Adult learners in school without wall

hey are adult learners in the classroom without wall sitting quietly under a large mango tree, whose branches above shelter them from the hot and hurting afternoon sun.

The women, mostly in their early 30s, curiously watched the teacher as he writes ‘past and present tense’ on a mini blackboard that rest on the tree stalk.

The teacher stands before the class and reels out past and present tense to his adult learners, who dutifully repeat them. The open-air classroom has a familiar sound of a school with the repetitive cacophony of the women’s recitation echoing through the quiet Kusaki, a farming village in Kuje, Abuja.

“It is an adult class and it holds twice a week, Mondays and Wednesday between 3p.m. and 5p.m.,” said the coordinator, Abubakar Dikko Wakili.

Wakili informed that the class, which commenced in February, 2014, started with basic level where the adult learners were taught only in their native language. “Now we are in Post One, where we combined both their local and English languages to teach them.

“This is their first time of seeing the letters and numbers. Now there is improvement. When you check their notes, they write well but not very fast. As beginners, their handwriting is good. Many of them can now greet people using English language,” he said.

The class, according to the coordinator, was organised by FCT Agency for Mass Education (AME) with the objective of providing functional literacy to illiterate adults and youth out of the formal system in order to eradicate illiteracy in the FCT.

The National Bureau of Statistics puts adult illiteracy rate in Nigeria at 56.9% with the Northern region in which the FCT belongs, recording the highest illiteracy rate in the country, particularly for women.

UNESCO statistics shows that 781 million adults still cannot read or write, 64 % of them are women. Among youth, 126 million are illiterate of which 62% are female.

It is against this backdrop that the agency put in place adult class to prepare the illiterate adults, especially the women in rural hinterlands, for change and create a dynamic frame of mind in them, Wakili told Aso Chronicle.

Abubakar Bako, a retired Chief Education Officer in Plan, Research and Statistics of the Universal Basic Education Board (UBEB), said the women, who hitherto cannot identify English alphabet and numbers can now operate mobile phones.

“When the mobile phone came, many people in the community could not use it because they lack the literacy skill to operate it. With their involvement in the programme, some of them can now operate GSM,” he said.

One of the participants, Saidu Danjuma, 40, who said he has never been to any formal school system, was able to respond to question when Aso Chronicle sought to know his understanding of past tense of ‘go’ by saying ‘went.’

“I can read and identify English alphabets and count numbers from 1-100, as well as exchange greetings in English language,” he said in spattered English.

A mother of five, Tina Mika, who expressed joy with the introduction of the adult literacy programme in her community, said that her involvement in the programme has improved her communication skill.

While urging other women within and outside her community to take advantage of such programme, she said learning is a continuous process to keep pace with the everchanging world. “Age is no barrier in learning,” she said in her local language.

Though their ability to identify and write letters and numbers as well as spell some simple English words has not excluded them among the illiterate population (going by UNESCO definition of a literate person), their involvement in the programme has greatly improved their communication skill.

UNESCO defines literate person as one who can with understanding both read and write a short simple statement on his (her) everyday life, and an illiterate person as one who cannot with understanding both read and write a short simple statement on his (her) everyday life.

Organising such adult class in remote areas is not an easy task as it takes a lot for a parent to excuse a child from the farm to go to school. Majority of the rural dwellers would rather prefer to engage in other activities to sitting down to learn what many of them see as ‘irrelevant.’

“When the community primary school was established in the community as far back as 1967 many parents refused to send their children to school because they did not know its value. They saw going to school as a waste of time, and instead took their children to farm,” Bako said, while explaining the reason for high illiteracy level in the community.

Those who were opportune to attend primary school, he added, could not afford to further their education in secondary schools in far places because there was no single secondary school in Abuja before 1980.

Though not bothered about the rigours inherent in the programme because he has been trained to be an adult class teacher, Wakili said he faced series of challenges at the earlier stage.

“At the initial stage, the women were not showing enough interest in the programme. I had to go round the neighbourhood to mobilise them. Few of the women responded while others who declined the invitation are those who are yet to understand the relevance of the programme,” the teacher said.

Designing time table for the class, said Wakili, is strenuous as he has to consider the working schedule of the adult learners who are majorly farmers. “We seek their consent before fixing class because they are adults and engaged in a number of activities.

“They come late to class even as the time of lesson is their collective agreement. Sometimes, I will sit down under the tree waiting for several minutes only for them to come few minute to the closing hour,” he lamented.

While appreciating government effort for introducing adult education and extending it to remote communities like Kusaki, the adult class teacher decried the low turnout of the community women at the programme.

Meanwhile, a resident, Baba Hamza, decried the near absence of basic amenities in the community, which, he said, is affecting the progress of the adult class as many of the women, the target audience, complained of the physical stress they had to contend with in their everyday activities.

While some of them trek long distance to the stream to fetch water, others complained of fatigue after having worked hard on farms.

Potable water, healthcare service and road are among the major challenges of the community. The distance from Kuje town to Kusaki is not more than 20-minute drive but with the condition of the road, it takes up to an hour before accessing the village, Hamza said, adding: “Transporters, who convey our farm produce to the market, charge exorbitant fares because of bad road.”

The community’s health centre is dilapidated and starved of drugs. The only health worker manning the centre comes once in a while, said Bako, who added that the pregnant women usually experienced difficulties while plying the rough road to clinic in neighbouring communities during labour.