Ebrahim Moosa – Opinion | 12 December 2016/12 Rabi ul Awwal 1437

There has been widespread expression of alarm over a decision by the National Department of Basic Education to condone the results of pupils who scored results of less than 20% in Grades 7-9 mathematics.

The Department last week issued a ‘special condonation’ instructing all schools to promote senior level learners (Grade 7, 8 and 9) who achieve only 20% for Maths in 2016. Up until now, learners have had to achieve a 40% mark for maths in order to proceed to the next grade.

While many ordinary citizens have interpreted the move to represent yet another red flag on the state of the nation, education department officials and some experts have stood firm in defending the rationale of the decision.

Western Cape Education head Brian Schreuder says the directive is only meant to be exercised under strict conditions.

“There are learners who are passing all their subjects, six of their seven subjects but failing mathematics. And as a consequence, particularly in grade 9, they fail their standard because mathematics has now become a compulsory pass subject.”

Schreuder says it’s only those learners who would benefit from this lowered requirement.

“For those learners who pass everything except mathematics, the mathematics can be condoned so that they can continue into the FET or grade 10 but not be permitted to take mathematics as a subject unless they take mathematics literacy.”

Amidst the national outcry, the Department of Basic Education itself has also deemed it necessary to further clarify its position.

The measure, it said, was aimed at addressing concerns regarding the extremely poor performance of Senior Phase learners due to the compulsory requirement of learners having to pass Mathematics at 40%, the Department said.

It said that the National Assessment Circular 03 of 2016, entitled, SPECIAL CONDONATION DISPENSATION FOR LEARNERS IN THE SENIOR PHASE (GRADES 7-9), was released on 2 December 2016 after the department received reports from school principals and provincial officials across the country.

“The content of the Circular was foregrounded by a change in the promotion and progression requirements for the Senior Phase introduced in 2014 with the implementation of the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS).

“This change resulted in raising the pass requirement for Home Language to 50% and including Mathematics as a compulsory pass requirement at 40%,” said the department.

This implies that it is compulsory for a learner to pass two languages, one of which is the Home Language and must pass Mathematics, in order to be promoted.

The department said concern has been raised during the academic year from within the sector that the current CAPS promotion requirements need to be reviewed and policy review in this regard is underway.

However, in order not to disadvantage the current cohort of learners, the department said a special condonation dispensation was urgently required to accommodate learners whose promotion to the next grade may be adversely affected by the compulsory requirement of passing Mathematics at level 3 (40%).

“It should be noted that the decision to apply a condonation dispensation in view of the stringent pass requirements, was an administrative decision that had to be made within the limited time available.

“The Circular should only be considered as an interim measure for 2016 and is only applicable for Grades 7, 8 and 9.”

Former Gauteng Education MEC and policy expert Mary Metcalfe said the new dispensation was acceptable, slating the public outrage as being misinformed.

“It’s [the circular] saying that given in grade 10, learners are going to choose between doing maths lit and maths .. learners in previous grades shouldn’t be held back because they’re failing maths.”

She said it was clear that those children who couldn’t cope with maths would have to resort to doing maths literacy in grade 10.

“Of course the underlying problem is that as a country we’re not doing well in maths and that requires interventions right from foundation phase to build the opportunity to learn maths. Many of the learners would succeed if they had better access to [learning] materials.”

The DBE announcement came a week after the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) ranked South Africa second-last in maths Grade 8. The country has been consistent in its lacklustre showing in the study since 1995.

The TIMSS results show that South Africa was ranked second last out of 48 countries for Grade 4 mathematics, second last for Grade 8 mathematics and stone last for Grade 8 science out of 38 countries. The country did not participate in Grade 4 science.

Given this bleak context, even if the department believes it to have compelling reasons to adjust the maths promotion mark just as an interim measure, the new designation is perhaps even more lethal in its potential to send out all the wrong messages.

“We are setting these children up for failure,” a primary school teacher who spoke on condition of anonymity told GroundUp.

“Now we are sending children to the next grade who didn’t fully grasp the grade they were coming from.”

Another principal said he also worried that pupils would be happy with being promoted to the next grade because to them this would mean that they passed, when in actual fact, they did not.

The nature of the senior schooling phase would also be altered, with learners – instead of exploring their potential in all subjects and striving for excellence – now giving some subjects a cold shoulder.

Indeed, according to some assessments, aptitude in the Grade 7-9 phase is the most critical determining factor for subsequent competence in maths due to this phase’s anchorage in the fundamentals of algebra, integers and other oft-vexing concepts such as factorisation.

Overlooking the failure of learners to grasp some of these concepts, especially in Grades 8 and 9, only bodes doom for them later, should they experience a reawakened interest in the subject or be compelled to choose it due to it being from the requisites of their preferred career path.

“It would be better if the department would provide people to help these kids and to work hand in hand with them,” said a principal.

The seemingly ill-conceived decision would also only aggravate learning difficulties for low performing students and ultimately place a heavy burden on teachers in subsequent grades.

Admits Metcalfe, “the real challenge is going to be for teachers in grade 8 and 9 who will have more learners in their class who were not able to cope with the previous year’s work. You’ll have a wider range of performance in the class and that’s always more challenging for teachers to have more students who do well … and some who aren’t able to keep up.”

As a math tutor of sorts myself, I tend to agree with the DA’s Gavin Davis who notes that there may be good reason, in some cases, to exempt certain learners from passing mathematics at the required level. But a sweeping change to the mathematics pass requirements – moreso at such a critical stage of schooling – is not the answer as it removes incentives for educators and learners to do well in such as fundamental subject.