Challenges of the implementation of Integrated Functional Adult Education (IFAE) in Ethiopia: A case of Oromiya National Regional State

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the challenges of the implementation of Integrated Functional Adult Education (IFAE) in the Oromiya National Regional State. This study employed a qualitative study and few quantitative data type. The qualitative data was collected from participants of regional education office, district education office heads, experts at different education offices, facilitators of the adult literacy program and adult literacy learners through the interview, literacy classroom observation and FGD methods. The study used a purposive sampling method to include participant. After collecting the data, qualitative data processing was made (editing, classification, and thematic formation). The interpretation is a narrative analysis of relevant incident of the respondents’ responses. The results reveal that the program implementation is hampered by access to adults learning the program, lack of organized structure, coordination, and commitment to improving the IFAE program. The literacy classroom observation results reveal that some of the contents like counting and adding numbers are more liked by participants. On the other hand, writing names, constructing words and sentences found to be a challenge for the learners. The curriculum is not implemented as it was stipulated in the textbook of the learners, only literacy facilitators in the form of intergenerational learning modality run the program, without the involvement of the agriculture and health extension facilitators. The study result shows that the current model, used to implement IFAE, could not bring a change as the right way to escape from illiteracy problem. In the region, despite the growth of formal education, adult education has been impeded and the program handling system becomes at the verge of dying. Hence, the government has to restructure the fragmented system of the program that could minimize the gap between the policy implementers and the end users.

Keywords: Literacy, functional adult education, non-formal education, multi-sectoral model.

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