Poor maths, science education at heart of SA’s skills problem

27th June 2014

By: Sashnee Moodley

Senior Deputy Editor Polity and Multimedia

  

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Various industries continuously grapple with dilemmas arising from an acute skills shortage, owing to the low standard of mathematics and science education in South Africa, says University of Johannesburg (UJ) Department of Applied Physics and Engineering Mathematics senior lecturer Dr Sam Ramaila.

The controversial Executive Opinion Survey carried out by the World Economic Forum ranked South Africa’s science and mathematics education last out of 148 economies that were surveyed.

Ramaila notes that critical scientific skills are needed to make beneficiation in South Africa a reality, adding that the apparent lack of beneficiation of mineral resources has a detrimental impact on economic growth.

A report by the Task Force on Teacher Education in Physics titled ‘Transforming the Preparation of Physics Teachers: A Call to Action’, notes that inadequate and inequitable science education is a threat to democracy and that the state of high school physics affects the overall health of the physics profession.

Citing the report, Ramaila says South Africa, as a member of the global community of nations, is no exception to this scenario.

He adds that economic growth in South Africa has been sluggish, owing to the lack of critical scientific skills.

“The challenges associated with the poor quality of mathematics and science education in South Africa can be attributed to teachers’ lack of adequate content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge in mathematics and science, which leads to low quality teaching.

“Further, a substantial number of schools are still under-resourced 20 years into democracy. Inadequate infrastructure to aid meaningful teaching and learning is also a hindrance, as well as teachers’ lack of confidence in grappling with ever-changing curriculum reforms,” Ramaila states.

A lack of well-structured, long-term teacher professional development programmes, as well as a lack of a coherent incentive scheme to retain skilled and committed teachers, contribute to the poor quality of mathematics and science education in South Africa.

Furthermore, there are limited opportunities for teachers to benefit from cohesive communities of practice and teachers consequently lack confidence in handling functional scientific investigations, he adds.

The South African Institute of Physics (SAIP) president Dr Igle Gledhill says coordinating effective actions and solving problems should be the focus.

“In a review of undergraduate physics teaching and learning, SAIP found that university departments agree unanimously on the poor level of preparedness of students entering first-year physics. This is disastrous for a country where so much depends on geology, mineralogy, chemistry and technology. Health professionals, engineers and technologists require training in physics by virtue of its nature as a fundamental discipline,” she says.

The SAIP has advocated for a structured, long-term teacher professional development programme suited to the critical professional development needs of teachers to address the challenges related to mathematics and science education in South Africa.

Gledhill believes that constructive peer coaching and innovative mentorship programmes can also benefit experienced teachers.

Further, university physics departments should play a crucial role in teacher training to improve physics education, she says, adding that collaborations between education and science faculties have begun to take place.

Ramaila agrees and says institutions of higher learning should play a pivotal role in developing professional skills of preservice and in-service teachers, adding that teachers increasingly express a desire to be trained, again highlighting that professional development opportunities through well-structured programmes are nonexistent.

There is a need to forge professional learning communities, which would serve as meaningful platforms for teacher empowerment, he says, and notes that some universities have rolled out extended curriculum programmes to tackle underprepared higher education students as the difficulties associated with the articulation gap between school and higher education pose significant challenges for the higher education landscape in South Africa.

Students’ success and throughput rates remain unacceptably low, despite the use of extended curriculum programmes as a solution to facilitate student academic progress.

“By virtue of their mandate as public entities, universities should serve as creative pathfinders in terms of the improvement of the overall quality of mathematics and science education. There is a need for universities to adopt and nurture schools located within their geographic regions to address inadequate learner performance in mathematics and science,” Ramaila states.

He believes such interventions should make provision for teacher training, as learners need empowered teachers to become productive citizens.

Already implementing such an intervention is UJ science faculty’s Soweto Science Centre, which was established to address the issues associated with human capital development in South Africa.

The centre coordinates a learner enrichment programme and a teacher development project with SAIP and the UK Institute of Physics.

As part of the programme, 600 Gauteng teachers will be trained at UJ’s Soweto campus next month.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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