LOCATING ADULT LEARNING WITHIN THE PARADIGM OF LIFELONG LEARNING

Veronica McKayNorma RommJoyce KebathiHerman Kotze

ADEAGABONMarch 2006

Nonformal education, the NQF and LLL

The paper has 3 main aims1. To examine the

implementation of the NQF in four countries,

2. To consider the role of the NQF as applied to formal and nonformal adult education

3. To present case for locating adult learning within the paradigm of Lifelong Learning.

A four country review of qualifications frameworks

• Presently, South Africa (in particular) and Namibia have gone some way towards establishing their qualifications framework.

• Botswana and Kenya are currently engaged in the development of their qualifications framework.

The paper looks at the extent to which these countries

• have found/believe the NQF to be useful for integrating education and training

• Recognize Prior Learning• Facilitate access for adults to career-

pathing and for opening access to those previously been excluded from the formal systems of education

• have found or believe standard setting and outcomes/competence-based approaches in NFE to be responsive to the social demand and/or economic demand

• Locate basic/NFE within the NQF

Locating basic/nonformal education within the NQF

The paper argues that learning acquired non-formally should be located within the (existing or emerging) NQFs for ensuring equivalence, validation, accreditation and certification of non-formal learning.

Why locate basic education/NFE within the NQF?

• Global changes mean moving beyond communal validation of knowledge to a more public system of validation for

• To give the poor opportunities for meeting their basic learning needs, to go beyond basic learning, and to have their knowledge validated

• 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.

• The NQF opens opportunities for learners to go beyond meeting basic learning.

GLOBALISATION, LLL AND ILLITERACY

• Globalization and the new emerging economic and social order demand new, more complex competencies. The poor have acute knowledge needs to cope with globalization.

• 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 and life wide learning

• From education to learning, from time & space bound to lifelong and lifewide education - across a variety of sites and through a variety of modes

• LLL goes beyond education for all. It stresses the right of all to learn and to continue learning – across time and space. (Torres)

• LLL implies ensuring that the poor have opportunities to meet their basic learning needs, to go beyond basic learning & to have their knowledge validated.

• In knowledge-based economies, LLL can create inequalities. Those who have the lowest levels of skill or capacity updating are more vulnerable.

LLL as a paradigm for all countries, as a principle for (re)shaping education and learning systems (Torres 2005)

• LLL is a need and a principle for education and learning systems worldwide,

• It actively embraced by the North but sits uneasily for national governments in the South, which prescribe narrow primary education ceilings for poor countries.

• The “dual education agenda” which is currently being shaped and in terms of which lifelong learning in the North while basic education and completion of primary education are promoted in the South.

• This consolidates and deepens the gap between North and South.

Linking LLL and the NQF

• The system of LLL as an organizing principle is contingent on national and regional qualifications framework.

• We argue for the coupling of national (and regional) qualification frameworks with the LLL philosophy

• NFE needs to have systems for learning validation which are equivalent to the systems of formal education, in order that learners might access the “ladders” and “bridges”

Lifelong learning vs. education for all

LLL - North• For those

who have had the benefits of basic education

• Offers leisure and up-skilling

EFA - South• The

foundation is the ceiling

• Targets marginalised, women, indigenous & remote

The scope of the research

• examines the use of frameworks as they exist in two African countries (South Africa and Namibia) and,

• the developments in this regard in two countries where the development of qualification frameworks is in process (Botswana and Kenya).

• All four countries fall outside of the structural adjustment framework.

NQF in four countries

• Across the countries there are various approaches to dealing with assessment and accreditation so that it can be dealt with along the lines of being equivalent to the mainstream formal system.

• This is to enable access and portability between the non-formal and formal systems and to enable this across the education and training divide.

Some findings: Nambia

The Namibia Qualifications Authority (NQA) was mandated to

• register qualifications and set up occupational standards for any occupation

• establish benchmarks; accreditation of persons, institutions and organizations providing education and training to ensure they meet certain requirements;

• Evaluate competencies learned outside formal education (RPL)

• Evaluate the qualifications of almost 40000 Namibians who have obtained qualifications abroad.

• The system of accreditation for ABE is in the process with equivalences between the school-based system and non-formal education being established.

Some findings: Botswana and Kenya

• the NQF is also still in nascent form. The intention is, to put in place a system that is predicated on developing and assessing learning in terms of equivalences – a system which is aimed at giving status and recognition formal and nonformal learning

• Botswana is in a phase of recurriculization of NFE

• The new curriculum is being developed in tandem with, and is indeed proposed National Qualifications Framework as the entire system of education gears itself for a qualification framework.

Botswana: cntd

• In Botswana, the Adult Basic Education Programme (ABEP) proposal makes provision for learning to be incorporated into the larger NQF system insofar as it has opened possibilities for career-pathing and access to additional learning (both general education and vocational training)

• It calls for enhanced collaboration and coordination between the Ministry of Education and other ministries offering relevant educational and training programs for youth and adults (e.g. Labor, Health, Agriculture, Family, etc.), as well as with BOTA (Botswana Training Authority) to assist in the provision and assessment of vocational skills.

Lessons learned from the SA experience: Challenges

In South Africa, the NQF has been operational for a decade:

• Integration and moving between academic and vocational qualifications and between formal education and the world of work remain difficult

• Not all adult learners want accreditation. Many come to learn focused skills, Often providers are often only resourced/funded if they provide the so-called accredited programs.

• The process of implementing the recognition of prior learning (RPL) is proving to be complicated and cumbersome and more work must be done to render it “operational”. Problems with regard to the RPL relate to is inaccessibility and cumbersomeness.

Lessons learned from SA cntd

• Demystifying unit standards. It takes an inordinate amount of training to equip a teacher to understand what the unit standards require and how to apply them in the learning environment

• Packing too much into ABE programs. The problem of what is possible and what minimum learning adults need to access further learning options rather than making the required exit level a formidable and unachievable obstacle to further learning.

• The practical application of RPL. It is not easy to apply RPL at any degree of scale. If the system is to be fully implemented, ways of accrediting and validifying learning will need to be established.

Lessons learned: South Africa contd

• Capacity building should continue to enhance national and regional capacity for the development of new qualifications frameworks and for the recognition in prior learning.

• Regional cooperation and the sharing of best practices is essential. Countries in the region will need to look to each other for help and cooperation. Regional equivalencies even for basic education and also the possible sharing of systems at a regional and a continental level for the harmonization and articulation of regional qualification frameworks.

Thank you …