An Assessment of the Implementation of Integrated Task Focused Adult Education Program in Estie Woreda : Challenges and Opportunities

This study was conducted to assess the implementation of task integrated focused adult education program (ITFAEP) in Estie woreda: South Gondar Zone. The study also sought to assess the challenges face and opportunities for effective implementation of this program. Mixed methods design was employed for the study and both qualitative and quantitative techniques were used. The participants of the study were 6 woreda adult education professionals, 33 cluster school supervisors, 114 ITFAEP facilitators, and 48 adult learners. The sampling technique used to select these participants was comprehensive sampling technique for the first three participants (150 in number). The 48 adult learners were selected first by cluster then by lottery system sampling technique. Questionnaires were used to collect quantitative data while qualitative data were collected through interviews, focus group discussions and document analysis. All selected participants were participated in giving responses to the questionnaire except adult learners. Interviews were held with the 6 woreda adult education professionals and 8 cluster school supervisors. The adult learners were participant for the focus group discussion. The documents of 11 ITFAEP facilitators were analyzed using checklist in the form of yes/no. The responses for interviews and the focus group discussions were taperecorded and transcribed. The gathered data were analyzed quantitatively (tabulation, percentage and mean) and qualitatively by narration. The result of the study indicated that ITFAEP was not being implemented effectively. It was only in report that the program was effective, but the reality did not show the implementation of the program. Both adult learners and their facilitators had no internal interest and motivation to learn and teach well. Though the participants mentioned some fertile grounds such as the increasing of regular students in the villages of adult learners, the current high attention is given to the program by ministry of education and the supply of textbooks for adult learners, the number and degree of the challenges they mentioned were much more than the opportunities. It is found out that adults’ workload, absence of continuous follow-up and support and lack of adequate training were among the major factors hindering the implementation of the program. Therefore, based on the findings of this study, it is recommended that the board and technical committee at woreda and kebele level should provide further training for facilitators on the way how to teach adults effectively. Well organized awareness creation should be done to enhance the interest and motivation of adults and facilitators. Finally, to minimize and gradually solve the problems encountered in the effective implementation of the program, continuous and extensive orientations and training, in the form of workshops and seminars should be offered to cluster supervisors, school principals, and facilitators. Moreover, all stakeholders of the program should try their best for the realization of the program. Chapter One: Introduction 1.1 Background of the Study Ethiopia is a vast and diverse East African country with the second-highest population in Africa estimated at around 93 million in 2007 and it is growing rapidly at an average annual rate of 2.6%. The majority of people live in rural areas and their main occupation is farming. Agriculture plays a pivotal role in Ethiopia as it employs Journal of Social Science Research Vol 14 (2019) ISSN: 2321-1091 https://rajpub.com/index.php/jssr 3409 some 80% of the population, contributes 47% of the national income and accounts for approximately 90% of the country’s exports (National Review Report፡ 2015) The country in its long history has been exposed to many human-made problems. As Bahiru (2003) in 1529, a conquest of Abyssinia (Futuh al-Habash) by the Ottomanallied Somali Muslim Adal Sultanate devastated the highlands and was only deterred by a Portuguese intervention. Moreover, the first decades of the 16th century were also plagued by some of the most costly, bloody and wasteful fighting in Ethiopian history, in which the entire empire and its culture came close to being wiped out. In the 18th century the country was split apart by warlords during the Zemene Mesafint. Although Ethiopia was reunified in 1855 under Tewodros II, and began to go through a slow modernization process under the leadership of Yohannes IV, and defended itself from an Egyptian invasion, the coming of Italy twice to colonize Ethiopia was a very serious obstacle for the country to civilize more (Bahiru, 2003). In addition to this, the 1984 famine and the Ethio-Eritrean war pulled back Ethiopian development. All these barriers made Ethiopia to be still developing country. Due to the above mentioned and many other problems, the main focus of the country was safeguarding its territory from internal and external invaders. But different national strategies which were very essential for the development of the country were not given emphasis. Different infrastructures and social services were not spread well, and they were very limited in number and in quality. As a result, Ethiopia was exposed to many social, political, economic and cultural problems. It could not move forward, and it has been the primary example among the poorest country in the world. Education which is one of the very necessary social services was not given attention. It was only religious institutions particularly Ethiopian Orthodox Church and Muslim Mosques that were trying their best to educate their followers. Although modern education was started in the state almost in the early 20 century, its development was very limited Furthermore; the change of the government in the 1974 diverted the attention of the people from learning to military services. As a result that times children did not get chance to learn. Now after 30 to 40 years those children are adults who are poor in reading, writing and in numeracy. Taking all these problems into account, the Ethiopian government introduced a new Education and Training Policy in 1994 and it is being implemented through a series of Education sector development programs (ESDPs). The main thrust of ESDP is to improve quality, relevance, and equity and expand access with special emphasis on primary education in rural and underserved areas, as well as the promotion of education of girls. Minimizing adult illiteracy was also one of its core objectives. To this end the country is committed to realizing universal primary education and education for all by 2015. Even though such signs of progress have been made, the education program of Ethiopia is still under problems. As Teshome (2015), one of the possible causes of this problem in Ethiopia is the absence of sufficient budget for education in the financial plans of the Ethiopian national government. The Ethiopian government also designed national adult education strategy, and now adults mainly in the rural areas are participating in integrated task-focused adult education program (ITFAEP). As Rogers (1992) cited in Sisay (2017) despite the greater social, political and economic role, which governments in most third world countries envisage for adult education, the program is at a standstill, severely underresourced and the clarity behind the thought has been lost. As stated in the national adult education strategy of Ethiopia (2008) by a report called global EAF monitoring report conducted by UNESCO (2006), 58.5 % of Ethiopia’s population aged 15 years and above is illiterate. 1.2 Statement of the Problem Integrated task-focused Adult education program (ITFAEP) plays an important role in increasing literacy rate, in building the capacity of adults in the world of work, in promoting gender equity, the development of democracy and a culture of peace (UNESCO, 1997). Cognizant of this, the Ethiopian government has included adult and non-formal education as an integral part of the education system (MOE, 2005). In 2008, it endorsed the National Adult Education Strategy that has served as a legal base for the provision of diverse forms of adult and nonformal education. In its ESDP IV, the Government of Ethiopia indicated that Integrated Functional Adult Literacy is it's one of its Priority Areas (MOE, 2010). Journal of Social Science Research Vol 14 (2019) ISSN: 2321-1091 https://rajpub.com/index.php/jssr 3410 In Ethiopia, education is at the center of the government policy targeted at achieving middle-income country status in the next decades (ESDP IV 2009/10-2014/15). The education sector both formal and non-formal should provide capable citizens with core literacy and numeracy skills and with the middle and higher-level capacities needed by the emerging productive sectors. Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Education recognized that increasing adult literacy rates would support other development goals (MoE, 2006). A mother's education is directly or indirectly associated with infant mortality, child health, and schooling (MoE, 2006). During the 1960s, adult learning has taken to be a key component of most strategies for development. In this day’s rapid changing societies, adult education is a branch of the lifelong education endeavor through which community keeps up with changing development (MoE, 2006). Taking this policy into consideration, the new national adult and alternative basic education strategies of Ethiopia initiate for the formation of adult non-formal education with a particular emphasis on Integrated Functional Adult Literacy program. As a result, governance structure created and staffed at all levels (Katy, 2007). The focus of Integrated Functional Adult Education program (IFAEP) is to convey knowledge and skills in income generation, environment protection, cultural education, health, civic education, skills in agriculture and enable them to read and write. However, in Ethiopia high level of illiteracy in the adu

