Tuesday, November 6, 2018
By county diary reporter
6th Nov 2018
The number of the adult education learners in Kitui County was 8,102 at the end of June 2018. They are 6,633 females and 1,469 males.
The County Adult and Continuing Education Officer (CACEO), Stanley Mbugua Kihara, also announced that the enrolment for the basic literacy was 5,700 (4,844 females and 856 males). “And the post literacy’s enrolment was 2,256 by 1,709 females and 547 males. And that for the adult continuing education for primary education learners was 64 (34 females and 30 males) and 82 (46 females and 36 males) for the secondary education learners,” the officer added.
He was speaking to thousands of adult education learners from Kitui County during this year’s (the 52nd) International Literacy Day celebrations held at the Kisasi market in Kisasi Sub-County in Kitui County where the Deputy County Commissioner Philip Koimet was representing the County Commissioner Samuel Wanjohi Kimiti as the chief guest at the function. The Wajir County was the Kenya’s national venue for the event.
Kihara announced that in April 2018 they had a total of 47 full-time adult education instructors in Kitui County. “But today we are having 40 instructors following the retirements of the instructors without replacements by the government. Every month there are some retirements in the county and there is no replacements. And the enrolment is diminishing in the county because of the retirements,” the adult education expert said.
He also announced that currently the county has a total of 147 part-time adult education instructors and 18 self-help instructors. “The part-time tutors teach from January to May and relax in June. And they resume to work in July up to November and relax in December. They relax because they are not permanently employed,” the CACEO said.
He said that the self-help tutors are not paid. “They don’t get salary. They only volunteer themselves,” he added. Kihara announced that in Kitui County a full-time adult education instructor has one centre, adding that the instructor is supposed to have two centres. “And I am planning to give each full-time adult education instructor two centres,” he announced.
Kihara said that one class is supposed to have 30 learners. “A class can even have some 100 learners or even more but it is difficult for an instructor to manage that big number of learners,” the education ministry’s official said.
Kihara said they in their department have a programme known as the community learning resource centres (CLRC). And he announced that they have six community learning resource centres in their county namely Itoleka (Katulani Sub-County), Kyusyani (Lower Yatta Sub-County), Kyainya (Lower Yatta Sub-County), Imwamba (Mwingi East Sub-County), Itoloni (Mwingi West Sub-County) and Ituusya (Mutitu Sub-County). “And we have the centre managers.
They are Kanini Mwanga (Itoleka), Agnes Ngei (Kyusyani), Musyoka Mukita (Kyainya), Sophia N.Maluki (Imwamba), Rose Kasina (Itoloni) and Jeremiah Kalungya (Ituusya),” the CACEO added. The officer said that initially the centres used to be funded by the ministry. “But nowadays they are not being funded. So that is one of the major problems that are currently affecting the centres in the country,” he added.
The officer regretted that they do not have a vehicle in his office for them to do the office’s monitoring and evaluation work in the too vast county. Kitui is the sixth largest out of the Kenya’s 47 counties. And it is the 11th most populated county in the country. Kihara disclosed that there was a total of 3,500 full-time adult education instructors in Kenya in 1979 when the programme was started in the country. “Initially many instructors were moving to other ministries or green pastures due to poor payment by the education ministry. But now there is a very good scheme of service for the adult education instructors in the country that came into operation in 2015 by the ministry. A tutor can now move to a higher job group depending on her or his educational qualifications. And this has now sustained most teachers in the adult education teaching,” the CACEO said. In his speech after reading the Education Cabinet Secretary Dr. Amina C.Mohammed’s speech, Koimet encouraged the local people to join the adult and continuing centres so as to eradicate illiteracy in the county “because the literate society is able to participate in the national, social, economical and political development of their county,”.
He also encouraged them to register as the members of the Kitui County Health Insurance Cover (KCHIC) programme that has been introduced in the county by Governor Charity Kaluki Ngilu for some 1,000 shillings per a household for a period of one year.
The administrative officer also requested the local community to report to the relevant authorities any foreigner who might have sneaked into the area unlawfully.
The end of the story.
