The Department of Education has released the Annual National Assessment (ANA), which provides a bleak picture of educational performance. The performance in mathematics is however extremely worrying. The graphs below show that the largest number of South African students have been assessed to score below 30% in Grades 3, 6 and 9. When a student scores between 0-29%, this is described as “not achieved”. The scoring used by the Department of Basic Education is as follows:

Rating	Percentage	Description
Level 1	0-29	Not achieved
Level 2	30-39	Elementary achievement
Level 3	40-49	Moderate achievement
Level 4	50-59	Adequate achievement
Level 5	60-69	Substantial achievement
Level 6	70-79	Meritorious achievement
Level 7	80-100	Outstanding achievement

Key Takeaway on Maths Results

The graphic below summarises the data, showing that 9 out 10 South African students in Grade 9 do not even score above 30% in mathematics.

Grade 3 Mathematics Performance

If you move your mouse over the graphs, the data will become visible. The chart shows that 44% of students in the North West scored between 0-29% for mathematics in the Annual National Assessment.
 
 
 

(LP = Limpopo, MP= Mpumalanga, NW = North West, NC=Northern Cape, KZN=KwaZulu-Natal, NC= Northern Cape, FS=Free State, EC=Eastern Cape, WC=Western Cape).

Grade 6 Mathematics Performance

The performance is Grade 6 gets progressively worse, with two-thirds (66%) of students scoring between 0-29%.

Grade 9 Maths Performance

The results for Grade 9 are staggering, with over 90% of students scoring between 0-29%.

Done

Maths performance

The data paints a worrying state on mathematics education in South Africa. The performance across Grades 3,6 and 9 indicate that performance levels drop as students move to higher grades. The data is captured in a table in a separate post.
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