Professional Documents
Culture Documents
BASIC EDUCATION
MATHEMATICS
SYLLABUS
GRADE 8 – 9
Prepared by the Commercial Subjects Curriculum Committee
Published by the Curriculum Development Centre
P.O. Box 50092
Lusaka
ZAMBIA BASIC EDUCATION COURSE
BASIC EDUCATION
MATHEMATICS
SYLLABUS
GRADE 8 – 9
A product of the December 1982 February 1983, March 1983 and November 1983
workshops held at the Curriculum Development Centre
P.O. Box 50092
Lusaka
Page
Preface .................................................................................................................. ii
Acknowledgements............................................................................................................. iii
Introduction........................................................................................................................ iv
General Aims..................................................................................................................... v
Objectives........................................................................................................................... vi
Grade 9: Content............................................................................................................... 22
Terminal objectives......................................................................................................... 23
PREFACE
The syllabus which follows has been prepared against the background and needs of the Education
Reform. In this respect, it is a unique contribution to the Zambian Curricula. Its ultimate goals,
however, are the reactions and responses of pupils to it. Even more important will be the pupils’
achievement from it in terms of knowledge, skills and values to be acquired. These are so vital to the
development and betterment of not only the pupil himself but to the community both immediate and
distant. The content of this syllabus points towards this requirement and expectations.
Thus the content of this syllabus reflects the structure of Mathematics, application and contribution to
problem solving which do not only relate to the Mathematics and technological pursuits but also to
the development of the nation. It is for this reason that the syllabus aims at providing pupils with
tools and means to tackle some challenges and problems found in Mathematics and later on in life.
Chairman
The Mathematics Department of the Curriculum Development Centre gratefully acknowledges the
dedicated work put into the production of the syllabus by the following people:
Particular thanks go to UNICEF who sponsored the Workshops at which the above named people
completed the draft of this syllabus. Lastly, thanks are also due to all Mathematics teachers,
specialists and other individuals whose contributions were sincerely appreciated.
INTRODUCTION
This syllabus in Mathematics for Basic Education (Grades 8-9) has been produced against the
background of the Educational Reforms. When constructing the aims and objectives of this syllabus
special consideration was given to the present social needs, and the traditional applications of the
subject in addition to the Mathematical requirements for
(The emphasis in this syllabus is on essential knowledge and skills leading to self-reliance)
In other words the basis Mathematics Curriculum should strengthen the link between schooling and
preparation for working life. Taught or treated with this curriculum, pupils should not only acquire
Mathematical knowledge and skills enabling them to be productive, but also knowledge and skills that
enable them to be self-reliant, by the end of Grade 9.
The working committee identified a number of productive skills in Mathematics as shown in the
syllabus on page Roman numeral (X). The danger with such a list of skills is that it usually takes
only the school context and not the social context into account. It is for this reason that a working
definition of a skill is now given.
Productive skills.
A skill is practical knowledge in combination wit ability. It can also be defined in terms of the
following features:-
i) It can be taught
ii) It can be improved with practice and feedback
iii) It can be applied with variety of different areas (which are usually) combined together
to form a smooth sequence of actions directed towards a particular out-come.
In this syllabus skills can be grouped into two main categories namely:
i) General and Social skills
ii) Individual skills
General and Social skills
1. To equip the child to live effectively in this modern age of Science and Technology and
3. To develop the Mathematical abilities of a child to his/her full potential and assist him/her to
4. To assist the child to understand mathematical concepts in order that he/she may better
MATHEMATICS CURRICULUM
4. To develop ability to recognise problems and to solve them with related mathematical
knowledge and skills.
6. To provide the child necessary mathematical knowledge and skills in order for him/her to be
productive and self-reliant.
1. Numeracy: (Basic requirements for employment – This forms a basis for the Mathematics
curriculum).
e.g. – An ability to make use of Mathematical knowledge and skills with ease and confidence
in everyday life
These skills are not restricted to a computation skills alone, but to wider aspects of numeracy. A few
are listed below:
II Communication
e.g. - Speaking
- Reading
- Writing
- Listening
- Use of written information sources.
The combination of various individual skills with social skills leads to productive work. Skills cannot
therefore be applied nor taught in isolation as they are inter-related and inter-dependent. While it may
be easy to test for a specific mathematical (individual) skill in a school situation the practical situation
in working life would require one to test a combination of motivation, attitudes, knowledge and skills.
GRADE 8
CONTENT
1. SETS
a) Universal set
b) Complement of a set including symbol
c) Equivalent sets including symbol.
d) Single and combined operation on sets.
e) Include use of Venn diagrams to illustrate a, b, and c.
4. Arithmetic problems
6. Approximations.
a) Decimal places.
8. Coordinates.
a) The origin, the X – and Y – axes, the XOY plane
b) Position fixing, sets of points.
CONTENT
1. SETS
a) Use of Venn diagrams to illustrate equal sets, subsets, intersection of sets, union of
sets, complement of a set, equivalent sets, universal sets, membership of a set, empty
set.
b) relations and mappings.
2. Number and Numeration.
a) Numeration system to any base less than ten.
b) Denary octal and binary scales.
c) Additional and subtraction in base two and eight.
d) Multiplication and division in base two and five.
e) Conversion from one base to another.
3. Fractions, ratio and proportion.
a) Direct proportion:
b) Inverse proportion:
c) Proportional parts.
4. Arithmetic problems
a) Problems involving pound and pence; dollars and cents.
b) Time, distance and speed.
c) Travel graphs.
d) Length, area and volume.
5. Social and Commercial Arithmetic.
a) Social Arithmetic
i) Wages and salaries
ii) Taxes
iii) Mathematics in Transport.
b) Commercial Arithmetic
i) Profit and loss.
ii) Commissions and discount.
6. Approximations and Estimations.
a) Significant figures.
b) Use of standard form or index notation
c) Significance of the digit ‘O’ when approximating.
d) Estimation.
7. The basic processes of algebra
a) Simplification of algebraic expressions.
b) 4.C.F. and L.C.M. of algebraic expressions.
c) Construction of formulae
d) Interpretation, evaluation and easy manipulation of formulae.
e) Simple factors.
f) Simple fractions.
8. Equations and inequations.
11. Mensuration.
a) Perimeter and areas of square, rectangles, triangles and circles and their composite
figures.
b) surface area and volume of cuboid and cylinder.
13. Statistics
a) Simple frequency tables
b) Mean, mode and modian from ungrouped data (simple examples only).
c) Mean from simple frequency table.
GRADE 9
TERMINAL OBJECTIVES