Pure math enrollment numbers dwindle in High Schools: 'It's a crisis.' - Education Activist

Tasleem Gierdien

Tasleem Gierdien

12 August 2025 | 13:39

Education activist Doctor Muavia Gallie believes the subject teaches skills beyond math and that students are missing out on learning critical, innovative and reflective thinking skills.

Pure math enrollment numbers dwindle in High Schools: 'It's a crisis.' - Education Activist

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In South Africa, a trend of dwindling enrollment in Pure Mathematics at high school is emerging as many learners opt for Mathematical Literacy.
Some believe this is troubling as it could threaten the country's future in STEM fields and economic growth.
This decline in Pure Mathematics as a subject is linked to factors such as teacher shortages, inadequate resources, pressure on schools to achieve high pass rates, a perception that pure mathematics is too difficult or irrelevant, while some believe that obtaining a matric pass with exemption is more difficult with this subject or that it's "only for the gifted."
Gallie believes "this is an invisible crisis" for the country because the subject teaches skills beyond math, and students are missing out on learning critical, innovative and reflective thinking skills.
"The invisible crisis is that we've been gradually reducing the amount of learners doing mathematics and there's a paper saying we are losing about 1.2% every year downwards and we are now at 36.2% in 2025... in 2018, we were at 44%... between those six years, we've reduced by 8.1% in terms of learners doing mathematics... it's not just about mathematics... it's about critical thinking, innovative, and reflective thinking so learners are losing all of that."
- Doctor Muavia Gallie, Education Activist
"I get a sense that school is all about other people other than the learners so the purpose of a school is for me to come to a school and the school with work with learners to support them to get to their dreams... it's not about schools needing a particular pass rate and we need to get you through it. We see marginalised communities - they have matric but they're nowhere. Mathematics has a history in this country where teachers were only taught to focus on rote learning and that's why the results are not good but we have not confronted the weakness in this area."
- Doctor Muavia Gallie, Education Activist
"Let's call a spade a spade, it's a crisis... let's not call it things to fix quickly. Unless you identify it as a crisis, you need to think differently about the problem than when you think about fixing things."
- Doctor Muavia Gallie, Education Activist

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