Learners’ performance in Mathematics: A case study of public high schools, South Africa

Abstract

Mathematics is fundamental to national prosperity in providing tools for understanding science, technology, engineering and economics. It is essential in public decision-making and for participation in the knowledge economy. Mathematics equips pupils with uniquely powerful ways to describe, analyse and change the world. It can stimulate moments of pleasure and wonder for all pupils when they solve a problem for the first time, discover a more elegant solution, or notice hidden connections. This study investigated a societal problem--the ongoing poor performance in mathematics. The study described what is going on by means of statistical methods and reported in statistical language and hence, descriptive quantitative research paradigm infused with content analysis (cartoons) was adopted. The sample for the study comprised of a total of ten underperforming (failing) secondary schools obtained by simple random sampling; 50 Grade 12 mathematics educators and 200 Grade 12 mathematics