It's been a busy year for the adult education sector, and for AONTAS, the National Association of Adult Education, in particular. The publication of the Green Paper on Adult Education in an Era of Lifelong Learning, was an historic occasion.
The sector, which had been working in a vacuum for so long, without the support of national policy, was finally coming in from the cold. Since its publication, the Green Paper has been greeted with widespread enthusiasm, and, for many people working in the sector, reads like an adult education wish list.
Following publication of the document, AONTAS embarked on a consultation process among both its members and several key organisations, including IBEC, ICTU, the second-level teacher unions, the IVEA, NALA and the National Women's Council of Ireland. "Practically every group involved in adult education organised its own consultations," notes Berni Brady, who is AONTAS' director.
The organisation's response to the Green Paper, Making an Impact, was a direct result of the consultations in which it was involved. AONTAS was established in 1969 to act as the umbrella organisation for the agencies involved in adult education.
Originally, the VECs were the main providers, but more recently a new, voluntary and community sector has has emerged and now represents two-thirds of AONTAS' total membership. The diversity of membership meant that the Green Paper response had to include a wide range of opinion. "The disparity of our membership meant that we had to pull together a number of issues," Brady observes. Four major issues were discussed during the consultation process - the expansion and development of adult education services outlined by the Green Paper, the professionalisation of the sector, accreditation and the development of adult education structures. The consultation process was followed by a special forum on community education involving community groups.
The Green Paper's chapter on community education highlighted the developmental role the sector plays.
"It aims to develop the capacity of the more marginalised sectors in the community to participate both in decision-making and in the general social and cultural life of the society," the Green Paper states. "We hope," Ms Brady notes, "as a follow up, to develop a policy paper on community education and present it to the Department of Education and Science to inform their thinking on how community education can be integrated with other targeted schemes - VTOS and Youthreach, for example." The Green Paper's recommendation on the development of recognised qualifications for the teaching and practice of adult education, was the cause of some apprehension in the sector. "Concern has been expressed that people working for years on a voluntary basis would be sidelined. We are arguing in favour of the development of a system to accredit prior experiential learning. We don't expect everything to happen overnight, but good progress has been made already." AONTAS, too, is arguing in favour of a ten-year development plan for adult education.
"We need to examine the phasing-in of developments, the expansion of existing programmes and the development of structures for the delivery of adult education on the ground," Ms Brady asserts. AONTAS, she notes, is calling for a fivefold increase in the adult education budget - from the current two per cent of education's annual £2,800 million expenditure to 10 per cent of the total education budget. The Green Paper recommended the establishment of a representative National Adult Learning Council to promote a co-ordinated strategy and the setting up of locally representative boards to plan needs and deploy resources.
So far, the recommendations have proved less contentious than was at first anticipated. "I have no difficulty with VECs retaining their adult education role," Berni Brady asserts. "They have an adult education structure, which can be built upon."
However, she stresses, that for the future, local education boards must be thoroughly representative "of all the players in adult education". Funding is another vital issue, AONTAS' director argues. Without realistic financing, efforts to develop adult education from the ground up will come to nothing. Extra money is needed to enable the sector to respond to new needs - including money for childcare and the capital to develop purpose-built premises for adult education. "At the moment, the statutory sector adult education uses VEC schools and buildings.
"If they want to expand programmes, they need to be more flexible and keep schools open longer. Community and voluntary sector provision is carried out in a variety of places - church halls, people's houses, Portakabins: very often they're dependent on a benign landlord. We are arguing that public buildings like schools should be as accessible as possible.
`There's also an argument for purpose-built accommodation. We have suggested to the Department that they have different models which are suitable for different structures." With a White Paper expected in November, the adult education debate is set to continue. The Department of Education and Science has held a number of regional conferences and is currently sifting written submissions. However, even before the White Paper is published, the Government has moved ahead on a number of Green Paper recommendations, Willie O'Dea, Minister of State at the Department of Education And Science, with special responsibility for adult education, points out. An adult guidance service is in the offing : £200,000 has been set aside to pilot the service, which should get under way in October. Then, there's the £500,000 recently allocated to the creation of 900 part-time places on Youthreach, VTOS and PLC programmes, set to commence in September.
This initiative aims to facilitate adults, who, because of prior commitments, are unable to avail of full-time programmes. Meanwhile, in order to encourage more female participants, £2 million has been allocated to child care facilities for VTOS and Youthreach programmes. "It's not enough," comments Minister O'Dea, "But it's a start."
Training issues are also beginning to be addressed. "We have commissioned certificate and diploma courses from WIT for the training of literacy trainers," he notes. "So we're happy enough with progress despite the fact that the White Paper is not yet written." "Tackling low literacy/numeracy levels must rank as the primary adult education priority in Ireland," the Green Paper states.
"When I took over in 1997, the annual adult literacy budget was £815,000," observes Minister O'Dea. "This year it has been increased to £5.7 million. The number of adult literacy students has doubled from 5,000 to 10,000 per annum. The extra money has meant that we have been able to provide tuition at flexible times in more salubrious surroundings with a greater degree of professionalism. We aim to push the figures enrolled in adult literacy programmes up to 16,000."
The VECs have offered family literacy programmes in some instances and open learning centres have tailored courses to the needs of marginalised groups - travel lers and migrants for example. Pilot literacy programmes, via the airwaves, in Counties Mayo and Tipperary have proved so successful, the Minister says, that he hopes to mainstream them after the next budget.
AONTAS' director, Ms Berni Brady, points to "a high level of openness" on the part of Department of Education officials to the development of adult education. However, she registers a concern. "My biggest fear is that adult education will be viewed from an entirely economic viewpoint - that will be regarded only as a means of developing work skills. While that's important, other aspects - dealing with social exclusion, poverty and the development of a civil society, for example - are equally significant". She points to the irony of the Republic's unprecedented national wealth, thanks to the Celtic Tiger, and the fact that we have the second highest rate of child poverty in Europe and low literacy levels. "People are getting left behind." she says. "We need to use our wealth wisely and avoid marginalising people. We have to look at community as well as economic development.
`The Minister [for Education and Science] has given greater resources to primary education - that's very important - but unless they support parents to further their own education and help their children we are leaving out part of the equation."
For the future, Brady hopes that AONTAS will play a role in the new adult education structures, suggested in the Green Paper. "We are looking for representation on the National Adult Learning Council and on other structures as they emerge," she says, adding that the representation of the community and voluntary sector on the National Qualifications Authority of Ireland is welcome. "Over the coming year," she says, "we hope to be in a position to develop a number of policy documents on community education, access, childcare and accreditation. We see ourselves as a having a role in bringing thinking from the grass roots, developing policy and feeding it back to government and the Departments of Education and Science, Health and Children and Enterprise, Trade and Employment. "We have a strong role to play in the development of lifelong learning."
AONTAS' Lifelong Learning Exhibition runs on Friday and Saturday, September 3rd and 4th at the RDS, Ballsbridge, Dublin.
