The Eastern Cape is not only the poorest province, its matriculation results were the worst in the country last year. The province scored a 45,6% pass rate ? a 4,2% drop from the 49% that was scored in 2000.
Despite the drop the authorities are not giving up. Partnerships with the private sector could improve prospects in the years to come.
The University of Port Elizabeth (UPE) is providing assistance in the teaching of mathematics, following a call made by the late Govan Mbeki when he received an honorary doctorate degree from the university. “Our South African youth must study mathematics and science in order for us to be a winning nation,” he said.
UPE’s mathematics and applied mathematics Professor Werner Olivier says the poor performance levels in mathematics among learners in the past years can be attributed to an acute shortage of teachers.
“The lack of suitably qualified teachers gave grade 10 pupils no option but to choose history or geography rather than maths and science,” says Olivier.
An average of 300 African students enrol for the mathematics higher grade paper ? a terrible indictment according to Olivier.
This “crisis” motivated his department to approach the private sector for funding to enable the extension of its existing mathematics development programme. This was followed by a R240Â 000 donation from Sasol.
Olivier says the “generous” sponsorship will enable the university to expand existing programmes and kick-start new initiatives. “We are grateful to receive the support of a successful company such as Sasol. They share our view on the importance of developing mathematical skills among our youth in order to support the growing economy.
“Hopefully, this will be the start of a long and fruitful partnership between Sasol and UPE.”
The core function of the Govan Mbeki/Sasol Mathematics Development Programme will be to address the severe shortage of suitably qualified senior secondary mathematics teachers in the Eastern Cape.
This will be achieved by awarding bursaries to disadvantaged but meritorious students to study mathematics at UPE.
Other bursaries will be awarded to top mathematics students, “as an incentive to further their studies”.
To date four first-year BEd student have received R5Â 000 bursaries for this year.
The university is also embarking on workshops aimed at helping pupils with problem-solving skills. This could be achieved by encouraging more learners from the province to participate in the annual UPE Mathematics Olympiad competition for grades five, seven, nine and 11.
Twelve schools in the Nelson Mandela Metropole, which includes Port Elizabeth, Uitenhage and Despatch, have been identified as pilot project sites.
Eastern Cape MEC for Education Stone Sizani hopes that the under-qualified and unqualified educators will benefit from the project. He says the department will encourage its 2Â 200 under-qualified teachers to apply for the bursaries, particularly for mathematics, science and technology.