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8. Adult Education
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| "Despite
notable efforts by countries around the globe… the following
realities persist: More than one third of the world's adults
have no access to the printed knowledge, new skills, and technologies
that could improve the quality of their lives and help them
shape, and adapt to, social and cultural change." (preamble
to Declaration) "The basic learning needs of youth and adults
are diverse and should be met through a variety of delivery
systems. Literacy programmes are indispensable because literacy
is a necessary skill in itself and the foundation of other life
skills… Other needs can be served by skills training, apprenticeships,
and formal and non-formal education programmes in health, nutrition,
population, agricultural techniques, the environment, science,
technology, family life, including fertility awareness and other
societal issues." (Declaration : 6) The Jomtien Conference expressed
concern about the state and role of education both for children
and adults. The concept of basic education was to be applied
to all. The problem for this report is whether provision for
adult education has expanded in line with its inclusion in basic
education. In the Declaration literacy is singled out and mentioned
as a fundamental skill which many lack, and the goal of its
eradication has been repeated many times. More generally, adult
education is considered necessary for the world of work, civic
responsibility, adapting to modern conditions, addressing social
issues, and shaping change. Indicators and targets are not specified,
probably due to the difficulty of devising such benchmarks for
areas of the curriculum that relate to personal and professional
growth and development, developing social and work related skills
and attitudes. Examining what has happened is further complicated
by the fact that adult education in its various forms can be
located in ministries and sectors other than education. A lot
of adult education provision is administered and developed by
departments of social development. The cross curricular nature
of the majority of this type of provision makes its inclusion
in a number of alternative curriculum and administrative departments
common. Many agencies mentioned the general difficulty of separating
the training component of initiatives developed outside of the
field of education, e.g. in agriculture, health, population,
implying an underreporting of adult education. "Just about every
project funded by the Bank includes a training component that
may add one to three percent to the total budget of the loan.
Adding together these training expenditures, the total ends
up as slightly higher than the total expenditures of the Bank
on projects that directly finance education and training." (IDB
1999:5) The little information that is available can be summarised
in Table 8.1. |
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| Table
8.1 Agencies Stated Involvement in Adult Education/Literacy |
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Australia
: adult and community education largely disbursed through
NGO's
Austria:
adult education
Canada
: youth and adults, especially literacy
Denmark:
literacy
Germany
: literacy focus and health
Ireland:
formal and non-formal adult education and literacy
Japan
: literacy for all age groups
Luxembourg
:functional literacy for adults
Netherlands
: non- formal adult education
New Zealand
: non-formal literacy
Norway
: basic adult education including literacy
Sweden*:
literacy and other non formal education
Switzerland
: adult education including literacy
United
Kingdom : literacy especially for females, adult and youth
work skills
United
States : adult education but not at expense of prioritising
primary education
ADB: adult
literacy
CDB***:
Formal and non-formal adult education
EU : literacy
and informal sector education
World
Bank : adult education, referred to as post-basic education
UNESCO
: literacy
UNICEF**:
for young adults (under 18)
UNDP:
basic education for youth and adults
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*
Sweden point to the lack of priority for adult education amongst
governments therefore leading to potentially less focus by
the agency as they try to follow government priorities **
UNICEF stresses that it makes no distinction between formal
and non-formal within basic education. *** CDB note that regionally
adult education provision is ad hoc, often with inappropriate
methodologies and low status.
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It is
impossible to verify stated agency activity in this area from
the data received. Four of the above agencies supplied data
that was broken down by sub-sector, and of these only the
following could be interrogated in this respect (see appendix
5).
Over
the decade Swedish support to adult education totalled $29.75
million, representing 0.1% of their total basic education
disbursements. It is interesting to note that expenditure
in 1992 was only slightly less than the expenditure in 1997,
but in 1998 this figure halved.
For
the Netherlands expenditure on adult education increased
from 1992-4 to $3.99 million and subsequently dropped slightly
to $3.84 million in 1998
Of the
other agencies that provided sub-sector breakdowns it is possible
that adult education expenditure is in non-formal or other
categories. Exploring current portfolios or lists of country
projects reveals more details of interventions in this area.
However, there is insufficient detail to examine funding trends
over the decade for the agency community.
Very few
of the agencies have any specific policies (or even definitions)
of adult education. However reading through agency policies
and responses it was clear that there are different emphases
and foci within agencies.
