South African learners perform poorly by both local and international standards. Progress
over the last twenty years has been steady, but slow, yet in 2015, when compared to other
countries, only a third of Grade 9 learners in South Africa meet the minimum competency
level in international assessments of mathematics and science, with just 1 per cent reaching
the advanced level. Across the country mathematics achievement is both highly unequal
and socially graded. But what is the current state of the education system in the early …