The Nyandarua County Director of Adult Education Margaret Nduku has decried the low uptake of adult learning by men in the region.
Nduku said men have not shown enthusiasm about learning, making them trail women in adult education enrollment in the area.
The Director said out of the 787 adult learners who will sit the basic literacy examination this year, only 222 are men compared to 565 women.
Speaking at the Ol Jororok stadium, during celebrations to mark the International Literacy Day for the County, Nduku said the total number of adult education students in Nyandarua stood at 1415, which she said was too low, compared to the population of the area.
“In post-literacy, we have only 137 men compared to 283 women attending classes, post-primary enrollment has 52 men and 102 women, while in the secondary section, we have 22 men against 33 women,” she said.
The Director said learning space has also been a major challenge for adult learners because at times they find nursery schools or churches unavailable during their lesson time.
Nduku said the lack of stationary and other learning materials was yet another challenge, expressing optimism that the government will start funding adult education just like it does for the regular learning programs.
She said extra co-curriculum activities will also be introduced in a bid to attract more people to enroll.
“We have introduced some economic projects to make learners earn some money as they learn, otherwise classes will be empty, and eventually adult learning will die in the County.
We also intend to introduce sporting activities to attract more learners to enroll,” she said.
Nyandarua West Deputy County Commissioner Josephine Kihara, who represented the County Commissioner Mohammed Barre said knowledge of basic education is very important in this era of technology in almost all sectors of life.
“You have seen mobile phones are also being used to do many other things and any person without basic education will be left behind in many ways,” said Kihara.
She encouraged the teachers and learners to also use their adult education classes to talk about mental health issues among them.
On the low enrollment of men for adult learning, the Deputy County commissioner said there was a need for the boy-child to be encouraged to regain his lost esteem and stop him from drifting further away.
By Antony Mwangi