some 80% of the population, contributes 47% of the national income and accounts for approximately 90% of the country's exports (National Review Report፡ 2015) The country in its long history has been exposed to many human-made problems. As Bahiru (2003) in 1529, a conquest of Abyssinia (Futuh al-Habash) by the Ottomanallied Somali Muslim Adal Sultanate devastated the highlands and was only deterred by a Portuguese intervention. Moreover, the first decades of the 16th century were also plagued by some of the most costly, bloody and wasteful fighting in Ethiopian history, in which the entire empire and its culture came close to being wiped out. In the 18th century the country was split apart by warlords during the Zemene Mesafint. Although Ethiopia was reunified in 1855 under Tewodros II, and began to go through a slow modernization process under the leadership of Yohannes IV, and defended itself from an Egyptian invasion, the coming of Italy twice to colonize Ethiopia was a very serious obstacle for the country to civilize more (Bahiru, 2003). In addition to this, the 1984 famine and the Ethio-Eritrean war pulled back Ethiopian development. All these barriers made Ethiopia to be still developing country.
Due to the above mentioned and many other problems, the main focus of the country was safeguarding its territory from internal and external invaders. But different national strategies which were very essential for the development of the country were not given emphasis. Different infrastructures and social services were not spread well, and they were very limited in number and in quality. As a result, Ethiopia was exposed to many social, political, economic and cultural problems. It could not move forward, and it has been the primary example among the poorest country in the world. Education which is one of the very necessary social services was not given attention. It was only religious institutions particularly Ethiopian Orthodox Church and Muslim Mosques that were trying their best to educate their followers. Although modern education was started in the state almost in the early 20 th century, its development was very limited Furthermore; the change of the government in the 1974 diverted the attention of the people from learning to military services. As a result that times children did not get chance to learn. Now after 30 to 40 years those children are adults who are poor in reading, writing and in numeracy.
Taking all these problems into account, the Ethiopian government introduced a new Education and Training Policy in 1994 and it is being implemented through a series of Education sector development programs (ESDPs). The main thrust of ESDP is to improve quality, relevance, and equity and expand access with special emphasis on primary education in rural and underserved areas, as well as the promotion of education of girls. Minimizing adult illiteracy was also one of its core objectives. To this end the country is committed to realizing universal primary education and education for all by 2015. Even though such signs of progress have been made, the education program of Ethiopia is still under problems. As Teshome (2015), one of the possible causes of this problem in Ethiopia is the absence of sufficient budget for education in the financial plans of the Ethiopian national government. The Ethiopian government also designed national adult education strategy, and now adults mainly in the rural areas are participating in integrated task-focused adult education program (ITFAEP). As Rogers (1992) cited in  despite the greater social, political and economic role, which governments in most third world countries envisage for adult education, the program is at a standstill, severely underresourced and the clarity behind the thought has been lost. As stated in the national adult education strategy of Ethiopia (2008) by a report called global EAF monitoring report conducted by UNESCO (2006), 58.5 % of Ethiopia's population aged 15 years and above is illiterate.

Statement of the Problem
Integrated task-focused Adult education program (ITFAEP) plays an important role in increasing literacy rate, in building the capacity of adults in the world of work, in promoting gender equity, the development of democracy and a culture of peace (UNESCO, 1997). Cognizant of this, the Ethiopian government has included adult and non-formal education as an integral part of the education system (MOE, 2005). In 2008, it endorsed the National Adult Education Strategy that has served as a legal base for the provision of diverse forms of adult and nonformal education. In its ESDP IV, the Government of Ethiopia indicated that Integrated Functional Adult Literacy is it's one of its Priority Areas (MOE, 2010).
In Ethiopia, education is at the center of the government policy targeted at achieving middle-income country status in the next decades (ESDP IV 2009/10-2014/15). The education sector both formal and non-formal should provide capable citizens with core literacy and numeracy skills and with the middle and higher-level capacities needed by the emerging productive sectors. Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Education recognized that increasing adult literacy rates would support other development goals (MoE, 2006). A mother's education is directly or indirectly associated with infant mortality, child health, and schooling (MoE, 2006). During the 1960s, adult learning has taken to be a key component of most strategies for development. In this day's rapid changing societies, adult education is a branch of the lifelong education endeavor through which community keeps up with changing development (MoE, 2006). Taking this policy into consideration, the new national adult and alternative basic education strategies of Ethiopia initiate for the formation of adult non-formal education with a particular emphasis on Integrated Functional Adult Literacy program. As a result, governance structure created and staffed at all levels (Katy, 2007). The focus of Integrated Functional Adult Education program (IFAEP) is to convey knowledge and skills in income generation, environment protection, cultural education, health, civic education, skills in agriculture and enable them to read and write. However, in Ethiopia high level of illiteracy in the adult population is still one of the major barriers to achieving development goals by 2025. Regarding the status of adult education, the federal Ministry, However, as far as I am concerned the number of studies that were conducted in the areas of the implementation of integrated functional adult education (IFAE) was few. Merga (2011), Simret (2012), Esayas (2014) and Selamawit (2014) were researchers who conducted a study on related research issues.
The former studied the implementation of IFAE in East Shoa Zone of Oromia Region, and Simret studied the structure and management of ITFAEP in the Bole Sub-city of Addis Ababa. Selamawit's focus was only on the implementation of this program. The research gap lies in the lack of comprehensiveness (both implementation of the curriculum and the management aspect) because Merga 's study focused on the implementation of the curriculum whereas that of Simret focused on the management dimension of IFAE. Furthermore, both researchers conducted their studies in different geographical settings than the one indicated in this research study. In other words, to the knowledge of the researcher no study was conducted on the practices and challenges of ITFAEP in Estie Woreda, South Gondar Zone. Hence, the researcher believes that this study will contribute to closing the existing gap.

Objectives of the Study
The study had both general and specific objectives.

General Objective
The overall objective of this study was to examine the implementation of the Integrated Task Focused Adult Education program in Estie Woreda: South Gondar Zone and to identify the challenges and opportunities.

Specific Objectives
To achieve the above general objective, the study had the following specific objectives.
1. Examining the implementation of an integrated task-focused adult education program in Estie Woreda, South Gondar Zone.
2. Identifying major challenges that encounter the implementation of the program in the above-indicated area.
3. Identifying the opportunities to implement the program effectively in the future.

Research Questions
The study will try to seek an answer to the following research questions.
1. How is the implementation of an integrated task-focused adult education program going on in Estie woreda, South Gondar Zone?
2. What are the major challenges that encounter the implementation of the program in the above-indicated area?
3. What are the opportunities to implement the program in a better way?

Significance of the Study
An integrated task-focused adult education program is one of the priorities of the FDRE. Investigating the existing practices and the challenges faced in the implementation of this program will have the following significance: • It provides tangible evidences for Estie Woreda education experts with necessary information concerning on the real practices of the program.
• The findings of the study enable the facilitators and coordinators of the program to improve their practices.
• Finally, it may serve as a springboard for other interested researchers to conduct more extensive research in related areas.

Scope of the Study
As the main purpose of this study was to assess the implementation and problems of integrated task-focused adult education program in one woreda of South Gondar zone, the finding of this study may not be generalized to other woredas of the zone in particular and the country in general.

Limitations of the Study
This study had some limitations. First, due to time and financial constraints the research sites were limited to only one woreda, and the participants were limited in number. Moreover, this research did not address variables like sex, age, income and living place (urban/rural) of the participants in relation to their participation in the integrated task-focused adult education program.

Organization of the Study
The rest part of the paper has been organized as follows. The second chapter presented literature review. Both theoretical and empirical literatures have been reviewed in relation with the objectives of the study. The third chapter is about the research methodology. Background of the study area, the research design, population and sample population with the sampling techniques, data gathering tools, and data analysis methods of this study were issues included under the chapter. Moreover, ethical consideration has been incorporated. Data analysis and discussion were presented under chapter four. The last chapter is about conclusion and recommendation of the study. Next to chapter five, references and appendices have been attached.

Conceptual Framework
Studying ITFAEP has a lot of impact on different aspects of a country. The following figure shows the different relation between ITFAEP and its overall impact.

Research Site
This study was conducted in Estie Woreda. The woreda is one among the 11 woredas in South Gondar Zone. It is 114 kms far from Bahir Dar and is found in the Eastern direction from Bahir Dar. When this study was conducted, the woreda had 44 kebeles (41 rural and 3 urban) and 114 elementary and junior schools that facilitate the adult education for their round community. These schools were clustered into 33 school clusters coordinated with 33 cluster school supervisors. There were 114 (male 60 and female 54) ITFAEP facilitators (one for each school). The total population of the woreda at the time was 211,901 (from which 28819 (13.6%) were city dwellers and the remaining 86.4 % were rural dwellers). Among the above-mentioned number of people, a total of 18607 (8554 in level one and 10053 in level two) people, which was 8.78% the total population were registered to learn in 114 ITFAEP centers.
Estie Woereda was chosen to be the research site for this study, for it was the working place of the researcher while he was conducting this study.

