Eldene Primary, a small school (roughly 83 years old) is located in the heart of a low socio-economic suburb called Elsies River in the Western Cape. It consists of only a Foundation Phase, including Grade R. The school has 14 teachers and only 302 learners.

Even though the school is in a state of disrepair, the staff, parents and learners were not deterred from rising to the occasion in support of Maths Centre’s intervention. Their enthusiasm has proved to be a benchmark for all other schools.

Eldene Primary was selected as a Numeracy Hub for Foundation Phase on the basis of meeting the prescribed criteria. In its capacity as the Hub, the school will serve as a nerve centre for Numeracy development in this region. This would involve showcasing and sharing both learners and teachers improved Numeracy efforts in terms of unique methodologies and content knowledge.

In a time where grade 12 results are rather grim, the performance of the Transnet Sharp Minds! Learners are a bright beacon.

The beginning of the year is Professional Development time for Maths Centre staff.

After another year of poor matric results and pass rate, the Minister of Basic Education, Mrs Angie Motshekga had the following to say about the Mathematics results in particular:

“A positive feature of the 2009 exams has been that more learners have registered for Mathematics (296 659) than for Mathematical Literacy (284 309). The results for Mathematics also show greater differentiation at the upper levels, despite an overall decline in the pass rate. The performances of learners in the gateway subjects of Maths, Physical Science and Accounting however remain cause for concern.”

Despite the poor National matric results and pass rate, the Maths Centre had some success stories in 2009.