Grade Six Learners’ Performance in Mathematics: A Comparison between Rwanda, Botswana and South Africa

Dr. Jean Francois Maniraho* – College of Education, University of Rwanda and Dr. Leon R. Mugabo – African Centre of Excellence for Innovative Teaching and Learning Mathematics and Science University of Rwanda,
*Corresponding author: jmaniraho2@gmail.com

Received November 16, 2018; Revised January 27, 2019; Accepted February 25, 2019

Abstract: While South Africa and Botswana have participated in several international or regional studies on learners’ mathematical competencies, no such studies have been conducted in, or have included, Rwanda. This study reports on Grade 6 learner mathematics test results from 20 Rwandan schools, selected using stratified sampling, and compares these to the results from similar studies conducted in Botswana and two provinces of South Africa. The results indicate that the learners across the four sets of data are performing similarly on many topics, but that the Rwandan learners perform much better on numeracy questions using the four basic operations as was hypothetically suggested. Some reasons for these differences are considered and discussed in the light of current curriculum movements in Rwanda.