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Compiled by the Government Communication and Information System Date: 27 Oct 2008 Title: Next year's GEC will help assess Grade 9 readiness -------------------- By Gabi Khumalo and Nthambeleni Gabara Pretoria - Grade 9's in schools across the country will soon have to write an exam to test whether or not they are ready to enter their final matric year. The General Education Certificate (GEC), which will help schools assess the readiness of Grade 9 learners to enter matric, is to be introduced from next year. It forms part of the National Curriculum Statement, which this year's matric exams will be based on. The exams, which begin on Wednesday, will see the first crop of matrics finishing their schooling based on the new curriculum which was phased in from 2006. This year's matric candidates are also the first group who will be awarded the new National Senior Certificate, a qualification that significantly raises the bar in terms of its cognitive demand. All exams will now be set at a national level, and the results, government says, will give it a good measure of the effectiveness of the new curriculum. In an exclusive interview with BuaNews, Education Deputy Director General Palesa Tyobeka said the General Education Certificate was an opportunity for students to assess how far they had progressed, before they tackled their final year at school and furthered their learning. In 1995, government began the process of developing a new curriculum for the school system due to the changes in schools worldwide, the growth and development of knowledge and technology. There was also a need for learners to be exposed to different and higher level skills and knowledge than those required by the existing South African curricula. It also needed to reflect the new values and principles of a democratic South Africa. "It is not a new idea in the implementation of the new curriculum," she said. "What we had signalled when we introduced the new curriculum into the system was that in 2010 we will offer what we called at the time, the General Education and Training Certificate -GETC." According to Ms Tyobeka, the GEC will be used as a benchmark for learners to asses their performance and skills as well as assess their own strengths and weaknesses. It is intended to help the department as well as the public get a better sense of the quality of the education system, thus increasing their confidence in the education system. It will also introduce accountability. She said with the piloting of the GEC in the 2009 academic year, the performance of learners would no longer only be assessed in Grade 12. The new system will be fully implemented in the 2010 academic year. All Grade 9 pupils across the country will write a uniform national examination, which will be set and moderated at the national level. "As an educationist, you cannot teach without stopping at a certain point to assess learner's performance. With the GEC we want to get a better idea of what children are able to do and help them develop their competencies." The certificate will also provide parents and the public with more insight into learners. "Parents will understand and be able to identify the weaknesses and strengths of their children and it would be easier for them to identify what areas their children are good at." The Deputy Director General said the certificate should not be perceived as an exit certificate for learners to leave school and seek employment. "It's not about employment but checking the skills of every child in every school." Ms Tyobeka noted that the poor implementation of the new developments within the new curriculum was due to the fact that most teachers were trained under the Bantu-Education system, emphasising a need to support them while developing the new curriculum. "The teachers need to be better prepared; you do not train them for a certain curriculum, but instead you train them to be good teachers." She said the department was not expecting the changes to occur overnight, but rather gradually. Recently, the department introduced five new policies including: * The lowering of teacher pupil ratios; * The rearranging of districts into smaller, but more manageable areas; * The expansion of Further Education and Training Colleges; * The rollout of internet connectivity to every school in the country by 2013; and * A General Education Certificate. Meanwhile, the Minister of Education, Naledi Pandor said at the weekend that teachers have made a great effort to ensure Grade 12 readiness for the exams. "All schools are running programmes to prepare learners and distributed study materials, learners should not relax or go around shopping but continue to use the study materials," she said ahead of the exams. This year, matric results will be first made available to the school principals and to learners on the 29 before being published in the morning newspapers on 30 December. Explaining the reasons for the changes Minister Pandor said making the results available in the newspapers at night had terrible cosequences. "The principals will receive them first to check accuracy before handing them to the learners, by the time they are released in the newspapers there won't be any surprises from other learners," Minister Pandor said. - BuaNews |
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