2ND FEBRUARY 2018 BY KNA
Adult education and continuity learning programmes have continued to receive positive public support across Meru County.
Speaking during a progress spot check tour of Igembe and Tigania Sub Counties, the County Adult and Continuity Learning officer Ms. Alvina Munene, said the programme had continued to provide learning opportunities to many adults who had lost hope in pursuing education, after having dropped out of school in their formative years for one reason or the other.
Munene noted that the informal learning programme had attracted many learners, thus increasing literacy rates in the recent years, with some of the learners joining day secondary schools and performing well in national examinations.
However, she said there were inevitable challenges facing implementation of the noble initiative of providing education to adults within their areas of residence, where some people tend not to understand why a mother for instance, should think of being in class.
Munene said the department was in partnership with other stakeholders involved in community empowerment for development to ensure there was adequate public sensitization on the need to pursue education at all ages.
The adult literacy official said it was time for community leaders to support government initiatives geared towards discarding anti-development cultural practices especially those disadvantaging vulnerable members of the society.
“Education should not always be for formal employment but should be the equalizer, among people living within the same environment and undertaking similar development activities, in a bid to create a common understanding of issues affecting their day to day lives,” Munene noted.
She reiterated the need for members of the public to expand on the scope of participating and contributing towards achieving the set government development goals while reading from the same script and being able to accurately interpret policies with ease.
“Illiteracy remains an impediment against development plans starting from the individual, family and community level, hence government’s commitment to ensure a larger population in the country was literate,” Munene observed.