Design of the Study
It has been mentioned in chapter one that the purpose of this study is to examine the implementation, challenges, and opportunities of ITFAEP in Estie Woreda, South Gondar Zone. To achieve this objective, a mixedmethod design involving both quantitative and qualitative methods was used to assess the implementation of the program and to identify the challenges and opportunities. The mixed methods research builds on both the quantitative and qualitative approaches and uses them both in a single study (Johnson, 2003).
Both qualitative and quantitative techniques have strengths and weaknesses and when used together, these techniques can be complimentary and allow for a more complete analysis of the research situation. This means the data collection process in the mixed methods approach involves gathering both numerical information as well as text information so that the final database represents both quantitative and qualitative information

Participants of the Study
The participants of this research were woreda adult education professionals, cluster school supervisors, ITFAEP facilitators, and adult learners.

Selection Procedure/ Sampling technique
The population of this study was woreda adult education professionals (6 in number), cluster school supervisors (33), ITFAEP facilitators (114) and adult learners (18607). Because the number is manageable, all the 6 woreda adult education professionals, 33 cluster school supervisors and 114 ITFAEP facilitators (total 153 people) were chosen to be the direct participant of this study, and the sampling technique used to select them was comprehensive sampling. Moreover, 48 adult learners were selected using the first cluster then lottery system sampling method.

Data Collection Instruments
To gather the necessary data for the study, questionnaires, Focus Group discussions (FGDs), document analyses and interviews were used.

Questionnaires
In this study, questionnaires were prepared to collect the quantitative data from woreda adult education professionals, cluster supervisors, and ITFAEP facilitators.

Contents of the Questionnaires
The questionnaire had both closed-ended and open-ended parts. The closed-ended part had two parts. In the first part, the participants were asked to give their personal backgrounds such as sex, age, work experience, and  48 11 qualification. Though these items were not variable of this study, they have been included in the questionnaire. The second part of the closed-ended questionnaire was the main part. It was designed for five purposes: 1) to assess the perception these facilitators towards ITFAEP, 2) to assess the level of performance of some ITFAEP related activities by woreda, kebele and facilitators, 3) to identify what challenges ITFAEP face in its implementation 4) to assess future opportunities to implement ITFAEP, 5) to know the teaching methodology that Facilitators use effectively. For these questions, respondents were asked to express their degree of agreement on a 5-points Likert scale (always, usually, sometimes, rarely and never, or strongly disagree, disagree, difficult to decide, agree and strongly agree). Some items of the closed-ended questionnaire were worded positively while others were stated negatively. They were randomly distributed to minimize the possibility of guessing response and to crosscheck it. The questionnaire also had three open-ended questions. Respondents were asked to list down the strength and weak side of ITFAEP, additional challenges they faced and the opportunities they had to properly implement ITFAEP in the future.

How the questionnaires were developed
Some of the questionnaires (see below) were adapted from Selamawit (2014) and Esayas (2014). The researcher, based on the literature reviewed, developed some additional items.

Focus Group Discussions (FGDs)
FGDs were used as another important data gathering tool in this study for, they naturally help to elicit information about situations accomplished socially. ITFAEP is implemented with others and it needs social interaction. Therefore, these ways of data collecting instruments were suitable to collect significant data from ITFAEP adult learners. The major intention of FGD in this study was to triangulate the result obtained through other instruments. The participants for focus group discussion were adult learners, there were six FGD groups having 8 members each, and six questions were prepared for them.

Interviews
An interview was used as the instrument of data collection. Interview enables the researchers to get enough details when it is used in association with other instruments e.g. questionnaires. ((Nunan: 1992) as cited in Zewdu (2012)). In collecting the major qualitative information from the subjects, the semi-structured interview was prepared. The semi-structured type was preferred for the sake of making the questions flexible and giving the interviewees more control over the course of the interview. All the six woreda adult education professionals and eight cluster school supervisors were selected for the interview. Five and eight interview questions respectively were designed.

Document Analysis
Document analysis was another instrument used in this study. The researcher has used this instrument because it was very important to collect data from primary sources of evidences. To crystallize the data obtained by other instruments, the researcher has analyzed the document of the ITFAEP facilitators (attendance, plan, continuous assessment, report). From the 114 ITFAEP facilitators who participated in this study, the documents of eleven ITFAEP facilitators (10%) have been selected for document analysis. These teachers were selected using both stratified and lottery system sampling. First, the ITFAEP facilitators in each school were grouped into the cluster strata. Then the lottery was driven to select the desired number of ITFAEP facilitators. To analyze the documents a structured checklist designed in the form of yes or no was prepared. In the checklist, care has been made to incorporate all the issues that are expected to be documented in the document.

Pilot Testing of the Instruments
The purpose of piloting was to check the appropriateness of the instruments to get insights for making appropriate preparation and procedure for the main study. Accordingly, a pilot was conducted to check the adequacy, significance, and clarity of items in the instruments used and if there is a need for additional items. This pilot test for the questionnaires was conducted in Andabet woreda. This woreda was selected purposely because this woreda was near for the study area, so that there would not be a place effect on the pilot testing. One important point to know here is that the instruments were seen and commented by the researcher's colleagues and the advisor before they were used for the pilot study. The participants of the pilot study were 5 ITFAEP facilitators, 2 woreda adult education professionals, and 2 cluster supervisors. Moreover, the other data gathering instruments were also evaluated by the researcher's colleagues, advisor and language teachers.

Insights Gained from the Advisor, Colleagues and Pilot Study
The results obtained from the pilot study and the comments given from advisor and colleagues helped the researcher to make changes in the instruments for the main study. Among the changes: • There were questionnaires for principals but they been replaced by interviews.
• There were 20 items under the questionnaires under direction one but they have been reduced into 16 because 2 items were not relevant to the study and the other 2 items had a similar idea with others.
• Another basic modification was on the Likert scale of the closed-ended questionnaires. Firstly, it was prepared on 3 Likert scale but it has been changed into five based on the serious comment given by the advisor.
• In addition to the above changes, grammar and vocabulary corrections have been made.

Validity and Reliability of the Instruments
After the instruments are designed in the way indicated above, different tasks have been conducted to check the validity and reliability of them. Thus, in this research, the advisor ascertained the face and content validity of the data collection instruments. The main reason of doing this was to add, edit or eliminate irrelevant items from the initial items and ensure that there is adequate coverage of the topic being studied. In addition, two teachers with MEd in TEFL also validated the instruments. These teachers reviewed the items with respect to readability, clarity, format, and ease of items. The piloting of the questionnaire also rendered the instrument as well as the data collected, reliable and valid.

Validity and Reliability of interview and focus group discussion
Here it was, to some extent, difficult to check the validity and reliability of the interview and focus group discussion for there is no a black and white cut off point about the validity and reliability of such instruments. However, it does not mean that it is impossible to test the validity and reliability of such instruments; so these instruments were first given to colleague EFL teachers to ensure that content of the questions concentrate on the research objectives. These teachers were also oriented to see the clarity and grammar of the instruments. They gave good comments especially on grammatical structure of the questions. Next to this, these instruments were given to the advisor for further modification.

Validity and Reliability of the questionnaires and document analysis
To see reliability of these instruments, all the activities done above for interview and focus group discussion have been repeated. Moreover, Cronbach Alpha and Kuder-Richardson formula (KR20) calculations have been conducted to check the reliability of the questionnaires and the document analysis checklist respectively. This was done based on the data collected through piloting and the result was 0.86 for the questionnaires and 0.84 for the checklist. ያለው (2011:221) የአስተማማኝት መጠን ተቀባይነት እንዲኖረው የጥናቱ ዓላማና የመላሾቹ የእድሜ ሁኔታ ይወስነዋል ካለ በኋላ ተመራማሪው የሚያጠናው ባህሪ ተጠኝዎች ስለአንድ ጉዳይ ያላቸውን አመለካከት ፣ዝንባሌ.፣ፍላጎት ፣የተግባራትን አፈጻጸም ወዘተ የመሳሰሉትን ስብእና (personality) ነክ ከሆነ የሚየገኘው የአስተማማኝነት መጠን እስከ 0.65 ቢያንስ ተቀባይነት ሊኖረው ይችላል" ይላል፡፡ This is slightly translated in to English as follows. The objective of a research and the age of the participants is a determinant factor to take the reliability of an instrument as reliable. If the issue of the study is about the perception or interest of the participants towards something: the implementation of a program, the reliability coefficient may be accepted if it is 0.65 and above. Since the purpose of this study was to assess the implementation of ITFAEP with its challenges and opportunities, the researcher has taken the instruments as very reliable.

