South African National Literacy Initiative

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South African National Literacy Initiative
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How is SANLI organised ?

• It is a Ministerial project with a Ministerial
  Committee Chaired by the Deputy Minister and a
  full-time Deputy Chairperson
• It is one of the objectives in the corporate plan
  of the Tirisano document.
• It is a literacy initiative with a four year life
  span. (2001-2004).
• The project was conceptualized to operate as a
  Section 21 company( a lot of organizational
  effort went into preparing this during the first
  4 to5 months of project implementation)
• SANLI is now a directorate under the Chief
  Director Curriculum Development and Learner
  Achievement in the General Education and Training
  Branch .

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How is SANLI organized continued

• A Provincial Multi-sectoral Management structure
  made up of departments involved in social
  development, the private sector and a
  representative from an NGO and Churches This
  structure once established will meet once in two
  months and provide policy direction to the
  literacy initiative in line with developmental
  priorities of the province and monitor progress
  of the literacy initiative
• Provincial capacity with be created to facilitate
  implementation

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What is/does SANLI do ?

• Developmental Objective
• Significantly reducing the rate of Illiteracy in
  the Country and expanding the participation of
  all South Africans in the social, economic and
  cultural spheres
• By
• Making 15 of the non-literate adults literate by
  2004 (total non-literate adults 7
  million)particularly focusing on women and youth
  in rural and peri-urban areas
• Enabling the majority of newly literate adults to
  take up referrals to further education and
  economic activities
• To ensure that 60 of newly literate adults
  maintain their skills through keeping contact
  with and accessing materials, in local resource
  centres and community development projects

4 million South African population who are 15
yrs and above have never been to school 3.5
million SA population 15yrs and above have some
primary education. (census, 1996)
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Strategy and Model of delivery

• The programme functions on the lines of
  non-formal education, but links with formal
  systems have been established as part of
  post-literacy pathways for those learners who
  want to access this facility
• SANLI uses existing capacity in the form of the
  various institutions that are in the social
  development sector

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Model of delivery

• Work in partnership with National Skills
  Authority to facilitate the accreditation of
  institutions and organisations involved in adult
  literacy through relevant SETAs
• Fund accredited institutions involved in adult
  literacy
• Facilitate and leverage additional resources to
  support organisations involved in adult literacy

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Model of delivery

• Capacity building for NGOs and CBOs involved in
  literacy to facilitate access to funding and
  improve service delivery
• Research and Development
• monitoring and evaluating the impact of the
  literacy institutions in reducing illiteracy
  rates
• information to support improvements in service
  in service delivery by agencies

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What informs Invitation for proposals

• The design of the initiative has to support a
  wide range of interests and appeal to different
  motivations for becoming literate and offer core
  support
• It has to focus on breaking down stereotypes
  about learning and illiteracy.
• Initiative must contribute to systematically
  gathering more accurate statistics on adult
  literacy as part of the four-year adult literacy
  programme
• The capacity of the institution in terms of
  learner numbers

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What informs the literacy programme design

• The initiative has been designed and implemented
  as a single integrated strategy and not as a
  series of discrete elements in the nine provinces
• The literacy initiative has been planned in such
  a way as to involve broad-based stakeholders in
  provinces so as to get a buy-in from stakeholders
  
• The initiative incorporates post-literacy support
  to reinforce the newly learnt literacy skills.

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What informs the literacy programme design

• Literacy programmes have to be relevant to
  learners needs while focusing on mother tongue
  literacy, numeracy and the language of local
  economy

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PROGRESS REPORT

• Progress report for the 2001/2002 financial year
• and
• Key focus areas for 2002/3

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PROGRESS TO DATE

• GENERAL
• Six provinces have completed their plans for
  implementing the literacy programme.
• A Pilot was conducted to inform strategy
  formulation and the following happened
• Through partnership with five NGOs literacy
  classes were started in two provinces.
• Material used in these pilot sites was evaluated
  and guidelines for further adaptation of material
  was developed
• An educator handbook has been developed
• Educator packs and learner packs have been
  designed based on the pilot.

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Progress to date continued

• A strategy document to monitor, support and
  report on the project has been developed
• A monitoring, support and reporting system is in
  the process of being established at both the
  National and the provincial offices based on the
  above strategy
• Database design
• Baseline survey

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Progress to date continued

• Project Specific
• There is an adult literacy project in
  Presidential Nodal Areas where 18 000 learners
  will be made literate (currently a baseline
  survey is being conducted) as part of Ikhwelo
  Poverty Relief
• A project with Funding from European Union for a
  period of two years where 67 000 learners will be
  made literate is in the process of being
  finalised.

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Progress to date continued

• A project with Funding for KwaZulu-Natal from
  DANIDA where an additional 4 500 learners will be
  made literate is being implemented
• A project is implemented in partnership with
  UNISA funded by DfID, where 75 000 learners will
  be made literate during 2002
• A literacy song has been launched as part of
  addressing the stigma attached to illiteracy.

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Progress to date continued

• A multi-media literacy educator support project
  in partnership with ILI, GCIS, School NET and
  Shoma Education Trust will be launched in
  September 2002

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Key Outputs for 2002/3 and beyond

• Working in partnership with National Skills
  Authority to facilitate the accreditation of
  institutions and organisations involved in adult
  literacy through relevant SETAs

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Key Outputs for 2002/3 and beyond continued

• Fund accredited institutions involved in adult
  literacy
• Funding criteria
• Organisations have to indicate their educator
  recruitment, training and support strategies
• System of adapting material making it relevant
  for various learning situations
• literacy programme and strategies of
  mainstreaming it with current development
  initiatives

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Key outputs continued

• Marketing and advocacy strategy to get buy-in
  from communities
• Strategy to implement a system for post-literacy
  path ways for learners
• Facilitate and leverage additional resources to
  support organisations involved in adult literacy
• Capacity building for NGOs and CBOs involved in
  literacy to facilitate access to funding and
  improve service delivery

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Key outputs continued

• Research and Development Building Capacity to
  manage, support and report on the initiative
• An EMIS system
• Provincial staff

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Conclusion

• Mainstreaming the literacy initiative as a
  necessary component of all social development
  programmes.

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Conclusion

• Implementing a rigorous media campaign to make
  literacy a public agenda is an important aspect
  of the literacy initiative that has to be
  accelerated
• The capacity of the formal adult education system
  will have to prepare for massive expansion of the
  formal programme in anticipation of more learners
  taking up referrals for further learning
  opportunities.