Author: Nomazulu Ngozwana, University of South Africa, South Africa
Email: nomazulungozwana@gmail.com
Published: March 1, 2017
https://doi.org/10.22492/ije.5.1.06
Citation: Ngozwana, N. (2017). Rehabilitating Ex-Offenders Through Non-Formal Education in Lesotho. IAFOR Journal of Education, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.22492/ije.5.1.06
Abstract
This paper reports on the rehabilitation of ex-offenders through non-formal education. It examines how non-formal education has addressed the ex-offenders’ adaptive and transformative needs. Using an interpretive paradigm and qualitative approach, individual interviews were conducted with five ex-offenders who were chosen through purposive and snowball sampling. Qualitative data analysis was used to generate the themes from the data. The findings revealed that ex-offenders were taught basic literacy and life skills through non-formal education. Moreover, non-formal education facilitated the ex-offenders’ transformed attitudes, including recognizing their identity as a result of transformative non-formal education. Some ex-offenders in Lesotho demonstrated how by tailoring programs and utilizing their own personal knowledge, they were able to share skills in spite of the prison bureaucracy and have consequently established an organization that serves as a link between prison and society. However, there should be a holistic approach to learning, which can target the immediate application of skills once offenders are released from prison. Similarly, offenders need access to educational resources once they leave prison that can build on what they already know/have learned so that they can turn their lives around.
Keywords
rehabilitation, ex-offenders, non-formal education, adaptive, transformative, Lesotho