Durban - PRINCIPALS have been accused of forcing pupils to drop from pure maths to maths literacy, while certain subjects such as physical science are apparently being done away with altogether to improve their schools’ pass rates.
Education stakeholders have warned of dire consequences for the country if this practice is allowed to continue.
SA Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) provincial secretary Nomarashiya Caluza said the pressure on schools to produce excellent results and maintain them contributed to the problem.
“We know about school principals forcing pupils to take certain subjects and not others to boost the schools’ pass rate, especially the matric pass rate. Pupils are robbed of an opportunity to improve in those subjects,” she said.
The Daily News was told that parents of pupils at Ferndale Secondary School in Phoenix were fuming after being told most of last year’s Grade 9 pupils had not met the criterion of passing maths with above 70% to qualify to be in the physics class.
The school reportedly told parents that physical science was being phased out. Some pupils were being forced to take maths literacy instead of pure maths.
Thulisile Blose said this year’s Grade 10 pupils who would have chosen physics as one of their subjects, including her daughter, were told to take accounting, business studies or tourism as they had not scored 70% in maths in Grade 9. Nothing they had said to the principal could convince him to give the children a chance.
“My daughter wants to follow the science field and she won’t be able to fulfil her career ambitions if she doesn’t have physical science as one of her subjects,” she said.
Blose said her daughter got 62% in maths last year, and she believed she had the potential to improve her results, but now would not have a chance.
A woman who answered the phone at Ferndale Secondary yesterday and spoke on behalf of the principal denied the school was doing away with physical science in Grade 10. She refused to comment on reports that pupils were being forced to take maths literature.
Education Department spokesperson Muzi Mahlambi said the department would get to the bottom of the issue. He said school governing bodies should develop subject packages in consultation with parents.
“The premier recently said there were schools offering subject packages that were going to be useless in the future. In this case the circuit manager must tell us why the school is dropping maths and physics,” he said.
Premier Sihle Zikalala expressed concern during the matric results ceremony in Durban earlier this month that the number of schools that had stopped offering physical science and maths was increasing.
He said these schools were not producing doctors, engineers and other science-related professionals who required these subjects at university level.