ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF POLICY STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES OF AGENCY FOR ADULT AND NON-FORMAL EDUCATION IN IMO STATE, NIGERIA

The study assessed the implementation of policy strategic objectives of agency for adult and non-formal education in Imo State. Three research questions guided the study and three null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised 18,138 respondents (18,129 adult learners and 9 staff of agency for ANFE) in Imo State. The sample for the study was 920 respondents made up of 911 adult learners and 9 staff of agency for ANFEdrawn using multistage sampling procedure. A researcher-developed instrument titled ‘‘Implementation of Policy Strategic Objectives of Agency for Adult and Non-Formal Education Questionnaire (IPSOAANFEQ)’’ was used for data collection.The instrument was validated by three experts, one in the Department of Adult and Continuing Education and one in Measurement and Evaluation in the Department of Educational Foundations, all in the Faculty of Education, NnamdiAzikiwe University, Awka and third is the Director of Imo State Agency for Adult and Non-Formal Education. Cronbach alpha was used for a test of internal consistency of the instrument which yielded reliability coefficients of 0.77, 0.80 and 0.79 for Clusters I, II and III respectively with an overall coefficient of 0.79. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions, while t-test was used to test the null hypotheses. The findings of the study revealed among others thatpolicy strategic objective on providing education programmes specific to the needs of adult learners was implemented to a high extent in Imo State. Further result indicated that the implementation of policy strategic objectives on delivery of curriculum modules and provision of public enlightenment programmes for adult and non-formal education were to a low extent in Imo State. Also, there is no significant difference in the mean ratings of adult learners and staff of agency of ANFE on the implementation of all dimensions of policy strategic objectives for adult and non-formal education in Imo State. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that National Commission for Mass Literacy, Adult and Non- Formal Education should embark on quarterly publicity through mass media and rallies to create awareness on the existence of adult and non-formal adult programmes across states in the country.