Zuma suffering from maths anxiety

Zuma suffering from maths anxiety

The recent fumbling of numbers by President Jacob Zuma has given internet trolls ammunition to dehumanise him and attack his person. The question is, should we be attacking him or addressing a much bigger cancerous situation in our society? Zuma’s body language at the ANC’s NGC was evidence enough of someone who is suffering from maths anxiety which is a disease that pervades the corridors of South African society. I believe that instead of mocking the President we should use this as an opportunity to fix the nationwide fear of mathematics which is a key driver of the nation’s poor performance on the world stage.

Internet trolls always have a field day when the President makes a mistake with his numbers. Below are a few troll comments that show how insensitive and misguided these men and women who hide behind the veil of technology and proliferate nonsensical and at times diabolical ideologies through ill-thought comments: “Even Grade 6’s can do better, no excuse for old sleepy goats who should make way for fresh young dynamic intelligent people who understand Ubuntu and who are not driven by greed and eaten up by hate and blame. We need leaders, doers, thinkers – not puppets. We are going backwards and our beautiful country and its people deserve more than the rubbish we have to see leading this country.” – Tricia Sutherland “Murray McGibbon You can’t blame the electorate who voted him in. They are just as brainless as he. Nice guy, on the surface? Just take a shower when you have sex with a HIV person and you will not get the virus according to him.” – Chris Joubert “SA is @#^$&%* … things look gloomy …. he can’t read … he can’t count – how on earth is he going to lead a country … we continue to see repeated incompetence and lack of value and ethics in their government roles.” – Jerome Quentin Sullivan “I don’t laugh at Zuma. I laugh at the black imbeciles who voted him and his party into power.

What a bunch of idiots!” – Jackie Killian “Number will make you shake. Thatha Mr President#” – Xolani Xaba “Keep making excuses. He can’t read the number 1 200 000. You must be so proud. Is this the best you have? This is the person you choose to represent you. Do you really have no one better” – Jason Nolan

The different comments above do not serve to help anyone but are full of hate and cynicism.

Why would these people who happen to be someone’s father, mother, sister or brother hide behind the internet and spread hate and racism? Most of the comments do not have bearing towards the maths illiteracy at hand but go on and attack the persona of the President and those who elected the ANC into power. I believe that those who are convinced that Zuma is bad for the country and go on and write the hogwash comments like the examples above then they too are not good enough to be South Africans and need help urgently.

Instead of looking for solutions they just steal and destroy the confidence of the President and the nation at large. I stand to blame Zuma’s speech writers who have not dealt with the issue adequately as it can be resolved by simply writing the numbers in words.

Apartheid was a diabolic system that excluded blacks from quality education and other means of economic emancipation and Jacob Zuma is one of the unfortunate people to be deprived of a good mathematics education. It is worth celebrating the fact that out of nothing he rose the ranks to become the President of the country and has done his best to selfeducate. Privileged white people should not take this for granted; his inability to be sophisticated in the way you want is a direct consequence of white supremacy laws that were evil and trampled upon black lives.

Listening to the President saying out the numbers at the ANC’s NGC I saw the effects of mathematical anxiety which some of the trolls suffer from ( I wish to challenge those attacking Zuma to take a maths test and see what their results look like). This is a performance disease that can be found in any South African maths class. Maths anxiety is “a feeling of tension, apprehension, or fear that interferes with maths performance”. The comedic jig that the President did was compensatory behaviour to try and cope with the anxiety associated with reading large numbers. There was precedence of huge mistakes so the tension was high for him and this is only normal and proves the point that he needs a confidence boost of some sort.

I have seen mathematical anxiety in many situations around the country. One big example is daily commuters in taxis who are afraid of sitting in the front passenger seat as this entails collecting and counting all the passengers’ fares. The chances of the amounts not balancing are high thus commuters fear the effects of getting the fare mathematics wrong.

The reason why South Africa is rock bottom in maths and science rankings is as a result of a societal fear of mathematics. Across the racial divide, parents and siblings continually reinforce the difficulty of mathematics of mathematics and the media is also playing its part in making the subject look like a monster because they are so keen to report on poor performance but do not exert as much energy to celebrate successes.

It is the duty of everyone in the South Africa to know that mathematics is a subject that can be done but this calls for positive reinforcement from everyone and robust support structures are needed for both learners and parents (Zuma included) to overcome the effects of divisive legacies and sub-optimal policies in place.

Never should we spread maths anxiety through laughing and mocking those who make mistakes because mathematics can only be learnt by getting things wrong and correcting them.

Let he/she who has never got a maths problem wrong stand up and laugh at Zuma. I bet noone will stand. So let us fly high above insensitive trolls who do not have better things to do with their lives but spread hate, racism and violence.

Mathematical anxiety is real, if you suspect that you suffer from it or your child does then get professional help.

Reference articles: http://edzaizvobwo.me/2015/02/06/maths-anxiety-help-stop-the-pandemic/ http://mypr.co.za/south-africa-afflicted-maths-anxiety/14717/2015/02 http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/498/124274.html http://www.mathgoodies.com/articles/math_anxiety.html http://www.mathsgenius.co.za