82 NFED FACILITATORS HONOURED FOR HARD WORK (D/G Monday August 18, PAGE 36)

THE government has presented incentives to 82 facilitators, comprising 59 males and 23 females of the Non-Formal Education Division (NFED) of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports at Navrongo in the Kassena Nankana District in the Upper East Region.
The items, valued at GH¢10,550, included bicycles, roofing sheets, ghetto blasters and sewing machines.
Making the presentation, the District Chief Executive (DCE) for the area, Mr Emmanuel Chegeweh, said the government attached special importance to the functional literacy programme, aimed at encouraging adult learners to contribute meaningfully towards the socio-economic development of the country.
He commended the facilitators for teaching the adult learners to acquire literacy and income-generating skills to improve their living conditions.
The District Co-ordinator of the NFED, Mr Arimiyaw B. Adivila, stated that a total of 2,121 adults in the area had benefited from the services of the facilitators who were being rewarded.
He said apart from teaching the adults how to read and write, the NFED had incorporated a programme to explain government policies and programmes like the National Health Insurance Scheme, the effects of bush fires and land degradation, the National Identification System, as well as HIV/AIDS, to the rural people.
Mr Adivila said under its life skills programme, the learners were taught how to keep health issues and life management such as family planning, environmental hygiene, and immunisation.
He stated that in spite of the successes achieved, there were some challenges such as unavailability of structures leading to the organisation of classes in the open and under trees.
The District Director of Education, Mr Edward Peruse, praised the facilitators for their hard work and urged them to let the award stimulate them to give of their best.
He appealed to the facilitators to encourage their adult learners to send their children and wards to school, since the best legacy they could bequeath to their children was education.