Abstract:
The purpose of this study is to assess the practice and challenges of alternative basic
education in dire dawa city administration. Descriptive survey design was adopted to
carry out the study which enabled the researcher to describe the present status of the
problem under the study. The necessary data for the study was collected from 18 experts,
9 officials, 12 supervisors, 18 facilitators, 32 parents and 40 ABE students selected
through purposive, available, convenience sampling and stratified random sampling. The
instrument employed to collect data from respondents were questionnaire, interview and
focus group discussion. The quantitative data gathered from respondent was analyzed
using frequency and percentage. The qualitative data was analyzed through narration.
The findings of the study shows that the program is challenged by many constraints: lack
of communication among concerned bodies, inconvenient center facilities, unavailability
of learning materials, low attention to the program in providing supervision and support,
inadequate training for the facilitators and the schedules were not attractive to the
communities. These problems undermined the quality of education for the success of ABE
program in creating an opportunity to primary education.
Hence, the researcher recommended that, there is a need to make schools accessible to
the needy and educationally marginalized children, there should be need of fulfilling the
required educational input like; well-trained facilitators, adequate instructional materials,
center facilities, providing regular supervision and support to the centers, close
communication among concerned bodies and working towards the flexibility of time
schedule, with the collaboration of government and nongovernment organizations to
strengthen the implementation of ABE in the administration
