Abstract
Adult education contributes to Sustainable Development by enabling adults acquire vocational skills that would promote gainful employment, raising trainees‟ general standard of living, making trainees self reliant for sustainable development ,helping trainees cope with technological changes for sustainable development and enabling trainees to become productive and useful citizens. The study is on an assessment of government investment in adult literacy program. The total population for the study is 200 staff of Ikpob-Okha local government council of Edo State. The researcher used questionnaires as the instrument for the data collection. Descriptive Survey research design was adopted for this study. A total of 133 respondents made up heads of department, counselors, senior staff and junior staff was used for the study. The data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using simple percentages and frequencies
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
- Background of the study
Nigeria as a developing country has evolved from stage to stage since the period of Colonialism. It would be of paramount acquainted with the history and development of adult education in the country. Adult education in Nigeria has a long history. As far back as the fourteen (14) century, itinerant Islamic scholars and traders in the Muslim North of the country taught Arabic literacy through the study of Koran. Later, Christian Missionaries brought Western education to part of Southern and Central Nigeria. This education however was essentially selective and designed with the specific goal of becoming literate in order to study the scriptures. In the 20th century, deliberate efforts were made by the British Colonial Government to provide some adult education in Nigeria. In its 1925 memorandum on Education policy in British Tropical Africa, the British Colonial Office recommended the implantation of an adult education program in African Countries. Actual implementation of adult education in Nigeria started in 1944 (Omelewa 1981) and by 1941 a national literacy program was well under way, although due to poor implementation it had limited success. In his book titled Literacy Education in Nigeria, Aderinaye wrote on page 7 that Holy Trinity Anglican School started evening classes in Kano in 1940. Continuing, he informed us that experiments in Community development and literacy began in Udi in 1942 with Chadwick E. R. as the organizer, he also wrote that as far back as 1958 before our Independence in 1960, an association known as Adult education Student Association had been formed. The Association constituted what was called an interior committee. In their conference at the University of Nigeria Nsuka, the committee was charged with the preparation for launching of a national body and a constitution to be examined. Nigeria attained Independence in 1960 and literacy efforts in Nigeria received a boost when unesco supported the establishment of an Adult Literacy Institute in Ibadan in 1965. In 1971, the Nigerian National Council for Adult Education (UNCAE) was set up becoming a “Voice” for adult education practice in Nigeria. It recorded dramatic achievements within a shorts span of time, becoming a Force to reckon with in terms of the planning, implementation and evaluation of adult and non-formal education programs in particular, the UNCAE played a leading role in driving aggressive campaigns and advocacy at government and University levels in order to ensure that Adult Education programs were included at all levels of the education system. Since its inception the UNCAE has worked in collaboration with government and non-government agencies in Nigeria to:-
- Establish Adult and Non-formal Education Agencies in all the States of the Federation from 1950.
- Establish Adult and Non-formal Education Agencies in all the States of the Federation from 1950.
- Establish the Adult and Non-formal Education unit in the Federal Ministry of Education in 1974.
- Establish the National mass Education Commission (NME) in 1990.
- Establish departments of Adult Education in Federal Universities.
- Develop a human resource base of experts in adult and non-formal education
A great wind of change came in 1990, when the Federal Military Government established the National Commission for mass Education (NMEC), responsible for the organization, monitoring and assessment of adult literacy practices in the country. The commission’s activities are decentralized, with offices in the six geo-political zones of the country. The 36 States and all 774 local government areas. Co-ordination and supervision of literacy classes are the sole responsibility of the local adult education officers, supervisors and literacy instructions. The minimum number of literacy classes expected in any local government is ten, with additional classes managed and funded by NGO’s Examinations are conducted on the basic competencies, reading, writing and numeracy. Life skills, which are central to all the literacy programs, are also tested. Having laid this foundation, this research work would therefore seek to find out the involvement of government in the development of adult education in Edo State, with Ikpoba-Okha Local Government Areas as a case study, it would try to assess government’s involvement and developmental assistance to the organization in accordance with the National Commission for mass Education (NMEC).
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