Matric doesn't add up

[Necuno]

A group of concerned maths teachers has accused the government of watering down 2008's matric maths papers to inflate the pass rate in a core subject in the new curriculum.

The teachers also criticised the education department's "one-size-fits-all" approach towards mathematics, which experts warn could have dire consequences for the country as students struggle in highly technical fields.

Despite the low aptitude in numeracy, 63 038 of South Africa's matric pupils - 21,2 percent of eligible candidates - scored more than a 50 percent pass in maths, a percentage considered high, and which raised eyebrows in some education circles.

The Concerned Mathematics Educators (CME), a collective of 90 mathematics teachers countrywide, on Saturday criticised the current mathematics curriculum, which it described as "watered-down" and "unchallenged" for competent pupils.

"The mathematics targets achieved by the education department should not be misconstrued as indicators of any real improvement in mathematics education in South Africa," said CME coordinator Aslam Mukadam.

The CME said although the department had met its mathematics targets in eight of the nine provinces, it questioned the benefit this would have in terms of the quality of passes.

On Tuesday, Education Minister Naledi Pandor said the department had set a national target of 50 000 students passing mathematics with a mark of at least 50 percent.

Doubts about the mathematics pass rate have also been raised by independent education expert Professor Jonathan Jansen in an opinion piece carried on page 20 in the Tribune today.

"How is it possible that 79 percent of pupils pass mathematical literacy in a country with the one of the worst numeracy results in the world?" he asked.

Jansen, a former dean of education at the University of Pretoria, said every international test that benchmarked South African pupils against pupils in other parts of the world, such as international mathematics and science studies, or the regional SACMEQ (Southern African Consortium for the Monitoring of Educational Quality) studies had pointed to broken foundations for numeracy in the pre- and early high school years, causing political consternation.

"Even homegrown research such as the so-called Systemic Evaluation confirmed the pattern of underachievement across the primary grades in numeracy. Now, suddenly, when every pupil does either mathematics or mathematical literacy, there are massive increases in performance across the board. It does not require profound knowledge of statistics to realise there is something rotten behind this spike in mathematics achievement," he said.

On Saturday, Mukadam said the CME believed the final mathematics exam was watered down and thus widened the gap between school and university for students.

"If this standard is going to be used as a benchmark for future examinations it will not adequately prepare young learners to study mathematics-related courses at university level."

Responding to the CME statement, Education Director-General Duncan Hindle said the government was confident its curriculum was up to standard.

"We have a had a team of highly respected mathematicians who have helped us in the development of the maths curriculum, and we are confident it is of a high standard. However, we will take into account any specific comments that the CME makes."

Mukadam said even students who passed matric mathematics above the 50 percent mark were not necessarily prepared to cope with maths-related courses such as engineering, architecture and business science at tertiary institutions.

He said that normally, students who excelled at mathematics usually also excelled at science.

While in the maths exam 21,2 percent of pupils had scored above 50 percent, only 14,9 percent scored above 50 percent for the physical sciences exam, which he said was of a very good standard.

"This major discrepancy is a sure indicator that the standard of the mathematics exam for 2008 had dropped to an unacceptable level."

He said despite this about 60 percent of the pupils had still failed mathematics.

"This stands in stark contrast to the extremely high pass rate of 78,7 percent in mathematical literacy. It is easy to conceive that learners will now opt for what is perceived as the simpler alternative to mathematics, and that is mathematical literacy."

Mukadam said at the moment universities were already forced to bring matriculants up to speed with bridging courses and extended degree programmes.

He suggested an interim measure was to readjust the assessment system so that top students would also write an optional additional paper testing further conceptual abilities in the subject.

The Parents Association of KZN said it was crucial for the country to equip its students with the best skills in mathematics and science.

"We want the best for our children, and we cannot have a country without these services. But the Department of Education is not doing much to contain the problem. The CME is sounding the alarm bells, but the horse has already bolted," said its chairman Sayed Rajack.

Mukadam said the CME had set up a website, www.mathsexcellence.co.za, which contained free maths textbooks from Grade one to 12 which pupils could use to upgrade their skills.

http://www.pretorianews.co.za/?fSectionId=&fArticleId=vn20090104082136259C586175

 

[hyperian]

Good luck with Maths 1 at uni guys. The profs aren't going to go easy on you.

