Ladies and Gentlemen
Members of the SA Institute of Chartered Accountants
Distinguished guests
Thank you for inviting me to address all of you learnered mathematicians, business, science and accountancy wizards.
I hope you guys have enjoyed your week here, and have taken as much phone numbers as you possibly could. This kind of opportunity only comes once in a life time, and you have got to grab it with both hands.
Proficiency in numeracy and maths forms the basis of many of our further education and training fields in science, technology, engineering, business and accountancy. It is key to the development and progress of any society.
At the moment, our country has too few skilled people in this area to sustain the long-term developmental needs of our increasingly globalised economy. The pool from which we could tap in the past, was concentrated in one segment of our community over too many years, with the result that we are now having a bit of a backlog.
Currently we are enrolling about 80,000 children into the public schools system every year. However, only half are reaching matric. Last year, less than 50 African learners passed maths in higher grade.
About a month ago, we released the results of a study on learner performance in numeracy and literacy, which confirmed that we still have huge challenges in overcoming the legacies of the past, before our learners achieve the outcomes we desire in mathematics.
The study found that only 15.6% of Grade 6 learners could perform in mathematics at the Grade 6 level.
What's more, the study has shown a clear relationship between poverty and performance. Also, results declined sharply in classes comprising more than 32 learners. Home-language instruction was not a significant indicator of success, which suggests that factors other than language have influenced performance.
The achievements of Limpopo Province in improving maths and science results are now legendary. In a study released last year, Dr Michael Kahn of the Human Sciences Research Council found that Limpopo produced almost a third of all higher-grade passes for maths and physical science by black learners in 2002.
Dr Kahn said that Limpopo enrolled 10 times more black candidates for the higher-grade matric examinations than the Eastern Cape, despite having a similar number of black learners.
About 20,000 candidates passed maths on the higher grade in 2002, of which only 3,335 were black, according to Kahn.
Of the 3,335 candidates, 983 were from Limpopo, 232 were from the Eastern Cape and only 108 were from the Western Cape.
I have been told that the economy in some provinces, for example, the Western Cape, offers employment opportunities that do not necessarily require higher-grade mathematics.
However, this does not necessarily apply in Limpopo, where learners in Limpopo face a future of abject poverty if they do not excel at school. Higher-grade mathematics offers a "ticket" out of poverty to higher education and careers in science and engineering.
One could argue, therefore, that despite the advantages of home language instruction in mathematics and science, good teaching practice and a commitment to excel in these subjects, driven by economic necessity, are also vital for success.
The President called on us to put clear targets to our delivery performances. The provincial government has adopted the Ikapa Elihlumayo - a strategy to "Grow the Cape". And therefor we have serious challenges to provide the human resources necessary to grow the Cape as a Home for All.
The Department is committed to quality education, especially in the fields of engineering and the sciences. If we are going to succeed in transforming our country, we need more and more learners to do maths in the higher grade. At the moment we just don't have enough.
The challenges we face as a nation and a province culminate in the need for specialised labour in the economic and developmental professions. We must therefore create the opportunities for learners to become the specialists we need in Mathematics, Science and Technology.
The WCED has a comprehensive strategy to improve learner performance in numeracy, which maths, science and technology. We participate in national strategies designed to improve maths results, focusing on our poorest schools.
This includes teacher training, developing support materials, regular diagnostic testing and special interventions.
Examples of our special interventions include our Dinaledi schools, where we are making a special effort improve maths results, our Centre of Science and Technology, known as COSAT, in Khayelitsha, and our new Cape Academy of Maths, Science and Technology, which enrolled its first learners this year.
The good news is that dedicated interventions do work. COSAT has already shown what can be done to increase the number of learners from disadvantaged backgrounds who have passed matric on the higher grade.
This initiative of the SA Institute of Chartered Accountants is therefor very important, as part of our efforts as a nation to overcome the legacy of the past. We need to expedite growth in those subject fields that is critical to the growth of our province as a whole.
We have achieved a lot in the last ten years, but we have to build on this foundation to ensure a better future for our province and country, especially in our poorest communities.
We as government cannot do this on our own. We rely on people like SAICA and you the learners, to make this possible.
I therefor want to thank and congratulate the SAICA for this intiative. This is exactly the kind of support and role we want our corporate citizens and sectors to play, as part of a people's contract to provide the knowledge, skills and values for iKapa Elihlumayo , to truly build a Home for All.
I thank you.
Enquiries: Gert WitbooiMedia Secretary
Office of the MEC for Education Western Cape
082 577 6551
gwitbooi@pgwc.gov.za
