Integrating EFA and LLL Conclusions from Review of

Integrating EFA and LLL Conclusions from Review of Adult Learning and Education in the Asia Pacific Prepared for CONFINTEA VI Preparatory Conference for Asia and the Pacific, Seoul, 6 October 2008 Manzoor Ahmed NIER Policy Conference, Tokyo, 12 March 2009

Development since the 1990 s EFA Global Monitoring Team review shows: – First priority - expansion of opportunities for children and adolescents in primary and secondary education – The next level of priority - adult literacy with quantitative targets set in countries – Lowest priority - learning needs of youth and adults focusing on life skills and lifelong learning

Developments… The diversity in learning objectives, target learners and mode of delivery explains to a degree the absence of global or national quantitative targets in adult education; And the difficulty of providing a good overview of the prevalence and functioning of these programmes.

Developments… – Adult Education is complementary , supplementary, compensatory, or substitute to the formal system directed to children and youth. – However, the purposes and rationale of adult education, and lifelong learning, and its clientele, modes of delivery and management, are also its own; these cannot be served or replaced by or defined in terms of the general formal education system ; there can be no LLL without ALE.

Concepts and definitions • A broad vision of adult education and learning has been evolving through national programmes and international consensus - reaching a convergence within the framework of lifelong learning, eloquently expressed in the Hamburg declaration in 1997. • Literacy remains a crucial concern; but useful only as a continuum of skills, attaining functionality and self-sufficiency ; conventional dichotomous definition , assessment methods and announced literacy rates are self-defeating.

Convergence of literacy, adult edn. & lifelong learning Adapted from R. M. Torres.

Concepts… • EFA, Jomtien broad vision and Dakar Goals, embraced AE and saw it as key to LLL. But EFA focus remained on primary education. • Dakar Goals attempted to restore balance; but created a dichotomy between literacy and life skills education/LLL; and seemed to give an unintended boost to prevailing narrow view of literacy.

Policy, Strategies and Participation Empirical observation suggests an Asian taxonomy: • Low basic education countries – still struggling with children’s basic education; less attention to ALE/LLL • Advanced basic edn. countries – good advance in children’s basic edn and diversified scope and larger scale of ALE. • China and India – own category with great diversity within each, building components of LLL. • Developed Asia – Children/youth basic edn and adult literacy largely achieved - ALE/LLL focus at post-school level • Foreshadowing future for developing Asia – Rep. of Korea with a comprehensive LLL legal framework and mandatory national LLL promotion plan every five years.

Markers of Inequality • Disparity and inequality must be overcome in varying degree in all categories in the above taxonomy. • The well-known markers of inequality – gender, geography, age, socio-economic status, ethnicity, language, religion and other socio-cultural factors. • Paradox – ALE itself the victim of disadvantages of its clientele which it is expected to overcome; this must be a key consideration in visualizing strategy. • A comprehensive LLL perspective and ALE as the core can place disadvantaged people on a lifelong learning cycle to meet their occupational and personal needs.

Quality with Equity • Overall, key elements of quality include: curriculum, teachinglearning process, monitoring and assessment - all together producing desired learning outcomes. • Re curricular content and objectives, flourishing of ALE/LLL hinges on how it becomes relevant to key developmental concerns. • Several development challenges stand out – fighting poverty, sustainable survival and development, and building democratic polity with human dignity and justice. Other contextually specific issues are also important. • Establishing priorities and figuring out how ALE/LLL responds are a complex and continuing task; involves national oversight /guidance and professional/management staff participation in each of diverse adult/LLE activities. • National priority to ALE/LLL is justified by how it addresses society’s challenges.

Quality …. • Professionalism and professionalisation have to be brought into policy-making, management, supervision, monitoring and learning assessment, training and instructor/facilitator functions. Voluntarism not enough for ALE/LLL to play its development role. • Equivalency frameworks have to be developed and used for many areas of complementary and substitute education activities. • Complexity and diversity of field require creative solutions – a culture of quality, not one standard formula for quality assurance

Governance and Organizational Provisions • Good governance and management in ALE/LLL – even more than in other areas of education – requires local autonomous structures, participatory practices, community ownership , strong accountability, and transparency. • Even with some devolution of functions, locus of decisions often remain at the central level within government structure – constraining the potential of ALE/LLL. • Networks of multi-purpose community-based learning centers, with technical and capacity-building support, can be a concrete form of decentralization for effective ALE/LLL.

Adequate Resources • ALE/LLL not key component in national education budget thinking. Typical ALE/LLL allocation is less than 1 percent of education budget – much lower in some cases. • Sectorwide approach needed to mobilise resources and promote quality-driven approach. • Literacy programmes with acceptable quality may require 50 to 100 dollars per year per learner for three years. • Governments and external donors have not lived up to commitment to support ALE/LL adequately.

