[Icaeaeducationdevp2015] [12] Ulrike Hanemann

[Cecilia Fernández]

ICAE Virtual Seminar

“Adult Education and Development: Post 2015”

 

Challenges and opportunities with regard to lifelong learning for all as the


post-2015 education goal

By Ulrike Hanemann, UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL)

 

The post-2015 debate is currently being conducted in the form of many
different processes that involve a diversity of actors and relate to a
variety of international frameworks and commitments. This contribution,
however, will focus on education and UNESCO’s position on the post-2015
education agenda which should, of course, be an integral part of the broader
international development framework. 

 

Since 2000 this broader development framework has been the United Nations’
set of eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), one of which (Goal 2)
specifically concerns education, namely universal access to primary
education. Unfortunately, this does not reflect the scope of the Education
for All (EFA) goals – the Dakar Framework for Action – adopted at the World
Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal, also in 2000. The commitment to EFA
requires meeting the basic learning needs for all: preschool-age children,
school-age children, adolescents, young people, and adults, including the
elderly. In most countries nowadays basic education goes beyond primary
education. It covers at least lower secondary education, but often also
upper secondary education, and increasingly a year of pre-school education.
In any case, EFA is not as limited to children as MDG 2 is.[i] Despite being
critical in contributing to development, adult literacy and adult learning
and education were not included as a MDG. 

 

In December 2009, the Sixth International Conference on Adult Education
(CONFINTEA VI), took place in Belém do Pará in Brazil. Its guiding principle
was “Harnessing the power and potential of adult learning and education for
a viable future”. The Belém Framework for Action (BFA) adopted by the
representatives of 144 member states of UNESCO at this conference, included
the acknowledgment of the critical role of lifelong learning in addressing
global educational issues and challenges. Furthermore, the BFA contains the
recognition that adult learning and education represent a significant
component of the lifelong learning process, which embraces a learning
continuum ranging from formal to non-formal to informal learning.

 

Lifelong learning is founded on the integration of learning and living,
covering learning activities for people of all ages (children, young people,
adults including the elderly, girls as well as boys, women as well as men)
in all life-wide contexts (family, school, community, workplace and so on)
and through a variety of modalities (formal, non-formal and informal) which
together meet a wide range of learning needs and demands. Education systems
which promote lifelong learning adopt a holistic and sector-wide approach,
involving all sub-sectors and levels to ensure the provision of learning
opportunities for all individuals.[ii] 

 

Basic education and basic skills (as defined by EFA) are vehicles to support
the achievement of the MDGs and to empower in particular the poor. Most if
not all MDGs involve knowledge, change of habits and attitudes, and of
course learning: Without a largely educated population, it is difficult to
eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, promote gender equality and empower
women, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS,
malaria and other diseases and ensure environmental sustainability.
Education and learning are among the most powerful ways of improving
people’s living conditions. Education is a way of reducing existing
inequalities and achieving personal, social, economic, political and
cultural development. Therefore, reflections on the post-2015 agenda must
take the link between education and development into consideration. 

 

After taking stock of achievements and shortcomings of EFA, and analysing
emerging trends, challenges and changing requirements in terms of the type
and level of knowledge, skills and competencies required in today’s world,
UNESCO has developed a “Position Paper on Education Post-2015”[iii], which
will be presented to Member States for discussion and consideration at the
upcoming 194th Executive Board session in April 2014. In this paper, UNESCO
advocates for a clearly defined, balanced and holistic education agenda
which should take a lifelong learning approach. 

This objective includes the challenge of how to develop post-2015 education
strategies which are clear, simple and measurable, and at the same time
address the lifelong learning approach. Looking backwards to better
understand the nature of this challenge, I would like to illustrate how
difficult it has been in policy and practice to address, for example,
literacy (EFA Goal 4)[iv] in a lifelong learning perspective. 

 

The development of reading, writing and numeracy skills involves a
continuous process of sustained practising and application in order to
advance from the ability to perform most simple tasks towards higher-level,
more demanding and complex tasks. Even if a high level of literacy and other
skills has been achieved, there is no guarantee that (for different reasons)
people retain the skills level they have already acquired. Evolving demands
may even require the acquisition of new skills, or the development of a
higher level of proficiency of existing ones. Therefore, literacy learning
is an ageless and continuous activity. The acquisition and development of
literacy takes place before, during and after primary education, it takes
place inside and out of school, through formal, non-formal and informal
learning. It is a life-wide and lifelong learning process.

