Federal and State Governments of the Federation place
high premium on education. They
recognize it as a weapon against ignorance, disease, squalor and as a means of
raising an enlightened lively and industrious citizenry and of producing a
prosperous nation. In order to meet this end, innovative programmes for adults
have being put in place. One of them is the “Distance Education programme”. Distance
education programme is a programme organized by the states ministries of
education and some institution of higher education in the country. It is
designed for all those who because of the nature of their age are unable to
enroll in the regular or formal education system. The medium of instruction is
by correspondence, radio or television, telephone, computer and printed
resources. Adult education in Nigeria is presently geared towards national
development.
THE OBJECTIVES
OF DISTANCE LEARNING PROGRAMME ARE AS FOLLOWS:
i. To equip the adult with everything he needs
for life in order to be relevant to his society by helping to solve some of its
problems.
ii. To provide functional literacy education for
adults who have never had the opportunity of any formal education.
iii. To get the adults, either as individuals or as
a group, to learn and through learning to change their attitude and behaviour
and improve personal lives.
iv. To help in reducing the level of ignorance and
illiteracy which causes industrial labour shortage in the country?
v. To help communities with lower literacy rate
among their adult populations grow their general economies and reduce poverty
in the country.
vi. To assist adults in attaining higher levels of
literacy, so that they can find better paying jobs and improve overall
community health and family lives.
vii. To give adult citizens of the country
aesthetic, cultural and civic education for public enlightenment
BENEFITS OF THE
PROGRAM
1. This program helps in reducing crime rate
among various communities in the country since adults literacy programs assist
adults in attaining higher levels of literacy and thereby paving way for them
to be employed.
2. .
3. The program helps adults learn more about a
culture, engage students in philosophical thinking as they seek contradictions
and similarities in their beliefs, figure out the sources of those beliefs and
determine which personal beliefs they might want to change.
4. Personal experiences in the life of an adult
can present challenges that require extra guidance and education. This program
helps in devising social action and change.
5. Distance learning education helps to nurture
the developmental routes that shape an adults’ life. It helps the adult learn
how to adapt to new situations in life and also improve work performance.
ACHIEVEMENT
In
1996, the UNDP began to assist the literacy programmes with equipment,
technical and financial resources. This enabled the government to transform the
UPE into the universal basic education scheme CUBE, 1999) which endeavoured to
promote access to education for all, including adults, out of school youths,
children and people living in special circumstances such as nomads.
During
the period 1995-2004, the programme raised the national literacy rate to 84%
and 69% for youth and adults.
· It has help to
promote the grassroots communities involvement in national social, economic
community and political activities.
· It has helped in
providing learners with appropriate knowledge for self improvement, poverty
alleviation and improved living standards.
· The creation of
distance education programme has helped in basic functional literacy skills
such as, reading, writing, mummery and Basic English.
PROBLEMS
ENCOUNTERED
Problems
encountered in distance education programme fall into several district categories:-
· costs and
motivators
· feedback and
teacher contact
· student support
and services
· alienation and
location
· lack of
experience and training
· lack of staff
training in course development
· lack of
infrastructure and technological problems
The
student may have trouble in self-evaluation because of lack of face-to-face
contact with the teacher. A another area of concern for distance students is
the lack of support and services such as providing tutors, academic planners
and schedulers and technical assistance.
Another
problem encountered by student is the lack of student training particularly in
technical issues. Many adult students are not conversant in the uses of
technology such as computers and internet.
SUGGESTIONS AND
WAYS TO SOLVE THERE PROBLEMS
· The problem of
communication link between the student and the academic institution are factors
of which distance education planners should be aware. Provision of adequate
technological communication links or media should be put in place.
· Support for
distance learners should not be overlooked when planning distance programmes.
Students need tutors and academic planners to help them in their acquisition of
knowledge and skills.
· Federal and
state governments should help in training staffs and there is need for active
involvement of various stakeholders, NGO’S and civil society.
· The learning
process should be driven by the learner’s needs, current livelihood activities
and general preferences. The learners should be actively involved in the
development and implementation of the literacy programme.
REFERENCES
Aderinoye
R. 2008, Literacy and Communication technologies: Distance Education strategies
for literacy Delivery, in international review of education.
Kalman
Judith, 2005, Discovering literacy WESCO, Hamburg
Aderinoye
R. 2007. Annual report of activities to pro literacy World Wide, New-York