Inspecting the Foundations - Umalusi

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was circulated at a national ABET meeting for all provinces in October 2007. This version of theguidelines, although further clarifying the intended curricula, still leaves room for interpretation.The introduction to the 2007 Learning Area Assessment Guidelines goes on to describe, giving a fairamount of operational detail, how learners can be assessed, different types of assessment and therecording and reporting of assessment, and gives some exemplars of assessment tools.Guidelines for individual learning areas are then clearly and systematically laid out in this 2007document, each featuring the following components:• A brief introduction explaining the purpose and rationale of the learning area;• Weighting and credits for the required unit standards;• Tables showing specifi c outcomes and associated forms of assessment and types of assessmenttool for each outcome;• Exemplars of types of Site-Based Assessment (SBA) and assessment tools, although they arepresented more as names of examples than actual examples; and• The format and mark rating of the exam, as well as the examples of types of exam question areshown in detail, often with a full exemplar exam paper.All of this information provides clearer guidance for designers of learning programmes thanprevious ABET documentation. There is still, however, potential for wide interpretation of theseguidelines, and for learning programmes to vary greatly with respect to quality. Different provinceshave responded to this absence of clarity by developing differing amounts and levels of guidancefor PALCs under their jurisdiction.4.2.1.2 Provincial DoE documentsAll nine provinces appear to have developed their own ABET documents, some extensively so.Five provincial ABET directorates have developed their own learning programmes, and a sixthhas provided detailed guidelines with full exemplars of the types of activities suitable for learningprogrammes. Four of these provinces compel PALCs in the province to use these programmes. Inthe fi fth province, PALCs are free to choose between using provincial learning programmes, anddeveloping their own. All nine provinces have additional ABET documents for their PALCs, suchas Learning Programme Development Manuals; Portfolios made simple; Facilitator’s Manual onUnderstanding the National Guidelines for Assessment, and others. A summary of the documentsidentifi ed and used by the provinces is available atwww.umalusi.org.za/Inspectingthefoundations/Appendix 2.Provinces make different amounts of documentation available to their PALCs. In one instance,a province provides learning programmes for all learning areas at ABET Levels 1–3, and all eightlearning areas at ABET Level 4; learning programmes for electives; assessment documents forABET Level 1 and 2 Literacy and Numeracy, and Levels 3 and 4 Structured Pathways (specifi edclusters of learning areas); and generic training documents – and the centres use the learning areaprogrammes provided.At the other end of the spectrum, one province provides a single policy guideline on assessment,and PALCs are expected to design their own learning programmes from the SAQA unit standards.In provinces without provincial learning programmes PALCS, therefore, have to develop their own.Umalusi attempted to obtain as many as possible of the provincial documents discussed. Thisobjective was diffi cult to achieve, as many of the documents were in hard copy form only, andoffi cials did not always have full sets at hand. Further, it appears that documents that were sentto Umalusi were not always complete: many are mimeos and seem disjointed and incomplete. Adetailed description of the documents developed per province is available in Appendix 2.29
4.2.1.3 IEB documentsThe IEB has User Guides (2006) for Communication in English (ABET Levels 1–2; 3, and 4), and forNumeracy (for ABET Levels 1–2) and Mathematical Literacy (ABET Levels 3 and 4), which arecirculated to all its registered providers. These user-guides are intended to serve as guidelines inthe development of curriculum material. All eight user-guides follow the same format which isdescribed briefl y in this section. User guides are provided in all the eight learning areas the IEBassesses: Communication in English, and Mathematical Literacy, Economic and ManagementScience (2007), Life Orientation (2008), Human and Social sciences (2008), Natural Sciences (2009),SMME (2008) and Technology (2009).The 120–150 page user-guides are bound books with fi ve sections each. While not actual learningprogrammes, these books provide detailed and clear curriculum guidelines for all aspects ofthe curriculum apart from content. For example, the fi rst section contains necessary generalinformation about the IEB, the NQF, outcomes, unit standards, assessment, and moderation.The next three sections cover assessment and examination requirements in detail, includingexamination and internal assessment exemplars together with memoranda and commentarywith specifi c tips on how to assess in that particular learning area at that level. Exemplar questionpapers are given with explanatory comments on all questions in the exam paper, and fi ve markedexemplar learners’ answer papers are also included. There are further sample tasks for typicalexam tasks, with marking memoranda. Formative and summative SBA is explained with examplesand marking memoranda, and elaborated assessment tools are provided. The last sections ofeach book consist of summaries of learning outcomes and assessment criteria in an easy-to-readformat. Curriculum requirements are phrased clearly in terms of the core competencies within theunit standards – not as unit standards, and there are no unit standard numbers and formats. Eachcore competency and outcome is described in narrative text, and information on how to integrateand scaffold outcomes is provided. Examples in the books are suffi ciently explicit to go some waytowards providing models for learning programmes.4.2.1.4 PALC documentsThe multiplicity of national and provincial curriculum documents is mirrored by the existence ofa variety of local documents, which were developed by the PALCs. These local documents arevariable in quality. Umalusi attempted to access a sample of the GETC: ABET documents andmaterials developed by the PALCs: four provincial ABET directorates provided lists of PALCS fortheir provinces, which facilitated contacting a selection of these centres and obtaining localdocuments. Of the four sets of responses from centres, information in three roughly matched thatgiven by the corresponding provincial offi cials (summaries of responses from PALCs to Umalusiinterview questions are available at www.umalusi.org.za/Inspectingthefoundations/Appendix3).In provinces where PALCs are provided with provincial learning programmes, these are beingused by most of the centres contacted. In the province which has no offi cial provincial learningprogrammes, many centres are nevertheless using whatever the department provided as learningprogrammes.Three individual PALCs responded to Umalusi’s attempts to obtain learning programmes developedat the level of the centre. One, in the Eastern Cape, sent an example of an integrated learningprogramme. This document is a single page. It gives the theme of the programme and links, byusing a table, specifi c outcomes, content, instructional strategies, learner activities, assessmentcriteria and strategies, and resources needed. A second PALC, in Gauteng, sent eight learningprogrammes. These are between two and six pages long, and also in tabular form. They link unitstandard titles, specifi c outcomes, credits, and national (sic) hours. There are columns for activitiesand dates, but these are blank. None of these PALC learning programmes provide enoughinformation to facilitate evaluation of the quality of the programmes. A third PALC, in the WesternCape, appears to be offering learning programmes that are not part of larger qualifi cations, butwhich are nevertheless apparently accredited. These programmes are dealt with in the section onenrichment courses below.30
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 22 and 23: This history of a qualifi cation th
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 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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Inspecting the Foundations - Umalusi

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