Adult Learners Week: A Week for Culture - the Celebration of Learning

Hungarian adult educational umbrella organisations and other institutions started thinking about a learning festival in Hungary in the mid-1990's. The first proposal was made by the Hungarian Folk High School Society, and the event was planned for 1995. In order to gain some operative and theoretical know-how, study trips were organised to Slovenia, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, supported by the Institute for International Cooperation of the German Adult Education Association.

The series of events called "A Week for Culture - the Celebration of Learning" became the starting point for a nation-wide festival in Hungary in 2002. The organisers, namely the Hungarian Folk High School Society, the Society for the Dissemination of Scientific Knowledge, the Hungarian Institution of Culture, the Hungarian Pedagogical Society, the National Association of General Cultural Centres and the Budapest Project Bureau of the German Folk High School Association joined their efforts and managed to include "street marketing", folk festivals, professional conferences and discussions. The most important message of these programmes was that learning and participation in the process of acquiring knowledge in the era of knowledge-based societies was a basic human right. Equal opportunities and the importance of learning were promoted by the organisers in different events and venues all across the country. An effort was also made to combine programmes aimed at general audiences with those of professional forums.

Since 2002 we have had annual festivals with the same message, but on a much wider scale and with more and more participants. Just to get a flavour of our specialities have a look to this little film:
http://www.microdesign.hu/Adult_Leraners_Week_Spot.mpg or visit the picture gallery on the official website: http://www.nepfoiskola.hu/muvhete/menu/4/4.htm

Panorama on Adult Learners Week
The purpose of the book, written by Zsófia Fesztbaum and published by the Hungarian Folk High School Society in 2003, is to provide an overview of the Hungarian Adult Learners Week’s events’ theoretical and practical history. We hope that it can serve as a summarised source for those who want to join in the future, for local co-ordinators and everyone that seeks a basis or collects ideas for individual local projects. The book presents the international declarations that brought about the event as well as the results of the realisation thereof. The international examples are focusing on the Central European region and the UK, since the initiative originally started from there.

Contact:

Zsófia Fesztbaum
Hungarian Folk High School Society
1088 Budapest, Puskin u. 12. HUNGARY

Tel: +36 1 411 14 59
Fax: +36 1 411 14 60

zsofi@nepfoiskola.hu
www.nepfoiskola.hu

Adult Learners Week (in Hungarian)
www.nepfoiskola.hu/muvhete