South African Education Compilers :Lee-Ann Mokoena Dorothy Mohamed Antonette Paleman Dimpho Molateli

What is the compulsory age of starting school in your country? The compulsory age for children to enter school is 7 years old when entering grade 1 or 6 years old when entering grade 0 (pre-primary). They can however enter grade 1 by the age of six if their birthday is after June and the parents feel that they are ready for primary school. From then on they should be attending school till they complete the primary phase( grade 1 till grade 3), intermediate phase( grade 4 till grade 7) and the GET phase(grade 8 till 9). After completing these phases, then only can they decide to continue with the FET phase( grade 10 till grade 12) or they can choose to either drop out or go attend FET college( which caters for children who are more practical, rather than theoretical and helps prepare them for the workplace.

How big might be the number of those children who don’t go to school? According to a research conducted by Cloete et al there is an approximation of 1 million students who leave school after grade ten. These students are not considered as drop-outs because they have completed their compulsory schooling phase of those who complete matric(grade 12) do not go on to further their education due to various circumstances such as insufficient funds and not qualifying for university entrance.

Figure 2: Youth aged 15–24 who are not attending any educational institution and who are not employed. Source: Statistics South Africa, Social Profile of South Africa,

What is the government doing to reduce illiteracy? South Africa’s constitution reads “Everyone has the right to a basic education, including adult basic education; and to further education, which the state, through reasonable measures, must make progressively available and accessible." The government offers primary, secondary and tertiary education to all those who are illiterate as well at those who want to learn. For those who have not completed high school, there are programmes that enable them complete their secondary schooling.Additionally, the government has put in place programmes such as Adult Basic Education and Khari Gude as systems that are available to adults who have not completed their education- a method of reducing illiteracy. Most of these programmes cover mathematics, social science and economic and management sciences amongst others.

Sources The DG Murray Trust. Connecting young South Africans to opportunity Literature review and Strategy(Online).Available: 0for%20improvement.pdf. 21 October for%20improvement.pdf Cloete, N. (ed.) (2009). Responding to the educational needs of post-school youth: determining the scope of the problem and developing a capacity-building model. Centre for Higher Education Transformation: Wynberg School drop-out: Poverty and patterns of Exclusion (Online).Available: October 2012 ABET.2012.Province of the Eastern Cape Education.(Online).Available: Accessed: 20 October Khari Gude.2012.Literacy in South Africa(Online).Available : Accessed: 21 October 2012http:// Education.2012.A Parent’s Guide to Schooling(Online).Available: 21 October !/image/ jpg_gen/derivatives/box_300/ jpg 26thOcthttp:// !/image/ jpg_gen/derivatives/box_300/ jpg !/image/ jpg_gen/derivatives/box_300/ jpg 26thOcthttp:// !/image/ jpg_gen/derivatives/box_300/ jpg