Outcry over Grade 9 exit certificate

ACADEMICS and opposition political parties are crying foul over the introduction of a Grade 9 exit certificate.

Critics have in the past slammed the new certificate, saying it would have the unintended consequence of encouraging young people to leave school early.

This week, leader of Buildonesa (Bosa), Mmusi Maimane, a fierce critic of the country’s basic education system, called out Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga for introducing the General Education and Training Certificate (GETC).

First announced by the minister in 2015, and confirmed by the Department of Basic Education’s director for

National Assessments, Dr Mark Chetty, in 2021, the introduction of the General Education Certificate (GEC) as a new method of assessment in the GETC will soon become a reality.

This past week, the Department of Basic Education revealed it was finally on track to pilot the programme, to be fully launched next year.

Department spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said in a statement that the GETC will recognise learners’ achievements at the end of the compulsory schooling phase in

Grade 9, which is equivalent to a level 1 qualification on the National Qualifications Framework.

This, he said, was to ensure that the “missing middle”, just over 40% of learners who do not progress beyond this level, get recognised by the system.

“Many of the approximately 40% of learners who exit the education system without any qualification would now achieve a GETC, and this would provide them with some currency upon entering the labour market and positively impact youth employment,” the department said.

Although the department previously warned that the certificate was not an “exit” qualification, it has referred to it as one of two exit points in the schooling system in its performance plan.

“The expected introduction of the GETC in 2025 would ensure that every young South African leaves the schooling system with a national certificate,” it said, noting that currently hundreds of students drop out annually without a qualification, which hinders them in finding jobs.

Mhlanga said that the programme had already been piloted across a few schools in 2022 and launched last year.

Maimane said the ANC was hellbent on continuing Hendrik Verwoerd’s Bantu Education. “It is Bosa’s view that Hendrik Verwoerd would be proud of this certificate. As the architect of Bantu education during apartheid, Verwoerd believed that an African child should not be educated past a certain basic threshold because there was no need for a skilled black labour force. Today, the ANC government is in effect determined to mirror this policy through its ‘Bantu Education Certificate’,” he said.

According to Independent Media, Professor Peliwe Lolwana, of the Wits Centre for Researching Education and Labour, a former CEO of qualifications watchdog Umalusi, said it was unlikely that a Grade 9 certificate would be of much value to school leavers, given that the majority of those with Grade 12 already struggled to find work.