People

Development geography

Development is how well people can live, not only how large the economy is. Indicators measure it, and they do not all agree.

CAPS

Grade 11 · Geography · People

Geography examines physical and human processes, with map skills in both papers.

The papers
Paper 1 is climate and weather, and geomorphology, with geographical skills. Paper 2 is rural and urban settlement, and the economic geography of South Africa, with geographical skills. Each paper is 150 marks.
Map work
Direction, scale, gradient, cross-section and a calculation from the map must show the formula and the substitution. A place you cannot point to on the extract is a guess.
How a marker reads it
A common mix-up is to treat GDP as a measure of happiness, or to rank people by continent instead of by the indicator.

Paragraph questions want causes and effects in sequence. Naming a term without saying how it changes the landscape or the settlement is only the first mark.

Diagram

Worked theory

Worked theory. Two South African places. Sandton has offices, clinics and schools close together. A former homeland town may have a lower income, a longer trip to a hospital, and many people sending wages home. The national GDP looks healthier than the town feels, because GDP averages the Sandtons with the towns. HDI moves when a clinic and a school arrive, even if no new mine opens. Calling the whole of Africa “undeveloped” erases the Sandtons and the cities that function. The indicator you chose changes the sentence you are allowed to say.

More worked examples

Two municipalities, one GDP
National GDP per person can rise because mining profits are counted in Johannesburg, while a rural municipality in the same year still has a clinic an hour away and a school without a library. HDI for that municipality moves only when health and schooling move, not when the GDP headline moves. The core kept the profit. The periphery kept the queue. Using one number for both places is the mistake.
A tap at the end of the street
A national income figure can rise in a year when a street in an informal settlement still shares one tap. The income is an average, pulled up by high earners. The tap is a development fact: health and time. South Africa is one of the most unequal countries, so the average and the tap often disagree. Using only the income number to say the street “developed” this year skips the queue at the tap.

In ordinary words

Income per person is one indicator. The Human Development Index adds health and schooling. A country can be rich in minerals and still unequal. Developed and developing are rough labels for that mix of income, health and education. The core-and-periphery idea says investment and skilled work gather in a few places, while other places supply labour and raw materials. Development is a pattern, not a prize given to a continent.

In South Africa

The gap between a city core and a rural municipality is South Africa’s own core and periphery.

Part 1 / 4

What it is

Development is how well people can live, not only how large the economy is. Indicators measure it, and they do not all agree.

More worked examples

Board walkthroughs on this topic. Open one, copy the working, then try the next.

Example 1 / 20

Explain the difference between GDP per capita and HDI.

How we got there

Read this like a teacher at the board. We go slowly, name every number, and say why we take each step.

Explain in another language · 11

1. What is the question asking?

Read the question twice. Circle the unknown. Underline every number and unit. The paper is asking: Explain the difference between GDP per capita and HDI.

In other words — as if you have never seen this before

If you have never seen this before: Economic vs social. We will name a method in words, write the formula with no numbers, then substitute one line at a time.

2. What do we already know?

Development indicators.

3. Which method — and why this one?

Economic vs social.

4. Step-by-step working

01 / 07
Step A — Read the question twice
Slow down. Circle the word that names the unknown. Underline every number and its unit. Do not grab a formula yet — first decide what the paper is actually asking.
Why this step: If you can say the method in a sentence, you will pick the right formula. First-timers skip this and grab the first equation they remember.
02 / 07
Step B — Write the given in a column
Development indicators.
Why this step: A column with units stops you mixing cm with m, or minutes with seconds. Markers can also see you started correctly.
03 / 07
Step C — Name the method in words
Economic vs social.
Why this step: If you can say the method in a sentence, you will pick the right formula. First-timers skip this and grab the first equation they remember.
04 / 07
Explain
GDP per capita measures average income. HDI combines life expectancy, education and income.
Why this step: We only do one job per line so a marker can follow the marks — and so you can find a slip without starting over.
05 / 07
Step G — Sense-check the size
Ask: is this the kind of number a Grade 10–12 paper would want? A speed of 3 000 ms for a learner walking, or a probability bigger than 1, means a unit or algebra slip. Estimate first: round the numbers and do the sum in your head.
Why this step: Markers write ‘unrealistic’ in the margin when the method is right but the size is wild. A 10-second head check often finds a missing 10² or a unit that never changed.
06 / 07
Step F — Box the answer with its unit
HDI is broader.
Why this step: A number without a unit is half a mark on a Physics paper, and a marker can miss a Maths answer that is buried in working.
07 / 07
Step H — What the marker is looking for
On an NSC memo you usually earn: (1) a method mark for naming the right formula or idea in words, (2) an accuracy mark for substituting the given numbers with units, (3) an accuracy mark for the boxed answer with its unit. Write those three lines even if you are unsure of the arithmetic — blank pages score zero.
Why this step: First-timers chase the final number and leave the method blank. The memo still pays out for the idea and the substitution even when the last line is wrong.

5. The answer

HDI is broader.

Copy onto your answer sheet — in this order

Answer: HDI is broader.

6. Check it like a marker

HDI from 0 to 1.

7. A trap first-timers fall into

First-timers often grab the first formula they remember, mix units (cm with m, minutes with seconds), or drop a minus sign. Write the formula in words first: “this equals that, because…”

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