‘Maths literacy’ option sabotaging students and SA – former bank boss Nxasana

It is a crisis that two-thirds of matriculants take mathematical literacy rather than pure maths, says Sizwe Nxasana, former CEO of FirstRand and founder of the Sifiso Learning Group. He says this was encouraged to boost the matric pass rate.

Nxasana was delivering the opening address at the annual Actuarial Society of South Africa 2026 Convention this week, where he highlighted the strong correlation between a country’s mathematics skills and its economic growth.

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He called on actuaries and financial institutions to use their voice to pressure the government to change the policy that most high school learners choose mathematical literacy from Grade 10 instead of pure maths. 

He said this was not the intention when the subject was introduced, but that a “large number of children have been pushed to mathematics literacy to increase the pass rate”.

Nxasana went further, arguing that the pure mathematics matric assessment has been simplified to focus on rote learning in an effort to improve the pass rate.

“The mathematics assessment has actually been watered down,” he said.

“There’s a huge amount of emphasis on the knowledge part and routine procedures, and very little in the exam papers on problem-solving and complex procedures.”

Matric exams reward rote learning

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He was quoting a Department of Basic Education study that examined the marks of 900 learners across different cognitive levels in the 2023 matric mathematics Paper 2 examination.

It found that 74% passed questions testing knowledge recall, compared with 31% for complex procedures and just 16% for problem-solving.

Nxasana said this helps explain why some students arrive at university with distinctions in maths, only to drop out of programmes such as engineering, accounting or actuarial science by June.

“So even those that are taking mathematics are being failed by the system, because the system is measuring the wrong things. It’s measuring pass rates … It’s not measuring the quality of those passes.”

Nxasana owns Future Nations schools, where only mathematics – not mathematical literacy – is offered, and is involved in educational research.

He is currently working with RMB chief economist Isaah Mhlanga to quantify the impact of inadequate mathematics skills on the South African economy.

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Mhlanga told Moneyweb that he was pressured in 2004 to take what was then maths standard grade, but instead sought additional tutoring and continued studying maths.

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‘Engine of the modern economy’

Nxasana said mathematics is the engine of the modern economy, pointing to the Netherlands, where 26% of total employment is reliant on the mathematical sciences.

“There are whole school districts [in SA] where high school students are no longer studying mathematics, but every school is only offering mathematical literacy,” he said. A district can have as many as 300 schools.

Mathematical literacy excludes learners from meaningful participation in the economy and has a racial dimension, with African and coloured children more likely to take the subject due to their representation at no-fee schools, he added.

Nxasana said one reason learners choose mathematical literacy instead of maths in Grade 10 is in part due to a poor foundation they receive in primary school.

He attributed the lack of focus partly to teacher training. During a Bachelor of Education degree, he said, students spend less than 10% of their time on mathematics and carry the same lack of focus into the primary school classroom.

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His proposed solution is threefold: 

Policy must change: Mathematics should be the standard, with mathematical literacy offered as the exception and chosen with a full understanding of the potential career consequences.
Improve teacher preparation: Pre-service teacher training should include deeper mathematical content rather than focusing primarily on generic pedagogy. Nxasana called for at least 100 credits of mathematics to be spread across the four years of a teaching degree.
Improve teaching quality and dosage: Schools need to spend more time on mathematics to develop reasoning rather than simply test recall. Learners should be assessed against standards that reward critical thinking and problem-solving.

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