It has been widely reported that the Department of Basic Education is considering introducing a second high school exit level at Grade 9, with students achieving a General Certificate of Education (GCE).

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It has qualified this by saying that those choosing this option will be compelled to complete the remaining three years of senior school in vocational based institutions.

Cynical

While in theory the proposals appear sound, the cynics amongst us may wonder if this is just a sleight of hand to take the spotlight off the current steadily deteriorating Grade 12 exit point.

Indeed, education expert and commentator Professor Jonathan Jansen, writing in the Times Select online edition on October 3 2019 slams it by saying “It is not a progressive study option, but a way to channel poor, black and working-class kids out of the system”.

Confidence

Given that the current Grade 12 certificate hardly inspires any confidence amongst prospective employers since the bar for success has been set so low, significant improvements are going to be necessary to enhance the entire high school curriculum to make the proposed exit level achieve any credibility.

In the absence of a comprehensive and well-designed plan to address the current challenges endemic to our basic education system, the introduction of the new exit point is likely to meet the same fate of the other grand interventions such as OBE.

Secondly, the existing vocational based institutions, Technical and Vocational Educational Training (TVET) Colleges are beset with a myriad of problems of their own, and will hardly be able to deal with an influx of new entrants without a major overhaul.

Inadequate

Some of the issues include a scarcity of real technical courses offered (construction, automotive) and too many softer courses (human resource management, public administration), a mismatch between the needs of the local economies they serve and the courses offered, and inadequate infrastructure (labs, testing beds etc.)

Standard

Thirdly, the standard of maths and science (a must for most technical courses) has to be dramatically enhanced to enable students who exit into the TVET stream to meet the demands of the curriculum.

Again, achieving this will require improving the teaching and learning in these subjects way before they reach their exit point in Grade 9.

After matriculating, Vijay Naidoo studied Economics in the UK. Upon his return, he joined the family construction business as MD for 10 years.

He subsequently joined his sister in their furniture manufacturing business as director for quality assurance and operations. He was responsible for all quality aspects of their products, and led the project to the business achieving an ISO 9000 quality accreditation. As an export focused business, this was important for our international competitiveness.

Mr Naidoo has an abiding interest in quality management and productivity improvement, particularly in manufacturing.

More recently, he has focused a lot of his time on giving back to the community by way of mentorship of small businesses and sitting on the executive of the South Coast Chamber of Commerce. He also sits on the Board of the Ugu South Coast Development Agency.

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