Critical steps

DIFFERENTIATION in South African basic and higher education is tricky terrain. Everyone wants a matric certificate, and everyone wants to go to a traditional university.

But that path is not the best fit for all children. And in introducing a Grade 9 school-leaving certificate, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga recognises that.

Taking the advice of a highlevel task team, Motshekga last week announced that a new school exit certificate was being developed for pupils who battled with traditional academia.

With what will be called a General Education and Training Certificate, Grade 9 school leavers will go on to study at a Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) college.

While there is wide support for this move – from certain teachers’ unions to school-governing body associations – there is the worry that to write differentiation into policy would perpetuate the inequalities in our society.

The other fear is that the Grade 9 school-leaving certificate would provide a dumping ground for children failed not by their ability, but by the schooling system.

As things stand, half of the 1.1 million pupils who were in Grade 10 in 2012 did not make it to matric last year.

Out of every 100 pupils who were in Grade 2 in 2003, 51 made it to matric in 2013, 40 passed matric, and just 16 qualified for university study. Of those very few children who make it to university, only half eventually graduate.

Less than 15% of blacks and coloureds between the ages 20 and 24 are enrolled in university, and less than 5% of all blacks and coloureds between the ages of 20 and 24 are succeeding in higher education.

When the General Education and Training Certificate does eventually materialise, it is critical that pupils must write a credible final exam to be able to earn it, and that TVET colleges have begun to win the confidence of employers, parents and pupils.

As with many of our country’s well-meaning policies, the devil is in the implementation.