Importance of Non Formal Education
Why Non Formal Education is the Missing Link to Achieving Holistic Education
By Maurice Maina
September 09, 2012
In defiance of a court order, the teachers went on strike, once again, for better terms of service.
Earlier during the year, a large number of (their) students had their results cancelled by the National Examinations body for cheating.
Education Minister’s response was to the strike action was: “I will not honor that!” He said in reference to a contract the government had entered with the teachers earlier.
Doctors and university Dons soon joined the striking wagon. Quite some display, you could say. The standoff is currently underway.
Yet the most effective arbitrator, as it appears, is the media. By clarifying the grandstanding positions of the players, the media helps to front the law of natural Justice.
This way, the prevailing perceptions can be captured and harnessed. A health minister blanket sacking of Registrars has, for instance, been challenged on the face of it.
This is a perfect display of the power of the non-formal system. Not all decisions made within the formal system are right, or wrong. Thus the formal and informal systems are complementary.
This is important to communicators. In education, for example, emphasis has been on the formal system and, hence, formal education. A pen and note book kind of thing.
This approach has been blamed for failing to achieve holistic education. ‘Uneducated graduates’ has been the operative term.
James G. Kinyua, a.k.a Safari, is the founder of Africomm Communities Development Center (ADEC) www.adecentre.org, located along Enterprise road. It is an example of the organizations that have developed to fill this gap in our education. The pioneers include Peak Performance, along Nairobi’s Ngon’g road.
For the majority of rural dwellers, public education is the only structured education at their disposal. Some do not even have access to it. Those who are lucky have to contend with constant barriers like the conflict that has culminated to the current grandstanding.
In other words, even when the graduates of the formal system are released to the society, they find it hard to integrate, or it takes unnaturally longer time for them to acclimatize and hence perform optimally. As a result the purpose of education is defeated.
So, what non formal education does, according to Safari, is that it takes the note book classroom setting, not away, but to a new level.
Participants generate their own knowledge and share it. The resulting reactions generate a healthy critique. The resultant new knowledge is relevant to the participant’s real situation and, hence, empowering.
An appreciation of this approach is fascinating in that it exposes the potential for the role of education communications to the advancement of humanity in, practically, all areas: health, politics, security, development, law and so on.
The concept is simple. It views holistic education as consisting of Formal, Informal and Non Formal aspects.
The formal school’s system core mandate is to provide the formal aspects; while the informal is catered for by relationships with people and environment. The non formal is elitist and not available to many rural communities.
ADEC has developed a non formal product targeted at the masses. The program is home delivered, in a maximum of four days.
The messages are selectively packaged and utilize human perceptual abilities to achieve agreed upon objectives, with ADEC facilitating and providing professional backing, while participants set objectives and pursue them.
(Participatory) Development Education and Leadership Teams in Action (DELTA) is how Safari describes ADEC’s methodology to Non Formal education.
ADEC hopes to reach audiences at Primary and High Schools, Churches and Mosques, Synagogues, County Assemblies, parliament and even the senate with targeted programs in due course.
The programs, conceived and pretested since 2006, are set for launch on mid December and are expected to pick further after the March 2013 elections.
ADEC is currently looking for strategic partners in this noble cause that is aimed at empowering all, including rural people, from where majority of our elected and other leaders derive their legitimacy.
For lovers of humanity and people of goodwill, volunteer opportunities are available at ADEC.