 

Therefore the achievement of literacy for all requires working
simultaneously on at least five complementary fronts:

 

1)      Laying strong foundations for later learning and addressing
disadvantage through good-quality early childhood care and education
programmes.

2)      Providing universal good-quality basic education for all children
(in formal or non-formal settings).

3)      Scaling up and reaching out with relevant literacy provision to all
young people and adults.

4)      Developing literacy-rich environments and a literate culture at
local and national level.

5)      Dealing with the root causes of illiteracy (mainly poverty, societal
injustice and all kind of disadvantages) in a deep structural manner.

 

This approach reflects the interconnected nature of the six EFA goals. It
also calls for sector-wide – and even cross-sectoral – approaches to promote
literacy as a foundation of lifelong learning. Linkages and synergies
between formal and non-formal education systems need to be created and used
in order to promote learning and to break the intergenerational cycle which
reproduces low levels of literacy. Family literacy and community learning
programmes – as examples for intergenerational and integrated approaches to
learning – have proven to be successful approaches which involve whole
families and communities in the effort to promote basic skills development
and to work towards literate and learning families, communities and
societies. 

 

We know from experience what is necessary to make this work, for example
that political commitment from the highest level is essential, as are
well-defined government policies. Governments must clearly assign
responsibility for adult literacy, which is often diffused across several
ministries. Implementation also involves many partnerships at all levels of
government and with civil society organisations. A continuous dialogue
mechanism needs be developed among literacy stakeholders to build consensus
around viable and integrated approaches to learning. However, reality
demonstrates how demanding it is to work with a lifelong learning approach.
Education systems tend to still function in fragmented ways where
sub-sectors do not cooperate to ease transitions from one level or modality
to the next or to offer integrated and holistic learning opportunities which
suit individual needs and life circumstances.  

 

In its Position Paper, UNESCO recommends to its Member States that “Ensuring
equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all by 2030” might be
a suitable overarching goal. This is then translated into ten specific
global targets to which countries would commit, a commitment they could be
held accountable for, and for which corresponding indicators need to be
agreed upon. The ten suggested targets are organised into six priority
areas: basic education, post-basic and tertiary education, youth and adult
literacy, skills for work and life, quality and relevant teaching and
learning, and financing of education. After a closer look at the specific
targets and possible indicators within these priority areas, it becomes
obvious that it is extremely difficult to avoid overlap if the lifelong
learning approach is consistently applied. Basic education should be the
minimum foundation for all, not only children, while literacy skills should
not be a concern only for young people and adults. Actually, literacy lies
at the heart of basic education and constitutes the foundation of lifelong
learning. In addition, literacy can no longer be perceived and dealt with as
a stand-alone skill. It should rather be seen as one component of a complex
set of skills and competencies which are necessary to perform in the modern
world of work and learning societies. Therefore, it is complicated to draw a
clear line between the priority areas of youth and adult literacy and skills
for work and life. 

 

These are only some examples that demonstrate how easy it is, on the one
hand, to use the lifelong learning paradigm in the discourse, and how
difficult it is, on the other, to apply it consistently in practice. The
principle of lifelong learning does not seem to automatically help in
overcoming the trend of fragmentation and stand-alone interventions in
education. Its application requires bold if not radical thinking which may
lead to completely new systems, strategies and mechanisms. The current
post-2015 debate illustrates the conflicting roles of UNESCO: while acting
as an intellectual “think tank” in terms of developing educational visions
such as the lifelong learning paradigm in the Faure[v] and Delors[vi]
reports; at the same time it takes on a rather bureaucratic-technical role
to promote a narrow approach of functional skills for development such as
the one advanced by the international aid community. The post-2015 debate is
also an opportunity to strengthen UNESCO’s role as a forward-looking and
visionary organisation against the pressures to reduce it to a development
agency which is producing measurable results. Civil society organisations
around the world, including the ICAE, can play an important role in this
process.  

 


  _____  

[i] MDG 2, Target 2A: “Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and
girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.”

[ii] UNESCO Education Sector Technical Notes, Lifelong Learning, February
2014, p. 2.

[iii]  <http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002266/226628e.pdf>
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002266/226628e.pdf

[iv] EFA Goal 4: “Achieving a 50 per cent improvement in levels of adult
literacy by 2015, especially for women, and equitable access to basic and
continuing education for all adults.”

[v] Faure et al. (1972) Learning to be: the world of education today and
tomorrow, UNESCO, Paris 

[vi] Delors et al. (1996) Learning: The Treasure within, UNESCO, Paris

 



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