Betty Agujiobi

Betty Agujiobi is combating widespread adult illiteracy by introducing a needs-based approach that is effective and flexible, and that allows learners to acquire practical skills at their own pace.

Betty is reducing illiteracy in Nigeria by adopting an approach to literacy education that is built upon the interests and goals of individual adult learners. Her model allows for different learning needs and different abilities, while simultaneously offering learners the opportunity to develop income-earning job skills. The flexibility of her initiative permits learners to choose their learning interest, pace, and language–either their local language or English. Betty integrates vocational training into literacy education in such a way that vocational training materials become the primary learning tools for literacy classes. For example, if the class is learning to make soap, soap-making is used as the subject for reading, writing and arithmetic. Furthermore, Betty's program is the first adult literacy initiative in Nigeria to take into consideration the health needs of adult learners through a provision for free eye care. Because over half of Nigerian adults have vision problems–which slow or prevent reading–this is a critical area of need.

Betty's initiative is based in Enugu, a state capital in eastern Nigeria. Here, illiteracy levels are estimated to be 53 percent, 13 percentage points above the national average. The previous programs that have been introduced to teach adults how to read, write, and perform basic math have failed on several counts: they are inflexible in their offerings, they take literacy training completely out of the context of students' daily lives (so that reading hardly seems a useful skill), and they are designed for masses of people rather than intimate groups of learners that can offer emotional and educational support to one another. While large numbers of Nigerians express initial interest in literacy education and do come to their first few classes, attendance in traditional literacy classes quickly declines.

As a first step, Betty set up a pilot to test her flexible needs-based adult learning approach. To secure a place for the center, she appealed to the local Catholic Church, which donated suitable space free of charge. Betty then recruited her first set of fifty learners and started implementing her unique approach. Each learner chooses from a number of vocational subjects available in the school–cosmetics, shoe and soap making, tailoring, baking, etc. If the choice of the learner is not immediately available, Betty tries to find an instructor who can teach it, and if she is successful, the subject is added to the curriculum. Using the student-selected vocational subjects, the instructors teach reading, writing, and arithmetic. Importantly, to help the learners understand democracy and more fully participate in this system of government, which is new to Nigeria, Betty teaches civics. Betty recognizes that without good health, learning is slowed, if not halted. She is particularly concerned about eye health because in Nigeria, cases of glaucoma are very common. Her center, therefore, offers free eye testing and corrective glasses at reduced rates. Local volunteer doctors check the eyesight of all new students and regularly attend to the needs of students who have vision problems.The center is sustained through minimal fees charged to learners; students purchase their own learning materials. Building upon the success of her pilot literacy center, Betty has recently established a second center where another fifty adult students are receiving literacy education and vocational training. Betty plans to further expand her initiative in two ways. First, she will set up similar centers across the country in the same way she set up the first two, and second, she will lobby the new democratic government to adopt her approach in government-funded centers. She has so far written funding proposals to four local government municipalities and is awaiting their responses. To encourage local governments to adopt and fund her approach, Betty regularly speaks at government meetings, introducing her plan and delineating its advantages to policymakers.

The second of eight children, Betty's interest in teaching and learning was kindled in 1964 when a young cousin, having been forced into an early marriage, died in childbirth. Determined not to suffer the same fate, Betty pursued education as an escape. She then saw that becoming a teacher would allow her to help stop some of the harmful traditional practices that prevented people, especially women, from achieving their full potential. In this way, she got a taste of the power she could wield to improve the lives of fellow Nigerians.After college, she worked for five years as a classroom teacher, then was appointed to the State Education Commission in Enugu State. She subsequently taught at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where she earned a doctorate. Later, she worked with community-based organizations to teach women basic literacy skills. In 1995, she was made an Inspector of Education at the Ministry of Education, where she focused on literacy. Seeing that her vision would be most completely realized through a separate organization, Betty left her job in 1999 to launch her innovative adult learning centers.