“Mathematical Literacy is the sophisticated application of basic mathematical skills and principles” – adapted from Arnoud Brombacher.

Wynberg Girls’ High School requires its learners to make sense of, participate in, and ultimately contribute to, a twenty-first century world. These are also the underlying principles of the subject Mathematical Literacy, which requires of its learners that they become self-managing people who can eventually contribute to the field of work and become participating citizens in South Africa’s developing democracy.

In a world which is characterized by numbers, numerically based arguments and data representation, the teaching and learning of Mathematical Literacy provides learners with opportunities to analyse problems and ultimately solve them.

In order to solve a mathematical literacy problem, the learner is taught to:

• Come to an understanding of the real-life contextual situation of the problem, which may be familiar (e.g. a comparison between cellphone packages) or unfamiliar (using income tax tables).
• Decide which elementary mathematical skills and content (which they have already been exposed to in Grade 9), from across a range of topics, will be needed to solve the problem.
• Come to a decision regarding the solution to the problem and communicate that solution in a suitable manner.