Umalusi has announced that it supports the idea of a General Education Certificate (GEC).

The Council for Quality Assurance in General and Further Education and Training on Thursday morning said this was provided that the idea was properly understood as a transitional qualification rather than an exit qualification. This was said when the council announced its state of readiness for the upcoming matric exams. 

Umalusi's CEO Mafu Ramoketsi said one of the advantages of the GEC is that it could provide valuable national data to gauge the performance of our education system. 

"However, Umalusi will firstly evaluate the GEC qualification and then issue a formal statement on the outcome of that process,” Ramoketsi said.

Last month minister of basic education Angie Motshekga announced at the South African Democratic Teacher' Union's 9th congress that the first cycle of systemic evaluation in grades 3, 6 and 9 will be finalised by June 2020. 

She said the field trial for the General Education Certificate (GEC) at the end of grade 9 is scheduled for completion at the end of July 2020.

"A draft framework for the GEC has been developed. Assessment and examination modalities for the GEC are being investigated and have been presented at the Hedcom [heads of education departments committee] meeting. The technical occupational subjects have been packaged and submitted to Umalusi for approval," Motshekga said.