Education department clarifies Grade 9 exit proposal and general education certificate

The department of basic education has clarified that the proposed general education certificate (GEC) is not a school leaving certificate following speculation that pupils would in the future have the option to exit school at Grade 9 instead of Grade 12.

The department’s Hubert Mweli said GEC was part of founding policies and legislation, which means it has been part of the departments’ policies since 1995. Its intent is to increase the offering uptake in the technical vocational stream and the technical educational stream.

“It will help to inform the decision of pupils, parents, and the decisions of educational authorities. Learners will now have the option to pursue an academic pathway, technical vocational pathway, and even a technical occupational pathway.

The department reiterates that the reports claiming that the education minister announced that learners would have an option to leave school in Grade 9 have been misinterpreted.

The reports emanate from the misinterpretation of what minister Angie Motshekga said last week at the SADTU National Congress.

During her address, Motshekga said: “The field trial for the GEC at the end of Grade 9 is scheduled for completion at the end of July 2020. A draft framework for the GEC has been developed. Assessment and examination modalities for the GEC are being investigated and have been presented at the HEDCOM meeting. The technical occupational subjects have been packaged and submitted to Umalusi for approval.”

The plan proposes to send more learners into technical education and has introduced new subjects which could be referred to as applied mathematics and applied science.

“The public discussion on the GEC certificate is not new as it took place earlier this year when it was first raised by president Cyril Ramaphosa in his Basic Education Lekgotla in January and in his state of the nation address in February.”

The overall idea is to facilitate the pathways between schools and colleges at a level below Grade 12.

“Apart from facilitating the transition from school to college, a GEC would address the current problem of hundreds of thousands of young people leaving education completely each year with no national qualification with which to navigate the labour market,” the department said in a statement.

In the case of schooling, GEC would be an NQF registered qualification to be awarded at the end of the GET band (Grade 9).

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