Adult Education comes to television in SVG

by Vanesta Murphy 03.AUG.07

From next week, Vincentians will be able to participate in adult education classes via television.

Beginning Monday, August 6, the Adult Education Division will be airing 13 continuing education programmes sponsored by UNESCO and hosted by telly facilitator Bobzie Joyette on SVG TV.{{more}} This is just another one of the division’s innovations, and comes right at the end of their adult literacy programme.

The (EU) European Union sponsored adult programme, which began in January of 2007 and ran for six months, covered Literacy, Numeracy, Basic Information Communication Technology, Civic Education and Life Skills. The programme targeted 200 people aged 17 years and older who were not in any formal school system.

Classes were carried out island wide with a life skills class being taught in Bequia. The programme was also delivered at both the male and female prisons where the inmates were trained in life skills, civic education and numeracy.

Director of the Division of Adult and Continuing Education in the Ministry of Education Hugh Wyllie said that all learners and facilitators in the programme were people who had participated in the National Literacy Crusade (NLC) which ran from January 2005 to December 2006 reaching over 6,000 people in 10 zones including the Grenadines and Her Majesty’s Prisons.

In his speech at the programme’s graduation ceremony last week Wednesday, Wyllie said that while they weren’t able to deliver all they had hoped for 2007, his division had put together many proposals for 2008. In addition to a resumption of the basic literacy programmes, the division also intends to release a CD of songs done by the facilitators and participants of the programme.

Wyllie said that there has been a huge demand for help with literacy and people are very interested and grateful.

One participant, in a testimonial said, “This phase of the literacy classes was very interesting, although it was too short. I learned how to handle conflict in the best possible way. What I gained from the classes helped to build my level of education. I can now share with other people, including my children. The knowledge gained will help me to be a better person. I learned to communicate better, to fill out forms, and how to make some local dishes – thanks to the co-ordinator and the facilitator.”

Another learner commented “Since I attended this series of classes I have learned a lot. It helped me to understand how to cope with others. I also learnt how to make proper sentences. I learned things I did not know before. I can truly say that we are not too big to learn, and education is never too much.”

Wyllie is pleading for financial and material resources to deliver the education and training that our citizens have an appetite for.