Don’t get our children’s schooling wrong

We owe it to our children to get it right, making sure we provide them with the tools to give them their best chance to succeed in life.

With this in mind it makes this week’s proposal from the department of basic education to allow grade nine pupils the chance to leave school with government-approved qualifications a huge concern for many parents and educators. Although the proposal has largely drawn a huge outcry from the public, there has also been support in other quarters, insisting it would open opportunities for our youth.

Education Minister Angie Motshekga, speaking at the Sadtu national congress at Nasrec this week, proposed the introduction of a school-leaving certificate – a General Education Certificate (GEC) for pupils as young as 15. The department has since “noted with concern, misleading media reports and social media posts claiming that pupils could leave school in grade nine”, saying it couldn’t be further from the truth.

That’s not the point, as Professor Linda Chisholm from the Centre for Education Rights and Transformation at the University of Johannesburg revealed to TimesLive: “While it will relieve the schools of students repeatedly failing, it is neither an educational, nor human solution to this challenge.”

We can’t afford to get this wrong. The future of our children depends on it.