Preparations for the introduction of the General Education Certificate (GEC) has shown a significant progress since several schools have been randomly selected for the pilot study during the 2022 Academic Calendar.
Following the recommendations made through consultation with various public entities, the DBE was enabled to refine the policy framework on GEC. Dr Mark Chetty, Director for National Assessments at the DBE, highlighted that the refined policy framework will be submitted to UMALUSI in 2022 for registration on the National Qualifications Framework. In the same gesture, the DBE undertook a pilot study on the structured instruments in a purposeful selection of schools during 2021. “The assessment frameworks are also being refined according to the learnings and recommendations. It is worthwhile to indicate that great strides have been made in introducing dynamic and innovative assessment forms into the GEC assessment model, where learners in the selected schools are given expanded opportunities to display capabilities on inquiry-based learning, solve real world problems and design practical solutions. The assessment instruments have been designed to integrate the learning of 21st century skills within the scope of expected curriculum competencies,” explained Dr Chetty.
According to Dr Chetty, the assessment reform programme had started prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. “As such, the health crisis was seen as an opportunity to review and strengthen the formal assessment programme from early learning up to senior grades. These reform measures include re-emphasis on assessment for learning strategies throughout all grades in GET; changing mind-sets from an overdependence on examinations and utilising more innovative school-based assessments; and re-engineering progression and promotion weightings to give teachers more space to generate formative evidence linked to classroom diagnostic analyses and school remediation programmes,” he added.
He pointed out that in 2022, the assessment model of the GEC would be administered in almost 270 schools, randomly selected from across all nine provinces. “This will provide further learnings on how to strengthen the quality of the assessment tools, their infusion into school-based assessment and how to generate a holistic GEC scorecard for learners. Test exemplars and administration manuals on the end-of-year standardised tests and project-based assessments will be provided to participating schools and the training of teachers and subject advisors have been scheduled for mid-2022. In 2023, the number of participating schools will be up-scaled to cover all education districts. Our plan is to see all public schools empowered to administer the assessment model of the GEC at the grade 9 level during 2024,” reported Dr Chetty.