Page 1 of 16

Journal for Studies in Management and Planning

Available at

http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/

ISSN: 2395-0463

Volume 04 Issue 08

August 2018

Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 1

Non-formal Education Needs of Adult

Prisoners for Sustainable Economic Growth

and Employment in Zamfara State, Nigeria

Mannir ABBA, PhD.1 & Dorida, Nneka, UGWU, PhD. 1

1 Department of Adult Education and Extension Services, Usmanu Danfodiyo University,

Sokoto, Nigeria

2 Department of Adult Education and Extra-Mural Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka,

Correspondence: Mannir ABBA, Department of Adult Education and Extension Services,

Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Nigeria.

E-mail:mannirabba@yahoo.com

Abstract

The study assessed the Non-formal Education Needs of Adult Prisoners for sustainable economic

growth and employment in Zamfara State, Nigeria. Two research questions and two null

hypotheses guided the study. A survey research design was adopted for the study. The population

of the study was 762 respondents in the 5 Nigerian Prisons of Zamfara State. Purposive

sampling technique was used to sample 351 adult prisoners comprising all the 266 male and 85

female convicted prisoners of the Gusau Central Prison for the study. The instrument used for

data collection was self-structured questionnaire tagged “Questionnaire on the Non-formal

Education Needs of Adult Prisoners (QNFENAP)”. The instrument was subjected to face

validation by three experts. The reliability coefficient for the instrument was 0.80. The data

collected were analysed using descriptive statistics of mean, while the null hypotheses were

tested using t-test at the probability of 0.05 level of significance. The study showed that there

were only two NFE programmes for adult prisoners in Gusau Central Prison and there were

convicts trainees in the prison. Based on these findings, the study recommended among others

that the Nigerian Prisons Service (NPS) should introduce more NFE programmes and extend

them to other satellite’s prisons for sustainable economic growth and employment in the state

and country at large.

Keywords: Non-formal Education Programmes, Needs, Adult Prisoners, Sustainable Economic

Growth.

1. Introduction

The statutory objectives of the

Nigerian Prisons Service (NPS) include

ensuring the safe custody of awaiting trial

and convicted prisoners as well as

reformation and rehabilitation of offenders.

These responsibilities are discharged

through carefully designed and well- articulated administrative, reformative and

rehabilitative programmes aimed at

Page 2 of 16

Journal for Studies in Management and Planning

Available at

http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/

ISSN: 2395-0463

Volume 04 Issue 08

August 2018

Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 2

inculcating discipline, respect for law and

order, and the dignity of honest labour

(Igbo, 2007). The offender, in this wise, is

prepared to become not only law abiding but

also useful to both himself and the society at

the expiration of his sentence. According to

NPS Reports (2014), the United Nations

(UN) declaration of human rights in 1948

states that everyone has a right to education

and Rule 71 (3) of the UN Standard

Minimum Rules for the Treatment of

Prisoners states “sufficient work of a useful

nature shall be provided to keep prisoners

actively employed for a normal working

day”. Despite the endorsement of this UN

declaration in 1976 by the Nigerian

government, the country still ranks among

countries with high level of illiteracy,

unemployment and poverty especially

among ex-prisoners (Tenibaije, 2010).

Adult prisoners can be

conceptualised as adult persons kept in a

conformed institution such as prison or a

mental hospital. Abba (2016) observedthat

an adult prisoner can be seen as a person

who is kept in a confined place known as the

prison, as an accused or convicted of

violating the criminal law. Hence, in the

context of this study an adult prisoner can be

seen as a person legally confined in an

institution designed to securely house and

rehabilitate people who are convicted of

crime or are on awaiting trial. These

individuals known as prisoners or inmates

are kept in continuous custody on a short or

long-term basis.Abba and Mbagwu (2016)

believed that providing non-formal

education to adult prisoners while they are

in prison can help them overcome

unemployment challenges by acquiringthe

skills needed to become self-employed and

enhance sustainable development in a

society.

Non-formal Education (NFE) has

been defined in different ways by various

scholars. Obiozor and Obidiegwu (2013)

defined non-formal education as educational

activities which take place outside the

school system. It covers all educational

activities or training which is aimed at

improving knowledge, skills, attitude and

values of different groups of people,

children, youth and adults. It is an

educational activity with a purpose designed

to meet the need and situation of the learner.

This means that it is purposeful and flexible,

designed to meet with the challenging life

circumstances and make learners competent

throughout life. In the word of Ngwu

(2016), non-formal adult education covers

training and instruction outside the formal

education, apprenticeship, vocational

training in craft centres, and even a

nationwide mass literacy campaigns. It

includes such forms of education for critical

consciousness (self and social awareness) or

community education as integral parts of

development action programmes.

Non-formal education has the

potential of empowering its recipients (adult

prisoners) especially the less empowered

ones to be enterprising and/or

entrepreneurial, thereby contributing their

quota in the socio-economic development of

their community after incarceration. It has

been recognized by the researchers that the

school alone cannot provide quality basic

education for all especially with the

Page 3 of 16

Journal for Studies in Management and Planning

Available at

http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/

ISSN: 2395-0463

Volume 04 Issue 08

August 2018

Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 3

perennial challenges of effective integration

of the poor, the vulnerable, prison inmates

and the totally excluded. In the Nigerian

education sector, some of the excluded like

the street children, the nomadic children

with special needs, the migrants, and adult

illiterate prisoners need non-formal

education as a human right for personal and

community development. According to

Obiozor and Obidiegwu (2013), the

education we acquire in school cannot take

us throughout life. The authors also noted

that non-formal education cannot be

regarded as an appendage when discussing

issues of education, but rather should be

seen as life-long effort for creating public

awareness, training and sustainable

economic growth and employment.

Education must not be seen to end in school

or reduced to only the acquisition of the 3rs- reading, writing and computing, but must be

seen as a vehicle which enables individuals

and communities to identify their needs,

interests and aspiration for employment and

improved quality of lives, establish linkages,

harmonious cooperation and partnership.

Sustainable economic growth and

employment efforts can be pursued

vigorously through participation of adult

prisoners in NFE programmes and proper

utilization of the acquired knowledge and

skills by the prisoners after serving their jail

terms. Regrettably, Talba (2016) noted that

most of the adult prisoners in Nigerian

prisons, Zamfara State prisons inclusive, are

illiterates and unemployed. The most

notable existing non-formal education

programmes for adult prisoners in Zamfara

State, include: basic literacy and post- literacy education programmes while in

general term Ngwu (2016) noted that NFE

programme comprised basic literacy

education programme; post-literacy;

functional literacy; continuing education;

remedial education; vocational education;

distance education; and civic education

programmes. As noted by Abba (2016) these

programmes are advocated for the

rehabilitation of adult prisoners in Nigerian

prisons. The programmes are both relevant

and essential for their employment after

incarceration.

The term “prison” has been defined

in structural and functional dimensions. For

instance, Tanimu (2010) described a prison

as a physical structure in a geographical

location where a number of people living

under highly specialized condition adjust to

the alternatives presented to them by the

unique kind of social environment. The

above conceptualization is limited towards

an understanding that a prison is a physical

environment, and could be described

geographically or spatially. Quite different

from the physical conception, there are other

schools of thought that are based on

function, framework and label. From the

functional perspective, a prison is perceived

as a place to punish offenders, where

criminals that are removed from the society

are dumped to protect the society from

further criminal activities of the offenders:

and a place to rehabilitate, and teach

offenders to be law abiding and productive

after their release.

Despite the existence of some NFE

programmes in the prison yet, the rate of

crimes, illiteracy, unemployment and