Page 15 - Professorial Lecture - Prof Kasanda

tutor. This is not so for our children these days. In Namibia the Ministry of
Education (2010) made the study of Mathematics compulsory in all
Namibian schools for all learners from grade 1 to 12 as from 2012. This
was in recognition of its importance in the social and economic
development of the country and in the country’s match towards the
attainment of Vision 2030 (National Planning Commission, 2004) and
making Namibia a knowledge – based and industrialised nation by 2030.
The aim is to ensure that no Namibian learner is deprived of this very
important tool for entry and advancement in technological and science
related careers that require knowledge in mathematics. Indeed, it has
often been said that to avoid learning mathematics, is tantamount to
excluding oneself from certain and often lucrative jobs in society.
Therefore, there is need for educators to encourage and spar students on
to excel in mathematics. No Namibian child should exit formal education
without a working knowledge of mathematics. Even though mathematics
is compulsory, the question one may ask is whether we are not just
increasing the number of failures in mathematics by requiring even those
students who have no interest or fear studying mathematics in the now
overcrowded mathematics classrooms?

LEARNERS’ AND STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE IN MATHEMATICS

Performance of learners at secondary school level

The performance of our Grade 12 learners on the Grade 12 mathematics
examination and university students in mathematics in the Faculty of
Science has long been a point of debate and discussion. Indeed, a number
of studies have been carried out in an attempt to improve the teaching
and learning of mathematics in Namibian schools (Mathematics Task
Force, 2000; Clegg, & Kourtney-Clarke, 2009) among others. These studies
have identified a number of factors such as the number of unqualified and
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