Overview

Overview

Curriculum overview

Before 1994 there existed a number of education departments and subsequent curriculum according to the segregation that was so evident during the apartheid years. As a result, the curriculum itself became one of the political icons of freedom or suppression. Since then the government and political leaders have sought to try and develop one curriculum that is aligned with our national agenda of democratic freedom and equality for all, in fore-grounding the knowledge, skills and values our country believes our learners need to acquire and apply, in order to participate meaningfully in society as citizens of a free country. The National Curriculum Statement (NCS) of Grades R – 12 (DoE, 2011) therefore serves the purposes of:

• equipping learners, irrespective of their socio-economic background, race, gender, physical ability or intellectual ability, with the knowledge, skills and values necessary for self-fulfilment, and meaningful participation in society as citizens of a free country;
• providing access to higher education;
• facilitating the transition of learners from education institutions to the workplace; and
• providing employers with a sufficient profile of a learner’s competencies.

Although elevated to the status of political icon, the curriculum remains a tool that requires the skill of an educator in interpreting and operationalising this tool within the classroom. The curriculum itself cannot accomplish the purposes outlined above without the community of curriculum specialists, material developers, educators and assessors contributing to and supporting the process, of the intended curriculum becoming the implemented curriculum. A curriculum can succeed or fail, depending on its implementation, despite its intended principles or potential on paper. It is therefore important that stakeholders of the curriculum are familiar with and aligned to the following principles that the NCS is based on:

This guide is intended to add value and insight to the existing National Curriculum for Grade 10 Mathematics, in line with its purposes and principles. It is hoped that this will assist you as the educator in optimising the implementation of the intended curriculum.