The draft White Paper on adult education, details of which are reported in today's editions, underlines the Government's commitment to an area which, shamefully, has remained on the margins of the educational agenda until recently. The underdeveloped nature of the sector was highlighted in the lengthy consultation process which the Government initiated after the publication of its Green Paper over a year ago. In a thought-provoking response to the Green Paper, the Conference of Religious in Ireland (CORI), reported how some 40 per cent of adults left school before the age of 15 - but also how adult education remains largely the preserve of those others who already have a high level of educational attainment. Aontas, the National Association of Adult Education, estimates that the sector accounts for only about two per cent of a total educational budget of almost £3 billion.
Buoyed by the robust performance of the Exchequer in recent years, the Minister for Education, Mr Martin and the Minister of State with responsibility for adult education, Mr Willie O'Dea, have been able to give a new priority to the adult education sector. The National Development Plan envisages a £1 billion programme for adult education, primarily to help workers upgrade their skills to order to allow the economy compete on even terms with other leading nations.
The White Paper, which is expected to be agreed by Cabinet by the end of next month, should help to flesh out the shape of adult education. It should also help to direct the work of Aontas which has been striving so valiantly for so long without the assistance of a coherent national policy. A key question is whether the Government will pursue an agenda dictated by the needs of the economy or whether it will also embrace the wider social need for adult education - and the concept of the joy of learning for its own sake.
To its credit, the Government supports the abolition of fees for students who are on social welfare. But it may be that other incentives are required to encourage those on low-pay back into the classroom. The Government can invest millions into adult education but without proper back-up childcare and other support services, it might find it difficult to attract those among the marginalised and the disadvantaged who need it most. It may be that the Cabinet will agree to a more creative approach reflecting the thrust of the Department of Education's recent pioneering document, The New Deal, on educational disadvantage which made second-chance education a priority.
The Government's reluctance, on the basis of the draft White Paper, to support the abolition of fees for part-time and evening courses undertaken by those already in the workforce, is likely to stir controversy. The draft, not unreasonably, takes the view that these costs should be borne by companies sending their employees to such courses. The problem is that there are scores of businesses in the small-to-medium size category - especially in the burgeoning information technology sector - that cannot afford to underwrite this expenditure.