A workshop was held by the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to look into the progress of the General Education Certificate (GEC) which is currently being piloted at a number of selected schools around the country.
The GEC which will be given to Grade 9 learners and is expected to address the current issue of young learners who leave the education system each year without any national qualification, thus making it difficult for them to find jobs.
The Certificate is based on the three-stream model which includes the Academic, Vocational, Occupational and Technical pathway.
The Department says that the GEC is not an indication of the exit of learners from a learning pathway but that it offers better decision making for access to further learning after Grade 9.
During the workshop various recommendations were made, which include focusing on improving teaching, learning and assessment from Grade R to Grade 9.
Chief Director of National Assessments and Examinations at the department, Dr. Rufus Poliah says that the department is looking at a curriculum roadmap which shows the curriculum process and what the department needs to do in order to achieve their goal of improving teaching and learning.
He says that they intend to move away from assessing learners in order to evaluate their test scores and instead they want to move towards on assessment which focuses on learning.
With the introduction of the GEC, Dr Poliah says that the department will be:
Making sure that the assessment from Grade R to Grade 9 is not just about a Certificate but is about what the learner has acquired in terms of skills, knowledge, attitude and character.
He says that if teachers are able to identify the gaps in learners' knowledge holistically and address these gaps then the department would have done justice in terms of issuing a certificate at the end of Grade 9.
Dr. Poliah says that systemic challenges such as large class sizes and backlogs in the education system were discussed at the workshop and that these challenges need to be addressed in order to improve the quality of education.
