Inspecting the Foundations - Umalusi

National and provincial documents for the GETCA list of the ABET documents developed by the National DoE was compiled by Umalusi offi cials withexperience in ABET, and verifi ed by ABET offi cials in the DoE. The documents were obtained bothfrom the Umalusi Resource Centre and from offi cials in the DoE.Several critical National DoE documents underpin the GETC for adults. Four of thesedocuments were obtained for this review:• Department of Education Policy Document on ABET of 2000, which gives generalinformation such as background information for ABET, good practice, and levels and fi eldsof learning.• ABET Act No. 52 of 2000.• Assessment Policy in the General Education and Training Band gazette (GovernmentGazette No.6397; Vol. 402, of 1998), which has since been revised for Grades 4–9 in formalschooling, but not for ABET.• Learning Programme Guidelines for ABET, an undated 76-page booklet distributedby the Directorate of Adult Education and Training in the National DoE. This bookletcontains information described in broad terms, including broad defi nitions of ABETlearning programmes; learnerships; learning pathways; notes on designing, planning, andimplementing learning programmes; and assessment, with some exemplars of the types ofactivities that could be used for assessment.Then, via telephonic interviews, concerted attempts were made to ascertain which ABETdocuments were being used in the nine provinces, both at the provincial department level and atthe PALC level.It soon emerged that different documents are being used across the provinces, and, when followupcalls were made, that different people within single provincial ABET directorates mentioneddifferent documents from one another. Efforts were made to triangulate within-provinceinformation: additional ABET offi cials within single provinces were interviewed until the informationgiven was consistent.The researchers attempted to obtain all provincial learning programmes, but these were not easilyavailable as copies are not electronic, and there were often no spares. Five of the six provinceswith provincial learning programmes nevertheless kindly provided copies of these programmes forthe review.During the telephonic interviews, provincial ABET offi cials were also asked about the directoratesacross which ABET was spread, and the areas they thought needed improving in ABET. Thesequestions were asked in order to better contextualize the information Umalusi was seeking.In the attempt to triangulate and confi rm the information supplied by the provinces, theresearchers tried to interview the centre managers of ten PALCs in each province telephonically,with a view to fi nding out about ABET curriculum documents which the PALCs obtained from theirprovinces, and those they developed themselves. Four provinces provided PALC contact details.Contacting PALCS was not straight-forward and involved considerable phoning around: contactdetails on provincial lists were often for schools which did not have readily-available contact detailsfor the PALC managers; sometimes schools for which details were provided were not PALCs atall. PALC managers were asked about which ABET courses were offered at their centres, and theapproximate number of learners currently registered for their ABET courses.The PALCs differ in that some offer the full range of ABET learning areas for the GETC; some offeronly a few of these learning areas; some offer only what appear to be enrichment courses, and16