Date Posted: 11/11/2013 11:51:27 PM
Posted By: lucyfrancis Membership Level: Gold Total Points: 8945
HISTORY OF ADULT EDUCATIONAdult education and continuing education is basically meant to help the community to deal with their day to day challenges.According to Mulira (1978) wrote on history of literacy in the world and said that man is an intelligent and thinking being who has always struggled to improve himself and his lot. Most of the things modern man enjoys in his every day life have been invented or discovered through trials and errors by his ancestors. In modern times, literacy is the yardstick by which personal and national development is measured. The whole picture of society has changed in recent times. Literate societies or Nations and individuals are the rich, the progressive, hence the leaders. Rich industrial countries have universal education. Therefore, wealth and education have played a very prominent part in their development. True development of a person or country needs all able citizens to participate fully in its day to day activities and as a result of this, enjoy the benefits and privileges of their country. In modern societies illiterate are always the silent billions, they cannot enjoy life to the full. Many of the illiterates are the poor, the diseased, and the under-nourished who also live in constant fear due to ignorance. He concluded that if Africans were educated they would develop faster.According to UNESCO (1976) these programmes were designed for those whose ages, social roles or self perception defined them as adults. ("Ibid" World Conference on adult education) stated that basic education should help them to acquire knowledge and develop ability so that they are in a position to gradually improving their community. (Source; German adult education and development march 1984 pg 144). Also the programmes were designed to cater and incorporate those who had acquired the basic literacy skills so that they could be sustained in our classes. This programme was purposely meant for the newly literate adult to continue with life long learning whereby they would improve in their knowledge, skills and altitudes through self directed process to improve their quality life.The department of adult and continuing education was established in 1979 by the then president of the Republic of Kenya His Excellence President Daniel arap Moi.However to date not much has been achieved according to (KNALS 2007) statistics estimated that 7.8 millions Kenyans are still illiterate. This is very much so in Molo division of Nakuru County.In Kenya, education is seen as the key pillar of all developments. All development sectors derives their success on how well their personnel are competent and efficient in delivering on the objectives they have formulated to attain their targets set.Therefore adults of this Nation need to be given quality education so that they can fully participate in all development aspect effectively.The economy of this Nation lies in the hands of adults, who are farmers, businessmen and leaders of this Nation. Therefore there is need for all adults to access education in order to acquire knowledge and skills to be able to actively participate in all sphere of decision making at all levels, adequately.The late Mwalimu Nyerere (1968) declared that adult education programmes are supposed to empower the marginalized members in our society. also stressed that adult should be provided with education that will give direct results in development programmes as the children take up to ten to twenty years before it is translated into any economic development purposes.According to Collins (2000) said that an illiterate person is that lives state of primary concessions. He perceived objectives of history submerged by the existence of daily life. Paulo said that the illiterate is paralyzed by his sense of impotence and fear and lives in ignorance to his potentially as human being. This observation outlines the reason why the early missionaries who came to Africa never stressed the need to provide African with quality education. They came with a Bible and the gun, on the other hand there was to extend their loyalty to their motherland by entrenching domination of the king. The Africans were made to look at themselves as inferior and an able to make any decision of their own.According to Achoka (2007) observed that adult education was not meant for literacy alone. Adult education is more than literacy. It is something that people need and regardless of the amount of their previous education. This observation proposes that if all adults are given education, each person would be ready to should the national building of this country. Therefore proper policies need to be put into place to remove the social, economical and political affairs of this nation. Therefore proper policies in adult and continuing education need to be implemented. This can be done through production of print material to those adults who have acquired skills in reading and writing or else they will relapse back into illiterate again.It is believed that illiterate are resistant to change to new ideas thus isolating themselves. It is only through post literacy programmes that can create awareness to this adult and bring them back on board to help in changing their previous environment and state.Through adaption of new ideas knowledge and new technologies if we are to make any progress as far as development is concerned.
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