SA faces a maths education predicament

The country faces a predicament as almost half of its teachers retire without a sufficient supply of new teachers to take their places. Primary and secondary schools in South Africa are already battling poor mathematics results. The concern around the supply and demand of knowledgeable teachers further complicates the situation.

Prof Servaas van der Berg is an economist attached to the economics faculty at Stellenbosch University and researched the topic extensively. The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) commissioned the research. The South African Mathematics Foundation's Advisory Committee for Mathematics reviewed the study.

"We found that 48% of our teachers are 50 years or older," explains Van der Berg. "This means that, in the next ten years, around half the labour force in education would be leaving school and needs to be replaced. We need to double the number of new appointments within education within the next decade. Looking at the supply side, we can't produce that number of teachers in such a short timeframe because our universities' capacity is limited."

According to Van der Berg, finding more mathematics teachers will be an issue we will have to work on in years to come. However, he says that there are several short-term solutions to the looming predicament. "One possibility is allowing older teachers to remain at schools on short-term contracts. In COVID terms, it's a flattening of the curve. Another solution might be allowing graduates without an education degree to enter teaching more rapidly, addressing the teacher supply challenge and the rising graduate unemployment."

However, the country's teacher supply problem is more complex, particularly for mathematics teachers. Van der Berg says that studies found that 62% of South African learners in Grade 9 are performing below a low international baseline for Grade 8. "This means our learners are doing even worse in Grade 9 on a test than other countries are doing in Grade 8. If one also factors in COVID learning losses, three-quarters of South African Grade 9 learners are below the low international benchmark in mathematics."

Unlike subjects like geography, it is impossible to miss a year in mathematics and proceed to the following year. "Mathematics is scaffolded learning, meaning that you cannot learn what you should in Grade 9 if you haven't completed the curriculum in Grade 8," explains Van der Berg. "Learners need more time, and more time means more good mathematics teachers."

It isn't easy to see how one can make more time available for teaching more mathematics in high school simply because of the current stock of teachers in schools. "In the foundation phase, however, one could reduce the time spent on some other subjects to increase the time spent on mathematics. And I would argue that that is essential for children in the foundation phase to have the solid groundwork required for mathematics in high school."

But, therein lies another challenge, which relates to the fact that generally speaking, the quality of mathematics teaching in the foundation phase is poor. Van der Berg explains that many foundation phase teachers did not do mathematics but mathematics literacy at school. And because they did not have a particular aptitude for mathematics, it is not necessarily one of their favourite subjects to teach. "All things considered, the situation for mathematics is going to become worse rather than better," concludes Van der Berg.