Data Collecting Procedure
To collect the necessary data for this study, the researcher followed sequential procedures. According to Maree (2007) as cited in Bisrat (2011), in sequential procedures the researcher collects both the quantitative and qualitative data in phases (sequentially). As the data used for this study was not a type where participants provide it in a classroom at a certain season, the researcher had to adjust a suitable time for the data collection (Zewdu: 2012). Thus, the second semester of the 2010 E.C./2018 G.C. was the time in which the researcher selected to collect the data of this study. Therefore, once the instruments were revised based on the insights gained from the pilot study, data was collected step-by-step as follows. The first task performed by the researcher was communicating with the woreda adult education professionals, the cluster supervisors and the ITFAEP facilitators sequentially and telling the objectives of this study.
After getting their full permission, the researcher started the main work. First document analysis was made. This was done purposely because the researcher thought that if this instrument stays late the facilitators would make some modification (adding and dispatching of papers) on their document. Therefore, to get the original data from it, document analysis came first. The document was analyzed using the designed checklist. The second instrument that was used to collect data was questionnaire and it was done a week after the document analysis was made. Initially an orientation was given to all participants about how they give response for both closedended and open-ended questionnaires. Then a copy of the questionnaire was distributed to each of the participants. Two days later, the questionnaires were collected. All of the distributed questionnaires were returned completely expect three. Thirdly, FGDs were conducted with the selected participants and finally an interview was held. A teacher (Med in TEAM) was a facilitator who gathered the data from the interview through tape-recorder. The researcher selected this teacher to add the reliability of the data. If it was the researcher, he might make bias unconsciously.

The Qualitative Data Analysis
The qualitative information for this study will be collected from the interview, the focus group discussion and from the open-ended part of the questionnaire. These data will be systematically changed in to numerical codes and analyzed using percentage and narration. Data, which have interrelation, will be mixed thematically.

The Quantitative Data Analysis
The quantitative data, which will be gathered through questionnaire and document analysis will be analyzed and interpreted quantitatively. Responses for positively worded and negatively worded questionnaires will be coded differently. Then items, which have similar ideas and similar responses, will be condensed together. Next, these data will be tabulated and analyzed using descriptive statistics: mean and percentage. At last, both the qualitative and the quantitative data will be mixed, interpreted and discussed in relation to the main objectives of the study. This process will be finalized by drawing a conclusion and forwarding recommendation based on the finding of the study.

Ethical Consideration
Because education is a social action, data gathering and analysis within this study inevitably impacted on the lives of other people involved in the study. Considering this enlightenment, it will be only proper that this study abided by ethical considerations to ensure that individual rights will not be infringed upon and to promote fairness in the interpretation of data.
Principles such as obtaining informed consent; respecting the right to privacy and participation, anonymity, confidentiality; avoiding harm to participants; and other principles as highlighted by Cohen et al. (2000), will be adhered to during the data collection, data analysis, and interpretation process.

Introduction
It has been mentioned in chapter one that the purpose of this study is to examine the implementation, challenges and opportunities of ITFAEP in Estie Woreda, South Gondar Zone. The study followed mixed methods design in which both qualitative and quantitative data were collected from the participants.
In this chapter, the data collected through different instruments from the participants of the study were analyzed and discussed. The data gathered through questionnaires and document analysis was analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. On the other hand, the qualitative data collected by interview and discussion were analyzed more of qualitatively.
Based on the finding of these data, discussions were made at the end. In the following sections results, findings and discussions are presented within the framework of the basic research questions stated in chapter one.

Findings of the Document Analyses
The document analyzed in the study was the different documents of ITFAEP facilitators. A checklist in the form of yes/no having 10 items was prepared for the analysis (please see appendix A). The items have been grouped into two groups to analyze the documents in relation to 1) availability and 2) quality of the documents.

Analyzing the availability of the facilitators' documents
To check whether the facilitators had the documents or not, the researcher analyzed the eleven facilitators' document in term of seven items. Table 2 presents the findings of both the number and percentage of the documents for each item. Is there any certificate which shows the promotion of adults to the next level? --11 100 ND= number of documents The analysis of the above table indicated that all the facilitators (100%) did not have detail and practicable annual and daily lesson plan. The analysis also showed while only 3 facilitators (27.3%) had organized continuous assessment, almost three fourth of the facilitators (72.3) had no continuous assessment at all. However most of the facilitators had documents which showed as they were good at report interaction and using attendance sheet. The very bad finding of the document analysis was that all of the facilitators (100%) did not have books to be distributed for adults and any certificate which is given to adult learners to approve the promotion to the next level.

Analyzing the qualities of the facilitators documents
To see how much the documents were enriched by the necessary information, the researcher used three items. The finding of this analysis was shown in table 3 below. As the researcher could get information from education statistics data, ITFAEP must be given for three days a week and two hours per day. But as item 10 of the above table revealed, there was no any document which showed as the teaching and all other activities were implemented per their right time.

Analyses and Findings of Data Collected from close-ended Questionnaires
In this section, the findings of the data gathered through close-ended questionnaires are presented. The total number of participants who participated in the questionnaires was 153 (114 facilitators, 33 cluster education supervisors and 6 woreda adult education professionals). However, three respondents (all of them were facilitators) did not turn the questionnaires. Therefore, the analysis has been done using the response of 150 participants. The questionnaires had both closed and open-ended parts. The closed-ended questionnaires had four parts: from direction one -direction four for cluster school supervisors and woreda adult education professionals. The facilitators had one additional part: part five. In direction one the respondents were asked to give their agreement for the given 16 items. Direction two and three were about the importance of ITFAEP and the challenges respectively. The fourth part was about participants' perception towards ITFAEP. Teaching methodology was the fifth part which was included in the facilitators' questionnaires. During the data analysis, items which have similar ideas have been grouped thematically.

Participants' agreement on the implementation of different tasks related to adult education
Under this part of the questionnaires, there were 16 items (See direction one of appendix E, F and G). However, these items have been grouped into three to make the analysis more specific and clearer.

Analyzing of tasks done at woreda level
To check whether different tasks which are related to adult education are well done or not at woreda level, the participants were asked five questions. The Likert scale for these items was five ranging from very high =5 to very low =1. On the other hand, for item 2, it was only 6.7% of participants reported as the progress of the woreda to run the program was very high. On the other hand, as more than quarter of the respondents (28.7%) said the degree of the progress was high. Nevertheless, great number of participants (34%) and 20.7% agreed as the progress of the woreda was low and very low respectively. 10% of the participants rated the progress neither high nor low; they were neutral.
In item 3, respondents were asked to rate the number of training given to facilitators. Nearly all participants rated this item as the training was low and very low. While 26% of the respondents rated as low, 67.3% of them rated it very low. 2.7% of the participants were neutral and only 4% of participants rated as high number of training was given to facilitators.
As a result, from item 4 shows, 17.3% and 31.3% of the respondents agreed as the supply of text and supplementary books for the program was very high and high respectively. On the other hand, significant number of the respondents (40%) rated as there was low supply of books, and for other 10.7% respondents the supply of these materials was very low.
Item 5 was about experience sharing, and there was very low and low experience sharing as it was rated by 88% and 7.3% respectively. Very a smaller number of the respondents (only 4.7%) said that there was high experience sharing.
Generally, as the analysis of these of items revealed, the progress of the woreda to begin ITFAEP was good, but for the other activities the response was low or very low. This finding was highly supported by the grand mean (2.26) which is below the expected mean.