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| Table
8.2 Agency Focus Within Adult Basic Education |
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| Workforce
and vocational skills Australia*, Germany, IDB, Sweden |
| Citizenship
and civic education Germany, IDB, Ireland, Sweden, UNICEF |
| Literacy
and numeracy CDB, Denmark, EU, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg,
Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, UNICEF, USA, World Bank |
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| *projects
are often concerned with the acquisition of literacy and numeracy
but conducted within a vocational or life skills course |
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The IDB
focus is on adult education for the workforce. This is a response
to the specific conditions in the region. They state that
after a decade of economic reform the (perceived) needs of
the workforce have not been addressed, neither have the disparities
in social and economic opportunities that undermine development
in the region. Particular problems relating to adult education
are: the low standard of learning; the lack of citizenship
and civic education; education as a factor reinforcing rather
than reducing inequality, young workers entering the workforce
unprepared.
For Sweden
"adult basic education is a tool which can contribute to the
eradication of poverty and to the promotion of equality between
the sexes. It also contributes to building a strong democratic
society and sustainable development for all people." (Vähämäki
1998: 2)
Their
review of adult provision in South Africa lists the foreign
funding agency support in this field from USAID, EU, SIDA,
DVV11, SDC. This can take the form of support to the department
of labour. Examples of projects that are funded are adult
education centres, study circles; exchanges between folk schools
in both countries; a range of courses for reaching the poor;
democracy and human rights courses; courses on children's
rights; vocational training and curriculum development.
Switzerland,
in focusing on literacy, state that the majority of illiterate
people are women and that the gender gap is widening. Increasing
access for females has largely been interpreted as increasing
access for girls in formal primary education. The high hopes
held for early literacy campaigns have not materialised. They
seem to succeed when attached to liberation movements, or
when provided to those with an immediate interest in learning
to read, i.e. training is provided with economic activities.
They note the sad lack of serious studies in adult education
and the lack of data.
SDC detail
their literacy work in West Africa, the changes it has gone
through resulting in a new focus on quality. They state that
literacy campaigns should address wider needs than just basic
acquisition of skills, for example, they should have concrete
application in the specific economic and social setting.
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| 8.1
Relevant Issues in Adult Education |
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In developed
Northern economies there is a clear and growing role for adult
education with provision being developed to respond to market
needs and address concerns for economic competitiveness. This
increased attention is not reflected in agency interventions
(numerically or in content).12
The Amman
mid-decade meeting identified shortfalls in the coverage of
adult education. It recommended more attention to NFE and
literacy for youth and adults. It also raised the issue of
what learning achievements are. This was discussed and it
was agreed that more research is necessary in this area. It
was acknowledged that measuring culture specific inputs such
as those for life skills is difficult. Also, that non-learning
is implied in drop out and repetition rates though this is
not documented. They saw a need for research identifying what
is being taught and learnt.
There
was a general feeling that the focus on formal primary education
had placed adult education somewhat in the shadows. The core
of adult education was identified as literacy and numeracy,
a reduction in scope that should be reconsidered. Adult education
was also considered necessary for work and home skills, with
the point being made that literacy and numeracy are more successful
if dealt with in an applied way with income generating activities
attached. A growing need to address the alienated and unemployed
was also identified.
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| 8.2
Some Conclusions |
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| In attempting
to analyse to what extent Jomtien has impacted on agency provision
in adult education we face two major problems. Despite being
highlighted as an area of neglect, there are no targets associated
with adult education outside of literacy so there is little
incentive for agencies to document and account for interventions
in this area specifically. It is very difficult to account for
this provision as it is located across a variety of sectors,
in situations which do not facilitate easy identification and
measurement of the adult education component. It terms of policy
statements adult education seems to have diminished in importance.
However, it is not possible to confirm this with reference to
statistical data as in general agency data and accounting systems
cannot give a comprehensive picture of interventions in this
field. |
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| Training
has also largely been ignored as a factor in individual and
country economic productivity. The current focus on skills development
and workforce productivity in the North driving adult education
has not been transferred to the development agenda, but it is
unclear as to why. |
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| 8.3
Outstanding Issues |
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| 8.3.1
Issues |
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It seems
that as there are no general targets for adult education it
has not been accorded the same priority as primary education
and has been somewhat overlooked.
This situation
is made more complex in the tracking of adult education provision
by its location in various ministries other than education.
If training is included the situation is complicated even
further. Agencies could be contributing a great deal of resources
to this area, but are unable to capture this under present
reporting systems. Defining adult education as more than literacy
is also an issue.
Adult
provision is often restricted to supplementary, non-formal
interventions, which add to the marginalisation of this area.
Of all the sub-sectors adult education is particularly sensitive
to perceived social policy problems and provision can be tailored
to provide specific solutions, for example, for out-of-school
youth. There is also the issue of combining this with broad
based long term provision aimed at addressing the need for
lifelong learning.
A related
issue is the amount of systematic research and development
in this area.
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