ABSTRACT
The motive
behind this study was to identify the factors affecting the performance of
participants in adult literacy programme in Udu local government area of Delta
State. The study showed that poor funding and non availability of qualified
teachers were the most serious factors affecting the good performance of the
participants in the literacy programme. The study also showed that engagement
in their various occupations equally had adverse effect on the participants
performances.
From the
findings, some suggestions were also made,
1. More qualified staffs should be recruited.
2. More funds should always be made available on
time to enhance the participants performance
3. Teaching aids should be provided in adult
literacy centres.
4. Enlightenment campaign should be intensified to
keep the people informed of adult literacy programme in their door step.
TABLE
OF CONTENT
Chapter One
Introduction
Statement of problems
Research questions
Purpose of study
Scope of study
Significance of the study
Limitation of study
Definition of terms
Chapter Two
Review of related Literature
Chapter Three
Methodology and procedure
Population/sample
Research instrument
Validity of research instrument
Reliability of research instrument
Administration of instrument and collection of data
Data analysis
Method of data analysis
Chapter Four
Presentation and analysis of data
Chapter Five
Summary, Conclusion and Recommendations
Summary of the study
Summary of the findings
Conclusion
Recommendations
Suggestions for further research
References
Questionnaires
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
Before
examining the study at hand, it is portent to reflect our minds to the meaning
of the concept of literacy and its origin in Nigeria. Literacy as a concept
brings up many ideas with varying degree of charity in the many people. The
term literacy is commonly taken to mean the art of reading, writing or those
about to read and write. But to those in the taken for granted category,
literacy is inherently problematic and potentially elusive, literacy can be
seen as a basic communication skills that enables an individual to extent the
range of his contact well beyond his immediate environment.
Mass
literacy has long been argued to be a necessary but not sufficient condition
for sustained development to take place and there is an extensive literature on
the problems of increasing literacy rates. The world now has almost one billion
adult as its illiterates and over 95% of these are to be found in the
developing countries. Disproportionate number of illiterates are females, from
poor households and members of minority groups within their own countries in
absolute numbers. China and India have the most illiterate as a result of their
large population, profiles of illiteracy rates by age group and sex have proved
slow to change over time though over all level of literacy have improved
considerably.
Historically the modern foundation of adult education in Nigeria had its root
laid by the British in Levi after World War II that brought the need to extend
education to large number of Nigerians. This leads to the setting up of
colonial secretary advisory committee in 1944 with the intention of considering
the best approach to the problems of mass literacy and adult education. Their
suggestions gave intelligent guidelines for the development of adult education
and literacy education in the British dependencies. They stressed the need for
a more generalized system of education with the interest of the British
government showed in the direction of providing some sort of adult literacy education
to the masses various experiments were embarked upon with the view to
establishing and promoting adult literacy education to the various communities.
A practical
manifestation of this interest was that the colonial administration started to
encourage the local people and arouse their interest in establishing evening
classes. Furthermore efforts to provide functional literacy stemmed from the report
of the UNESCO world conference of education ministers at Teheran in 1965 in
which Nigeria participated. The recent world conference on education for all
called for reduction in the adult literacy levels to one half of the existing
values. UNESCO, definitions of functional literacy is that “a person is
functionally literate who can engage in all those activities in which literacy
is required for effective functioning of his group and community and also for
enabling him to continue to use reading, writing and calculation form his own
and the community development”.
There remains problem in translating this simple definition into
practice. Two principals methods have been advocated self assessment (e.g.
though consensus questioning) and the use of standardize literacy test.
Indirect self assessment methods carry a high risk of error and over reporting,
particularly when carried out using untrained interview. In many surveys the
ability to read aloud from newspaper is used as a criterion though this may not
indicate comprehension other use the ability of the respondents to write their
names as the criteria. Some assessments include basic numerous as an integral
part, but practice on this is inconsistent. At the most unreliable level
respondents are asked “can you read and write?” with no capability to tes6t the
veracity of the response or differentiate levels of facility. Literacy may be
defined in a mother tongue or I a national language and this is like to affect
the number of illiterate identified. Direct method that involves standardized
testing is expensive to administer and also suffer from problems of reliability
and validity. Wagner (1990) proposes new approaches to assessment which employs
both direct and indirect measures of literacy, attempts to differentiate level
of facility and recognizes the context in which literacy is acquired and used.
