Reflecting on national and provincial support provided in preparation for the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations, Chief Education Specialist for Mathematics, Mr Leonard Mudau, indicated that there was a high possibility for the 2023 cohort to register a significant improvement in Mathematics and Physical Sciences during this year’s examinations.

Mr Mudau indicated that Mathematics and Physical Sciences were not difficult subjects, but required collaboration across the Basic Education Sector. “The Class of 2023 seems to be stronger than the 2021 and 2022 cohorts. Their formal tasks, throughout the year, showed improvement in understanding the content for both Physical Sciences and Mathematics. My projected outcomes for the NSC examinations for both Mathematics and Physical Sciences will be nothing less than 60%. The National Development Plan (NDP) requires the education system to increase the number of students eligible to study towards Mathematics and Science based degrees to 450,000 by 2030. There has been progress made in terms of Mathematics participation during the past two years. The number of learners who offered Mathematics increased from 259,143 in 2021 to 269,734 in 2022. The number of learners who wrote Physical Sciences was 196,968 in 2021 with 53,844 (27,3%) passing at 50% and above in 2021. In 2022, 209,004 learners wrote Physical Sciences and 63,457 (30.4%) learners passed at 50% and above,” explained Mr Mudau.

The DBE and PEDs have been assisting with support programmes to improve success rates in Mathematics and Physical Sciences. “Throughout the year, there has been regular meetings with Mathematics and Physical Sciences provincial coordinators and subject advisors. During these meetings, national, provincial and district plans were monitored and assessed monthly. In schools where there were challenges, subject advisors were engaged to mitigate the identified challenges. The DBE and PEDs ensured that learners were tracked based on previous performance to consider differentiated approaches aimed at improving curriculum coverage in these subjects. Top performing Mathematics and Physical Sciences teachers were also appointed to ensure effective learning and teaching during Autumn, Winter and Spring Classes where revision was done on content taught at school and new content to lay a foundation for novice teachers. Learners were also grouped based on their performance: camps for struggling learners, camps for learners who achieved between 20-29% and camps for high flyers were organised. Differentiated approaches were used to deliver lessons to targeted learners. Learners could assess themselves using the Siyavula platform, which assisted with immediate feedback on their learning proficiency. The DBE, together with AWQAF SA also conducted an online revision programme to assist learners.”

In mitigating learning losses encountered during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Recovery Annual Teaching Plan (RATP) for Mathematics was developed to deepen the curriculum coverage within a shorter timeframe. “Topics were also re-arranged to assist teachers to prepare for lessons within a shorter period, for example, Trigonometry was taught at the same time in Grades 10, 11 and 12, to make it easier for a teacher who teaches Grades 10 to 12 to prepare once for the same topic. In addition, more teaching time was taken from assessment to provide more contact teaching time. All these plans supported by education stakeholders, assisted learners and teachers to cover content which could not be covered during COVID-19.

“The private sector has played a crucial role in terms of supporting learners offering Mathematics and Physical Sciences. MTN and Vodacom provided lessons on zero rated data and SABC provided free quality lessons on their TV channels. The South African Institute of Chartered Association (SAICA) conducted Girl Learner Camps in the Gauteng, Mpumalanga, North West and Limpopo Provinces. The programme saw more than 2,500 girls receiving assistance in responding to higher order questions. SAICA organises camps for both boys and girls across all provinces. The Siyavula Digital Maths and Sciences Platform dedicated its resources to assisting learners with content revision. The DBE acknowledges the support from various education stakeholders in assisting the sector to deliver quality education to South African children. Your contribution will go a long way in the transformation of the education landscape for the better,” Mr Mudau concluded.