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The Department of Basic Education has announced that it’s looking at dropping mathematics as a compulsory subject for students studying accounting and physical sciences.
In a government Gazette notice published on 21 July, the department called for written public opinions on the proposal.
In a nutshell, the department said the essence of the proposal is to prevent students’ career opportunities from being limited by subject choices and to delete regulation 4, sub-regulation 4b(1d) (1) which reads:
“Learners offering Physical Sciences [and Accounting] as one [or more] of their optional subjects selected from Group B in the policy document, National policy Pertaining to the Programme and Promotion Requirements of the National Curriculum Statement Grades R – 12; must offer Mathematics compulsory subject selected from Group A in the said policy document.”
The department’s spokesperson Troy Martens said the move was taken after parents‚ teachers and pupils revealed in separate responses that many pupils who do not want to study pure maths still have an interest in accounting.
Martens buttressed that the changes were made to basically accommodate students who would want to go into administrative accounting and degrees such as a BCom Marketing.
“What we found, when we made the provision originally, is that in making students take mathematics with accounting it tended to exclude people. Obviously, if you want to become a chartered accountant you will still need to take mathematics as a subject,” the spokesperson added.
Before now, learners were allowed to choose accounting as a matric subject without studying maths. But the option was scrapped in 2011 when the curriculum was changed.
Earlier this month, the Dept of Basic Education announced that it intends to drop the bar for mathematics for pupils in Grades 7, 8 and 9.
By this, it meant that pupils in Grades 7, 8 and 9 must pass Mathematics in order to progress to the next grade but if anyone fails the subject, the person won’t fail the whole grade.
The proposal was fiercely criticised by academics, with some questioning why the department singled out Mathematics for poor pass rates of pupils in those grades. Others insisted that the proposal would be counterproductive to the development of maths in the country.
