In South Africa there are ordinary schools and special schools - NSC Mathematical Literacy - Question 4 - 2016 - Paper 2

From Table 4, the number of teachers in the Eastern Cape is 61,260 and the total teachers in all provinces is 390,608. The probability is calculated as:

$P(Eastern Cape) = \frac{number\,of\,teachers\,from\,Eastern\,Cape}{total\,number\,of\,teachers} = \frac{61260}{390608} \approx 0.1568 \approx 15.68\%$

To find the missing value A, we can set up the equation based on the total learners:

$A = 12117015 - (18890737 + 656408 + 944486 + 28311 + 103411 + 284908 + 784184 + 102674)$

Calculating gives:

$A = 12117015 - 10451599 = 665516$

To verify the statement, we need to calculate the teacher-to-learner ratio for both school types:

For public schools:

$Teachers: 390,608\,;\, Learners: 12,117,015\,;\, Ratio = \frac{390608}{12117015} \approx 1:31.02$

For independent schools:

$Teachers: 34,482\,;\, Learners: 538,421\,;\, Ratio = \frac{34482}{538421} \approx 1:15.61$

The findings show that independent schools have a better ratio, confirming the teacher's statement is valid.

One possible reason for the increase in the number of learners in ordinary schools could be attributed to the growing population of school-age children each year, leading to an increase in enrollment at public schools.