By Dr. Lynn Bowie
Lynn is a visiting Associate at Wits University and the Director of Mathematics for OLICO Mathematics Education, a non-government organisation which works with youth in South Africa from grade R to grade 12.
The organisation works to develop curricula and materials to help learners from disadvantaged schools in mathematics through an ongoing process of design, implementation and refinement and providing training to teachers and tutors.
Lynn’s research work has the overarching aim of enabling access to high-quality mathematics education for all learners in South Africa.
Lynn says: “The proportion of learners opting to take mathematics in grade 10 has been declining. There is an urgent need to pay attention to what is happening in earlier grades in order to turn this around.
“Most learners enter our high schools with significant backlogs in mathematics. We have found that we need to work with these learners on their basic numeracy skills (eg fluency in times tables) and that we need time to build their high school mathematics foundations in a way that allows them to approach mathematics from a sense-making point of view. Currently, the curriculum is too packed to allow for this.
“In addition, particularly in schools in disadvantaged areas, we see enormous loss of teaching time. This is caused by factors like early closing of schools because of a lack of water at the school or for meetings and events.”