Analyzing of tasks done at kebele level
In order to assess how much kebele stakeholders give attention to start and run ITFAEP, participants were provided 6 items that represent these activities. Table 5 presents the respondents ratings the extent to which the tasks are done at kebele level. Grand mean 2.04

N=number of respondents
As it is seen from the data of item 6 in table 5, when 19 (12.7%) participants agreed as there was very high attention given at the kebele level to begin the program, very small number of them the attention as it was high. For a significant number of participants (16.7%), the item has been difficult to rate as high or low, they kept neutral. On the other hand, majority of the respondents (87 in number and 58 in percent) rated the kebele attention as it was low, and for the rest 7 participants, the kebele gave very low attention to begin the program.
The finding of the above item was supported by the response given to item 7 of this table. None of the 150 participants rated the kebele's progress to run the program high or very high. For majority of the respondents (94%), there was low progress, and for other 4.7%, it was very low, other 2 participants were neutral. The amount of tasks done to aware the community about the significance of ITFAEP was question of item 8. Possible to say almost all of the respondents rated the item as there was low and very low community awareness about the program. While 79.3% of them rated it as low, 14.7 % of the participants rated very low, and the remaining 6 % were neutral.
One of the most important item of the questionnaire was item 9 of this table. It was about the participation of kebele health extension and agricultural professionals in teaching adults which is more facilitated education sector. Surprisingly, while only 9 participants (6%) put their response as the participation was high, for most of the respondents (34.7% and 59.3%) the participation of kebele health extension and agricultural professionals was both low and very low respectively. Similar to item 9, the participants were also asked about the participation of teachers, directors and supervisors on the program on item 10. As the data showed, the participation of these stakeholders was somewhat better than the participation of kebele health extension and agricultural professionals.
There was very high and high participation according to the response of 2 and 7 respondents respectively. Indeed, as the data revealed, 59.3% of the respondents rated the participation of teachers, directors and supervisors as it was low and other significant number of participants (32%) rated it as very low. The last item, item 11, of this table was about the supply of chalk and blackboard for adult learning. While 10% of the participants were neutral to rate the supply, nearly one-third of the respondents (30%) agreed as there was high chalk and blackboard supply. On the other hand, the supply was low as more than half of the participants (54%) rated, and it was very low for the rest 6% participants. Hence, the results of the analysis of the response of the participants in the above-mentioned activities indicated that stakeholders at kebele level did not involve actively. This finding was also supported by the grand mean (2.04) which is less than the expected mean (3).

Analyzing of adult learners' participation
In order to see the extent of adult learners' participation to facilitate the program, 5 questionnaires were presented to the respondents. The following table presents the magnitude of the participation of adult learners. Grand mean 2.12

N=number of respondents
As item 12 of table 6, while the response from very less number (4%) of the participants indicated as adults had high to build and enhance their learning center, very great number of respondents agreed as the initiation was low. There was very low initiation the response from 6% of the participants showed.
Punctuality of the adults to start their learning on time was the issue of item 13, and one-six of the respondents (16.7%) rated as adults' punctuality was high. But significant number of the respondents (62.7%) agreed as the Punctuality of the adults. While 8% of the respondents said it was very low, the rest 12.7% of the participants stayed neutral to rate the Punctuality of the adults.
As item 14 of table 6, almost all of the participants (98%) agreed that the motivation of the adults to come to learning center fulfilling stationeries was low. Moreover, the rest 2% of the respondents also agreed as the motivation was very low.
Item 15 and item 16 were about the motivation of male and female adults to learn respectively. Comparatively, the motivation of male adults was better than females' motivation. As 14.7% and 31.3% of the respondents responded, the motivation of adults was very high and high respectively. Indeed, more than half of the participants rated this motivation as it was low. But as can be seen from the table, females' motivation was rated as low and very low by 18% and 82% of the respondents respectively.
To generalize, adults were not doing their best for the enhancement of the learning. Only male adults had better motivation to learn. This finding was strongly supported by the grand mean of the table 2.12 which was less than the expected grand mean (3)

Participants' agreement on the possible impacts of the lesson against the objective of adult education program
In this part of the closed ended questionnaires, the participants were asked to put their agreement or disagreement on the lessons given to adult against the major objectives of the program. There were eight items (See direction two of appendix E, F and G), but to make the findings of the data clear and meaningful, these items were analyzed by grouping them into two: the impact on individual learners and the impact on the community.

Impact of the lesson on the life of individual learners
The participants were asked five questionnaires to rate the degree of the impact of the lesson on the life of individual learners. Table 7 shows the response of the participants for this questionnaire.  As item 1 of table 7 shows, all of the respondents (100%) believed that the program had positive impact in improving adults' skill to read, write and perform common mathematical operation. It was rated as high and very high by 8% and 92% of the respondents respectively In item 2, although 24.7% of the participants supported as the impact of the program on farming was low, threefourth of the participants (45.3% and 30%) rated as it had high and very high impact respectively.
The impact of the program in improving the saving culture of the adults was the question for item 3. More than half of the respondents (57.3%) gave their response as it had high impact. However, for 30% and 11.3% of the participants, the program had low and very low impacts respectively. Very less number of the respondents were neutral for this item.
In item 4 the respondents were asked to rate the impact of the program in improving the hygiene and sanitation of adults. The number of respondents who agreed as the impact was low and very low was four times greater than those who said it had high impact. For 11.3%, 69.3% and 16.7% of the respondents the impact was very low, low and high respectively. The last item of this table was about the impact of the program to start one's private business. While it was supported by only 6.7% of the respondents as it had high impact, very great number of the respondents (85.3%) agreed as its impact was low, and the impact was very low for the rest 8% of the participants. To summarize the analysis of this table, the response of the respondents showed that the program had very high positive impact in helping adults to read, write and perform common mathematical operation and their saving culture. But for the other issues such as, keeping hygiene and sanitation and starting private business, the program had no that much impact. The grand mean (3.21) which was closed to the expected mean (3) also supported the analysis.

Impact of the lesson on the community
The participants were asked 3 items about the impact the program at community level. Table 8 presents both the number and percentage of respondents on this impact. Grand mean 2.26 N=number of respondents-As can be seen from item 6 of table 8, the program had high impact in developing the democratic culture of adults as rated by nearly one-fifth (28%) of the respondents. But the significant number participants (56% and 22.7%) supported as it had low and very impact respectively. 2.7% of the respondents did not say anything, they were neutral.
When we come to item 7, those respondents who supported as the program had low and very low impact were by far greater than those who agreed as it had high impact. For 11.3% of 69.3% and 16.7% of the respondents, the impact of the program in keeping the hygiene of the environment was very low, low and high respectively.
In item 8 the respondents were asked about their belief on the impact of the program to strengthen adults' awareness about gender and harmful traditional activities. While it had high impact for 23.3% of the respondents, the impact was low and very low for 67.3% and 9.3% of the respondents respectively.
Generally, as the response showed the participants' belief about the impact of the program at community level was low, and this was supported by the obtained grand mean (2.26) which is less than the expected mean 3.

Challenges that affect the implementation of ITFAEP
The participants were asked 12 questionnaires concerning on possible challenges which negatively affect the implementation of ITFAEP (See direction three of appendix E, F and G). To make the analysis understandable, the analysis has been done by grouping the 12 items in to three parts: as challenges related with (1) adult learners, (2) Facilitators and Learning Centers and (3) other challenges. The response ranges from strongly agree (5) to strongly disagree (1).

Challenges Related with Adult Learners
Three items which state about adult related challenges were presented to the participants. The following table showed the agreement of the respondents for each challenges. Grand mean 3.80 The response for item 1 of table 9 showed that low awareness of adults to ITFAEP was a serious challenge as it has been supported by 57.3% and 38.7% of the respondents as strongly agree and agree respectively. Only 4% of the participants disagreed on the item. Shortage of time was another possible challenge presented to respondents to be rated. A significant number of participants supported as it was great challenge. While 34.7% of them strongly agreed, 43.3% of the respondents agreed on this challenge. 4% and 14.7% of the respondents disagreed and strongly disagreed on this challenge, and the rest 3.3% remained neutral.
In item 3 respondents were asked to give their agreement on whether shortage of economy was challenge. Almost half of the respondents (52%) agreed as it was a challenge, whereas 32% of them disagreed. Significant numbers of respondents (12.7%) were neutral to put their agreement. The remaining 3.3% of the participants put their strong disagreement for this challenge.
All in all, as the analysis revealed low awareness and shortage of time were strong challenges, but economy was not that much serious challenge. The grand mean (3.80) supported as these three issues listed in table 9 were challenges which negatively affect the implementation of ITFAEP.

