The labour market significance of the new grade 9 certificate

This paper specifically deals with a gap in the education path where there is no qualification below a matriculation certificate that provides a useful signal to employers. This is a gap since only approximately 50% of school entrants do not achieve a matric and the majority of these people are from poor communities. While it would be ideal to expand the proportion that finish matric, global experience shows that it is likely that even in a context of highly successful education policy, there will still be substantial numbers that do not complete high school. Global experience also shows that quality of education is more important than length of schooling.