Atwedie (Ash), Aug. 2, GNA- Adult learners participating in the National Functional Literacy Programme (NFLP) have been advised to remain focus, and not to be deterred by criticism by a section of the society who consider them too old to study.

Mr Kwame Adomako, the Asante-Akim South District Co-ordinator, who said this, expressed regret that due to the constant mockery of older learners, the programme had collapsed in some communities in the district.

He said the development was defeating the vision of the government to give people who could not acquire formal education the opportunity to become functionally literate.

Mr Adomako was addressing the Atwedie Fountain Literacy Class at the weekend, during which, the Atwedie literary class performed a drama to portray the essence of the programme.

He said the literacy programme would not only benefit the learners but it would promote education in the long run as parents who patronise it would be encouraged to send their children to school. Mr Adomako observed that the high illiteracy rate in the country partly accounted for poverty, diseases and ignorance. He, therefore, urged the learners not to be discouraged by what people said about them, but to learn hard to enable them to achieve their academic objectives.

Mr Owusu Ansah, assemblyman for Atwedie, called on Churches to inspire their members to patronise the programme.