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IEB Conference

Adult Education - whose responsibility is it?

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:15

Burning issues around Adult education and training and the critical importance of literacy and numeracy to South Africa’s sustained economic growth will be debated by leading experts and academics at the IEB Adult Education Conference on 9 July 2008.

The work of the Independent Examinations Board (IEB) has been a source of stability in the ABET field, which has suffered due to fluctuating priorities in funding and the emergence of a number of very opportunistic providers.

To this end, the IEB has called together a panel of experts on adult basic education and training (ABET) representing industry, government and labour to address the importance of more formalised ABET study for the development of the economy and address some of the negative or incorrect perceptions around ABET.

Professor John Aitchison, will deliver the opening address of the conference and as a leading expert in adult education, will provide invaluable insights into the issues facing South Africa.

He was Director of the Centre for Adult Education until 2001 and also Head of the School of Education, Training and Development from 1999 to 2002. He became the first Head of the new School of Adult and Higher Education in December 2004.

Prof Aitchison has played a significant role in adult education in South Africa, particularly in developing adult education and adult basic education policy at both national and provincial levels.

He was a member of the Ministerial Committee on Literacy that drafted the report that lead to the initiation of the Kha ri gude Literacy Campaign that is targeting some 4.7 million illiterate learners.

”Post 1994, an ambitious plan was embarked upon to set up an Adult Basic and Education system. Though it has had impressive policy achievements, it has had lacklustre implementation in the state's Public Adult Learning Centres but with better results in industry".

"The IEB has played a significant role in providing assessment for the fundamental learning areas in ABET".

"We are now at a juncture where the Literacy Campaign, however dogged by controversies related to its institutional set in the Department of Education rather than as a semi-autonomous agency, will have a profound impact on potential learner numbers and on how basic adult education is best achieved, an issue itself under review by another Ministerial Committee".

"The need for assessment of current and past adult learning at both basic and further is going to be an exciting challenge in the next few years,” says Prof Aitchison.

Topics to be covered include:

The challenges facing effective implementation of ABET: whose responsibility is it to eradicate illiteracy and develop fundamental skills in our workforce?

Taking a closer look at the Abet Qualification for Learners and the Facilitator Certificate.

The speaker line-up includes:

Department of Labour - Liz Thobejane

Department of Education - David Diale

Chamber of Mines - Vusi Mabena

Umalusi – Mary-Louise Madalane

Department of Labour - Ms Tsholofelo Mokotedi

SAQA – Samuel Isaacs

Umalusi – Dr Matseleng Allais

ETDP Seta – Ms Valencia Mashigo

The IEB Adult Education Conference takes place on 9 July 2008 at the Birchwood Conference Centre.

The IEB is a well known leader in establishing ABET as a focus of attention to improve the productivity of workers in the workplace rather than simply meeting compliance requirements of skills development.

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