Wa, May 06, GNA - The Non-Formal Education Division (NFED) of the Ministry of Education gave out a total of 84 million cedis as micro-credits to groups of adult learners in the Upper West Region last year.

The eight groups were given four to 10 million cedis to do tie and dye, gari and soap processing, pito brewing, animal rearing and trading as a way of encouraging more people to enrol in the literacy classes. Mr Abdullah Bin Salih, the Upper West Regional Director of the Division, told the GNA that the organization was not a propaganda tool of the government.

He said the NFED had in recent times focused on liberating the people from ignorance and poverty and that was the reason behind its attraction of foreign funding for its programmes.

After teaching the learners to read and write in their local languages, he said, workshops on income generating activities were organized for them and the viable groups or classes among them selected and assisted to start small business ventures.

A World Bank team that visited the region recently to assess their work was impressed with their performance especially with the classes that had been introduced for the physically challenged people like the blind and the deaf.

Mr Bin Salih said about 6,000 adult learners passed out in the region last year after 21 months study. Some of them have, after learning how to read and write in their local languages, enrolled in the English classes scheduled to begin this month.