Kimberley - A whopping 92.4 percent of Grade 9 learners in the Northern Cape achieved between 0 and 29 percent for mathematics in the recent Annual National Assessments (ANA).
A total of 169 385 learners from 556 schools in the province took part in the assessments which were completed over a week in September.
Learners from Grades 1 to 6 and Grade 9 wrote the national assessment tests in Numeracy and Literacy.
This was the third year that the assessments were held.
Presenting the findings of the ANA recently, Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, said the provincial trends over the last two years had indicated that significant strides were being made in the foundation and intermediate phases in both Languages and mathematics.
“While there have been noteworthy improvements in these phases, the senior phase remains challenged by not delivering the expected progress against targets we have set ourselves in 2010. The lack of improvement consecutively over the last three years confirms that the senior phase requires urgent action. We have since undertaken an item analysis of the learner responses and using this information the department is currently developing an intensive intervention and support programme for this phase and will announce the plan to be rolled out in 2015. Further, we will fast-track support to identified schools and districts where large numbers of learners are underperforming. The year 2015 is certainly the year of radical transformation and the senior phase will be prioritised.
In the Northern Cape, learners in Grade 9 obtained an average of 9.7 percent for mathematics, against the national average of 10.8 percent. The highest was in the Eastern Cape, where the average mathematics mark for this grade was 13.3 percent, while Limpopo recorded the lowest with 5.9 percent.
Only 2.5 percent of learners in Grade 9 in the province obtained more than 50 percent of maths, while 0.2 percent achieved more than 80 percent.
The Northern Cape scored below the national average in each grade tested for both home language, additional home language and mathematics, except for Grade 9 first additional language, where it obtained the highest average percentage in the country with 40 percent.
While the provincial average for mathematics was above 50 percent in Grade 1 (65.9 percent), Grade 2 (58.8 percent) and Grade 3 (53.3 percent), the wheels start falling off in Grade 4, where the average percentage for mathematics is 34.5 percent. In Grade 5 it drops slightly to 34 percent and in Grade 6 it rises again to 41.6 percent (up from 23.8 percent two years ago).
Learners from the Western Cape and Gauteng consistently achieved amongst the highest average percentages in the country.
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