Four provinces have registered a higher record of Kha Ri Gude enrolment for the adults who have shown interest in receiving basic education this year.
Limpopo, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Northern Cape have emerged as the best provinces in coordinating the Kha ri Gude campaign.
This was reported by the Chief Executive Officer of Kha Ri Gude, Dr Morungwa Ramarumo, during a workshop held in Centurion.
The Kha Ri Gude project is a mass literacy initiative aimed at bridging the literacy gap in the country. It targets illiterate adults who are willing to acquire basic reading, writing and counting skills.
The majority of Kha Ri Gude classes are held in the evening using schools, churches, home grounds, and community walls. Although Kha Ri Gude has shown tremendous growth for the past few years, issues of infrastructure, monitoring and evaluation, volunteerism and learners’ recruitment could be improved upon in this campaign.
“In the previous years over half a million adults across South Africa were recruited in this project. In 2012, there were 682,118 learners registered for the initiative. Learner retention became 92,85% country wide including the blind and deaf learners. Of the 2 022 deaf learners, there was retention of 69,88% and out of 1 443 Blind learners, 83,16% learners remained in the system,” said the CEO of Kha Ri Gude, Dr Morongwa Ramarumo.
The workshop was an opportunity for the Department of Basic Education to devise a solid strategy to ensure that the monitors and coordinators know what was expected of them to improve quality education in South Africa.
The former Minister of Education, Naledi Pador, established the Mass Literacy campaign seven years ago, following the appointment of the Ministerial Committee on Literacy (MCL). The committee was required to develop a strategic plan to ensure an effective coordination of mass literacy campaign in this country.
Most of the people who have gone through the Kha Ri Gude system are now able to read, write and count.
“As part of its processes of coordination, Learner Assessment Portfolios (LAPS) are used to assess the learners work. Continuous assessments are also used to determine learners' performance in the classrooms,” said Dr Ramarumo.
Kha Ri Gude allows the learners to select the language they prefer the educators to use for learning and teaching.
Through this campaign, the needs of deaf learners are also catered for. The department has recently trained approximately 60 deaf trainers to teach deaf illiterate learners, this with the intention to strengthen quality teaching and learning for learners with disability (deaf learners).
The campaign specifically utilises deaf educators to ensure that the deaf too are to be taught through their “mother tongue”, that is Sign Language. Since many of the adult learners from are rural areas, they have not had the opportunity to learn Sign Language but through the initiative it has now become possible for them to learn it.
Acting Deputy Director-General, for Curriculum Policy, Support and Monitoring, Mr Mathanzima Mweli, said that Kha Ri Gude was one programme that the government was proud to have put in place.
“We appreciate the work you are doing; please keep up the good work, the progress being made is really encouraging,” concluded Mr Mweli.
The hierarchy of provinces in terms of Kha Ri Gude coordination are as follows:
|
Limpopo |
98.35% |
|
Eastern Cape |
95,51% |
|
KwaZulu-Natal |
94, 79% |
|
Northern Cape |
93,09% |
|
Gauteng |
92% |
|
Mpumalanga |
91,02% |
|
Free State |
87,09% |
|
North West |
79, 05% |
|
Western Cape |
71,04% |
