There are various factors that contribute to sustaining CLCs.  UNESCO, as a specialized agency in education, has provided technical support to the member states to develop appropriate mechanisms and resources for enhancing the capacity of NFE personnel.

The resource materials in the form of handbook so far developed include:

- Materials development and Clipart in cooperation with ACCU
- NFE Facilitators
- Planning and management of CLCs
- Continuing Education

These materials have been developed based on the case studies collected from different countries in the region.  A series of writers’ workshops were organized to develop the handbooks, the content of which were finalized after incorporating the feedback from field testing in selected countries.

These handbooks intend to answer questions or problems NFE personnel may be experiencing in their day-to-day work.  The handbooks are designed flexibly, so that one can start reading from any sections.  They can be used for self-learning and materials for discussions as well as training programmes.  For example, the NFE facilitator handbook covers the following 6 modules:

Module 1  Community mobilisation
Module 2  Identification of learning needs
Module 3  Development of lesson plans
Module 4  Participatory learning
Module 5  Develop learning aids
Module 6  Assessing learning

Based on the above 6 modules, APPEAL developed video programmes and an interactive CD-Rom which includes both texts and videos.

Training programmes were designed in two areas: one is on capacity building of NFE facilitators including teaching-learning and material development; and the other is on capacity building of NFE managers including CLC management and development of CE programmes.  This Chapter focuses on the training of NFE facilitators and material development.

ACCU and APPEAL organized the Regional Workshop on the Capacity Building for Trainers of CLC Facilitators in Rural Areas of the Asia-Pacific Region in Vietnam in November 2001 with participants from 20 countries.  Another regional workshop was organized in Myanmar in December 2002.  These workshops focused on the training of utilization of two handbooks; 1) Non-formal Adult Education Facilitators, 2) Adult Learning Materials Development at Community level and Literacy Clip Art.  Final reports of these workshops are available from ACCU.

ACCU, in cooperation with UNESCO, organized in February 2002 a capacity building workshop for NFE personnel from Literacy Resource Centres (LRC) to provide orientations and training using the two handbooks.

The main purpose of these regional training programmes was to orient key personnel of countries in the region about the handbook and to try out the handbooks through study, discussion as well as demonstrations.  Accordingly, the immediate outputs of the training were the trained personnel from participating countries and the lesson plans as well as materials produced during the workshop activities.  These regional training programmes have also contributed to assisting some countries in developing a basis of capacity building of NFE personnel including training curriculum and tools.

Overall implementation

In follow-up to the above regional workshops, national workshops on capacity building were organized in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Iran, Lao PDR, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Uzbekistan and Vietnam as of December 2002.  The implementation of the national workshops using the handbooks may be categorized into two: 1) Study and analysis of the handbooks and 2) Demonstration of training using the handbooks.  While the first group tried to validate the quality and relevance of the handbooks, the second group tried out the handbooks through the actual training activities to see the quality and relevance as well as the practicality and usefulness.  Most countries organized the workshop in an institution of a city, inviting participants from other part of the country.  Since the workshops were national ones, this institution based training is the common choice for the countries. 

Feedback from the national implementation

Most countries reported about the handbooks positively, while some countries reported that the handbooks are too difficult for the facilitators to understand since most of them are part time personnel with little education background and experiences.  Accordingly, simplified versions of the handbooks are currently being developed in these countries.  Furthermore, some countries of Africa requested the handbooks for their adaptation and use.

Main approaches of the workshops are: presentations, group discussions, three stations, brainstorming, New Participatory Methods (a needs assessment tool), role plays, etc.  Many countries reported that the demonstration of teaching using participatory approaches was the most successful method.  Since the video on NFE facilitators became available in early 2002, several countries used this video package for providing visual images as well as using it as discussion materials.  It was reported by a few countries that use of computer is not easy for the participants that prevented them from using Clip Art as part of the workshop activities.  Furthermore, some countries reported that due to lack of funding and infrastructure, there were following constraints: no use of video or computer for presentations, not enough photo copies or no professional artists.

Through the implementation of national training programmes at the regional and national levels, it was found that the capacity of national trainers is still weak in many countries, and so they need a certain guidance to conduct training programmes effectively.  In response to this feedback, APPEAL organized a workshop in September 2002 to orient a group of experts in NFE to serve as a resource person for regional and national capacity building workshops.  As concrete outputs of the workshop, draft training guides were developed covering the following three contents: basic training skills; training techniques; and, specific guides for NFE trainers and CLC management.  These guides will be finalized and disseminated to NFE practitioners in 2003.

Use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is also another potential to deliver resources and training effectively to the grassroots level.  Within the framework of APPEAL, Asia-Pacific Literacy Database and Literacy Clip Art have been developed in cooperation with ACCU.  The digital information can be disseminated more easily and economically through internet if one has access to the technology.  As the expansion of such technology has been rapid over the coming years, APPEAL has started to digitalize some of the resource materials such as NFE facilitators handbook in CD-ROM including texts and videos.  The APPEAL’s proposed project on ICT for NFE which commenced in 2003, will explore effective use of ICT for community empowerment through NFE and also capacity building of personnel through efficient information dissemination and collection of the feedback.

In order to reach rural and remote areas, mobile training teams can be arranged using a van equipped with ICT tools such as computers, materials, power generators and other necessary facilitators and provide the same training programmes of urban institutes to the rural remote areas.  In Thailand, such training programmes have been initiated since 2002 with support from JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) targeting formal school teachers.  This approach should be expanded to NFE personnel.

Unlike the formal school system which has specialized institutions for training and material development, capacity building of NFE has been undertaken in ad hoc basis in many countries.  Furthermore, NFE personnel at the grassroots level are usually recipients of training that are provided by the trainers from central or provincial levels. 

The ultimate goal of APPEAL’s capacity building projects is to empower NFE personnel at the grassroots to identify the training needs as well as to plan and implement district/CLC based capacity building activities using home grown resource materials based on the regional materials as references.   APPEAL also has tried to facilitate, through regional and national training programmes, resource sharing between GO and NGOs as well as formal and non-formal education systems.

In that sense, the regional prototype handbooks are not the goal but the start of the overall capacity building strategies in NFE.  The real value of the resource materials developed by APPEAL will be found through the actual use at the CLCs and NFE programmes.  The feedback from different CLCs in the region will be drawn up as inputs for revisions of the handbooks and as resource materials to be disseminated to practitioners.  It is hoped that positive feedback of these resources and process can provide EFA planners and policy makers with concrete evidences for strengthening capacity building of NFE personnel.