Grade 9 GEC 'will improve' SA's education system
The Department of Basic Education is pushing ahead with its plans to introduce a grade 9 General Education Certificate (GEC).
The department believes the certificate will better prepare pupils for the working world.
Education expert Mary Metcalfe says the grade 9 certificate will revolutionalise the country's education system.
"I am strongly supportive of the General Education Certificate. It has always been part of the original design of the new education and training system.
"Compulsory education starts from grade R and it goes until the year a pupil turns 15, or passes grade 9, after that education is not compulsory.
"There is an anxiety that if this is seen as an exit system, then pupils will say, 'now I can exit the system'.
"I am more concerned about the large numbers of pupils that have in fact left the system without any piece of paper that affirms them, that says you have succeeded"
Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga has said broad consultations around the certificate have already taken place with stakeholders, partners, and experts on the most appropriate model for the GEC, and public comments have been considered in introducing the policy.
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