The decline in the number of South African learners taking and passing pure mathematics – as opposed to the more rudimentary maths literacy – at high school level is going to have profound negative consequences for the economy, experts have warned.
This is because digital skills and computational thinking are increasingly becoming crucial components of career success.
“The universities are not getting enough throughput from high schools to train Stem (science, technology, engineering and maths) graduates, not in the quantities or quality required for a modern Stem economy, and the latest national senior certificate data makes this very clear,” said Thulane Paepae, deputy head of the department of mathematics and applied mathematics at the University of Johannesburg.
“While South Africa achieved a record overall matric pass rate of 88%, performance in gateway Stem subjects tells a very different story. In 2025, the pure mathematics pass rate declined sharply from 69% to 64%, and only 34% of candidates wrote pure mathematics at all. This means the effective pipeline into Stem degrees is narrowing, even as overall school completion improves.”
Paepae said this trend leads to universities having too few mathematically prepared learners to meet national demand for engineers, computer scientists, data scientists and other high-skilled Stem professionals. The basic education department acknowledged this fact in its matric examinations report for 2025.
Serious challenges
“It is clear that high-level achievement in mathematics and physical sciences continues to be a serious challenge in the schooling system. Specifically, higher numbers of learners achieving, for instance, 60% in the two subjects is needed to address skills shortfalls in the labour market, which slow down the prospects for higher economic growth,” said the report.
But increasing the number of students taking maths at matric level is not as straightforward as encouraging more of them to choose the subject when the option is presented prior to them entering grade 10.
Speaking to TechCentral on Wednesday, Rebecca Selkirk, researcher at Stellenbosch University’s research on socioeconomic policy group, warned that pushing students to opt for so-called pure mathematics when choosing subjects for grade 10, instead of focusing on the underlying causes of poor performance, could lead to worse outcomes for students.
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Selkirk said there is a correlation between learners’ grade 9 maths results and their likelihood of reaching and passing matric on-track. Learners who do poorly in grade 9 maths and who choose maths instead of maths literacy in grade 10 often struggle to finish matric, either taking more than three years to reach matric or eventually dropping out.
Students who are ill-equipped to take on the rigour of pure maths may end up suffering academically. The problem, as Selkirk defines it, is one of preparation and not choice.
“There are always discussions about more students enrolling in maths and other technical subjects. I fear that in the short term, that is not addressing the problem and might even exacerbate issues. More focus and attention needs to be put into addressing gaps and ensuring that learners, by the time they have to make this choice, are equipped to take on mathematics, which requires work before grade 10,” said Selkirk.
Another issue Selkirk identified as potentially muddying the waters is the hyper-fixation by the education department, schools, educators and the general public on headline matric pass rate numbers.
These numbers are often linked to key performance metrics for teachers and school administrators, which might incentivise them to neglect mathematics or encourage potential maths passers to choose maths literacy instead, thereby boosting the pass rate in a school, district or province.
Educational gaps
The educational gaps referenced by Selkirk are also observed by Paepae and the teaching staff at UJ, who said that among those whose matric maths marks meet the requirements for acceptance into various courses, there is a gap between formal eligibility and academic readiness.
Furthermore, despite being oversubscribed in terms of the number of applications to the university’s computer science department, the number of places available surpasses the number of applicants who meet the entry requirements.
“We are seeing weaker algebraic fluency, difficulty with abstraction and multi-step reasoning and challenges in applying mathematics to unfamiliar problems,” said Paepae.
“Many students arrive having learned to pass examinations, not to reason mathematically and this affects first-year performance in computer programming, calculus and linear algebra, engineering mathematics and most maths-related modules.”
In a speech on Monday evening, basic education minister Siviwe Gwarube said her department would spend 2026 focused on ensuring that provinces get better materials, improve teacher development and enact earlier intervention so that pupils “arrive in these subjects ready to succeed”.
Read: Big boost for science, maths education in schools
“The system is growing – but not fast enough in the subjects that most powerfully shape access to further study, scarce skills and economic participation. The quality challenge is the next phase,” said Gwarube. – © 2026 NewsCentral Media
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