-Blank NEWS Online (NIGERIA) :

Delta State Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Chief Patrick Ukah, has pledged his continued support for the board of the Agency for Adult and Non-Formal Education to enable them actualise their mandate.
Chief Ukah gave the assurance in his office in Asaba when the Chairman of the Board, Ogbueshi Akaeze Ibonye, led members of the board on a courtesy call to the ministry.
While congratulating the chairman and his members on their appointments by the Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, Chief Ukah noted that with the integrity of the members of the board, he had no doubt that the team would add value to the education sector.
Chief Ukah, who stressed the need for robust advocacies and sensitization programme on the activities of the board, called for collaboration with the ministry at all times as well as integrate private participation initiatives.
Earlier in an address, the Chairman of the Board, Ogbueshi Ibonye, highlighted the functions of the board to include establishment of adult literacy centres, provide curriculum and scheme of work for mass education, provide infrastructural and training materials for literacy and non-formal education programme and regulate, monitor and ensure quality control of all adult and non-formal education programmes.
According to him, the board also recruits and pay non-formal education, vocation and literacy facilitators in collaboration with local government councils and undertake advocacy, publicity and mobilization for mass literacy.
He added that the challenges confronting the board include non payment and irregular payment of facilitators’ stipends, lack of funds to carry out advocacy and sensitization in the 25 Local Government Areas, and non-availability of funds for annual celebration of International Literacy Day, among others.
Ogbuehi Ibonye appealed for office accommodation in Delta State for the National Commission for Mass Education, provision of classrooms equipped with special seats and computers to make learning conducive for adult learners and the provision of funds for advocacy and sensitization activities.