South Africa's maths lit crisis

B-but we're good at lit.

Lit some tyres on fire... lit the classroom on fire... lit the library and clinic on fire with one match ffs!
 
The fault is poor primary school teaching

When I was at UCT, I used to give extra maths to high school learners. 80% of the folks I taught would not do the assignments or homework and were just not interested

Of course when they did not pass it was my fault
 
chrisc said:
The fault is poor primary school teaching

When I was at UCT, I used to give extra maths to high school learners. 80% of the folks I taught would not do the assignments or homework and were just not interested

Of course when they did not pass it was my fault
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Most good extra math lesson teachers see an above 80% success rate. So yes, big concern there.
 
Seeing how inadequate this younger generation is in tech is scary enough.
It seems that schools have even gotten rid of computer labs and basic classes, with the assumption kids learn at home.
But nope, hearing an 18 year old moan they can't even print is scary.
Math lit isn't the only problem we are having, it seems maybe young kids have had it easy.
 
To be fair, most maths teachers in South African are mediocre at best - of course there's exceptions.

Because those that's actually really good at maths are generally far more ambitious and know they can earn more in another industry.
 
now05ster said:
I was too dumb. I had to take Functional Maths. We dubbed it Funky Maths.
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Serious question, what is this? And which schools offered it? I have heard other people talk about Lower Grade maths before, but even that was not an option on offer at the school I went to, but functional maths is a new term to me. Was it offered at “normal” model-c schools, or was it something offered at remedial or trade schools or something? We only had a choice between SG and HG.
charlieharper said:
To be fair, most maths teachers in South African are mediocre at best - of course there's exceptions.

Because those that's actually really good at maths are generally far more ambitious and know they can earn more in another industry.
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I agree with you on the teachers being mediocre, but I don’t think it’s because of this. You don’t need to be a maths wizard to teach high school mathematics. Considering you need a university degree and an PGCE in order to teach anything at high school level, we should assume anyone teaching high school had enough grasp of high school maths to get into varsity in a Bsc/Bcom/Built environment field, but they don’t exactly need to be rain man. They mediocre because teaching isn’t a calling anymore, it’s just seen as another “cushy” government job, which is almost impossible to be fired from, and allows you lots and lots of leave.

Only the private schools and the well funded former model c schools have the luxury of employing good teachers in SGB positions, which means they can fire them too if they dont perform.
 
Zellephant said:
Serious question, what is this? And which schools offered it? I have heard other people talk about Lower Grade maths before, but even that was not an option on offer at the school I went to, but functional maths is a new term to me. Was it offered at “normal” model-c schools, or was it something offered at remedial or trade schools or something? We only had a choice between SG and HG.
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I found that only the richer schools had functional maths and trade maths as another route for kids not excelling (anecdotal, might totally been wrong), most schools didn't have these. You didn't get to take math LG it was a grade given to you after you have already failed SG.

Back before OBE we had 6 subjects counting for your grade, if you had more they took your 2 languages and your other best 4. HG counted out of 400 and SG out of 300. To pass HG you needed to get 160 (40%), if you failed and had above 100 it would still count as an SG pass. If you failed the 100 point benchmark for SG you would be passed if you get more than 80 on LG.

This is one of the reasons I always get so amused by the people calling the out the 30 percenters when we in effect only needed 20 percent to pass in the worst way before that. I mean, I didn't know anyone who did - but I at least knew how the system worked.

I agree with you on the teachers being mediocre, but I don’t think it’s because of this. You don’t need to be a maths wizard to teach high school mathematics. Considering you need a university degree and an PGCE in order to teach anything at high school level, we should assume anyone teaching high school had enough grasp of high school maths to get into varsity in a Bsc/Bcom/Built environment field, but they don’t exactly need to be rain man. They mediocre because teaching isn’t a calling anymore, it’s just seen as another “cushy” government job, which is almost impossible to be fired from, and allows you lots and lots of leave.
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I agree you don't need to be a math wizz, my teacher was quite good when I was in high school and we had a math "prodigy" in our class. She still conveyed concepts much better because she was well trained to convey concepts. I still have reservations on how we were taught mathematics as I feel there was a much better way to get more interest, but that is probably not something you can do in a mix ability class
 
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Zellephant said:
Serious question, what is this? And which schools offered it? I have heard other people talk about Lower Grade maths before, but even that was not an option on offer at the school I went to, but functional maths is a new term to me. Was it offered at “normal” model-c schools, or was it something offered at remedial or trade schools or something? We only had a choice between SG and HG.

I agree with you on the teachers being mediocre, but I don’t think it’s because of this. You don’t need to be a maths wizard to teach high school mathematics. Considering you need a university degree and an PGCE in order to teach anything at high school level, we should assume anyone teaching high school had enough grasp of high school maths to get into varsity in a Bsc/Bcom/Built environment field, but they don’t exactly need to be rain man. They mediocre because teaching isn’t a calling anymore, it’s just seen as another “cushy” government job, which is almost impossible to be fired from, and allows you lots and lots of leave.

Only the private schools and the well funded former model c schools have the luxury of employing good teachers in SGB positions, which means they can fire them too if they dont perform.
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Went to a former Model C school, wasn't a trade school at all. Matriculated way back in 2002.

I stuck with Maths and just couldn't get it even in Standard grade. IIRC one of the things we didn't have to do was trigonometry.

There were many in our class that probably went on to do a trade after school (not that there is anything wrong with that at all).
 
This mindset of celebrating mediocrity has resulted in the bar been set so low, that a PhD in Incompetence will soon probably be something to rant & rave about!
...go figure?
 
Zellephant said:
You don’t need to be a maths wizard to teach high school mathematics. Considering you need a university degree and an PGCE in order to teach anything at high school level,
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I think that a lot of teachers opt for the B.Ed. route, which shaves off a year, and also doesn’t actually require more than one and half years of maths. Possibly with an easier selection for the half year at second year level.

Still, this is way harder than matric maths, but I suppose if someone repeats it enough times or gets pushed through or scrapes through somehow, who knows.
 
Jan said:
South Africa's maths lit crisis

Many South African high schools are urging students to switch from mathematics to maths literacy to boost pass rates, a move that can severely limit their future opportunities.

Education experts and activists warn that the sharp decline in high school maths enrolment threatens South Africa’s future in science, technology, and engineering.
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I urge all South African youth not to listen.
Stop taking the easy way out.
Apply yourself, you can't do **** with Math lit unless your career doesn't require it.
 
No point if trying to force people who obviously cannot succeed, to do mathematics, better to push them towards math lit where they at least have a chance of getting a pass. Also time to accept that as long as an incompetent government remains in power nothing will change and the only thing guaranteed is failure.
If on the other hand you are one of the brighter bulbs in the pack, then it is obviously in you best interests to take full mathematics to ensure you have a shot at a decent future.
 
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