Reflections from a research study on GIS in secondary schools in South Africa resulted in the development of a collaborative certification for high school students. The study showed a need for more research into how GIS can be used more in secondary school pedagogy. Results of a study done by the author on the status of GIS teaching in secondary schools in South Africa is investigated with the aim to determine if the use of Open Source software such as QGIS and open data such as OSM would facilitate the use of GIS as a teacher intervention. Teachers who participated in the study overwhelming agree that there are numerous benefits to using GIS in the classroom. They also expressed a keen willingness to attend GIS courses and learn more about FOSS4G tools. This study also showed how FOSS4G empowers teachers with the means to create exciting, real and relevant teaching content. A sample group evaluated how practical GIS lessons using QGIS and OSM can be used to teach geospatial skills.
What this research study concluded is that comprehensive teacher training is required to make GIS practical lessons more effective in the classroom. This resulted in the development of a certified GIS course for teachers and the development of a coordinated Project Base Learning (PBL) task, which was named the Geospatial Data Science Certificate (GDSC). The GDSC is sponsored by Kartoza, endorsed by the Independent Examination Board (IEB), the Southern African Geography Teachers’ Association (SAGTA) and the University of Pretoria at a nominal cost to make it accessible to all students. A pilot project was conducted over 2002 and launched in 2023 and the author believes it is ready to evolve into an international ‘Geolympiad’ whereby students can collaborate globally to solve real, pertinent issues.