Sadtu attacks subject policy

THE provincial government’s practice of “forcing” pure maths on pupils has been slammed by teachers unions who blamed it for the province’s high failure rate.

The province has been pushing for pupils to do maths because of the urgent need for candidates to study careers such as engineering and accounting.

The South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) yesterday described the instruction, which the provincial Department of Education had mooted in 2014, as an infringement of the rights of pupils to choose what was suitable for them.

The union wants pupils who are not coping with maths to be able to switch over to the much easier maths literacy.

KZN has the highest number of pupils in the country who are doing pure maths.

“If out of 171 074 matric pupils there are 110 721 doing pure maths, you can see what I am talking about,” said Sadtu provincial secretary Nomarashiya Caluza.

Caluza said pupils could still use maths literacy to enrol for critical studies at varsities.

“To enrol at the university you must have 50% in maths literacy, whereas in pure maths the universities require 40%,” she said.

The provincial department issued a circular two years ago saying that pupils who took physical sciences, life sciences, accounting, geography, economics and agricultural sciences should do pure maths instead of maths literacy.

Caluza said the instruction was largely to blame for the high matric failure rate.

The Basic Education Department’s national senior certificate report revealed that last year there was a 49% pass rate for pure maths as opposed to maths literacy’s 71%.

“We had to intervene to assist schools, which wanted to move pupils from pure maths because of their capacity,” Caluza said.

National Teachers Union deputy president Allen Thomson said although pure maths was a basic necessity to enrol in many universities, some accepted the easier maths qualification for a diploma.

“Parents and learners should be allowed to choose. There are many children who have moved to other provinces because they cannot cope with the pure maths.It has been proven that most pupils in KZN who are forced to do pure maths fail the exam.”

Dr Emmanuel Mushayikwa, a lecturer at the Wits University School of Science Education, said he would advise pupils against doing maths literacy if they intended to enrol for engineering and accounting at a university.

“It is not meant for advanced studies. It is not meant for you to develop a career in a mathematical subject. Maths literacy does not allow learners to have the basic understanding they need to perform engineering subjects,” he said.