Turning the Vision into reality • The new millennium has sparked a revival of interest in adult education as the core of lifelong learning to meet 21 st century challenges; both need and potential are greater now to fulfill the vision expressed in Hamburg in 1997. • Amartya Sen’s capability approach provides a powerful rationale for lifelong learning as the conceptual underpinning for educational development goals and strategies. • Drawing on the expectations and perspectives expressed by the Asia-Pacific countries, eight points are proposed as the elements for a strategy to raise the profile of adult education and learning and, thereby, create lifelong learning opportunities for all according to their needs and aspirations.

Vision to Reality… 1. Re-commitment to the vision of ALE/LLL leading to creating the Learning Society and the Learning Community - Being guided by the vision of diverse and widespread adult learning and education (ALE) as the core of lifelong learning (LLL), governments, people and the international partners must recommit themselves to build a rich network of learning opportunities for all throughout life according to their needs and aspirations. _ A sector approach covering literacy, NFE, continuing edn, life skills, production skills etc. _ A high level national oversight body (LLL Council) to champion, assess progress, and guide action.

Vision to Reality …. 2. A Multi-pronged approach to promote “ Critical Literacy” and combat poverty- Due attention has to be given to functional literacy and promoting critical consciousness as the foundation for lifelong learning, empowering people to help themselves. - Integrated approach linking skills in literacy and productive skills with ancillary support; and knowledge / skills related to quality of life, protecting environment, health, child rearing, citizen’s rights etc. - Community-owned multipurpose centre offering a needbased learning menu.

Vision to Reality… 3. A culture of quality - Inculcating a culture of quality in ALE/LLL, setting and enforcing quality standards, providing for technical support and necessary resources in teaching and management personnel development, curriculum and learning materials, assessment of learning, and management and monitoring with attention to process and results demand priority and adequate resources. Key components – multi-faceted quality assurance, better HR policy and practice including enhanced incentive and professional support for teachers, assessment capacity building, and use of ICT to enrich learning and bridge digital divide.

Vision to Reality… 4. Linking ALE/LLL to critical development challenges Relevance of ALE/LLL in meeting critical challenges of development and modernization of countries must be established and enhanced. Determining global, national and contextually specific development challenges, and how these figure in ALE/LLL call for sharing experiences and participatory decision-making. Some major common challenges stand out: a) fighting poverty, b) promoting sustainable development, and c) building participatory democracy and the democratic polity. There are other important concerns in each society and community, which must be addressed in the ALE/LLL agenda.

Vision to Reality… 5. Affirmative action to address inequality - A policy of affirmative action must be adopted to identify and serve the disadvantaged and marginalized sections of the population with strategies that address their specific needs. Reaching out to disadvantaged and neglected groups have to be a central mission of; High priority has to be given to overcoming gender injustice and disparity. Specialized and more directly targeted projects would serve groups disadvantaged in multiple ways, such as, ethnic and linguistic minorities, indigenous people, slum dwellers, the ultra-poor, and people with disabilities and special needs.

Vision to Reality… 6. Governance and management to fit the goal – Governance and management of ALE/LLL should be based on government-civil society partnership and decentralized enough to make it responsive to local conditions and accountable to the learners and the community. Major components : Partnership building; - Genuine decentralisation promoted by trial and experiment and involving local government; - Transparency and accountability to beneficiaries

Vision to Reality…. 7. Resources and their effective use - A major increase must be assured in resources for ALE/LLL, with mobilization from all sources and better use of resources. Components : - Rethinking resource needs, -A major allocation for teaching personnel, - Target of 3 -5 percent of govt. education budget for ALE/LLL by 2015, - At least $2. 5 bill annual donor support for ALE/LLL with appropriate share for Asian developing countries.

Vision to Reality… 8. Regional and international cooperation. Lessons from experience should be captured and shared through cooperation among countries, organizations and institutions; existing international cooperation mechanisms should be strengthened; and the rich countries should fulfill their pledge of cooperation. Components: Unique opportunity to share experiences in the region with diversity and varying levels of progress: Strengthened international and national civil society coopertaion; and External assistance to support cooperation and exchange.

Five Asia Pacific Priorities • Recommitment to ALE/LLL – Creating Learning Society and Learning Community • Linking ALE/LLL to critical development challenges (including critical literacy) • Affirmative action to address inequalities and disparities • More resources and their better use • Governance and management to fit the goal genuine decentralization with a nationwide network of Multipurpose community-owned learning centres as building blocks of LLL.

To conclude…. A resurgence of education and learning for all – children, youth and adults – and throughout life is happening. The poor and the disadvantaged must not be left out from this resurgence and the emerging Asian Century. Let all have a stake in it and claim their due by expanding their own capabilities through education and learning.