ABSTRACT
This research work was undertaken in Egor Local Government Area of Edo State in order to investigate the implementation of Adult literacy program,. In the course of the study, the findings where made;
1. That adequate fund should be pumped into the program by the local government council.
2. The local government council should try to recruit more qualified Adult literacy education teachers.
3. The functions of both the instructors/organizer, supervisors and the coordinator should be well defined so that one does not perform the function of each other.
4. In-service training mostly for the teaching staff concerned with the programme should be given to them in order to improve the quality of their teaching work.
5. More teaching equipment and gadget should be supplied by the local government council to enhance teaching and learning in the literacy centre.
6. Adult instructors monthly salary should be increased from the little salary to the federal government accepted minimum wages of one hundred and twenty-five naira with all its huge allowances following it so that the Adult literacy education instructors will be motivated towards the jobs
CHAPTER ONE
1.1 INTRODUCTION
1.2 BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE
Adult literacy education is not new in the history of man in Nigeria. Traditional Adult literacy education is the oldest from of Adult literacy education which started with the earliest history of any human community, this Adult literacy education may be said to be as old as creation. Adult literacy education in Nigeria like other forms of education was never neglected in the traditional society though it hardly appeared as a topic for discussion. In the early 1920’s Adult literacy education was organized in the evening for working class adult. Even then, the progress made was quite slow, the result was, at the time of Nigeria’s independence in 1960 it was discovered that huge percentages of Nigeria adults were still illiterates. Adult literacy education which was defined by UNESCO as;
A process whereby persons who no longer attend school on a regular and full-time basis (unless full time programme are specially designed for adult) undertake sequential and organized activities with the conscious intention of bringing about change in information, knowledge understanding or skills appreciation and attitude or for the purpose of identifying and solving personal and community problems, went down in the history of Nigeria education as one of the most dynamic eras in Nigerians education innovation. Between 1950 and 1960, Nigerian leader made bold attempts not only to primary education to most children but also to most adults. After the Second World War, the need for mass education was felt by the government and the people of Nigeria. In 1949, the department of education in Lagos circulated a memorandum on fundamental education for adults employed in commerce and industry. The document was a sort of guidance for the organization, administration and curriculum of Adult literacy education mass education projects and community development schemes were organized in Ilano, Egbado, Ibadan, Ekiti and Ijebu divisions of the then western region and Udi and Afikpo divisions in the eastern region and Lagos.
Making a case of enlightened citizens, chief Obafemi Awolowo states: To educate the children and enlighten the illiterate adults is to lay a solid foundation not for future social and economic progress but also for political stability. A truly educated citizenry is in my view one of the most powerful deterrents to dictatorship, oligarchy and feudal autocracy. In November 1951, the central board on education endorsed a national policy on Adult literacy education whose provision were that:
1. The essential aim of Adult literacy education is to organize facilities for remedial primary education for adults, particularly in rural area.
2. The first objective of all Adult literacy education activities is to help illiterate to read and write, in their language and thus enrich their own minds and take an intelligent part in social economic and political development.
3. The programme on Adult literacy education should include such activities as home craft for women talks discussions and practical community improvement projects.
4. Women should be given special consideration in the Adult literacy education programmes.
5. Concerted efforts should be made by the regional government to coordinate the activities of the genesis concerned with Adult literacy education.
There was a considerable enthusiasm among the people and the government of the then three region (north, East and West) and adults education sprung up in many parts of Nigeria, particularly between 1950 and 1956. In the then western region production of Yoruba and Benin language readers and were started, film and strips were introduce via mobile film units and special classes were help for women. In the then Northern Region, adult literacy programme operated in fifty-three (53) areas with one thousand, four hundred and seventy seven (1,477) centres and an enrolment of over fifty three thousand (53,000) adults. In 1952, alone according to Pa Fafunwa (1974) six thousand five hundred and ninety one (6,591) literacy certificate were issued to successful adult students.
One of the early pioneers of adult literacy and community development in Nigeria was R. E. Chadwick, the then district officer in Udi division of the then Eastern Region, who organized literacy classes on market days with the assistance of local teachers. He also involved villages’ heads and leader in community activities. His efforts were recorded in early 1950’s in a popular. Film called “Day Break’ in Udi. This Eastern scheme was widely acclaimed in Nigeria and the East became a model for organized community development and self-help for the whole in Nigeria. The free primary education scheme in the then western region and the half fees paying scheme in the East diminished enthusiasm for Adult literacy education scheme. This was due to the enormous cost of free primary education which left little money for Adult literacy education. The Northern Region had no free universal primary education scheme and consequently was in a position to spend more money on adult literacy. Thus while Adult literacy education scheme in the then East and West were at its lowest ebb in the 1960’s in the North, it was intensified. This situation posed a problem confronting Nigerian Government as they sought to modernize their society Ashiedu (1979) said the:
Prevalence of masses of illiterates citizens within the various countries of Africa Nigeria inclusive constitute a bottle neck in any country effort to develop and impedes political, social and economic progress. In full realization of this, Nigeria has over the years developed strategies for the eradication of mass illiteracy, campaign that will finally drive the nail through the head of the illiteracy problem in the country. In Nigeria, studies in the planning and implementation of literacy programmes have until recently not been considered a prestigious part of University work unit since 1970’s however, research on literacy has been encouraging, especially when UNESCO started to pioneer functional literacy project and as the provision of free adult literacy as contained in the 1979 Nigerian constitution following the government seriousness on the eradication of mass illiteracy was the release by the federal government, the national, policy o education which contained the following objectives;
a. To provide functional literacy education for adults who have never had the advantages of any formal education.
b. To provide functional and remedial education for thjose young people who prematurely dropped out of the formal school system.
c. To provide further education for different categories of completers of the formal education system in order to improve their basic knowledge and skills.
d. To provide in-service training on the job vocational and professional training for different categories of workers and professionals in order to improve their skills.