{"id":765299,"date":"2024-04-03T10:00:38","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T08:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=765299"},"modified":"2024-04-03T10:00:55","modified_gmt":"2024-04-03T08:00:55","slug":"new-exit-certificate-for-school-kids-in-south-africa-where-40-drop-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/765299\/new-exit-certificate-for-school-kids-in-south-africa-where-40-drop-out\/","title":{"rendered":"New ‘exit’ certificate for school kids in South Africa – where 40% drop out"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Department of Basic Education says it will “step up” the piloting of the new General Education Certificate (GEC) it plans to fully launch in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The department’s annual performance plan for 2024\/25 outlined the progress being made in transforming the school system into a new ‘three-stream’ model, and laid out the next steps for the plan in the year ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The GEC is a standardised qualification being piloted in South Africa for learners completing grade 9, which will give any school leavers some type of “currency” they can use to either find a job or pursue a different stream of schooling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pilot initially launched in a few schools in 2022 and ramped up in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the department has previously stressed that it is not an “exit” qualification – and should not be used to encourage learners to leave education and training – the performance plan specifically refers to it as one of two exit points in schooling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if the department does not intend for the GEC to be an exit certificate, the stark reality in South Africa is that only 60% of learners go on to complete the National Senior Certificate (NSC, aka, matric), with around 40% dropping out at grade 9 with nothing to show for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fact has often been used as a major point of criticism against the much-lauded and celebrated matric results announcements each year – where the government and education department celebrate pass rates of over 82% when the reality is that almost half the learners who started school with the matric cohort don’t make it to the end<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The GEC has thus been conceptualised as a level 1 qualification on the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) that is intended to formally recognise learners\u2019 achievements at the end of the compulsory phase of schooling<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Many of the approximately 40% of youths who currently exit the education system without any qualification would now achieve a GEC, and this would provide them with some currency upon entering the labour market and would positively impact youth employment,” the department said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The expected introduction of the GEC in 2025 would ensure that every young South African leaves the schooling system with a national certificate.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The department argues that the GEC will recognise formal learning that has occurred by the end of Grade 9 – now seen as the “compulsory phase of learning” – fulfilling progression requirements in the NSC for Grades R to 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The certificate will either help learners ‘survive’ through to grade 12, put them on a different path toward vocational and occupational training, or give them some “currency” to enter the labour market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Achieving virtually universal completion of Grade 9 by 2030 seems realistic. The expected introduction of the GEC in 2025 would ensure that every young South African leaves the schooling system with a national certificate,” the department said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The certificate is integral to the department’s new ‘three-stream’ model, where it wants to put school kids on different educational paths – either academic (traditional NSC), vocational (broadly aligned to a profession) or occupational (for a specific job) – depending on their performance in school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DBE said it will continue to pilot the GEC qualification in 1,000 schools in 2024\/25<\/strong>, looking towards a full launch in 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In 2024\/25, we have decided to step up the (GEC) pilot in schools, including Schools of Skill,” the department said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is also continuing to develop and strengthen the vocational and occupational streams, working with the Department of Higher Education and Training to ensure that programmes allow learners who have completed a grade 9 GEC to enter Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Colleges, should they so choose to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Read: Changes for school calendars in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Department of Basic Education is stepping up its rollout of the a new exit certificate for school kids in grade 9, as it tries to push them into new streams of learning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":743597,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-765299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=765299"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":765339,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765299\/revisions\/765339"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/743597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=765299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=765299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=765299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}