"A Week for Culture - the Celebration of Learning"
The Hungarian Adult Learners Week 2003 will be celebrated on September 26 - October 3.
The week aims at introducing the concepts of "Lifelong Learning" and
"Learning Society" not only to the providers and supporters of education, but also
for the larger public in Hungary. The upcoming membership of Hungary in the European
Union will also be one of the main themes of the Week. As the name of the
learning festival - A Week for Culture - suggests, cultural events
will play a significant role in the ALW 2003 in Hungary.
Background…
Hungarian adult educational umbrella organisations and other institutions
started thinking about a learning festival in Hungary in the mid-90's. The first proposal was made by the
Hungarian Folk High School Society, and the event was planned to take place in
1995. In order to gain some operative and theoretical know-how study
trips were organised to Slovenia, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The
excursions were supported by the Institute for International Cooperation of the German
Adult Education Association (IIZ/DVV).
Thanks to the
Hungarian Folk High School Society's persistent efforts to
obtain support, the first events named "National
Perspective for the Future, education in Hungary - Learning Society" and "The Week of Culture
in Hungary - regional conference" were organised in 1997.
The next
step took place in the spring of 2001, when the German Folk High School Association took it upon to
coordinate the project, and to publish the programme guide, which had all the local
events professionally relevant to the participating organisations
such as the Hungarian Pedagogical Association, the Hungarian Folk High School
Society, a few
higher education institutions, etc.
The series of events called "A
Week for Culture - the Celebration of Learning" became the starting point
for 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 joint 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 is 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. More
than 14 000 people got involved in activities organised by 33 institutions. Convinced by the success of the festival, the directors of the
programme decided that ALW will be organised every year from now on, always
starting from the last Friday of September.
Contact:
