E Surty: Launch of Adult Learners Week

3 August 2006

Director of Ceremonies, Mr Archie Mokonane,
Officials from the Department of Education,
Officials from the Department of Correctional Services,
Officials from the Adult Learning Network,
ABET veterans,
Ladies and gentlemen:

It is my great pleasure to officially launch this year’s Adult Learner Week.
Many of you may recall that we inaugurated our first national Adult Learners
Week in 1996 under the theme, “Learning to Live, Work and Learn Together.” This
year it will be a decade since we first developed this mobilisation campaign
for adult literacy, education and training. On one hand we should be concerned
that this campaign has achieved so little after 10 years. On the other hand
this presents us with an ideal opportunity to reflect on the progress we have
made since then and the progress we must make in the next six years.

I am sure that in this gathering here tonight, I do not need to emphasise
what our lives would be if we lacked the basic literacy skills we take for
granted each day. Those of you who have been making this road by walking it do
not need to imagine what it is like for those who must struggle just to read
basic directions or perform rudimentary calculations. It is a problem for us
that 10 years since 1996, there are millions of adult South Africans who find
themselves in this situation, condemning them to a perpetual state of poverty
and social exclusion.

If we say education is necessary to lift people out of poverty, the
challenge is not only to expand education opportunities to the present
generation of young learners but also to expand such opportunities to cover
those millions of adults who have already missed out through adult
education.

Education is inseparable from democracy and access of adults to education is
a fundamental aspect of the right to education. It facilitates the exercise of
the right to participate in the political, cultural, artistic and scientific
life of our society. Furthermore, in view of the rapid pace of scientific,
technical, economic and social change, education must be considered as a
life-long process and adult education is an important phase in this life-long
process.

I firmly believe that adult education must be dealt with in a systemic and
holistic manner with a human development perspective. Adult education is not an
objective in itself. It is a means for personal and community development for
active citizenship building and for improving the lives of people. Thus it must
be explicitly framed within and oriented toward social transformation and human
development.

I further believe that adult illiteracy is a challenge that cannot be
tackled by government alone. Many adults with poor basic skills do not realise
they have a problem. And if they do many are not able or prepared to do
anything about it. They need encouragement and pressure from anyone who can
make a difference. The role of civil society, faith based organisations (FBOs),
non-governmental organisation (NGOs) and community-based organisations (CBOs)
in this regard are indispensable.

I want you to be in no doubt about our resolve to help the millions of
illiterate adults overcome this disadvantage and we will do so with the same
urgency and commitment as getting the basics right in schools. It is my hope
that all of you present here tonight will take advantage of the momentum
created by this very important event to reflect on what still needs to be done
and to help government deliver on its commitment.

One has to be honest and admit that over the last decade adult education in
South Africa has been trapped between meagre attention and resources and overly
ambitious expectations. The Minister of Education has acknowledged this at the
Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) Roundtable on 29 April 2005 when she
said that neither the existing formal ABET system nor the more non-formal South
African National Literacy Initiative (SANLI) has delivered. She argued that
ABET had become “utilitarian and narrow” and had “sought to make adults like
children,” “we are teaching schooling!” ABET would need to be
reconceptualised.

One cannot but agree with the Minister’s assessment that we need to rethink
our approach to adult basic education and training especially in view of the
new challenges posed by our country’s economic revival, in particular the
challenges around skills development.

The Minister has already begun to tackle this challenge by the establishment
of a Ministerial Committee on Literacy who prepared a report on their study
tour to Cuba, Venezuela and New Zealand. This committee included respected
activists, academics and officials and has presented a report which is
receiving urgent attention to plan for an adequately resources and
conceptualised strategy to achieve a 50 percent reduction in adult illiteracy
by 2012.

One of the key observations highlighted in this report is the need for
strong partnerships between government and civil society organisations. The
Department of Education (DoE) has forged partnerships with NGOs such as the
Adult Learning Network (ALN), South SAADA, Project Literacy and a host of other
smaller ABET Providers. There is a renewed commitment from our side to continue
and to strengthen these partnerships as Minister Pandor has indicated when she
said:

‘We will work closely and in partnership with various community and
non-governmental organisations (NGOs). We will also look at ways of making it
easy for community-based organisations (CBOs) and NGOs to operate in this area.
We will strengthen our collaboration with other government departments and the
sector education and training authorities to consolidate government
intervention in adult education and training.’

I am sure all of you share the concern expressed by Minister Pandor with the
lack of concrete results in the provision of access and opportunities for adult
women and men to pursue their right to learn. I am sure you will also agree
that the implementation of a successful adult education system will not be
possible without the vigorous, creative and informed participation of all of
you in partnership with government.

Such partnership must be based on the recognition of and respect for each
other’s roles, strengths and contributions. The nature of the task facing us is
not only huge but requires a substantial amount of resources, some of which are
vested in NGOs such as you and with our other partners in government such as
the Department of Labour.

Collaboration between the departments of labour and education will continue
in order to address the provision of mass basic skills. The collaboration with
Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) in the implementation of the
skills project has provided us with sufficient lessons for an expanded
roll-out. I am convinced that with a proper plan, we can deliver on this.

Clearly all these activities point to a need to focus more on revamping our
ABET curriculum. I have already indicated that there is a need to
re-conceptualise our curriculum and assessment system. In this regard, your
role as partners is critical. I want us to look at developing programmes that
develop our adult learners as well as providing them with livelihood
skills.

Let me conclude by thanking the Adult Learning Network (ALN) for the
contribution you have made to the launch of Adult Learner Week 2006 this
evening.

Thank you!

Issued by: Department of Education
3 August 2006
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