Group photo of facilitator with beneficiaries
By Nkaba Molamu
Fifty people with disabilities from Sekhukhune, Limpopo are going to boost their chances of employability, thanks to a project that has been set up at Mohlaletse village to improve literary and numeracy.
Maluta Mulibana, deputy director of special programmes in the office of the Limpopo premier, collaborated with Transport Education Training Authority (Teta) to revive the adult education training (AET) project to close the gap of literacy and numeracy between adults in urban communities and those in rural communities. This has been identified through monitoring services delivery in Limpopo province.
Mulibana told ThisAbility that due to the challenges they had with the first service provider they had to terminate the contract, and when appointing the new service provider, proper procedures have been taken into consideration.
Phamela Khosa, the regional manager of Limpopo/Mpumalanga Cluster at Teta, told ThisAbility that her organisation is one of 21 Sector Education and Training Authority (Setas) mandated to facilitate skills development and training in different economic sectors of South Africa. It awards funding for skills development through discretionary grants.
Teta offers support by ensuring that appropriate learning resources for learners with various disabilities are provided throughout the programme. This is to address the low levels of literacy and numeracy so that youth and adults can access additional training. Teta offers funding for individuals who complete the course to pursue further education.
One of the challenges that Teta is facing is encouraging the private and public sectors to participate in skills development initiatives, said Khosa.
Angel Kgokolo, the new service provider of the AET, told ThisAbility that they offer skills development for persons with disabilities through the help of an organisation that helps with various activities to assess the educational level of beneficiaries.
“We are able to assess the levels of our beneficiaries in order for us to determine whether they qualify to be in level 1 (beneficiaries who are unable to read and count), level 2 (beneficiaries that are fair in reading and counting) and level 3 (beneficiaries that are good in reading and counting),” Kgokolo said.
One of the facilitators is Paulina Tshehla, from Tzaneen (Sekororo village). The BA graduate from University of Limpopo, told ThisAbility that she started teaching at Bosele Special School, and since she enjoyed working with kids, she went back to school to do a postgraduate certificate in education, in foundation phase.
Tshehla, who is visually impaired, expressed regret that the programme is not able to cater for deaf beneficiaries due to the challenges they had with finding a deaf facilitator.
