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Full Length
Research Paper
Evaluation of
the quality of training of non-formal education facilitators
in the south-south political zone of Nigeria
*Idowu Biao1,
John Edet Bassey1, Stephen C. Uche2,
Jane Omojuwa2
1Department of Adult and Continuing Education, University of Calabar,
Calabar, Nigeria.
2Department of Curriculum and Teaching, University of Calabar,
Calabar, Nigeria.
*Corresponding
Author Email:
idowubao@yahoo.com
Received 09 October, 2010; Accepted 25 October, 2010
In pursuance
of the search for best practices in the execution of
development agenda, the training of quality non-formal
education (NFE) facilitators has been identified as an
important agent for social engineering, community
development and economic emancipation. The South-South
political zone of Nigeria is a socially and economically
backward environment. Which quality of NFE facilitators are
turned out in this zone which may advance the cause of
development? A self-designed evaluation model, named Biao’s
non-formal education performance model, three research
instruments and eight research questions were relied upon in
the process of data collection within four of the six States
making up the South-South political zone. The data were
analysed using frequency distribution, means and
percentages. Findings revealed that although education
policy makers in the south-south zone, showed an
understanding of the possible positive impact of non-formal
education on development, they exhibited a dearth of
information about adult and non-formal education; it was
further found that there existed no NFE facilitators’
training institutes within the South-South zone and tertiary
institutions’ academic departments of adult and non-formal
education were too few to impact meaningfully on the
population of this zone; additionally, it was found that the
NFE facilitators’ training programmes run in only four
academic departments of adult and non-formal education in
the zone did not reflect the concerns of the millennium
development goals; Although, 30 of the 35 trainers of NFE
facilitators found to exist within the South-South zone at
the time of this study were formally trained in the area of
adult education, these trainers currently run defective
facilitators’ training programmes to produce NFE
facilitators for the zone; the South-South then was found to
lack NFE facilitators both in qualitative and quantitative
terms; unless urgent specific steps were taken, the
South-South therefore cannot be seen to benefit in a
foreseeable future from an enduring development legacy.
Consequently, it was recommended that a South-South
non-formal education summit whose aim will be to further
sensitize and conscientize education policy makers about the
development potentials of non-formal education should be
held as a matter of urgency; also core adult and non-formal
education courses which currently exist within training
programmes for facilitators should be reviewed regularly and
concerns of the millennium development goals should be made
to reflect within NFE facilitators’ training programmes.
Keywords:
Quality education, non-formal education, Nigeria’s
south-south zone; development. |