Challenges Related with Facilitators and Learning Centers
Four items which state about challenges related with facilitators and learning centers were presented to the participants. The following table showed the agreement of the respondents for each challenges. As shown in item 4 of table 10 above, distance of the learning center for the adults was not a challenge because 93.3% of the respondent disagreed on the item. It was for only 6% of the participants that distance was a challenge. Item 5 was about how much the poorness of the centers in furniture was a challenge. All of the respondents supported this challenge by expressing their strong agreement (58.7% of the respondents) and agreement (41.3%). In item 6 the respondents were asked about the lesson and its relation with the needs of the adults. The item was "The lesson which is given to adults is not assessing their need". While 40% of the respondents strongly agreed on the challenge, 32% also agreed as it was a challenge.
For one-fourth of the respondents, the challenge was not a serious challenge because they disagreed to the item. The last item, item 7, was about facilitators' competence to teach adults. For majority of the respondents, facilitators' competence was a great challenge. 20% and 65.3% of them strongly agreed and agreed to the item. Indeed, facilitators' competence was not a significant point to be considered as a challenge for 14% of the respondents. The conclusion for this table would be the challenges related with adults themselves and their facilitators were important factors which negatively affect the implementation of ITFAEP. The obtained grand mean (3.62) which was greater than the expected mean (3) highly supported the analysis of the table.

Other Challenges
Five items having different challenges other than those mentioned in table 9 and table 10 above were also designed for the participants. Table 11 below shows the summary of the respondents' response. As can be seen from item 8 of table 11 above, for more than 95% of the respondents, budget was a critical challenge in the implementation of ITFAEP. While 57.3% of them agreed on the challenge, other 38% of the respondents strongly agreed to the item. Only 4.7% of the participants disagreed budget as challenge. In item 9 the respondents were asked to rate their agreement on absence of enough follow up and support from concerned bodies. Exactly similar to budget, majority of them (57.3% and38%) agreed and strongly agreed respectively on this issue as challenge. For the rest 4.7% of the respondents the issue was not challenge, so they disagreed. Shortage of text books for adults was the issue for the 10 th item. None of the participants disagreed or strongly disagreed on this issue. While one-third of the respondents agreed on the issue as a challenge, the remaining 69.3% of them strongly agreed to the item. The obtained mean (4.69) also strengthened the correctness of the finding. In item 11, the respondents were asked the absence of well-organized exam which enables adults to promote to the next level. As the response showed this was really one of the determinant challenges of the program because 90.7% off the respondents strongly agreed on the issue. The remaining 9.3% of them also agreed to the issue. The last item was about chalk and blackboard. Indeed, this was not a matter for the respondents as 62.7 % of them strongly disagreed, and 27.3% respondents disagreed. Only 10% of them agreed as chalk and blackboard were also challenging. To summarize the analysis of the table, all the listed items were serious challenges except chalk and blackboard. The obtained mean (3.94) which was by far greater than the expected mean (3) also showed as the challenges were critical.

Perception of participants about importance ITFAEP.
In direction four of the questionnaires, the participants were asked about their perception towards the facilitators and the importance of implementing ITFAEP. They were given 9 items to rate their degree of agreement from strongly agree to strongly disagree (please see direction four of appendix E, F and G). For the analysis, these items were grouped into two.

Perception of the participants about the Importance of ITFAEP.
To analysis the perception of participants towards the importance of ITFAEP, the participants were asked to rate the following five items. Table 12 presents their responses. To see whether the respondents gave reliable data, item 2 and 4 were stated negatively. In general, the mean score of the positively stated items was 3.96 and it was 3.18 for the negatively stated items. This implies that the perception of the participants about ITFAEP was more of positive.

Perception of the participants about facilitator related issues
To get additional data about the perception of participants facilitators, they were asked 4 questions about facilitator related issues. Table 13 presents their response.

N=number of respondents
As can be seen from the response for item 6 of table 13, majority of the respondents believed that the facilitators did not join to this profession with their interest. This is because 15.3% and 64.7% of the respondents strongly disagreed and disagreed respectively on the issue stated in item 1. While 5.3% of them were neutral, the rest 14.6% (11.3% who agreed and 3.3% who strongly agreed) of the participants were positive about facilitators' interest to be facilitator.
The question presented to facilitators in item 7 was about the skill and knowledge of facilitators to teach adults. 100% participants did not believe that the facilitators had enough skill and knowledge. While 63.3% of them strongly disagreed on the issue of this item, the rest 36.7% respondents disagreed on the item.
For item 8, more than 85% of the respondents thought that the facilitators will leave their job if they get another job with the same payment. 71.3% of them strongly agreed, other 15.3% agreed on this idea. Indeed, 10% of the participants did not agree on this issue, and very less number of participants (3.3%) did not agree or disagree, they were neutral.
For the last item, item 9, much of the respondents thought that the reason for facilitator to be facilitator was because they had no any other option. While 70.7% of them strongly agreed with this point, 16% respondents also agreed. 18 participants (12%) disagreed with this idea.
To generalize, the analysis, the interest of facilitators to join to the job and to stay there was not good. The mean of each item and the grand mean of the whole items also supported the findings.

Analysis of the responses about the teaching methodology
Because these questionnaires were about teaching methodology that facilitators used to teach adults, this part of the questionnaires was designed only to the ITFAEP facilitators. The facilitators were 114 but, as indicated somewhere above, three of them did not turn the questionnaires, so the analysis has been done on 111 data as follows. As can be seen from table 14, lecture, Question and answer and debate were teaching methodologies the facilitators used more frequently than other methods. Lecture was used always by 85.58% of the respondents, whereas question and answer were used always and often by 29.72 % and 45.94% respondents respectively.
However, very important teaching methodologies which were suitable for adult learners (from the andragogy perspective) were not used by the facilitators. While 52.25% of the respondents used role play sometimes, 47.74% respondents never used this method. This finding was also almost true for group discussion, field observation, demonstration and brainstorming. For example, field observation was never used by 89.18% of the respondents.
Generally, the finding of this table revealed that the teaching methodologies that were frequently used to teach adults were those methods which are convenient to teach children but not adults. As Knowles, 1980, better methods to teach children were giving orientation/brainstorming, motivating adults to learn by themselves, and experience sharing.

Analyses and Findings of Data Collected through open-ended Questionnaires
In addition to the closed ended questionnaires, the participants were asked three open ended questions (please see the last direction of appendix E, F and G). For the sake of analysis the participants were coded as F1 -F111 for facilitators, S1 -S33 for cluster schools supervisors and P1 -P6 for woreda adult education professionals.
The first open ended question was to mention the strong sides and weak sides of ITFAEP. All the participants put what they felt about the program as strength and weakness.
When we see what they mentioned about the program's strength in their woreda, one woreda adult education professionals, (P3) stated: "one of the great strength of ITFAEP in our woreda is the presence of a permanent facilitator throughout the year in each school. Some 10 to 15 years ago there was no such facilitator. The program was given only for four months (from February to May) in a year by a contract facilitator. But now our woreda has assigned a facilitator to each school which coordinates the program." Two participants from supervisors (S8 and S31) had also almost similar response in theme though they expressed in different words. In addition to the above-mentioned response, there was another point which was stated by many participants as strength of the program in the woreda: the program is open throughout the year (F23, F55, F98, F101, S5, S22, S31, P2 and P5). Moreover, the strong report relation, the supply of text books for adults, the salary for the facilitators, the increasing number of adult learners, teaching adults in level one and level two, the awareness of the community about the program were some of the strong points listed by the respondents.
The respondents were also asked to mention some of the weakness of the program. As a facilitator (F15) put the program was not effective as it was reported. Furthermore, as F52, F64, F77, S3 and S9 stated the quality of the program particularly in remote area was under question mark. As 19.8% of the facilitator respondents, the salary paid to facilitator was very less, and due to this, facilitators were not doing their best to make the program effective. In addition to the above listed weaknesses, considering the program as a seasonal task, absence of strong supervision and inspection, the less participation of women, not teaching adults well, the absence of good awareness by the community were weaknesses of the program.
Secondly, the respondents were asked to mention the challenges they faced during the program implementation. They were asked to list challenges other than those listed in direction three of the closed ended questionnaire but what they mentioned was similar to the already mentioned. The challenges they repeatedly mentioned were the awareness the community and all stakeholder had was very low and even those responsible bodies such as woreda coordinators, principals, and cluster supervisors had no better understanding than facilitators. The less amount of salary paid to facilitators, the absence of well-organized and strong training and experience sharing, increasing the number of adult learners simply for the sake of reports and absence of checking the reports with the reality, absence of well-designed learning center, and weak interest from adults to learn were mentioned by most of the participants (27 facilitators, 14 supervisors and 3 professionals) as challenges of the program.
The third open-ended question was about available future opportunities for implementing the program effectively and efficiently. While 24 of the participants (16% (S3, S7, S11, S15, S16, S17, S23, F1, F8, F13, F20, F21, F51, F55, F61, F62, F63, F81, F88, F91, F102, F103, F110, and F111)) concluded as there was no any opportunities, the some other respondents indicated some fertile grounds to run ITFAEP. As P3 and P6 stated the focus given to the program was increasing, and different manuals were sent to each facilitators. These would create chance to improve the performance of the program. In addition to this, as it was stated by five cluster supervisors, (S2, S8, S15, S19 and S24) chance was given to facilitators to upgrade their academic status in summer program. This has been seen as good future opportunity.

