International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR) ISSN (Online): 2319-7064 Index Copernicus Value (2016): 79.57 | Impact Factor (2015): 6.391 Volume 7 Issue 2, February 2018 www.ijsr.net Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY Exploring the Nature of the Gap between Secondary School Mathematics and First-Year University Mathematics: The Case of South Africa Eric Machisi Institute for Science & Technology Education, University of South Africa Abstract: This study explored the mathematics knowledge gap between secondary school mathematics and first-year university mathematics. The study was prompted by the alarming statistics of mathematics, science and engineering students who are failing first- year university mathematics. This has resulted in low throughput and high attrition rates among the current cohorts of university entrants in South Africa. The study employed the documentary analysis research method to collect qualitative data to explain the research phenomenon. Data were collected from the secondary school mathematics Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) for the Further Education and Training (FET) Phase, and from mathematics syllabi of the three top universities in South Africa. Results obtained revealed that the mathematics we currently teach in South African secondary schools is a very small portion of the range and depth of topics covered in first-year university mathematics major courses. The gap is so enormous that the majority of students will not survive the workload. The study concluded that South African secondary school mathematics in its current stature does not serve its intended purpose of preparing students for higher education studies, particularly for prospective mathematics, science and engineering students. The researcher strongly recommends a transformation of the South African secondary education system to allow students to specialise in only three subjects that are directly linked to their future studies, at Grade 11 and 12 levels. This would make it possible to introduce at secondary school level essential topics such as integration, complex numbers, differential equations, vectors and matrices which are missing in the current South African mathematics curriculum. Keywords: Secondary school mathematics, university mathematics, gap,major course, curriculum 1. Introduction The current vision in secondary school mathematics education across many countries in the 21 st century is to increase the number of students who qualify to enrol for studies in the fields of Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) at higher education institutions (HEIs). This is intended to meet the demands of the global economy. Based on the statistics depicted in Figure1, South Africa appears to be moving in the right direction towards realising its target of 450 000 SET students per year, by the year 2030 (see National Planning Commission, 2011a, p. 305). Figure 1: Number of students enrolled in HEIs for SET programmes (2009 to 2015) [Adapted from Department of Higher Education and Training (2017, p. 11)] While an upward trend in enrolment figures in the SET programmes is observed over the period 2009-2015, throughput rates “remain unacceptably low and below the benchmarks set in the National Plan for Higher Education” (National Planning Commission, 2011b, p. 274).According to a report by UFISA[User Centred Design for Innovative Services and Applications] (2017), only around 15% of South African university students graduate each year, which is far much below government‟s benchmark of 25%.This is attested by the annual statistics on South African universities throughput rates released by the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET). The average graduation rates for undergraduate degrees in public HEIs for the years 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 were 15%, 15%, 16% and 17% respectively(DHET, 2014, p.14, 2015, p. 17 , 2016, p. 17 , 2017, p. 20). The graduation percentage is calculated as follows: [Number of graduates in a qualification in one year) / (Total enrolment in a qualification in one year) x 100]. This is considered to be a proxy for graduate throughput rate. Low throughput rates could suggest that many of the students who enrol to study undergraduate degrees in South Paper ID: ART20179840 DOI: 10.21275/ART20179840 795