Matric results in mathematics, so poor they are a ”crisis of performance”, remain as a legacy of apartheid, a forthcoming publication has found.
Focusing on mathematics, because of the wide range of career choices it provides, Professor Servaas van der Berg took a deeper look at an education system that by world and African standards is a poor performer.
”Since the 1980s, the total number of university-grade mathematics matriculations at higher grade has been dropping,” says Van der Berg in the 2004 edition of the Transformation Audit, an annual publication of the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation.
Van der Berg says there has been no improvement in matric pass rates between 1994 and 1999/2000, despite deracialisation and large resource shifts.
”In 1994, the last year for which racial data were collected, the African pass rate was 47% as against 97% for whites,” says Van der Berg.
He says national pass rates have improved quite strongly in the past few years, partly due to education authorities reducing the number of over-age and less-prepared pupils writing exams.
Van der Berg says it is interesting to note the differences in failure, pass and university entrance endorsement rates between Africans in former African schools and those not in such schools.
African matriculants educated outside former Department of Education and Training schools are far more likely to obtain a university-entrance endorsement (26% versus 11% of other African students) or to pass (89% versus 66%).
”However, one cannot infer that this is caused by their school choice, as socio-economic background and the urban-rural mix many also play a role,” says Van der Berg.
He says international comparisons show an ”extremely weak” performance by South African pupils, even against much poorer countries with far fewer resources than even those available to African schools under apartheid.
”Nowhere is this performance as bad as in numeracy and mathematics, where South African test scores are near the worst in the world,” he says.
Van der Berg says the number of candidates writing higher grade (HG) mathematics almost halved between 1997 and 2001, probably due to pressure on principals to lower failure rates, resulting in their entering fewer candidates.
Partly as a consequence, the percentage that passed increased from one-third to 56%.
Only 15,3% of all African candidates passed this examination in 2000 — just more than 3 000 pupils.
”Since a good performance in HG mathematics is a passport to successful tertiary study in the natural sciences, engineering, medicine and commerce, this is particularly disturbing,” says Van der Berg.
Even at standard grade (SG), the African success rate is lower than the national average, at 23% versus 32%.
”Disturbingly”, only 4,6% of all matriculants passed HG mathematics in 2002, whereas another 23% passed SG maths.
While only 27% of all pupils passed mathematics at some level in 2002, a ”vast improvement” on any previous year, fewer than 22% passed physical science.
Only 50% and 42% of teachers teaching mathematics and science respectively have studied these subjects beyond secondary-school level.
Using 2003 matriculation results, Van der Berg says inequality in performance between population groups was starkly reflected by detailed aggregates.
White students achieved 97% of the A plus aggregates, while Africans received 88% of the F aggregates and comprised 95% of candidates who failed.
”Any group that performs poorly at mathematics is constrained in choice of career and further studies, and will be relatively less productive and contribute less to economic growth,” says Van der Berg.
He says the performance of African students in HG and SG mathematics was ”disastrous”, particularly as many pupils dropped out before matric and many matriculants did not take maths.
Only 4,4% achieved a mathematics pass at standard that would qualify them for entry to university in the natural sciences — a D on HG or a C on SG.
More disturbingly, only 0,5% of matric-aged Africans and 3,9% of coloureds obtained a maths pass good enough for entry into most natural science, engineering or commerce faculties at universities.
This figure was 24,7% among whites and 22,3% among Indians.
Only 11,9% of Africans passed matric mathematics, while the same proportion failed; almost 18% wrote matric, but did not take mathematics; and 58% dropped out before matric. — Sapa