EVALUATION OF THE LITERACY PROGRAMME OF THE NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR MASS LITERACY, ADULT AND NON-FORMAL EDUCATION IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The National Commission for Mass Literacy, Adult and Non-Formal Education (NMEC) under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Education implemented the Revitalisation of Adult and Youth Literacy Programme in March 2011 with the intention of increasing the nation’s literacy rate as a complementary pathway to realising the goals of quality education and lifelong learning for over 65 million young persons and adults who have missed out on the formal system. However, available documentary reports have been self-reporting, without much empirical evidence. This study therefore, was designed to evaluate the implementation of the NMEC literacy programme, with a view to ascertaining the extent to which the programme impacted on the attainment of the National literacy goal. The Context Input Process Product Model guided the study, while the descriptive survey design was adopted. The six Local Government Areas (LGAs) (Ibarapa North in Oyo State, Odeda in Ogun State, Dukku in Gombe State, Yankwashi in Jigawa State, Bende in Abia State, and Ughelli North in Delta State) where NMEC’s revitalisation programme was held were purposively selected. Stratified random sampling was used to select 270 literacy facilitators and 220 literacy beneficiaries across the six LGAs. Ninety-six officials of NMEC zonal offices and states agencies and 30 personnel of International development partners were enumerated. Instruments used were NMEC Literacy Impact Assessment Questionnaire (r=0.88) and NMEC Institutional Assessment Scale (r=0.79). These were complemented with six sessions of Focus Group Discussion and seven sessions of Key Informant Interviews with literacy beneficiaries, as well as NMEC’s Executive Secretary and state agencies directors respectively. Data were analysed using content analysis, descriptive statistics and Pearson product moment correlation at 0.05 level of significance. The beneficiaries of the NMEC programme were: adult non-literates (peasant farmers, market women, nomads/migrants, and low-skilled workers) (53.0%), out-of-school street children and youths (38.0%) and Quranic school children (9.0%). Basic literacy (58.0%) was the most dominant and covered programme of the commission, followed by post-literacy (31.0%) and vocational education (11.0%). The objectives (78.0%) and contents (76.0%) of the programme were highly rated. With the exception of financial commitment (5.0%), the mobilisation of resources: human (71.0%) and instructional materials (76.0%) were commended; while the programme’s publicity (48.0%) was rated slightly below average. NMEC’s literacy programme had positive significant relationships with the inauguration of state agencies promoting literacy activities (r=0.70), networking with development partners (r=0.46), establishment and monitoring of literacy centres (r=0.39), provision of instructional materials (r=0.26), advocacy (r=0.24) and facilitators’ recruitment (r=0.21). Inadequate funding, difficulty in accessing counterpart funding from Universal Basic Education Commission, recruitment of nonprofessional facilitators, and delayed payment/under-payment of facilitators by state agencies were the major challenges to NMEC’s literacy programme. Regardless of its financial constraints, the literacy programme of the National Commission for Mass Literacy, Adult and Non-Formal Education impacted positively on the attainment of the national literacy goal. However, increase in funding, prompt payment of facilitators andxiv recruitment of professional facilitators would improve the Commission’s capacity to implement the Education-for-All literacy goal in Nigeria.