Findings Obtained through Focus Group Discussions (FGDs)
To get supplementary evidences about the implementation of the program, six focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted with adult learners. F1 -F6 was the code for each group.
Though the number of items presented for FGDs were six, the results obtained from two of these items have been mixed together. Therefore, the results of these discussions have been organized in terms of five main themes: 1) the number of days they learn, 2) the different advantages of ITFAEP, 3) evaluation of the implementation of this program 4) the challenges/problems they face and 5) opportunities to the program more effective than the current trend.
As the participants of the FGD explained they did not exactly know the time to start and to finish learning in the program in a year. For members of F3, the times to start and to finish were February and May respectively. As it was indicated by woreda adult education professionals on the responses of open-ended questionnaire, these months were put as weakness of the program 10 to 15 years ago. But the response from the FGD members revealed that the program was being given between these months. The FGD participants were also not sure for their response for the question "How many days in a week and how many hours in a day they learn." Most of the participants agreed as the days were holy days including Sunday. As members of two FGDs, F4 and F6, they did not learn even on Saturday because it was weekly market day. AS they discussed, common learning day were on 12 th, 19 th , 21 st and 29 th of the month and Sunday. Similar to the number of days in a week, number of hours per day was not exactly known. Most of the participants said one hour per a day.
The second FGD question was about the different advantages that ITFAEP gives to adult learners. With their discussion they could mention many advantages. But for all participants what come to their mind first was enabling them to read and write in their first language. In addition to this, the program had advantage for them to use mobile, calculator and to know code numbers of cars. But other objectives of the program such as developing the democratic culture, improving their saving culture, standing against harmful traditional practice and so on were not touched well. This implies the tasks done to aware the community about the significance of the program for their overall life was not effective enough.
The third discussion question was on evaluating both the strong and weak sides they saw during the implementation of the program. What they frequently said was that the program was more effective during Derg regime than this day. As they indicated there was obligation for people to learn in Derg (members of F2 and F3). So, the program was serious and effective at that time. Two strong points all FGDS listed were the opening of the learning center near to their village and the employment opportunities that program gave for 10 th completed students. The participants strongly argued about the competence of facilitators and the overall attention given to the program by different stack holders.
The other discussion question was about the different challenges/problems on the implementation of the program. What they mentioned as challenges were serious attention was given to let the program open, but after that everybody forgets it, there was no any follow up, supervision and support from woreda professionals.
The last discussion question was about opportunities that enable the program to be effectively implemented.
Although the points were not available opportunities, members suggested the following points as a solution to make the program effective. The point they stressed was that it should be obligation for individuals to attend the program if she/he is uneducated one. They also stated that any person who sign with his/her finger should be punished. Moreover, the task must not be seasonal; hot issue at a certain and forgotten at another time.
They also stated as there should be serious evaluation on facilitators. If they do not fit the position, they should be fired.

Analyses and Findings of Interviews
In this section, the analyses and findings of the data gained from interviews the six Woreda adult education professional and eight cluster supervisors were presented. The participants were coded as WP1 -WP6 and CS1 -CS8.

Analyses and Findings of Interviews of adult education professional
There were five interview questions presented for adult education professional (see appendix B). But the theme of item 4 was incorporated by the other items. Therefore, the analyses and findings of this interview were presented in terms of four themes.
In first interview question, the participants were asked to evaluate the implementation of the program. They were also asked to evaluate whether all stakeholders gave attention for the program. Almost all of the six participants thought that the program was effectively implemented. For instance, one of the participants (WP2) stated: The implementation ITFAEP in our woreda is very effective. There are facilitators in each school, and they are teaching large number of adults. Moreover, the program is being given grouping the adults into level one and level two. All concerned bodies are serious for the implementation of the program. In addition to the facilitators, the program is given by heath extension workers and agriculture workers. As a result of this, the number of adult learners is increasing from year to year. The presence of recording the adult learners' data in the education statistics is point which show as attention was given to the program, Another participant, WP5 also put somewhat similar response like WP2 mentioned above. She stated her response as follows.
I surely believe that the program is effective in our woreda. Although adult education was started during Derg, it was done forcefully. But now awareness has been created on the essentiality of adult education. So a large number of adult students are taking the education. This can be assured by the number of students reported by the facilitators.
When the above responses are critically analyzed, the base they rely on to surely say the program is effectively implemented was the great number of adult learners obtained from the reports reported by the facilitators. But as it has been indicated on the analysis of open-ended questionnaires, one of weakness of the program was as the number was only for the sake of report. It was not true in reality.
In the second interview question the respondents were asked about the competence and performance of ITFAEP facilitators. While only one interviewee (WP6) was not confident about the competence and performance of ITFAEP facilitators, the other interviewees believed that the facilitators were competent and performed their mission effectively. The response of WP1 can be seen as example as follows.
There are 114 facilitators (male 60 and female 54) in our woreda and all of them are at least 10th completed. Moreover, they are taking many in service training on how to teach adults. So, their competence and their performance are high.
On the other hand, one interviewee (WP6) has put the following idea as he had no confidence on the competence and performance of ITFAEP facilitators.
Although all of our facilitators are grade 10 th and above in their education level, some of them are very younger than the adults they teach. Because of this, the facilitators may not be confident enough in their teaching. Furthermore, there are also some facilitators who are married and have family, so they may not be effective in their teaching performance.
The responses gained from the FGDs, document analysis and the questionnaires assured that facilitators had did not have sufficient competence and their performance was also not as good as expected.
The third interview question was to mention and discuss challenges/obstacles that negatively affect the implementation of ITFAEP. The respondents listed the low awareness of adults (particularly females) about the program, absence of well-furnished learning center, the turnover of facilitators, giving the tasks only for facilitators, running the program only on few months of the year low competence of facilitators and teaching all adults with different capacity together as challenges for the implementation of the program. The finding was strengthened by the findings of challenges from open ended questionnaires and FGDs questions.
The last interview question was about available future opportunities for the effectiveness of the program. All the interviewees tried to list possible opportunities. For example, WP4 mentioned the opportunities as follows.
To run the program in a better way there are opportunities. Facilitators are sent to attend summer programs to upgrade their level. This will minimize the turnover of facilitators in addition to this; learning materials are distributed for adults. The program is getting high attention by ministry of education, so there can be high budget for the program. Through time the awareness of the community for the program is becoming good. All these are opportunities for the future.
The other five interviewees also mentioned some additional opportunities. Increasing of facilitators' salary, presences of many regular students, and the attention which was given to the program by other sectors other than education sector, were opportunities listed by the respondents. These opportunities were in parallel with the response obtained from other data gathering instruments.

Analyses and Findings of Interviews of cluster supervisors.
There were eight interview questions presented for adult education professional (see appendix C). To make the analysis easy and clear, the eight items have been merged into five. Therefore, the analyses and findings of this interview were presented in terms of five themes.
The first interview question was about what the participants as a cluster supervisor were doing for the effectiveness of the program. As S5, he was giving support and training for the facilitators. S8 also listed the following activities as he did to run the program in a better way.
There are four ITFAEP facilitators in my cluster, and I have my own plan make the program effective in my cluster. We have monthly discussion day, and best experience is shared on this discussion. As a member of kebele ITFAEP board and technical committee, I adjust opportunities to aware the community about the program. I also visit each adult learning center, and I give my comments and suggestion.
The strength and weakness of the program explain the interviewees did not differ from what has been obtained through data gathering tools. In contrast with the response of woreda adult education professionals the supervisors told as the real performance of the program was not effective and efficient. Most of the participants were also afraid about the competence of the facilitators. Being very young and having their families have been indicated as points which affect the competence and performance of the facilitators.
The starting and finishing time of the program in a year and the duration of the time in a week and in a month was the other question forwarded for the interviewee supervisors. Exactly similar with the response of the participants of the FGDs, the exact starting and finishing time like regular education was not clearly known. Though the curriculum says the program must be given for two hours a day and three days a week, the reality is not done as per the principles (S2 and S6).
As the respondents stated the kebele ITFAEP board and technical committee is not functional more than its establishment. Most of the members including the kebele administrator are busy of doing other tasks. The challenges and opportunities mentioned by these respondents were almost similar to responses gained from questionnaires and FGDs.

