West Pokot certifies 1,500 adult learners
By People Reporter, September 9, 2019By Milliam Murugi
As the world celebrated International Literacy Day yesterday, 1,489 learners from West Pokot county are set to receive proficiency certificates in Kapenguria this week after successfully completing an adult education programme.
The project, which was rolled out mid last year for free with an aim of increasing literacy levels in the county, saw around 2,300 adults sit the proficiency exams.
Speaking to Scholar, Christine Apakoreng, CEC Education for West Pokot county said they will be encouraging those who are receiving the certificates to, at least, join technical institutions. The county government will help those who want to be enrolled for basic education to register.
“The programme was offering basic skills such as writing and reading and we encourage those who have successfully finished the course to join other teaching and training institutions,” Apakoreng said.
The programme started with only 400 adults but has since seen more than 10,000 adults get enrolled and around 420 adult education mobilisers and 420 centres opened. The numbers, however, continue to increase as county government intensifies its plan to make adult education compulsory.
Statistics indicate that the illiteracy levels in West Pokot region stand at 68.2 per cent with women being the majority. However, the county government aims to halve this number by 2022.
“We want to halve the illiteracy rate and eventually zero rates it. This is why we have made adult education compulsory. We are also planning to add more centres to ensure that the programme reaches to all adults countywide,” said the West Pokot Governor, John Lonyangapuo.
Currently, the mobilisers are using primary schools and church facilities for training. Every sub-location has at least one centre and learners who cannot access such facilities train under the trees for two hours every day.
“However, though this is positive move there are some people who aren’t taking the programme seriously and they keep skipping classes. However, we are talking to them to know what can be done,” said Christine.
The Kenya Adult Learners Association (Kala) has also announced its plans to introduce local dialect digital learning equipment in the curriculum to improve ICT levels among the learners.