Equipping Adult Learners with Basic Literacy Skills for Cognitive Sustainability in Lagos State, Nigeria

Blessing Anyikwa,Oyekunle Oyekunle Yinusa

doi:10.17977/um041v16i1p64-76

Abstract

Abstract The non-literate adult citizens in Nigeria are often faced with the inability to apply mental intelligence in their lifestyles which is reducing their worth and relevance in the 21st century literate society. The study therefore, seeks to equip adult learners with basic literacy skills for cognitive sustainability in Lagos state, Nigeria. Four research questions were raised and answered; and four hypotheses were tested to guide the study. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The instruments adopted for the study were Key Informant Interview (KII) and a Questionnaire. A 20-item questionnaire titled “Adult Learners’ Basic Literacy Skills Questionnaire”, (ALBLSQ) was developed by the researchers. The instrument was validated using content and face validity according to the standard approved by the National Mass Education Commission in Nigeria, and the State Agency for Mass Education in Lagos State, Nigeria (NMEC/NOGALSS). A total of one hundred and eighty (180) questionnaires were administered purposively to adult learners across the six NMEC/NOGALSS literacy centers in Lagos state, and one hundred and forty-five (145) were retrieved. The reliability of the instrument was confirmed using a test-retest procedure, which gave a correlation coefficient of 0.87. The data was presented using frequency distribution tables, percentages, and Bar Charts. The data was analyzed using Spearman Rank Order Correlation Coefficient and T-test statistical tools to test the hypotheses at 0.05 significance level. The study revealed that a significant difference exists between the performance of adult learners before intervention and the performance of adult learners after intervention of the adult basic literacy programme amongst others. The study concluded and recommended that the curriculum of the adult basic literacy should be designed to have a combination of English and mother tongue language as a medium of instruction in order to aid cognitive development among adult learners, inter alia.

Highlights

Literacy has become one of the most important ingredients for people to acquire in the 21st century given the spate of technological advancement and innovations, as well as the need for people to raise their living conditions
The instrument was validated using content and face validity according to the standard approved by the National Mass Education Commission in Nigeria (NMEC), and the State Agency for Mass Education (SAME) in Lagos state, Nigeria
From the analysis shown above, it is indicated that the adult basic literacy content/curriculum meet the need of adult learners and help them to be cognitively sustained

Summary

Introduction

Literacy has become one of the most important ingredients for people to acquire in the 21st century given the spate of technological advancement and innovations, as well as the need for people to raise their living conditions. Adult basic literacy in its simplest form is the ability of people to be able to read, write and compute simple arithmetic It is the ability of an individual to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate and compute using printed and written materials for his/her own development (UNESCO, 2016). The nonliterate citizens who may have undergone adult basic literacy programme may relapse quickly into illiteracy given their lack of continuity to post-literacy level, and most importantly, their inability to sustain learning cognitively at the basic literacy level (Nzeneri, 2010) This may result to decline in their various living conditions, such as trading activities, communications, social relationships and poor application of basic knowledge to day-to-day activities in their environment and the society at large

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion