When news broke that South Africa’s schooling system will adopt a general education certificate (GEC) policy that will allow Grade 9 pupils to streamline to technical vocational or occupational learning, the basic education ministry received a lot of criticism.

Partly because some media reports misrepresented an address by Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga during a summit hosted by the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (SADTU). It was also compounded by the frustration of the known challenges confronting the education system such as inadequate schooling infrastructure, poor learning conditions, insufficient learning materials and the recent spate of violence.

However, Grade 9 pupils have, for the longest time now, rejected the traditional schooling route in preference of enrolling at a Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institution to complete their studies.

In terms of formalising this exit point education economist Martin Gustafsson told Daily Maverick that in 1995, Education White Paper 1 pointed to a need for a Grade 9 general education certificate and the benefits thereof.

“The qualification will assist in placing youths who did not obtain a matric in the appropriate programme in TVET colleges,” Gustafsson said.

Currently, senior-phase equivalent grades are offered at TVET institutions under the banner of National Certificate (Vocational), commonly known as NC(V) and are registered under the National Qualifications Framework as levels 2, 3 and 4 (grade 10, 11 and 12).

In 2016, over 8-million students aged 16 to 24 enrolled at TVET colleges, according to data collected by the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) in their post-school education and training monitor report.

Despite a high enrolment rate, only 41.7% of the students who enrolled to complete their matric equivalent (NCV level 4) finished their studies.

Low completion rates are one of the many challenges confronting this sector, which the department ideally wants to see form part of the system learners might prefer upon completing their GEC examinations.

Cyril Mbatha, an Economics professor at Unisa’s School of Business Leadership, told Daily Maverick that despite GEC being a step in the right direction for the labour market and improving the entire education system, low completion rates at TVET colleges are only a symptom of the number of systemic challenges confronting the sector.

“GEC will ensure that learners are able to finish another certificate above the GEC and go further to finish a qualification at the same level as Grade 12 – but in the vocational route,” he said. “This will give learners other education and training options after Grade 9 and will prevent learners from dropping out before matric and getting lost from the education and training system”.

Year in, year out, when matric results are revealed, attention is directed at learners who “get lost” in the system and are left unaccounted for.

Mbatha said yearly, over 300,000 pupils drop out of school between Grades 10 and 12 and they leave the system without any formally recognised qualification – which limited their options of finding employment in the formal sector. A gap that the GEC will potentially bridge.

Amid an ailing economy, the unemployment rate climbed to 29.1% from 29% in the previous quarter this year, which means at least 6.7 million South Africans are jobless. When further broken down to youth unemployment, this number jumps to 55.2% as recorded in the first quarter of the year.

A presentation submitted by the South African Further Education and Training Student Association (SAFETSA) to the portfolio committee on higher education, science and technology flagged governance, infrastructure, and a poor curriculum as some of the TVET sectors’ long-standing challenges.

According to the association, students graduate from TVET colleges with inadequate training because most of the institutions have “outdated workshops”. Furthermore, the presentation cited that a tourism student can graduate without having been taught a computer subject.

Of the budget allocated to universities by DHET, 18% is spent on TVET colleges. And only 10% of this allocation is spent on infrastructure, which mainly involves maintenance and replacement of furniture and equipment, the association said. Personnel allocation takes up 63% of the allocation, whilst 27% is used for operational purposes.

However, Mbatha said the challenges in TVET colleges are as a result of ineffective planning from the DHET because of administrative division in the whole education system.

“Having two ministries has created a disjointed planning strategy for the whole education system. Currently, policy co-ordination between DBE and DHET is weak and in some areas, it is non-existent,” he said.

SAFETSA’s presentation to the committee also pointed to governance challenges that often involve school managing bodies that hamper the success of the institutions.

“There is still a concern with the capacity of college staffing and staff development,” according to SAFETSA.

Mbatha further said the DHET has grappled with providing leadership to TVET institutions.

“The DHET needs to provide the same or similar framework for TVET colleges used in the management of programme quality assurance systems that are used for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs),” said Mbatha.

Speaking to Daily Maverick, Elijah Mhlanga, spokesperson for the Basic Education Department indicated that TVET colleges are not the only institutions where learners will be absorbed after completing their GEC examinations.

“We already have schools of specialisation; Rhodesfield School of Engineering in Kempton Park, Curtis Nkondo in Soweto and Soshanguve Secondary School of Automotive Engineering,” he said.

“These are but a few examples of schools which have already been re-purposed; we will convert other schools as well. We will not necessarily need to build new schools, but re-purpose existing ones,” Mhlanga added.

Schools of Specialisation (SoS) have been a Gauteng education initiative since 2016. This project involves repurposing existing schools into technical vocational learning institutions with specialities in maritime, aviation, engineering, mathematics and science. Since its inception, the project has re-purposed seven schools out 35 identified to undergo this shift.

During an appearance before the portfolio committee of basic education, the department said the GEC aims to address the mismatch between available skills and competencies against the expectations and requirements of the labour sector.

Even though there are other institutions available to mandate GEC, concerns remain as to whether DBE has the capacity to implement this policy considering the many systemic challenges basic education is confronted with.

“While DBE may have the capacity to administer the GEC for learners, if the TVET system as a whole is not ready for the holders of the certificates, then the plan would remain half baked,” Mbatha said.

“It may achieve only some of the objectives of ensuring that learners who previously dropped out without any qualification now have some sort of qualification they can use as a signal into entering an imperfect TVET system or the low paying job market,” he added.

Gustafsson told Daily Maverick that notwithstanding the fact that the DBE has the capacity to implement and administer GEC, its effectiveness is dependent on the monitoring and evaluation mechanism put in place.

“A really critical area where we need better capacity is in monitoring and research. If we are strong here, effective management and policy-making become a lot easier,” he said.

“DHET has done tracking on movements of learners in schools to universities, that should be replicated to cover school-to-college transition. We know far too little about who goes to college, how school results predict what happens in college and how colleges select youths,” he added. DM