UTILIZATION OF MEDIA RESOURCES FOR INSTRUCTIONS IN ADULT LITERACY CENTRES IN ABIA STATE, NIGERIA
ABSTRACT
The study sought to determine the extent media resources are utilized by adult instructors for instructions in adult literacy centres in Abia State, Nigeria. It adopted a descriptive survey design. The population of the study comprised of 5,936 respondents (5,361 adult learners and 575 Adult Literacy instructors (facilitators)} in adult literacy centres in Abia State. The sample of the study consisted of 1,118 respondents made up of 575 adult facilitators and 543 adult learners) selected from the population of study using purposive sampling technique. The instruments for data collection were Questionnaire, Checklist and Observation Schedules respectively. The internal consistency of the questionnaire was established using Cronbach’s Alpha Technique with overall reliability coefficient of 0.82. Data collected were analysed using frequency counts, percentages and mean statistics with respect to research questions while t-test was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings showed among other things that some media resources especially traditional ones are available and are utilized by adult literacy instructors/facilitators to a low extent for instructional purposes in adult literacy centres in Abia State. Significantly, both the male and female adult instructors/facilitators equally utilized media resources for instructional purposes to a low extent. Similarly, experienced and less experienced adult instructors/facilitators also utilized media resources for instructional purposes to a low extent. Thus, both gender and teaching experience did not determine nor influence adult instructors/faciltators’ utilization of media resources for instructional purposes in adult literacy centres in Abia State. The findings also revealed that the problems affecting utilization of media resources for inrstruction in adult literacy centres in Abia State included costs of procuring media resources (which are usually high), usage of media resources being time consuming, lack of maintenance of media resources, administrative bottleneck, Power outage; lack of skills by teachers; and lack of qualified technicians as well as phobia among others. The perceived solutions or remedies to the problems affecting the use of media resources by adult literacy instructors included the need for more funding of adult literacy campaign by governments, donor agencies and bodies, encouragement of stakeholders’ investment in instructional media provision, effective maintenance of available instructional media among others. The findings were properly articulated and comprehensively discussed with far reaching educational implications. Based on the foregoing, it was recommended among other things that governments through the federal ministry of education and other relevant stakeholders should provide needed media resources (mostly ICT facilities) which were found in this study to be seriously inadequate and support optimum utilization of instructional media resources in adult literacy centres through motivational strategies/ incentives, moral support and regular in-service training. It was therefore concluded that although media resources especially traditional ones were available there is still the need for their maximum utilization for instructional purposes in adult literacy centres in order to enhance service delivery which are geared towards the promotion of adult literacy in Abia State in particular and Nigeria in general.