Cultivating tomorrow ’ s professionals
By Mzwandile Mtshali , Group Executive Advisory Services and Enablement
Imagine a world without mathematics . For many a learner , that might sound like a dream come true , but , on the contrary , it could potentially form the script of an apocalypse movie of note .
Think of it : no time – as maths is used to calculate time . No money . No sense of volume or mass , length or width .
Let us make it even simpler . How are you to tell people how you take your coffee or tea ? The “ no milk , no sugar ” – even “ a little milk ” could work – but if you cannot say “ one ” or “ two ” sugars – how do you know how much you take ?
I will , therefore , have to agree with the Renaissance polymath who said , “ if I were again beginning my studies , I would follow the advice of Plato and start with mathematics ”.
Now centuries later , yes , our children start their formal education with mathematics as a subject from Grade 1 – or let us be fair – it might not be called “ mathematics ” in pre-primary school – but even then , we start teaching our children the basic science of numbers .
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The only way to learn mathematics , is to do mathematics .
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But a basic knowledge of mathematics is not what is needed for many career choices – especially when one considers fields such as medicine , engineering , accounting , architecture , natural sciences , and the list goes on .
In these cases , in-depth and specialised knowledge is required , particularly as in many cases people ’ s lives could depend on calculations made by specialists operating in these fields .
As much as we know how important mathematics is , it is worrying to see at what abysmal levels mathematics education is in South Africa .
The matric results for 2021 released by the Department of Basic Education early in 2022 , shows that of the 750 478 learners enrolled in matric only 35 % wrote the final maths exam . When it comes to results , only 20 % of Grade 12 learners passed matric maths and only 5 % did so with a mark of 60 % or higher ( the 60 % being the requirement to enrol at a public university in South Africa ).
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