Adoption of Instant Messaging for Mathematics Lessons in Rural Schools

Abstract

The failure rate of mathematics is significantly high in the South African public secondary schools, particularly in rural areas. South Africa has a deficiency of adequately qualified teachers, particularly in mathematics in rural public schools. A lack of interest in a teaching as a career results in fewer young people taking up teaching as a profession, this contributes to shortage of teachers. Instant messaging applications, specifically Mxit provide a platform which learners and teachers can use for learning mathematics. Mxit which is more popular amoung teenagers who use it for communication with their friends and relatives offers mathematics tutoring through Dr Math application hosted by the CSIR Meraka Institute in South Africa. The aim of this study was to establish how pupils and teachers in the rural areas where there is a dire shortage of mathematics teacher can take advantage of Dr Math to improve mathematics knowledge and the matric pass rate. Diffusion of innovation theory was used to determine factors that could promote the adoption of instant messaging for learning mathematics in South African rural public schools. Dr Math has not been well promoted among rural schools and therefore lack of its awareness was found as one of the factors hampering learners to adopt it for learning mathematics in South Africa rural public schools.