Adult Education vital to national development - Director

Akim Oda (E/R), Aug. 19, GNA - A Municipal Director of the Non-Formal Education Division (NFED) of the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports, on Tuesday observed that the nation had achieved much through adult education. He, however, noted that adult education institutions could not afford to be complacent, if they were to remain relevant to national aspirations in the coming years. This, he said, was because adult education had become a tool for national development.

Mr Bruce Amoako, Birim Central Municipal Director of NFED, who spoke in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Akim Oda in the Easter Region, defined adult education as, "learning, which can immediately render benefit to adults in every field of endeavour". Mr Amoako made a strong case for continued access to education and training indicating that distance education reaches more people, who eagerly wanted to learn.

According to him, there was the need to take advantage of what others had done in relation to distance education and build upon it. He said Ghana needed to focus on the implementation of a broader distance learning programme to enable wider access to many Ghanaians. Mr Amoako said the nation needed to focus on some key programme areas and activities to be able to achieve its own special market niche. Such programmes, he said, should include support to adult literacy, poverty eradication, entrepreneurial skills, environmental education and civil awareness. Others are programmes for artisans, and courses aimed at formalizing the informal sector to harness their immense potential for national development.

"All programmes would require that providers of adult education must themselves update their skills, so as to provide useful knowledge and skills for their clientele," he said. Mr Amoako urged practitioners of adult education to be proactive in identifying new and radical modes of funding their work, since they could no longer rely on traditional sources of funding.