CAPACITY BUILDING FOR EDUCATORS OF ADULTS Veronica McKay Norma Romm Herman Kotze ADEA GABON March 2006

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CAPACITY BUILDING FOR EDUCATORS OF
ADULTSVeronica McKayNorma RommHerman
KotzeADEAGABONMarch 2006
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AIMS OF PAPER

• 1 To examine the development of capacity for
  adult/nonformal education in three non PRSP
  countries
• South Africa
• Namibia
• Botswana
• 2 To examine capacity building within the
  philosophy of Lifelong Learning (LLL)

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Impact of globalisation on learning

• Globalization and the new emerging economic and
  social order demand new, more complex
  competencies.
• The poor have acute knowledge needs to cope with
  globalization.
• The poor need opportunities for meeting their
  basic learning needs, to go beyond basic
  learning, and to have their knowledge validated.

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The paper looks at the extent to which these
countries

• Global changes mean moving beyond communal
  validation of knowledge to a more public system
  of validation
• The new knowledge economy social interactions
  transcend national borders (as people are
  compelled to pursue work opportunities)
  highlighting the need for the validation of basic
  learning.

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Challenges for nonformal education

• Challenges for people with low levels of
  education are exacerbated by eg drought, famine
  poverty, unemployment and work instability,
  violence, conflict, environmental degradation,
  HIV/AIDS
• Adult basic education has come to be viewed as a
  key strategy within the overarching goal of
  poverty alleviation

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Lifelong learning as an organising principle
presupposes that nonformal learning

• is accredited as being equivalent to a
  corresponding (formal) qualification.
• Receives the same value as formal learning
• Requires that learners might access the same
  benefits and opportunities as learners of the
  formal system

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Why locate basic education/NFE within the NQF?

• The perspective of lifelong learning requires
  articulation (or bridges) between the different
  levels and different kinds of learning (formal,
  nonformal and informal).
• From education to learning, from time space
  bound to lifelong and lifewide education - across
  a variety of sites and through a variety of modes

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Gone are the days when educators are
drawn from the streets

• Qualification equivalence and accreditation
  within the system of non-formal education brings
  to the fore the need for educators to be
  sufficiently capacitated to work within the
  framework of lifelong learning.

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The relationship between formal and nonformal
systems

• There are many practices within the non-formal
  system of education which could be emulated by
  the formal system.
• The relative freedom and the space for
  experimentation within the mode of non-formal
  education has given rise to many methods and
  processes which can (and have) contributed to and
  enriched the formal systems of education.

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What is defined as an adult educator?

• Nonformal education embraces all those whose job
  function includes helping adults to learn such
  as
• Literacy, agriculture extension workers, trainers
  for water and sanitation, trainers in health,
  nutrition, HIV/ AIDS, and family planning,
  environmental educators, job skills trainers,
  trade unionists, worker educators, youth service
  workers, community organizers, materials
  developers

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Areas of foci

• How long are teachers trained, where, and what is
  involved?
• What is involved in quality assuring the
  quality of educator training and delivery?
• What conditions of service do educators have?
• Have roles and functions of educators become
  (re)defined?

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The scope of the research

• What policies support adult education, and what
  is the relationship between policy and practice?
• Examples of reforms to the education system which
  may facilitate change in practice including
  across sectors
• What curriculum issues are there?
• How are sites of teaching and learning dealt
  with?

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Some findings

• There is a need for mass training where quality
  is not compromised
• Educator development as an imperative of LLL
• Professionalizing adult educators
• Other partners and stakeholders can help
• Distance education can be used for going to scale
• Issues of quality assurance balance between
  bureaucratic burden and accountability
• Materials and other learner support for educators
  and learners cross country sharing
• The conditions of service for educators including
  workplaceconditions
• Policy and practice developing a culture
  supportive of adult learning

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Thank you