Abstract
Obtaining quality education provides the foundation for improving people’s lives and contributes to sustainable development. The world has come a long way in achieving the goal of equality in primary education for girls and boys, but few countries have achieved that target at all levels of education, as reported by UNICEF (2016). The Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa, in 2016, warned that social ills such as South Africa’s high levels of poverty, inequality and unemployment have an effect on the quality of education offered, taking into account different levels of education at various schools. South Africa now participates in many national and international benchmarking studies to assess its progress in the quality of schooling and in specific areas of the curriculum against international standards. The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is one of the studies in which South Africa has participated since 1995. Subsequent to1995, the country has made considerable progress in mathematics and science achievement – key subjects for much-needed national development. Approximately 12 500 grade 9 learners participated in the 2015 TIMSS from South Africa. The purpose of this paper is therefore to investigate the contextual factors that exist and to critically assess the progress made by senior phase mathematics learners in TIMSS 2015. This is to make recommendations in order to accelerate this progress thereby positively contributing to learners’ performance in the Eastern Cape and, in the long term, to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as laid out in the National Development Plan of 2030 for South Africa.
Highlights
As proposed in the 4th goal, which is about transforming our world (UNICEF, 2016), obtaining quality education is the foundation for improving people’s lives and for sustainable development
Using the data from Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2015 and previous TIMSS 2011 studies, this paper investigates the following research questions in terms of the provinces, types of schools and resources: 1. What differences were noted in Grade 9 learners’ mathematics performance in South Africa in TIMSS 2015 provincially?
South Africa’s future socio-economic prospects for learners and the development of the country as a whole need enormous improvements in the teaching of mathematics in the public schooling system (McCarthy & Oliphant, 2013:3). This analysis is consistent with the report by Spaull (2013), which was commissioned by the Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE)
Summary
As proposed in the 4th goal, which is about transforming our world (UNICEF, 2016), obtaining quality education is the foundation for improving people’s lives and for sustainable development. The UNICEF (2016) report notes that education plays a unique role in levelling the playing field for children, the number of children who do not attend school has increased since 2011 and a significant proportion of those who do go to school are not learning. The report, Quality Education: Why it Matters, on sustainable development goals by UNICEF (2016) points out that education is the key that allows many other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved as the cycle of poverty can be broken through quality education. This helps to reduce inequalities and to reach gender equality.
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