Inspecting the Foundations - Umalusi

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This history of a qualifi cation that has not really existed, except as directives put together by Umalusiand in selected DoE documents, is refl ective of the chaotic state of ABET, a state which is onlycompounded when one looks into the curricular support – or more accurately, the lack of it – forthe qualifi cation.This GETC: ABET, which has been certifi ed by Umalusi, consists of 120 credits, and these credits are,as in the Seta qualifi cations discussed more fully below, organized into fundamental, core, andelective categories. However, unlike the Seta qualifi cations, the unit standards are also clusteredinto ‘learning areas’, which mirror the eight learning areas of the GETC offered in schools. Thetable below illustrates the division of the GETC into the three SAQA categories (fundamental, core,and elective) as well as into the familiar school Learning Areas. This table, from the Learning AreaAssessment Guidelines (Department of Education, 2002), delineates the qualifi cation requirementsfor the GETC: ABET the most clearly and simply of all the documents reviewed.Table 1: Unit standards-based GETC as explained in Learning Area Assessment Guidelines(DoE, 2002)Categories of learning % CreditFundamental- Language, Literacy, and Communication (all 11 offi cial languages) (LLC)- Mathematical Literacy (ML)(Selection to include unit standards from both subfi elds of learning)Core- Mathematics and Mathematical Sciences (MMS)- Arts and Culture (A&C)- Economic and Management Sciences (EMS)- Human and Social Sciences (HSS)- Life Orientation (LO)- Natural Sciences (NS)- Technology (Tech)- An additional language(Selection of unit standards from a minimum of four learning areas, chosen in relation toelective if learner is following that route, out of the specifi ed learning areas)Elective- Applied Agriculture and Agricultural Technology (AAAT)- Ancillary Health Care (AHC)- Small Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMME)- Travel and Tourism (T&T)(Selection of unit standards from any of the twelve Organizing Fields/Sub-Fields of learning,including other electives developed for ABE)30 201645 5425 30Total 100 120The learning areas in the above table, for which there are examinations, are all offered at ABETLevel 4/NQF Level 1.In recent months, a new GETC: ABET, SAQA ID 71751 (see Appendix B of this report), has beenregistered, as a result of the elapse of the old GETC: ABET (ID 24153). The qualifi cation remains a120-credit, unit standard-based qualifi cation. Its qualifi cation rules ensure that Language, Literacyand Communication – in any of the offi cial languages – (23 credits), and either Mathematics andMathematical Sciences (14 credits), or Mathematical Literacy (16 credits) form the Fundamentalcomponent of the qualifi cation. This is supplemented by a compulsory 32-credit core componententitled Life Orientation, a miscellany of unit standards associated with self-esteem and selfmanagement, health care, and participating in civil society. The rules of combination allow thebalance of the qualifi cation to be made up from learning areas from the “Academic LearningAreas” and/or from the “Vocational Learning Areas”. The instruction is that the learner is required todo all the unit standards for one learning area, and ‘in addition, the learner must choose additionalunit standards from any of the other Academically or Vocationally-related Learning Areas to give atotal of 51 (sic) credits in all for the Elective Component’ (GETC: ABET, 71751).21
The Academic Learning Areas are familiar as they are the subjects one recognizes from theschool curriculum: Human and Social Sciences; Natural Sciences; Economics and ManagementSciences; Arts and Culture; Technology; and an Additional Language. The learning areas arerated at between 11 credits (Technology) and 23 credits (Human and Social Sciences; AdditionalLanguage), which means that the learner is obliged to take a minimum of two learning areas toapproximate the 51 additional credits for the elective component, and at least three if taking someof the learning areas with credit weighting of less than 20.The Learning Areas grouped under Vocationally-related Learning Areas include: AppliedAgriculture and Agricultural Sciences (20 credits); Ancillary Health Care (AHC) (45 credits); Small,Medium, and Micro Enterprises (SMME) (17 credits); Travel and Tourism (T&T) (38 credits); InformationCommunication Technology (ICT) (23 credits); Early Childhood Development (ECD) (26 credits);and Wholesale and Retail (31 Credits). Learning Areas such as AHC and T&T make up almost athird of the qualifi cation on their own, while smaller Learning Areas presuppose that the learnerwill have to combine two-and-a bit learning areas (viz. ‘additional unit standards from any of theother Academic or Vocationally-related Learning Areas,’ GETC: ABET, 71751, p. 5) to make up theprescribed 51 credits.The qualifi cation has certain features that are to be commended: the learner has – in theory– the choice