‘Grade 9 certificate not an exit from school as such’

Two weeks ago, basic education minister Angie Motshekga revealed the department’s plans to introduce a General Education Certificate, or GEC, for grade 9 as the first exit point from school.

So, what is new? According to Port Elizabeth College principal Khaya Matiso, absolutely nothing.

Matiso said the announcement by the minister to introduce a grade 9 qualification by 2020 should not be seen as an exit point, but rather a point at which grade 9s diversify their academic interests.

Motshekga said the move was an effort to reduce failure, repetition of grades and dropout rates.

Speaking at the Sadtu national congress held at the Nasrec centre, Motshekga said by 2017, about 99% of children aged seven to 15 were attending institutes of learning, adding it was up from 96% in 2002.

“Among 16- to 18-year-olds the participation rate is about 86%, indicating it is within this age range that school dropout begins to occur,” she said.

“But the numbers have been stabilising in recent years.

“Primary school completion has increased from about 85% in 2002 to about 95% in 2017.

“We plan to launch a systemic evaluation to be conducted at strategic grades by finalising preparations and technical standards for the administration of systemic evaluation to enable high-level national and provincial monitoring.

“The first cycle of systemic

evaluation in grades 3, 6 and 9 will be finalised by June 2020.

“The field trial for GEC at the end of grade 9 is scheduled for completion at the end of July 2020,” Motshekga said.

Commenting on concerns that it would leave even more young people jobless, Matiso said this system had actually been in place for years.

“I won’t say ‘exit’, I use ‘proceed’ – you proceed to something else – and this is what is confusing the public.

“When you proceed in education, [you are] either given a report or a certificate which acknowledges that you have done this and you can proceed to the next level,” Matiso said.

“There comes a stage in grade 9 where we talk about career choices,” Matiso said.

“This is the substance of the debate. Not exiting.

“Now what we should be debating on is when should a pupil make a career choice?”

He said currently that decision was made in grade 9 and by then it was already late.

“I say the minister is late – you can see a child’s abilities and/or capabilities at ECD [early childhood development] level and primary school.”

Matiso said children should be introduced to technology in the foundation phase.

PE College and East Cape Midlands College, both TVET colleges in the Bay, enrolled just more than 14,000 students across more than 10 campuses between them.

Matiso said the announcement would not change anything – instead, as TVET colleges, they were campaigning for those who had dropped out of school after grade 9 to return.

“The announcement is a secondary issue.

“What is important is the quality of education and where [it] stands in SA,” he said.

Matiso said this was where the education department fell short, adding that in countries like Germany technology and entrepreneurship were introduced at primary school already.

Another issue Matiso raised was that TVET graduates had no infrastructure support.

“Once you branch into a TVET college with your grade 9 report or certificate, you leave PE College a qualified plumber or electrician, for example.

“Outside PE College there are hundreds of schools, clinics and hospitals that need plumbers and electricians.

“And that is where they fall short,” Matiso said, adding that as a college they pushed for entrepreneurship as they did not want students to rely on jobs, but rather to start their own businesses.

Educational psychologist Gerhart Goosen said the idea of the GEC was nothing new, adding that grade 9 was the end of compulsory schooling.

Goosen said his concern was what came next for those pupils.

“Previously, children went into apprenticeships, but now we no longer have those opportunities.

“I’m not against the idea, but it just needs to be carefully planned so there is a place that can give those children, between 14 and 15 years, in-service training and/or learnerships because we are in need of artisans,” Goosen said.

Ndzondelelo High School head of department of language Boniwe Heshu said there was a high possibility pupils who went from grade 9 to TVET colleges might not cope.

She attributed this to the lack of preparation, saying this needed to happen at primary school.

“Pupils go through primary school not having been conditioned that they could be a plumber, a chef or anything along those lines.

“They grow up thinking they will be doctors or accountants,” Heshu said.

TVET colleges were an alternative for pupils who could not cope in mainstream schools and this, too, could be detected at primary school, she said.

Education department spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said the GEC would not be an indication of the exiting of pupils from a learning pathway, but “provides better decisionmaking for and access to further learning after grade 9.”

‘The first cycle of systemic evaluation in grades 3, 6 and 9 will be finalised by June 2020’ Angie Motshekga BASIC EDUCATION MINISTER