Our vision

To become a centre of excellence in imparting basic skills by training and conducting adult literacy courses in all the social disciplines that affect the human life.

Our department also envisages production of competent and knowledgeable persons in the community who are equipped with the necessary skills and attitudes for promotion of community development and wealth creation through self employment and prosperity

Mission Statement

“To contribute to the improvement of the living standards of the communities that are neighboring the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy through the pursuit of excellence in basic education and training.”

Historical Background

The idea of establishing the Lewa Adult Literacy Programme came up as a result of the assessment done by the Lewa Community Development Office in July 2004.

The assessment showed that there were quiet a huge number of the community members who had no basic education and in order to foster development and wealth creation, there was need to start the Adult Literacy Programme. In the initial stages the programme mainly targeted adults but later on we found out that there were youths who were above the age of 15 years old who were also in need of this basic education.

The adult literacy programme has an establishment of two experienced tutors and it is supervised by the Lewa Education Office. Currently there are five learning centres which run concurrently with the national school calendar. These centers are as follows:-

• Matunda Gate
• Manyangalo
• Ngare Ndare
• Leparua
• Lewa Social Hall

Growth

With the need for education and social development even within the boundaries of the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy an adult literacy programme was of great importance.

The programme started in August 2004 with a student population of 105.

These students were mainly women from the Subuiga, Matunda, Ntugi and Ntumburi areas. All these areas are adjacent to the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy. In essence there were two centres; these were the Matunda Gate and the Lewa Social Hall which conducted basic education to the illiterate members of staff of the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy. Due to the great demand of basic education among the communities, we have gradually increased the centers to five. Each centre has one training session conducted by two tutors in a week. The Matunda Gate centre has an average of 100 pupils and the tutors have categorized them according to their intellectual levels.

There are three different groups; beginners, intermediates and advance. All these groups have been allocated different training sessions during the week. The learners are trained in different fields such as agriculture, health education, cookery, dress making, business skills, civic education and basic reading and writing skills. The admission of pupils is free and the pupils are provided with all the stationary and books. The admission dates are scattered throughout the year with the main entries falling in January and May. The pupils sit for every end of the month assessment tests. Those who excel in these tests are awarded presents to motivate them. There are those pupils that the tutors recommend to sit for the provincial proficiency exams that are conducted by the ministry of social services during the month of June each year. This year we had 40 pupils from our centres who sat for the exams and 15 managed to excel very well and were awarded certificates by the District Commissioner during the International Literacy Day celebration that were held on 9th September.

It is also quiet important to note that during the celebrations, the Lewa Adult Literacy Programme was voted the best literacy center with the highest number of pupils  and also with the highest number of pupils who had passed the proficiency exam.

Statistics

The current student population is as follows:-

1. Matunda Gate-----------  95
2. Manyangalo -------------  56
3. Leparua -----------------  44
4. Lewa Social Hall---------  21
5. Ngare Ndare -------------  40

       TOTAL                             256

Plan of Action

We are planning to establish a resource centre in each of the learning centres so that the pupils can be able to access the learning materials with much ease. Currently we have a collection of different books that we are lending to the pupils.
We are also planning to admit new students and we intend to categorize them according to their intellectual ability. We also intend to award certificates to the current students on completion.