Starting on April 1, it will be mandatory for prison inmates who do not have a qualification equivalent to Grade 9 to complete levels one through four of Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET), a program that aims to improve adult literacy throughout South Africa. The measure will make great strides in enhancing rehabilitation in all South African prisons.
Correctional Services Minister S’bu Ndebele announced the mandate during the grand opening of the Usethubeni Youth School Westville Correctional Centre in KwaZulu-Natal. He said, “We are working towards turning our prisons into learning centres, and we want offenders to read, study and work. We want to impact the hearts, heads and hands of offenders so that, upon their release, they are in possession of at least a certificate in one hand and a skill in the other.”
Ndebele also noted that nine correctional centers had achieved a 79.25% matric pass rate last year, which is greater than the national average of 73.1%.
Correctional Services also plans to integrate this education with vocational training. The sector has 19 textile workshops, ten steel workshops, ten wood workshops, six bakeries, one shoe factory, 21 farms and 94 vegetable gardens at its disposal to provide future opportunities for offenders.
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Written by Sean Yi