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Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University (SMU) is a university in South Africa launched on the 1st of January 2015. Its students come mostly from poor families in under-resourced South African living areas. A decent pass in matric mathematics (maths) is the main criterion for admission into SMU programs. However, maths pass rates are habitually low. In attempting to improve matric maths passes, some SMU maths lecturers undertook a study to uncover the bases of problems. The study objective was to determine why matric maths passes were low, and what interventions could be effective to improve matric maths performance. The lecturers then offered intervention maths classes to local schools, teaching some maths areas. The study identified the toughest maths areas, and the teachers’ training deficiencies. The intervention was effective only for schools with poor results. This signaled sub-optimality of the interventions. Improvements on the intervention methods were recommended. Address for correspondence: Telephone: +27 12 521 4291, E-mail: [email protected] INTRODUCTION Some students of SMU do not have financial support. Many of them apply to study at SMU in the health science programs. Excuses often arise from students who underperform in study programs in which they lack interest (Holmes et al. 2017). The case of SMU is not excluded. Many SMU students who are registered for the natural sciences programs did so in order to apply in later years for enrollment in the health science study programs. Their matric pass rates were commonly low for admission, either absolutely or when compared with top performers. The rates of dropout for students who came with low matric passes were also exceptionally high. In the maths discipline, the low passes were often said to be due to poor matric maths background (Bossér and Lindahl 2017). The difficulties recognized with the SMU students were lack of computer knowledge, inexperience with the (modern) library, inadequate study methods, ignorance about careers, poor lecturer performance in presenting the science subjects, pressure of parents and other people, and campus excessive support of the health science against mediocre focus at SMU management level. However, mathematics is an essential subject (Mason 2007). The SMU lecturers from mathematics and statistics departments decided to assist to educate maths educators and their learners at school level. Some lecturers established a support group for backing schools local to SMU to advance the teaching of maths. This support group also showed the maths teachers some facilitation methods and difficult areas in maths. Even though the support group had targeted to improve the teachers with their initiative in the long term, for the short to medium terms, they taught maths concepts which troubled the teachers.