UNESCO had developed a series of concepts which illustrates some
of the shifting approaches that have been employed in literate. Some of the
employed in literacy project. Those include fundament education, community
development, and universal literacy. Work oriented literacy and cultural
literacy. However, according to Jones (1990) none of these have stayed in place
long enough to have acquires an adequate theoretical grounding. In reality,
many of the assertions made in the literature about relationships between
literacy and development are hypothesis for which there may be circumstantial
evidence but no rigorous justification while it is generally accepted that literacy
is a necessary condition for access to ideas from the wider world and that
“modernization in attitudes and disposition is closely associated with the
possession of literacy more specific relationships have proved difficult to
unravel. This is partly because literacy is a social construction and is
significantly in determining and being determined by the prevailing social
order, Oxenham (1980). It is being increasingly recognized that literacy is a
relative construct and is in the practice context dependent. Global definitions
therefore appear both elusive and unattainable (Winchester 1990). The
implication is that literacy programmes need clear objectives that are grounded
in different socio-economic context and the criteria for improvement are unlikely
to be universal, or if they are they will be at the lowest level of cross
cultural generalization.
Clients in adults’ literacy vary very largely and this fact is a
control focus in the present study to assess their performance. Since the
project at hand is aimed at identifying factors affecting the performance of
participants in adult literacy programmes in Udu local government area. It will
be of great benefit to the government as its findings will enable or enhance
educational administrators and adult education. Udu local government purse is
located in Delta State. Thus the local government is characterized by
linguistic variation resulting in one dialect which tends to affect the unity
and subsequent introduction of literacy programmes. A great proportion of it is
covered with water and grass land with thick orchard bushes. Educationally, it
has many primary and post primary institutions.
STATEMENT OF PROBLEMS
Adult
literacy in Udu local government is provided in English language, supervisors
and instructors sometimes have to use direct translation to clarify the meaning
of words and statement. Over the years, since the organization of adult
literacy classless in the local government, farmers, traders, small scale
businessmen and women have displayed enthusiasm through their participation in
literacy classes. Although enthusiasm is evident, one does not know the extent
to which the learning of the participant has been effective. It is noted
however, that many factors including participants occupations, amount of time
sacrificed, social responsibilities and dialect spoken may have effect on the
performance in the literacy programme.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The
questions which arises are therefore:
1. How do participants in adult literacy programme
in udu local government area perform in their studies?
2. Do you think the performance of adult in the
literacy programme are satisfactory?
3. Do you think the performances are poor?
4. What factors are likely to affect the
performance of participants in the programmes?
5. Do you think finance is a major problem that
affect the performance of adults in the programmes?
6. In what way can supervisors intervene to improve
participants level of performance giving the facilities available to them?
PURPOSE OF STUDY
The purpose of study it so find out through the research at hand
the possible factors affecting the performance of participants in adult
literacy classes in Udu local government area. This is to say the purpose of
the study was to determine the factors affecting the performance of adult in
the programmes with special references to:
i. Financing the programme
ii. Availability of qualified staff.
iii. The application of teaching aids in teaching
iv. The planning and administration of the programme
v. Literacy and development
vi. Literacy and language
vii. Strategies to promote literacy
SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The study
is limited to Udu local government area of Delta State.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This study
will be of great benefit to students in the field of adult education as its
reviews will broaden their knowledge on suitable methods to handle adult
learners.
DEFINITIONS OF TERMS
Adult participant: A
learner who attends literacy class to receive lesson.
Adult instructor: A
person who teachers adult participants in literacy classes
LGA:
local government area.
Literacy:
Ability to read and write enumerate and compute. A process whereby adults
develop their abilities to enrich their knowledge and bring changes in their
attitudes in two fold perspective of fukll personal development.
Department | Education |
Project ID Code | EDU0329 |
Chapters | 5 Chapters |
No of Pages | 57 pages |
Methodology | Null |
Reference | YES |
Format | Microsoft Word |
Price | ₦4000, $15 |
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Contact Us On | +2349067372103 |
Contact Us On | +2349094562208 |
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