Time to solve the maths question

The 88% national pass rate recorded for last year's matric students is nothing to be sniffed at.

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It is particularly encouraging that more than 656 000 learners passed the National Senior Certificate examinations, out of more than 900 000 who wrote the high school ending exams, given the history of thousands of children dropping by the wayside and not staying in the schooling system all the way to grade 12.

Well done, Class of 2025.

But the celebration must be tempered by the worrying fact that, according to education experts, the number of learners taking pure math as a subject has been steadily declining, with just a third of learners taking the subject last year.

Worse still, the matric pass rate for pure maths dropped from 69% to 64%.