In a bid to help learners identify the career paths that best match their abilities, the Gauteng Education Department has introduced a career counselling and education programme for secondary schools.
Provincial Education MEC Barbara Creecy said the programme, which has been designed for Grades 8 and 9 learners, works with teachers, learners and their parents to jointly identify the career paths that best match the learner’s abilities, interests and goals.
“We all know how important choosing a set of subjects in Grade 10 is for completing matric and pursuing an education or work opportunity, when you leave school. The programme focuses on empowering learners and parents to choose the right combination of subjects that will open opportunities after they leave school,” Creecy explained.
She noted that through schools, government provides choices to determine a learner’s future by offering a number of services and interventions to ensure that they successfully develop their potential, talents and skills to follow a career path to a successful post-schooling life.
The department is also offering learners in Grade 10 the option of choosing between completing a general National Senior Certificate or a Technical and Vocation National Senior Certificate. This will give Grade 9 learners the choice of going to an FET college to follow a vocational pathway or going to a technical high school to follow an intensive maths, science and technological subject direction.
“To ensure that learners are successful, we are providing supplementary education programmes on Saturdays and school holidays. The programme focuses on complementing the work done in schools by providing additional tuition and materials in 10 subjects, where the provincial failure rate is the highest,” Creecy said.
She added that the programmes also include digital and audio-visual materials, study guides and career education materials.
Creecy, who was speaking at the Soweto Learner Summit on Tuesday, assured learners that government was working at all levels with communities and families to make it possible for them to get the best education. She encouraged them to do their best.
“I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do; I expect great things from each of you… so, don’t let us down. Do not let your family or your country or yourself down… make us all proud. I know you can do it,” Creecy encouraged the learners who attended the summit.
On Monday, Creecy visited Edward Phatudi Comprehensive and Steve Tshwete Secondary Schools in Atteridgeville and Olivenhoutbosch to assess the first day of the Grade 12 winter classes.
Creecy said the 2012 Secondary School Improvement Programme (SSIP) programme was now a bigger project than last year, focusing on nearly 300 000 learners in Grades 8 to 12 and the number of schools had increased from 334 last year to 366 this year.
She added that learner feedback had been very enthusiastic about the impact of the project.
“They speak highly of the quality of teaching and the resources and generally see SSIP as making a difference to their mastery of content,” MEC Creecy said.
The department has also supplied learning material to 73 independent schools and nearly 4 000 teachers have been provided with training.
An amount of R140 million has been budgeted by the department for the project in this financial year. It provides tuition, study resources, catering and transport for Grade 12s.
Article by SANews.gov.za