News - International Adult Learners Week

The thematic forum on adult learning, hosted by the TV journalists Michaelle Jean of Radio Canada and Dennis Trudeau of CBC Television, on the occasion of Canada's commemoration of International Adult Learning Week 2002 brought together some 120 people and a group of experts, NGO representatives and learners. A life video version of the Forum can now be seen in English, or French, or English AND French! On the Website at www.adultlearning.unesco.ca.

On the basis of data provided by twenty-two coordinators of learning festivals from Europe, the final synthesis report on The Role and Impact of Adult Learners Weeks and Lifelong Learning Festivals in Europe - An Assessment of European Learning Festivals as Tools for the Democratization of Lifelong Learning is now available! (Word Document)

To celebrate InternationalAdult Learners Week 2002, UIE joined forces with the organizers of the Third Literacy Week in Brazil, Alfabetização Solidária (Solidarity in Literacy), and with the UNESCO Office in Brasilia, and invited members of the International Adult Learners Week network from all world regions in São Paulo during the week of 9 – 13 September. Do not hesitate to look at more information and some impressions of this meeting, or the list of participating colleagues!

South-Eastern Europe is showing how tightening links and networking can be truly generating the most beautiful results. An excellent brochure has been produced and edited by the Institute for International Cooperation of the German Adult Education Association (IIZ-DVV), featuring reports and pictures of the past learning festivals in Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Romania and Slovenia under the title "Learning is for Everyone." Colleagues from those countries present the stories of how they got started and how they involved their communities into the festivals. They also share the challenges they had to meet, and the enthusiasm to continue what have been successful experiences for them. The brochure has been put together by our colleague and coordinator of the Bulgarian Lifelong Learning Days, Maria Todorova. Congratulations for this really wonderful publication! (For those interested in receiving a free-of-charge copy of this publication: contact the IIZ-DVV office in Bonn: iiz-dvv@iiz-dvv.de, tel: +49-228-975690.)

For 2003, the South-Eastern European network is even planning a common sub-regional learning festival in October, including more countries and also delegations from Hungary, Greece, Moldavia and Turkey. The central event will probably take place in Skopje, Macedonia. We will keep you posted on this initiative!

Ten Years On! With a fantastic display of the large coalition of partners, sponsors and supporters, the United Kingdom celebrated its 10th anniversary of Adult Learners Week - and indeed the invention of learning festivals and the beginning of a global movement. But much more than this, people for whom learning has made all of a difference in their lives got together and shared their experiences, their pain and their joy. Have a closer look...

30 April 2002
Cyprus joined the International Adult Learners Week movement and celebrated its first learning festival in April! Exhibitions, dance and theatre performances, open days in learning centers and the presentation of awards to learners and tutors in community adult education centers all over the country took place. Find out more...

15 April 2002
Canada is embarking to connect with the International Adult Learners Week movement! The Council of Ministers of Education declared in a recent press release that the country will mark International Adult Learners Week on 8 - 14 September this year. In parallel to this nationwide concerted activity, the province of Québec is heading for a first provincial learning festival in October.

15 February 2002
Adult Learners Weeks in Europe -
A First Regional Encounter of Coordinators from 21 Countries

The meeting under the overall heading Democratizing Lifelong Learning: Tools and Strategieswas part of a project funded by the SOCRATES programme of the European Commission and took place at the end of last year on 3-5 December 2001 in the Belgian capital, Brussels. It brought together some 120 participants from all over Europe, including implementers of (other) SOCRATES projects, representatives of ministries and various networks, and members of UNESCO National Commissions. The meeting aimed at exploring and improving the instruments for democratizing lifelong learning, with an explicit focus on assessing and further developing adult learners weeks and learning festivals (ALWs/LFs) in Europe.

26 October 2001
The strategy to improve the communication and information sharing channels and to enlarge the International Adult Learners Week network has generated first results: contacts have been established with the cordinators from Iceland, Lithuania, Romania, and Yugoslavia as those countries have, indeed, been organizing learning festivals for the last one or two years! Please find the new short portrays of their activities in the Festivals around the World section.

News - 2002