These learners are not matriculants or college graduates; they are adults aged between 18 and 80, some of them blind, deaf or physically disabled, who completed Kha Ri Gude literacy and numeracy courses in 2010.
They are part of a group of more than two million adults who had just stepped over the illiteracy threshold as they received their ABET level 1 (Grade 3 certificates) with pride and gratitude.
Education for all
Globally and across the African continent, the past decade has seen an increase in the commitment to eradicate adult illiteracy. This is in line with the Education for All drive to halve illi-teracy by 2015.
The Kha Ri Gude mass literacy campaign is government’s attempt to fast-track literacy achievement and to meet the Education for All goal of teaching 4,7 million adults to read and do basic arithmetic.
Joyful graduation ceremonies are one of the outcomes of the campaign. Another positive outcome is that the campaign had an 80 per cent completion rate in 2008, which rose to 89 per cent in 2009 and 92 per cent in 2010. In each of these years, close to 80 per cent of those who wrote passed their learning assessments.
SAQA verification
On 10 June 2011, the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) released its report on the Kha Ri Gude assessment processes. SAQA is an official body which oversees the development of the National Qualification Framework (NQF). The NQF is the set of principles and guidelines by which records of learner achievement are registered to enable national recognition of acquired skills and knowledge, thereby ensuring an united system that encourages life-long learning.
SAQA’s verification of learner assessments is one of the necessary checks to ensure the reliability of the campaign and its processes.
During March 2010, SAQA drew a sample of assessments and, using a team of 210 moderators, checked a total of 44 848 learner assessments form the 546 000, which were completed by Kha Ri Gude learners in 2009.
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