Chief 'Lere Oyewumi is a former chairman of Irewole Local Government Area, Ikire, Osun State, a lecturer in the Department of Adult Education, Faculty of Education, University of Ibadan, and, currently, a federal commissioner nominee for the National Population Commission, Osun State. As the first vice chairman of the committee for the 2011 Homecoming Ceremony being planned by the Adult Education department of Nigeria's premier university, he spoke with Ebenezer Adurokiya on the essence of the programme and some pressing national issues.What is the homecoming programme all about' This Department of Adult Education is the oldest department in the University of Ibadan and a lot of icons of national and international magnitude, have emerged from here.We want to use the programme as a family meeting to honour and recognise our forefathers, some of who have departed, some retired and some still very much with us. The department is set to reward them for what they have done for the department during their time.Again, thousands of people have graduated from this department and they are all over the globe. We want to establish a link with them through the homecoming event. We will create a kind of databank of their names and contact addresses. More importantly, we will want to interact with one another and see how the alumni members of this department can continue to render help to the department in whatever way.Thirdly, we want to establish an Adult Education Village at Ajibode. It was conceptualised because of the significance of functional training where students are trained to acquire a vocational trade. We want to have a vocational centre, a lecture theatre, a place people can go and within one or two months, they become economically functional in addition to the academic learning they would have acquired in the department.We want to turn the department into a rehabilitation centre where we will churn out functional literates. We are, therefore, expecting the wife of the president, governors, business moguls as well as parents of our students, among others, to contribute. We want to use this homecoming to establish a life-long training project that is of international standards.How do you wish to honour the icons of the department'We, their products, want to talk about them; we want to listen to comments of their colleagues, and talk about what they have done to promote the image of the department apart from giving them plaques. Beyond the proposed Adult Education Village, we are also having more projects, such as lecture theatres that can be executed by children of some of our departed icons from this department. We will name the projects after the donors after the completion. We will be naming some edifices after some of the icons apart from giving them plaques.In the synopsis of your homecoming programme, you talked about rebranding. What do you intend to rebrand'Education is changing, depending on the need of the society. And Adult Education is a life-long education. We intend to make students of the department functional literates.So, as the world changes, the content of what we teach must change to reflect the current realities in the society. E-learning is the in-thing now in the whole world. Twenty years ago, we did not have things like that in Nigeria. An educational system that does not reflect changes in the environment cannot make students functional. This is what we mean by rebranding, that is thinking in line with the current development in our society.Does it also include changing the nomenclature of the department' Not really, but even if it includes that, it will be to reflect our new contents, ideas. Adult education does not just mean educating our old men and women on how to read and write. The thinking of our department is beyond knowing how to read and write alone. Adult education is the kind of education that is given to both the old and the young within the school and outside the school that will make an individual functional in the society. For instance, if you are a trader, adult education will teach you how to be a better trader. If you are a teacher, adult education will teach you how to be a better teacher. If you are a farmer, adult education will teach you the modern technique of becoming a better farmer. Same goes to all professions. Everybody needs to update their knowledge either through distance learning, radio, television, workshops or seminars, it is a continuous education, a life-long one that never ends. I
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