 

[Balstrome]

Good luck with Maths 1 at uni guys. The profs aren't going to go easy on you.

And we know how these future vasity students will handle that problem.

 

[devnull]

how on earth did anyone fail math literacy? how? unless you randomly turned up for a math exams for absolutely no apparent reason and had never been to school in your life before, or perhaps were completely rat arsed trashed during the exam... even still. good grief mense.

 

[iDenTiTy]

how on earth did anyone fail math literacy? how? unless you randomly turned up for a math exams for absolutely no apparent reason and had never been to school in your life before, or perhaps were completely rat arsed trashed during the exam... even still. good grief mense.

Ja. My friends and myself were debating as to the meaning of math literacy.
What on earth is math literacy?

 

[slayerza]

I would also like to know what the point of maths literacy is. It seems to me if you know how to puch in some numbers in a calculator you're mathematically literate. The standard maths paper was also a joke, and I would like to see the butchering maths101 will lead to.

Even people currently at university that did the whole OBE thing are screwed when it comes to the interpretation of what a mathematical equation actually represents. Sure they can do algebra - but even a machine can manipulate equations - but a fundamental core seems to be missing.

 

[The_Right_Honourable_Brit]

And yet 35% still failed the Maths paper . I think I'll have to go to extra lessons next year for Business Science even though I did get a high "A" for maths this year.

 

[Ady]

The ministers of Education clearly don't understand the repercussions of their actions. A lower standard of education will have a bad effect on all of us, especially those trying to take their degrees and skills overseas where they will no longer be recognised.

 

[Sneeky]

Anyone have a Maths literacy paper they can perhaps upload somewhere.
Would like to see it.

 

[Hoof-Hearted]

Anyone have a Maths literacy paper they can perhaps upload somewhere.
Would like to see it.

DoE website will probably have past papers but doubtfull on the latest one

 

[Sneeky]

are they like a state secret or something, surely the past papers (2008) are made available??

 

[rwenzori]

There is a whole pile of stuff at:

http://www.education.gpg.gov.za/Matric Info/

Not sure if what you want is there.

 

[Hoof-Hearted]

Example papers downloadable from here:

MafsPeppers

(around 4 Mb)

Looks like lots of reading values from tables and some simple addition/subtraction/multiplication/division calculations

Thanx god(and AA) my kids got private school education

 

[rwenzori]

Example papers downloadable from here:

MafsPeppers

(around 4 Mb)

Looks like lots of reading values from tables and some simple addition/subtraction/multiplication/division calculations

Thanx god(and AA) my kids got private school education

Thanks! I'm intrigued - downloading it now.

Edit.

A rugby squad consists of 30 players. 40% of the players catch a stomach bug before a big game. How many players are left to play?

30! Ask the 1995 All Blacks LOL!



It's actually quite interesting - lots of "life skill" type stuff - loans, food, taxis, soccer etc.

 

[Sneeky]

Thx Hoof

 

[Hoof-Hearted]

It's actually quite interesting - lots of "life skill" type stuff - loans, food, taxis, soccer etc.

True... but these look similar to the "word sums" I did in std 4/5 way back in the late(Date edited to protect the innocent)

 

[Sneeky]

They are really kidding themselves and doing the kids of this country a disservice if they continue to punt Maths literacy as the old Standard Grade maths.
It is nowhere near that.

edit: One can see what they are trying to achieve by integrating real life situations into the paper, thus preparing people to deal with 'basic' situations like an insurance policy, loan repayments etc etc, but strewth it is really dumbed down.
We had to do calculus in std grade maths during matric.

 

[Mephisto_Helix]

I just heard about my cousins matric maths paper ..... shocking is the only way to describe it Things like "What is 4 fifths of 50" and the fact that what I did in std6 was harder, make me very worried about the dumbing down of SA.

 

[devnull]

Anyone have a Maths literacy paper they can perhaps upload somewhere.
Would like to see it.

i found the prep exams on the website listed in the article

http://www.mathsexcellence.co.za/

 

[shadowfox]

OMFG!!!

[EDIT]

My thoughts after reading the prep-exams in the link above.

Fair enough - they apply the questions to real-life situations ... but there's no way you can keep painting it as Math SG. I could probably swing through most of those questions without switching on a calculator