By Erick Nyayiera
Education stakeholders in Siaya county have urged the government to consider scaling up its efforts to improve the adult literacy programs in the country.
Rafiki wa Maendeleo Trust Executive Director Wilfred Owuor, whose organization operates in the rural parts of Nyanza, said that adult literacy programmes suffer from neglect unlike the basic education programmes.
He expressed concern at the sustainability of adult literacy programs especially with the fold up of NGOs which have greatly complimented the government’s efforts to ensure smooth running of adult programmes.
Rafiki wa Maendeleo Trust, is a local NGO that has been implementing Investing In Rural Education and Development (IREAD) project since 2019 to boost education standards in the rural parts of Nyanza province like in Siaya County’s Rarieda sub- County.
Owuor said that investment in the education of adult members of the community is a sure path to ensure development.
“We take the learners through numeracy and literacy programs to completion then we venture into the important aspect of functional literacy programs which trains them on the important aspects of food security,” he said.
The IREAD education program has enrolled over 200 adult learners after a robust community mobilization. The curriculum is supplied and coordinated by the Ministry of Education which conducts testing and certification.
Rafiki wa Maendeleo Programs manager Harun Kodiaga appealed to the county government to take over the adult literacy and empowerment programs.
He added that through the adult literacy programmes, parents can comfortably help their children with homework at home in line with the new Competency Based Curriculum (CBC).
Pauline Ambrose, the Education Sponsorship coordinator, is satisfied that the outcomes achieved is enormous.
She revealed that the IREAD programme has three main objectives.
“The first goal is to improve the academic achievements in target schools by providing 50 E- Reader gadgets that contains 80 downloaded books to each school. It also seeks to enhance gender parity in target schools by providing sexual reproductive health education and providing sanitary towels to adolescent girls in all the six schools in our pilot program,” said Pauline.
The programme also seeks to increase learning hours for learners at home and improve health conditions at household levels by equipping homes of the school going children with solars.
Pauline added that the program also seeks to improve community literacy by providing Adult Learning Education sessions within the schools and strengthening community library.
