MASS MEDIA IN ADULT EDUCATION

K. Sivadasan Pillai
INTRODUCTION
Education of the adult can be of different kinds. In country like India, eradication of illiteracy is
of paramount importance and for that non-formal measures alone will help. Non-formal
education is life centered as well as client centered. The needs of learner are given highest
priority in fixing timings as well as preparing the curriculum.
THE STAGES IN IMPLEMENTATION OF NON-FORMAL AND ADULT
PROGRAMMES.
1. Create awareness on the importance of the need for education among the illiterate adults.
2. Create conducive atmosphere for launching a programme of adult education with the help
of the government, semi-government and voluntary agencies already in the field.
3. Motivate the learners, workers and in general the community to cooperate with the
programme in an effective manner.
4. Collect necessary teaching materials for use in the centers and distribute them to the
agencies or instructors as the case may be.
5. Organize orientation and training programmes for the workers prior to the launching of
the schemes and in service courses regularly.
6. Plan instructional structures and implement the same effectively.
7. Do monitoring and evaluation according to previously prepared plans.
8. Prepare follow-up materials in the form of neoliterate books and periodicals.
9. Create new vigour on the life of the people, especially the “dalit ploretariat”, and involve
them in developmental activities.
10. Plan and execute action plans for the welfare of the community and implement them with
the co-operation of all sections of the society.

CRITICISMS OF THE LECTURE METHOD

1. Psychologists see learning as an active process. There is little provision made for the
pupil’s activity in the lecture method.
2. Significance of the student is more than of the subject. In this method the lecturer
presents the factual material for students to accept and memorize.
3. There is a possibility that no one except the lecturer is satisfied. Some lecturer are poor
and uninspiring.
4. Students, if they do not understand some vital points, lose much of the lecture, since there
is no opportunity to discuss and get the clarification.
5. It is a positive disadvantage to those who have not learnt to take down notes.
6. Lectures are ineffective in changing pupils’ values.
7. There is too much taxation on memory. The lecturers try to teach too much at a time.
8. It is a waste of time to lecture on material which is factual and available in books.
 9. There is no feedback to the lecturer.
10. Lectures keep learners in permanent adolescence. The more the learners develop their
capacity to store knowledge, the less they develop their critical faculties. The students
form a tendency to accept the readymade ideas as they are given to them.
11. In a lecture it is assumed that the educational caliber of all the students is the same. Weak
students find it difficult to cope with the lecture and intelligent ones do not find the
lectures sufficiently interesting and inspiring. The lectures do not provide for the lectures,
individual attendance and guidance. It fulfills the needs of average and particularly below
average or educationally retarded students.
12. Students are tempted to produce the notes given by the lecturer in the examination. This
results in cramming rather than understanding the subject.

OBJECTIVES OF THE CURRICULUM

The long term objectives of the curriculum for non-formal and adult education are:
1. Integrated development of the people and their environment (physical social and
political)
2. Making the learners mature so that they could activity participate in their own
development.
3. Help to create a new social order with the active and conscious participation of the
community.
SHORT-TERM OBJECTIVES OF THE CURRICULUM
The decision of the short term objectives depends upon the immediate needs of the
community and their priorities. The short term objectives of the non-formal and adult education
are follows:
1. To make the target group critically understand their environments (physical, social and
political) and improve their ability to act on it.
2. Increase their incomes through socially useful productive work, and through cooperative
efforts.
3. Improvement of health with preventive and indigenous methods and nutritional
improvement.
4. Qualitative improvement of the family conditions.
5. Make them learn functional literacy and numeracy.
6. Participatory involvement of the community for self-development and self-reliance.
7. To make the adult learners aware of existing facilities such as primary health centers,
balwadis, free dispensaries, bank loans, etc. their personal improvement.
It is rather difficult to draw a distinction between long-term and short-term objectives because
curriculum, as such, is a conscious life long process.