From Rhetoric to Action – lets pass on the baton!
For too long adult and youth education has been an “add-on” to our educational landscape. A “band aid” to a big problem…..a problem of a large cohort of youth and adults who have challenges reading, writing, computing, reasoning critically or contributing meaningfully to their own progress in life…to their immediate family, their community …their country.
This opportunity to speak with you today is timely. I returned last week from the Sixth International Conference on Adult Education, CONFINTEA VI, in Belem, Brazil (courtesy of UNESCO).
This conference laid down some core concepts captured in the Belem Framework for Action. This Framework for Action stresses that “Adult learning and education have a critical role in responding to contemporary cultural, economic, political and social challenges”,
and underlines the need to place adult learning and education in a broader context of sustainable development.
It also outlined that effective governance, financing, participation, inclusion, equity and quality are all necessary conditions for adults and young people to be able to exercise their right to education.
This conference had a special focus on “Literacy” as a key to lifelong learning and an inherent part of the “Right to Education”…The Belem Framework for Action calls for us all to get involved in reducing illiteracy by 50% by 2015.
The document noted that adult learning and education remain:
- seriously underfunded and undervalued
- lacking in political action in terms of policy prioritization, and allocation of adequate resources.
- it also draws attention to a lack of professional training opportunities for adult teachers, as well as insufficient monitoring, evaluation and feedback mechanisms.
- you can imagine my surprise when I realized that these were generalizations coming from 154 member states – I could have been describing Jamaica….
…but what exactly is our landscape in the area of adult and youth education today?
What exactly is the role of the JFLL?
Its interesting that when you mention the name: Jamaican Foundation for Lifelong Learning (JFLL) people look at you as if they are trying to remember….where have I heard that before but as soon as you mention...you know... the JAMAL Foundation you see immediate recognition in their eyes…..talk about successful branding. (JAMAL which was formed in 1972 was around for some 35 years before the decision was made to officially launch the JFLL in February 2007, following a name change approved by Cabinet. This organization has therefore been the driving force behind adult literacy and lifelong learning initiatives for some 37 years. This is significant!
The JFLL’s mandate is to offer non-formal adult and youth... basic and continuing education and to facilitate lifelong learning initiatives across the country. The organization recognizes that the global view of literacy has been expanded, and that there is growing understanding of the different ways in which people learn.
In responding to these changes, the JFLL, while maintaining its core programmes of basic literacy, numeracy and Life Skills, also offers more learning options to the out-of school and ‘unattached’ youth, and to the adult population. Read more
