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
The South African government inherited poorly resourced black townships and residential areas from the apartheid government
Policies and programmes on redress were introduced. These included the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, the Social Grant Programme administered by the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA), no fee-paying schools (Quintile 4), agriculture support programmes, the municipality rebate to indigent households and the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) (Aliber, 2003; The Presidency, Republic of South Africa, 2014)
A poverty trends report conducted in 2015 by Statistics South Africa shows that 13.8 million South Africans live below the food poverty line (FPL), which amounts to R441 income per person per month (Stats SA, 2017a: 14)
Summary
The South African government inherited poorly resourced black townships and residential areas from the apartheid government. A poverty trends report conducted in 2015 by Statistics South Africa shows that 13.8 million South Africans live below the food poverty line (FPL), which amounts to R441 income per person per month (Stats SA, 2017a: 14). The government of South Africa instituted “social wage” programmes to alleviate poverty in homes of vulnerable population groups. The social grants (old age and child support grant) counted among the “social wage” programmes (Stats SA, 2017a) instituted by the government of South Africa meant to alleviate poverty, has instead turned into the only source of income for most families. Vulnerable groups are defined as “part of the South African population that experience a higher risk of poverty and social exclusion than the general population” (Stats SA, 2017b: 1)
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