| Summary: | M.Ed. === This research was undertaken because I, the practitioner researcher being the head of the Glenview Adult Education Centre in the Ekurhuleni West district – Gauteng, was concerned about the high failure and low pass rate of adult learners during the Senior Certificate examinations. This study aimed to explore in detail the main reasons for their failure and identify lessons that they offer for other adult learners. This study also focused on the reasons for the low levels of successes of the ABET (Adult Basic Education and Training) and how the centre can be viewed from a Freirean perspective. The ultimate aim of adult education is to produce citizens with critical thinking skills and it is with this breath that this study invites all stakeholders to work together to improve the current unacceptable failure rate of adults at the end of the Senior Certificate Examinations. Paulo Freire`s ideas are invoked as to provide possible solutions and not as a “quick fix” to the problem, to improve the current theoretical framework for thinking about results. His pedagogy is epoch making: he is a legend in his own time. Paulo Freire, educator, philosopher and political activator, has the capacity to excite and frustrate friends and critics alike. A genius like Freire (Taylor, 1993:73-74) was to bring together a range of pedagogies and learning teaching techniques to create a method of teaching which is known throughout the world as the “Mètodo Paulo Freire”, a method which is both a process of literacy acquisition and a process of conscientization, or conscientizacao (a word that he popularized and later dropped). It is based on the simple but fundamental technique of “problem posing” and there is therefore the antithesis of “Banking” Education, which seeks solutions or gives answers. It consists of daring to interrogate what is given, bringing into question known structures, and examining conventional or taken for granted explanations of reality. It discovers and then reacts to possible contradictions, identifying ways in which it can be said, done, or exists differently. However, despite, the urgent need for adult education to respond to the dictates of the needs of the community, development in education, effectiveness and quality at this Centre do not seem to be functioning as expected mainly because the learners are disengaged during the learning process. The stakeholders are further challenged to change their perceptions about adult education and its meaningful purpose to ensure a better life for adult learners. This route invites a healthy partnership whereby the concerns of the students and the community in line with the expectations of particularly the economy of South Africa as part of the global economy will form the backbone of such an understanding. Freires` pedagogy are used to reinforce my argument that better education should result in an improved contribution to economic growth, which in turn, should result in an improvement in the socio – economic growth of the previously oppressed adult learners. To obtain this objective at our Center, with very limited resources, it invites all stakeholders to unite to improve life for those who wish to obtain a Senior Certificate through part time studies. The study concludes with a few findings and recommendations, inter alia, that the adult learners are disengaged because of time constraints, different levels of prior learning, pressure of multiple responsibilities and a compact Senior Certificate programme. Recommendations are given that can possibly improve future practices and ultimately the success rate for adults in the Senior Certificate programme.
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