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2002 ***
No nation-wide or central
Learning Festival was carried out in Germany in 2002. A numer of local
or regional learning festivals took place, organized without central coordination
in different municipalities and at different points of time. Some of these
festivals were set up in the framework of "learning regions."
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Background...
The first Learning Festival
("Lernfest") in Germany took place in May 1998, as a joint initiative between
the Federal Ministry of Education and the ministries at regional ("Länder")
and local level. The full range of adult education providers - including
museums, churches, commercial chambers, trade unions and adult education
centers - in a great number of communities all over the country joined
the initiative in organizing events under the overall heading of "Shaping-
Unfolding - Educating". Though implemented at regional and local level,
the learning festival was centrally coordinated by the Adolf-Grimme-Institut,
a well-known center specialized on analytical assessment, conceptual development
and training in the area of media, education & culture.
As a result of this successful experience, centrally coordinated learning festivals took place in the following two years, one in May 1999, and another one in September 2000 (including an events parallel to the launch of International Adult Learners' Week), culminating with the active involvement of around 200 communities during the festival. Taking up anew the umbreall theme of "Shaping- Unfolding - Educating", the presentation of different providers and the portrayal of innovative projects meant to spread the information on the possibilities of adult education, to stimulate increased cooperation between education providers and cultural institutions, and to attract new learners which have not yet found access to organized learning activities while showing that learning can be fun. One major purpose of the learning festival has been the promotion of a concept of lifelong learning which explicitly includes but also surpasses the boundaries of job-oriented further training.
In 2001, a number of isolated learning festivals activities on a local basis were organized, concentrating on different themes and without a central coordination, among them the communities of Krefeld, Bonn, and Ludwigshafen, or Marl which focused one afternoon event (8. September) on the theme of Language - Communication - Understanding Each Other while Bamberg celebrated the Joy through Learning - a Whole Life Long (23. September). However, convinced about the need for coordination and continuity at federal level in order to sustain the initiative, it is foreseen to establish a regular pattern of centrally coordinated learning festivals every two years around the 8th of September, starting in September 2002. Both the federal ministry as well as the länder will be called upon to commit and involve themselves in the preparation for 2002.
Contact:
Heinz Meyer
Adolf-Grimme-Institut
Gesellschaft für Medien, Bildung und Kultur mbH
Eduard-Weitsch-Weg 25
45768 Marl
tel +49-2365-9189-44
fax +49-2365-91-8989
meyer@grimme-institut.de