A STUDY OF THE PERCEPTION OF THE NOMENCLATURE, ADULT AND NON-FORMAL EDUCATION,BYTHEADULTAND NON-FORMAL EDUCATION STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BENIN

The study investigated the perception of the nomenclature ‘Adult and Non Formal Education’ by the students of Adult and Non-Formal Education, University of Benin. The survey research design was adopted for the study. The population was comprised of 100 undergraduates of Adult and Non Formal Education, 25 students from each level of the undergraduate study constituted the sample of the study. A researcher based questionnaire designed to find out how the students perceive the nomenclature of the department, validated for face and content with a reliability coefficient of 0.74 by test re-test method was used to collect information from the respondents. Research questions were used as the basis for the analysis of the results. The results of the study are in the following order; the students of Adult and Non Formal Education are not proud of the nomenclature of the department, the students of Adult and Non-Formal Education are ashamed of the nomenclature of the department, majority of the students of Adult and Non Formal Education are interested in school politics but are not confident to contest for the post of the SUG president for fear that they would lose out in the election because of the nomenclature of the department, the students of
the department substitute the nomenclature of the department with other names they prefer in order to hide the shame that the nomenclature of the department brings to them, also, the students of the department wish for a change of the nomenclature of the department. The following were recommended; the students of the department should be encouraged to identify with the department and spread the good news of adult education to the society, the students should be encouraged to contest for elective posts in the school and stop concluding that they would fail when they haven’t tried, the nomenclature of the department should be changed to a nomenclature that is more fashionable than Adult and Non-Formal Education so as to make students feel proud to tell people their course of study and stop substituting the nomenclature of their department with other names.