don't enjoy it, there are easier/more useful subjects.
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What can you study at university that you don't need Maths for? BA Janitorial science? Master's degree in Car-guarding?
 
You can be a politician without maths.. it doesn't really contribute to society.
 
Rosaudio said:
What can you do at Uni without Maths?
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Ba.Trekker-ry and all that agriculture crap.

But seriously, there are alot:
Law, communication, tourism etc.

Actually everything that isn't in a medical, scientific and financial direction.
 
tortured said:
Seriously, how could people possibly fail on such low pass rates?

Fail education system, fail teachers or fail students?

Remember when pass rate was still 50%? Even then it was easy to pass.
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Anyways, it's fail everything. Fail education system, thats obvious.
Fail teachers, they are in lots of cases not trained properly.
Fail students, because they don't care, and because children have too much freedom these days and can do what ever they want. We're becoming like America where the children control their parents.

Don't worry though, the gaffmennt has a plan, keep lowering passing marks. One of these days you'll be able to pass with any mark over 1%
 
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Alestorm said:
Unless you need it for your university entrance it makes no difference at all. Why take it if you don't enjoy it, there are easier/more useful subjects.
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Because you eliminate the option of all the fields that do need it. In short, you severly limit you career choices.

Hands up how many folks are actually doing the job they intended too when they left school? A large number of folks do not.
 
I'd love to see the spread of people who passed Maths. How many passed with exactly 40%, how many with 41-50% and how many actually got decent marks (70+)? This will give a clearer picture of the future of SA.

Oh yeah - and the whole "why take Maths if you don't need it for uni" argument... pathetic. Seriously people, it's the basics. I mean can't people at least get the basics right? /sigh
 
Hmmm, who needs maths anyway? Only : Scientists, Engineers, Financial based degrees, Actuaries, programmers, and so on need maths... Hardly the grounds for a successful country.
 
scotty777 said:
Hmmm, who needs maths anyway? Only : Scientists, Engineers, Financial based degrees, Actuaries, programmers, and so on need maths... Hardly the grounds for a successful country.
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No dude... forget that. It's the simple basics, it's about teaching people to think logically. It's about not having to argue with the lady working behind the counter at your local video store that 40-27 does indeed equal 13 and not 16.
 
I don't blame them. I did higher grade maths, passed matric in 2007. The exams for it are damn hard.
I had to take extra lessons to cope with maths exams in matric as did many other students. I don't know if they're just cramming too much into the syllabus or not teaching it well.
What they teach in the classes just does not prepare you for the stuff you face in exams, only doing revision for yourself and getting some extra help can truly prepare you. Other subjects never had this issue, at least not for me. The stuff we did in class was just nowhere near as difficult as the stuff in the exams.

I was one of the top 10 students in my grade and maths was a bitch for me. Don't know if I could have passed it without extra classes, that would have killed my chances of getting a computer science degree.

I wonder how our maths compares to other countries?

When I was at university in New Zealand I had to take a maths course called "Maths for business" as part of my computer science degree. I found it easier than my SA matric maths.
 
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