The implementation of ITFAEP
The main objective of this study was to assess the implementation of ITFAEP. To get relevant data, participants were asked to rate different items with 5 likert scale. Additional data were gathered through interview and focus group discussion. As the results from table 8, 9, 10 and 11 revealed, the implementation of ITFAEP was very limited. Though there were differences on the response among different participants, many of them concluded as the implementation was not effective on the ground. Very important activities, which really improve the program, such as conducting action research, sharing experience from others, giving and accepting comments and feedbacks, attending seminars and workshops, reflecting what is learnt, identifying the different needs of the adults and putting every important document in portfolio were not well-done activities.

Factors that challenge the implementation of program
To identify the challenging factors, data were gathered from the participants through focus group discussion, interview and open-ended questionnaires. In addition, the respondents were asked to rate 12 items with 5 likert scale ranging from 5 (strongly agree) to 1 (strongly disagree). After analyzing the response with percent and mean, the researcher identified the following challenging factors. These are shortage of training, lack of trained facilitator, lack of support from concerned bodies (4.7), lack of incentives (4.62), not giving attention for the program. The result also displayed that lack of stationary and lack of interest and commitment were challenges of the program. These findings were also supported by the results gathered from interview and focus group discussion. The participants reported that one basic factor not to implement the program was the high turnover of facilitators. Researches done before also indicated that work load, lack of training, and lack of awareness were factors contributing to ineffectiveness of the program (Esayas: 2014).

Available opportunities for the future
The researcher of this study has also tried to assess if there are opportunities that enable the program to be done practically. In each instruments the participants were asked to mention if there are fertile grounds.
Therefore, the participants indicated that the increasing of giving chance for facilitators to upgrade their education, the presence of text books for adults and the attention given to the program were some opportunities that will help to effectively run program.

Introduction
This study aimed to assess the implementation of ITFAE program and to identify challenges and opportunities by employing mixed methods design and collecting data using interviews, focus group discussions, questionnaires, and document analysis. It came up with a number of insights presented, interpreted and discussed in Chapter four. This last chapter summarizes the major findings that emerged from the analysis of the qualitative and quantitative data collected for the study. Finally, based on the findings, it draws conclusions and recommendations.

Summary
The objective of this study was to assess implementation of ITFAE program and to identify the challenges and opportunities. To achieve this objective the following research questions were formulated.
4. How is the implementation of integrated task-focused adult education program going on in Estie woreda, South Gondar Zone?
5. What are the major challenges that encounter the implementation of the program in the above indicated area?
6. What are the opportunities to implement the program in a better way?
In order to collect relevant data for the study, a mixed methods design that constituted both qualitative and quantitative techniques were employed the qualitative instruments consisted of interviews with woreda adult education professionals and cluster school supervisor, focus group discussions of adult learners and document analysis (the document of facilitators). The quantitative data were collected using questionnaires from the above mentioned participants excluding adult learners.
Before the data for the main study was collected, the instruments were pilot tested. Based on the lessons gained from the pilot study, some amendments were made to these instruments (See Section 3.4.2. of Chapter 3).
In the data collection for the main study, the questionnaire data was collected from 153 participants (from these 3 were not turned). While interviews were conducted with woreda adult education professionals and cluster school supervisor, six FGDs were made with 48 adult learners. In the document analyses the document of 11 facilitators were analyzed. In analyzing the data, both quantitative and qualitative analyses were made.
The data collected through questionnaires and analysis of documents were analyzed quantitatively (frequencies, percentage, mean and grand mean value). Whereas, the qualitative information gathered through interviews and FGDs were analyzed qualitatively. Following this, the findings of the analyses were discussed in terms of the research questions. The major findings are summarized as follows: • The implementation of ITFAEP in the research area was not effectively implemented because most of the facilitators simply report the number which was not found practically.
• The facilitators' document had both strong and weak sides. As the data of the document analysis checklist showed, some of the documents had incorporated profiles that show the progress of the facilitators in relation to implementing the program. But most of them lack profile that show plan, feedback and comment from their immediate supervisors and woreda adult education professionals.
• The kebele ITFAEP board and technical committee, and cluster supervisor did not play their role for the effective implementation of the program.
• There were challenges related to the adult learners, learning centers, facilitators and at woreda level. Among the major factors, shortage of time, lack of awareness, lack of support from concerned bodies, lack of incentives, little attention for the program, workload and lack of time were challenges of the program.
• Though they are not enough, there are opportunities to implement the program interestingly. These opportunities include the high attention given to the program, facilitators' learning and the increasing of the community awareness, the increasing number of regular students in each family.

Conclusions
Based on the major findings of the study, the following conclusions were drawn.
• Though woreda adult education professionals, school cluster supervisor and ITFAEP facilitators of the research site had positive perception towards the implementation of ITFAE program in the woreda, the perception of the community was low. Due to this, the the implementation of the program was very limited.
• Although the implementation of the program in the woreda seemed good, it was only at report level. But it was not in reality particularly in the remote areas of the research site.
• The program has encountered many problems/ challenges to implement it effectively and efficiently. The top listed challenges were absence of training, lack of trained and competent facilitators, lack of continuous follow up and feedback, lack of attention and awareness about the program.
• The different stakeholders who were responsible for the implementation of the program (facilitators, school principals and cluster supervisor and professionals from other sectors other r than teaching) have not invested their maximum effort for the realization of the program in their kebele.
• Situations like the availability of many regular students. The high attention given to the program by ministry of education, motivating facilitators to upgrade their education and the supply of text books for adults have been mentioned as opportunities to implement the program better in the future.

Recommendations
Based on the findings of the study, the researcher has forwarded the following recommendations for concerned bodies. As there is no doubt that training is significant to equip any professional with the necessary knowledge, skill and attitude, training should be given due emphasis to make facilitators effectively implement ITFAEP. Since the program had many challenges, both facilitators and adult learners may face problems when they involve in it. Hence, woreda adult education professionals, kebele administrators, school directors, cluster supervisors and other concerned bodies should make continuous follow up and monitoring activities and provide support to facilitators.
On the other hand, facilitators are core for adult learners' performance in their learning. Thus, they should have interest and commitment to update their professional knowledge by giving participating in many activities. They have to work together, observe each other, provide feedback each other, talk together about their practice, share experience each other etc. These processes must be conducted regularly.
The role of school principal and kebele administrators is crucial for the effectiveness of ITFAEP. So, they should: • Create opportunities for trainee and trainers to share experience with colleagues of their schools. Encourage facilitators to design different activities and to catch well organized documents, and provide feedback to each other so as to develop their evaluation and reflexive power.
• Monitor and evaluate the status of ITFAEP implementation (strength and weakness) and find immediate solution to solve the problems if any. They should frequently supervise the implementation of the program and provide constructive feedback.
As the participants of this study reported, lack of a trained facilitator was a great challenge for the program. Thus, capacity building training about how to plan teach, implement, evaluate and document preparation should be given to facilitators to make them confident in their activities. To achieve the goals of adult education program, woreda education office and other concerned bodies need to device strategies of planned and sustainable monitoring evaluation, feedback provision and support (in budget and material) and implement them with great emphasis.
Moreover, as it was indicated in the limitation part of the study, there were issues that this research did not address like sex, age, income and living place (urban/rural). Therefore, the researcher recommends that it will be possible to know details about the practical implementation of ITFAEP if future researchers conduct on the issue in detail.
Finally, all concerned bodies should pay due attention in solving and taking remedial actions to solve the problem and challenges which are faced during the implementation of adult education program in Estie woreda in particular and in Ethiopia in general.