The Department of Education’s mooted alternative of trade and artisan colleges is a step in the right direction, but we must tread with caution, writes Sihle Mlambo.
Durban - When Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga, with envelope in hand, reveals the matric pass rate, the nation claps and celebrates a percentage representative of that year’s school-leavers.
But as the joy subsides and thousands who have earned a place at university begin queueing, we are reminded of the youngsters who failed matric.
“Where did they go?” we ask. “Where are they now?” “Where did they vanish to?”
Of the class of 2014, 75.8% of the 680 000-odd pupils who sat for the National Senior Certificate, passed. Those pupils were among 1.2 million kids who started school in 2003.
More than half a million children were lost along the way - possibly repeated a grade, left school or went to a college.
But now Motshekga has arrived with her ministerial task team who are busy drawing up a Grade 9 exit certificate for pupils, to leave school and further their education in Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET). The colleges offering TVET have been promised for specific trade and artisan skills training.
Motshekga’s spokesman, Elijah Mhlanga, said communicating the Grade 9 exit plan would be crucial and emphasised that it was not a plan to keep children away from school.
“It is not new, it gives you an option to do other things. We feel it is the only way to produce skills and cater for those pupils (who are not academic),” he said. At present, pupils are allowed to leave school at Grade 9, but are given no certification and rely on their school reports.
“This (new exit certificate) is designed to take people straight to where they want to go, because right now, in Grade 10, there are many kids doing subjects they do not want to do because of combinations and so forth.”
Using examples like plumbers and chefs, Mhlanga said TVET graduates could drive the economy and create employment. TVET - like a university - would ensure they became skilled professionals.
“It is a national necessity, this must happen. We must create these institutions to train young people. This has worked in industrial nations,” he said.
He was convinced that, despite fears of high TVET drop-out rates, the idea would reduce the drop-outs in education as a whole.
“Drop-outs happen everywhere, not everyone who runs the Comrades Marathon finishes it. We know that this is going to happen, but we will deal with it,” he said.
Dumile Cele, chief executive of the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industries, said the proposed plan would benefit students who struggled academically, but emphasised the importance of making sure pupils did not drop out from the TVET colleges.
“We must be careful not to create a gap in the education system and consequently in the labour market. It will be of paramount importance for the Department of Education to make it compulsory for students who go for the Grade 9 exit certificate to attend a TVET subsequently,” she said.
The risks of leaving with a Grade 9 exit certificate and not completing a TVET course were great, she said.
“Their employability will be at stake as there are minimal avenues that they can follow in life with only the exit certificate. There are countries that make use of an exit certificate before the final matric year. The UK has the Ordinary Level Certificate (close to Grade 10/11), while Finland has a Grade 9 exit certificate.
“This is to say that such a plan, if executed well, could benefit the student. But, if not planned carefully, it will lead to the unemployability of almost half a generation and cripple the economy,” she said.
Cele suggested that the exit certificate should be at Grade 10, on par with other countries, and said TVETs were crucial in meeting outlines as set out by the National Development Plan.
But there is a need to improve TVETs and put emphasis on them as a skills training option.
“The aim would be to put a strong emphasis on tradable skills sectors which focus on production, manufacturing, mining and agriculture which will have a good impact on exports as opposed to a focus on service sectors like tourism and finance which normally require a highly-skilled professional.
“The path of the Grade 9 exit certificate students should be designed to address the current needs of industry and the economy. If the structure of programmes at TVETs does not address this, the students will be unemployable and that is a scenario that must be avoided,” she said.
Professor Graeme Bloch, an educational researcher at the Mapungubwe Institute, was concerned that TVETs could become dumping grounds for drop-outs and that it would take 10 years for them to run efficiently.
“It’s a nice plan, but it’s not well thought through,” he said. “Do TVETs become second grade colleges?”
Bloch said teachers - particularly those of maths and science - should do better and were the main problem. Parents needed to put pressure on them, he said.
Vee Gani, of the KwaZulu-Natal Parents’ Association, was concerned that the exit certificate would be motivation to drop out of school.
“When kids leave school before matric, they generally don’t go to tertiary institutions. The idea is that kids should be kept in school for grounding and so that they can mature and get the knowledge they need. In Grade 9 they are young, 14 or 15… too young to make informed decisions,” he said.
Gani said he could understand why the department was doing it, but felt it was not a solution.
“What if more kids drop out than before? We are going to have an uneducated and unemployable youth. Which company will want to employ people with a Grade 9 certificate? Nobody. Unemployment is high already, we need people in school getting educated,” he said.
Public comment will be accepted once the plan has been gazetted.
Daily News