Programme Director
The President of Association of Mathematics Educators of South Africa (AMESA), Ms Elspeth Khembo
The Vice Chancellor of the University of Witwatersrand, Professor Loyiso Nongxa
Mathematics educators and researchers
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
I would like to thank the national leadership of the Association of Mathematics Educators of South Africa for inviting me to speak at this important gathering.
I would like to start by paying tribute to a great educationist, a great advocate of human rights and a former Minister of Education, Professor Kader Asmal.
May his fighting spirit remain an inspiration to generations to come.
I succeeded him as Minister of Education and one of my most complex tasks was to shape and repair curriculum policy. The curriculum wasn’t working for teachers or for pupils. Kader had had the courage, in the face of opposition from powerful constituencies in the ANC, to revise it.
I took some of those revisions forward, in the direction of greater content knowledge, better and new ways of assessment, and in reintroducing new forms of national accountability.
I was always worried about our poor maths and science teaching in schools and now in the Department of Science and Technology, which has a mandate in this area, still have an interest in maths and science teaching.
It was always my aim to put good maths teachers in all public schools – and we took an important step in reintroducing tied bursaries for school teacher training - but I think, as Professor Carnoy will tell you in a moment when he talks about his team’s comparative study of maths teaching in schools in the North West and in Botswana, we have not been successful.
The level of teachers’ maths knowledge in South Africa and Botswana is simply too low - worse in South Africa than in Botswana and both worse than in Kenya.
There are some key policy options that emerge from the Carnoy (and Chisholm) study and ones that the national department, the provinces and the DST should consider carefully. It’s particularly relevant because both our countries have a high GDP and both introduced outcomes-based education. But Botswana does better and it’s the insightful understanding of why that is the case that is so important for all of us in education.
We don’t have as many mathematicians in South Africa as we should.
If the dwindling membership of AMESA is anything to go by, our capacity to teach mathematics at school-level is declining.
Between 2002 and 2005 AMESA’s membership grew, but between and 2008 and 2011 it fell. It’s a cause for concern.
Over the past three years (2008 to 2010), the total number of learners writing Mathematics in Grade 12 has declined.The number of learners sitting for Grade 12 Mathematics declined from 298 821 in 2008 to 290 407 in 2009, and to 263 034 in 2010.
This situation requires us to intensify our programmes intended to stimulate learners’ interest in mathematics.
We need to show our children that mathematics can be fun and enjoyable. In this regard, I urge you to look beyond your existing initiatives that promote mathematics awareness. Time and again, opportunities arise which you could take advantage of to put across the message about mathematics in an exciting manner.
The local science centre community had led the way in this regard by taking advantage of the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup that South Africa hosted.
Through the collaboration of various stakeholders, which includes the Department of Science and Technology, corporate sector and Sci-Bono Discovery Centre, the world’s first “Science of Soccer” exhibit was launched in South Africa in May 2010.
Sci-Bono Discovery Centre used the hype of the FIFA World Cup as a way to engage learners, teachers and the general public in an education initiative that reveals in a fun way, the mathematics, science, and technology behind the game of soccer.
Mathematical research drives the evolution of Mathematics.
Therefore, the country’s ability to conduct mathematical research cannot be ignored.
Based on recent studies by among others, my department, the International Mathematical Union and the Academy of Science of South Africa; we have an insight of the state of mathematical research in South Africa.
Current weaknesses include the age profile of those actively involved in pure Mathematics research.
The majority of the top-rated and the most productive researchers are 55 years or older.
There are too few researchers in the 30 to 55 age bracket, while students majoring in mathematics and enrolling for Honours, Masters or Doctoral studies are scarce.
Obviously, this cannot be good for future ability to generate knowledge in mathematical sciences.
In closing, the challenges we face in training maths and science teachers compound the difficulties of overcoming the legacy of the deliberate underinvestment in the education of black South Africans under apartheid and preventing them from being exposed to science and technology.
Our dismal performance in school mathematics and science remains a major obstacle to employment for young black people in the high-skill jobs.
We have universities that sponsor maths weeks (University of Cape Town), schools that teach teachers (St Stithians) and individuals who have set up innovative institutes (Neil Turok and AIMS).
We need new and inspiring public-private partnerships.
We can no longer afford to send young black people to fail at university or in the private sector.
I wish you well with your deliberations.
Thank you.