between a basic education, quite close in structure to an academic, schoolbasedcurriculum, or a more vocationally-oriented programme that forms preparation for workin a specifi c fi eld such as ECD, T&T, ICT or Agriculture. There is, in theory, even the possibility ofcombining from the two Learning Areas (Academic and Vocational) to tailor the learning to thelearner’s particular interest.In addition, the new qualifi cation allows for either Mathematical Literacy or Mathematics andMathematical Sciences (MMS) to be used as a fundamental in the qualifi cation. This means that,based on the new rules of combination, candidates may request a full GETC using their existingLearning Area Certifi cates.In practice, though, the reality appears to be more constraining: the PALCs understandably selectthe learning areas that they teach in accordance with the learning areas expertise of the limitedstaff they have available, and learners are therefore obliged to take what is offered.The practice of weighting learning areas in terms of the sum of their unit standards means thatcombining learning areas can be a challenge, unless learners are encouraged not to think ofthe 120-credit minimum as constraining. Learners looking to fi nd just one other learning area tocombine with, say, AHC, are presumably going to be inclined to go with the smaller learning areas:Technology (11 credits) or Natural Sciences (15 credits). Learners may feel it unfair to have to dothree learning areas when others can get away with more or less one. It is diffi cult from an Umalusiperspective to consider the implications of quality assuring and examining a part-subject selectedto make up the 51 (sic) credits. Having learning areas with massively unequal weightings and withidiosyncratic credit values makes for diffi culties in the quality assurance and certifi cation processes:how is a residue of 1 unit standard worth 6 credits, selected, say, from Human and Social Sciences,to supplement AHC to be readily assessed, recorded, and certifi cated? Will a GETC qualifi cationwith six learning areas be regarded as worth more or less than one with four and a bit? Why doesthe adult GETC have Life Orientation as a subject that constitutes almost a third of the entirequalifi cation when, in the NSC, it constitutes less than a sixth? How is it that this learning area is athird larger than the language area – which is presumably the language of learning and teaching– and twice as large as the numeracy component of the qualifi cation? No rationale is provided forthe huge disparity between Life Orientation and the other fundamental subjects which the creditweightingseems to suggest.Umalusi’s approach to qualifi cations requires subjects or units of learning to be of more or lessequal weighting, and for ease of reference to the unit standard-based system that the NQF haspromoted, equivalent to 20 credits or 200 notional hours of learning. This weighting is the same as22
Page 2 and 3: INSPECTING THE FOUNDATIONSTowards a
Page 4: AcknowledgementsThis report is the
Page 8 and 9: AcronymsABEABETAETAHCDoEECDETDPETQA
Page 10 and 11: describe Public Adult Learning Cent
Page 12 and 13: literacy campaigns. They attribute
Page 14 and 15: determine learner competence. But w
Page 16 and 17: 3. Methodology usedThis research co
Page 18 and 19: some offer FET subjects only. Numbe
Page 20 and 21: 4. Findings4.1 NQF LEVEL 1 QUALIFIC
Page 24 and 25: the weighting used for Learning Are
Page 26 and 27: Table 3: GETC: ABET Learning Outcom
Page 28 and 29: (if this is seen to be in the inter
Page 30 and 31: was circulated at a national ABET m
Page 32 and 33: 4.2.1.5 Private ABET provider docum
Page 34 and 35: electives. Some of the examples of
Page 36 and 37: to maintain and improve the norms a
Page 38 and 39: the following:• The completion of
Page 40 and 41: The problem of English being the la
Page 42 and 43: This pattern of Setas’ being able
Page 44 and 45: learnership has been completed, it
Page 46 and 47: While the occupational qualifi cati
Page 48 and 49: • The associated curricula should
Page 50 and 51: Singizi (2007). Employment Pormotio
Page 52 and 53: PURPOSE AND RATIONALE OF THE QUALIF
Page 54 and 55: UNIT STANDARDS:Core 7511ID UNIT STA
Page 56 and 57: Appendix BGeneral Education and Tra
Page 58 and 59: This Recognition of Prior Learning
Page 60 and 61: Elective Component:The Elective Com
Page 62 and 63: ID Number; Unit Standard Title; Cre
Page 64 and 65: • ID 14569; Demonstrate an unders
Page 66 and 67: 2.3 Algebraic techniques are select
Page 68 and 69: learning components and should use
Page 70 and 71: A choice of three Reading Core Skil
Page 72 and 73:
Numeracy and Mathematics:• VBQU26
Page 74 and 75:
Currently, there are over one hundr
Page 76 and 77:
wider selection of vocational subje
Page 78 and 79:
UNIT STANDARDS (continued):Fundamen
Page 80 and 81:
PROVIDERS CURRENTLY ACCREDITED TO O
Page 82 and 83:
ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS FOR CURRICULUM D
Page 84:
Where possible and necessary, the c
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