CAPACITY BUILDING FOR EDUCATORS OF ADULTS

Veronica McKayNorma Romm

Herman Kotze

ADEAGABONMarch 2006

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)

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.

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.

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

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

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

“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.

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.

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

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?

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?

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 “workplace”conditions

• Policy and practice: developing a culture supportive of adult learning

Thank you …