Education experts have called for learning materials to be more challenging and creative for Grade 3 pupils to improve their numeracy skills and better prepare them for higher grades.
They were reacting to a recent study by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) titled “Spotlight on Basic Education Completion and Foundational Learning South Africa”.
The second instalment of the spotlight series reviewed the curriculum and teaching and learning materials.
In South Africa, this review specifically focused on the framework of the Teaching Mathematics with Understanding (TMU) project as well as the content to be taught, the learning and teaching support materials (LTSM) which are stipulated in the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (Caps).
The study found that while the Department of Basic Education has shown a commitment to supporting mathematics in the early grades in terms of budget allocations to early reading programmes, feeding schemes, and school transport systems, the achievement of improved pupil outcomes in these grades has not yet been realised.
Professor Rituparno Goswami, director of the Astrophysics Research Centre School of Mathematics Statistics and Computer Science at UKZN, said while the study specifically stated that the curriculum is well aligned with the global standard, there are certain aspects that raised some red flags.
“There is some noticeable degree of misalignment between the intended national curriculum and the content in the learner textbooks. This is both in Grade 3 and Grade 6 but more in Grade 3,” he said.
Goswami said as the country moves out of the Covid recovery plan, this misalignment should be taken seriously.
“In Grade 3, the TMU textbooks emphasise foundational skills that require a lower level of cognitive difficulty, so whatever the students are learning, they are tested at a lower level,” he said.
Goswami said while Grade 6 pupils have some cognitive thinking level skills, Grade 3 pupils need more challenging questions.
Professor Vimolan Mudaly, from the UKZN School of Education, said the idea of providing a workbook that is so poorly conceived reflects negatively on the Department of Basic Education and the developers themselves.
“Teachers often simply comply with the instructions handed down,” he said.
He said two things must be done immediately. “First, all materials need to be reproduced by competent developers, who must consider the different cognitive levels and challenges so that they entice the learners into developing a deeper understanding of materials.”
Second, Mudaly said all teachers in the phase must undergo intense training to develop their own additional materials, using a variety of texts, so that they can consider different contexts, levels, and methods in their teaching. “Prescription in the workbook is acceptable, but the quality must be monitored.”
In response to whether Grade 3 pupils are being challenged enough mathematically, Professor Wayne Hugo from UKZN’s School of Education, said the answer is both “yes” and “no”.
“The reason why the answer is no, firstly, is that we are really struggling to get basic numeracy into our classroom.”
He said if the work is made difficult, fewer pupils will cope, or if it’s made easier, more pupils can cope, and the levels that they are working in get worse.
“It’s a catch-22, and the department knows about this and they have been trying for years doing all sorts of interventions to get this right like the TMU and spending lots of money on education,” he said.