JC exams will be phased out by 2017

This effectively means pupils will no longer be expected to sit for an external examination in Form Three and will not receive certificates before they proceed to Form Four. They will only write internal examinations that will be graded by their school teachers like all other junior secondary school grades.

This was disclosed by Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Education and Training, Pat Muir, during a consultative meeting held yesterday at the University of Swaziland, Sports Emporium.

Muir said government intended introducing another qualification after the Swaziland General Certificate of Secondary Education (SGCSE) to ensure that Swazi pupils were accepted at all tertiary institutions internationally.

Currently, Swazi pupils after completing SGCSE are expected to undergo a bridging course in order to be accepted by international universities across the world.

This is because SGCSE has lower points than the rest of the basic education certificates offered by most countries.

In order to be admitted to tertiary institutions in South Africa and other parts of the world, local pupils are expected to enrol either for Advanced Subsidiary (AS) Level, Advanced Level or Matric.

The PS said the need to enrol for another qualification led to an exodus of Swazi students to South Africa and other countries in order to be admitted into universities.

"Introducing either AS Level or A Level would eventually lead to JC being phased out, a project we seek to have achieved by 2017, though various stakeholders are still being consulted before the qualification is introduced at full scale.

"This is an attempt to avert the exodus of pupils who continually leave the country, because they are forced to enrol for an extra qualification before being admitted to international universities," Muir said.

The PS further said some government schools were already offering AS Level, although as a pilot project.

"Though it has not been decided whether all schools will offer AS Level or the Advanced Level at full scale, some schools that approached the ministry to offer the qualification have been given the green light," said Muir.

Exams Council Registrar, Edmund Mazibuko clarified that the country was considering four options, all which would mean phasing out JC.

Another common factor among the four options would be the continued enrolment of SGCSE, though at different years of secondary education.

The first option would be to make all secondary school pupils sit for the SGCSE external examination in Form III and enrol for AS Level at Form Four and Five.

While another option would be to sit for SGCSE at Form Four and sit for AS levels in Form Five, and then optionally enrol for A Level in the sixth year at upper high schools.

The third and last option is to choose between enrolling for upper high school in three years, which would mean being awarded with both AS and A Level certificates upon completing high school in six years, or to choose for enrolling for the AS Level in two years. In both options pupils would be expected to sit for SGCSE in Form Three.

However, educational experts, who attended the meeting, advised that government should actively engage members of the public before the new educational system could be introduced.

COMMENTS:

 - I think this is a good move by the ministry, looking at the stated fact that Swazi pupils hav to sit for our O'level and in order to proceed to teriary outside the country, parents have to pay at times for standard 9 and 10 in South Africa which is a delay n money wasting. In a nut shell the system of education should be standard to allow enrolment with all colleges and universities in and outside Swaziland. Thank you
December 6, 2012, 11:01 am, Zazi Makhanya

 - I congratulate the Ministry of Education on its proposed initiative to introduce a more advanced course to enable Swazi children to access Higher learning abroad. This really shows that we have a government consisting of people who can think and I thank the education experts who said the public should have a say also.Thank you
December 6, 2012, 12:01 pm, Mduduzi.M.Bhembe

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