Abstract:
The objective of the study is to investigate the practices and challenges of integrated functional
adult education program implementation in Digeluna Tijo Woreda. The study employed mixedmethod
with convergent design. In convergent parallel mixed design, the qualitative and
quantitative databases are analyzed separately and then brought together. Data were gathered
from IFAE learners, IFAE facilitators, woreda education experts, supervisors, and technical
committees of the program. Simple random sampling techniques were used for integrated
functional adult education learners and a comprehensive sampling technique was used for
facilitators. Questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were used to gather data from
respondents. Besides, a semi-structured interview was employed to woreda education experts,
supervisors, and technical committees while the questionnaires were used for IFAE learners and
facilitators. The collected data were analyzed by using frequency, percentage, mean, and together
with the description of the interviewee’s opinion. Accordingly, the finding revealed that the
contents of the IFAE program are more focused on agricultural education and it is also related to
their daily life. Besides, appropriate materials and teaching methods were applied. On the other
hand, the IFAE program implementation was challenged by lack of a conducive learning
environment, lack of participation and integration between different stakeholders like government
organization, non-government organization, communities, coordinators, and facilitators, lack of
integration between different sectors’, overlapping of time table with learners own work,
insufficient budget allocation for the program and lack of facilitators training were the major
challenges of the IFAE program of the woreda. It was concluded that the allocation of sufficient
budget, participation, and integration of different stakeholders and sectors, giving sufficient
training for facilitators, and paying satisfactory salaries for facilitators are very important to
overcome the challenges of the program. To this end, it was recommended that there should be
strong cooperation and participation among major stakeholders such as government
organizations, public organizations, NGOs, private sectors, and communities as well as strong
integration between sectors in the IFAE program to address all challenges of the program were
suggested.