Introduction
In many African villages there are people who may have dropped out of mainstream learning due to factors that have no relationship with their natural intelligence. These are people who may have dropped out due to:
- Poverty leading to lack of food, shelter and fees
- Harsh learning environment that requires them to travel long distances in pursuit of education, and without adequate or appropriate learning resources
- Early and unexpected pregnancies, or sickness that hinders ability to learn effectively
- Family troubles, lack of guidance and associated behavioral issues,
- Inability to understand some subjects e.g. Mathematics and Sciences hence falling out with teachers
- Having non-academic talent hence regarded as a academic failure e.g being good in sports but schools are concentrating in academics
- Natural learning challenges e.g timidity leading to panic in examinations, inability to memorize or cram notes effectively
Frustrated by education setups these people usually drop out of the mainstream education and begin to make a living through non-formal engagements. They would get into mechanics, small trading, enterprise developments, innovation rubrics e.g ability to repair TVs or radios in the villages without any formal education in electronics
Some of them emerge with amazing success. Some end up being very good business magnets, others create innovations at village level, while others become the most trusted village leaders who would eventually win elections or get appointed by government as chiefs or community level administrators.
Due to the nature of their duties and level in society, these individuals may wish to access further education so that they can improve in their roles and at the same time gain respect for academic achievement.
Often they would approach established academic institutions who have set admission criteria that require passing examinations at levels they never reached. So they usually shy away from these institutions which usually send them to “bridging programmes” where they learn with children the age of their own.
The big questions are:
- How can a person who has built a company and employs graduates be treated as an academic failure?
- But how can such a person meet the intellectual academic demand required of a university student?
- Since we know the person has knowledge (perhaps better than even a graduate), then how can this knowledge work for him/her without the usual negative energies in our education systems e.g. having him/her start at very low levels and make him/her sit in the same class with his office juniors or children the age of his/her own?
The Matriculation Process
Matriculation is the process of finding out the ability of an adult learner and how the knowledge possessed can be used to link up with either academic or professional intellectual capacity . There are 4 Levels of Matriculation addressing the needs of the adult learners based on their current levels of education, life and work experience, which must not be less than 5 years.
The matriculation process consists of:
- Mature Talent Evaluation, Accreditation and Admission
- Life and Work Experience Evaluation & Accreditation and Admission
- Facilitative Learning to address skills gaps and intellectual demand
- Credit Transfer to diplomas or degrees depending on expert recommendations
Categories of Matriculation
There are 4 categories of matriculation. Each category focuses on education level at Primary or Secondary School. The following are considered:
- Upper Primary School drop out
- Lower Secondary School drop out
- Upper Secondary School drop out
- High School Low Grades
These people could have dropped out of school due one or a combination of the reasons above. However, they may have now been engaged in income generating or creativity endeavors that have made them gain significant, appropriate and relevant life and work skills for a period of not less than 5 years.
They group will be evaluated at categories indicated and will gain life and work skills credits necessary to start a Standard Diploma programme before transferring credits to bachelors degree later on.
The most important fact is that they will be allowed to join diploma programs direct and from here they will progress to degrees , with skills gaps “fill-ups” and intellectual capacity “build-up”..
The composition of their learning will be :
- Mature Talent Reclamation and “enterprise thought” acceleration
- Skills Gap “fill-up” learning modules
- Intellectual Capacity “build up” learning modules
- Coursework, Assessment and Diploma/Degree Award depending on expert recommendations