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Workshop D
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Workshop A |
Workshop B |
Workshop C |
Workshop D
Workshop D - Session 3
The best place you can talk about policy is from research, and I am going to tell you about the experience of a project which started in 1992 and which I call at the end an unfinished symphony. Co-ordination since the 1960 UNESCO conference of Montreal is a basic issue in lifelong learning, because Montreal basically said 2 things. First, every adult person has a right to, is entitled to, fulfil his educational needs during his whole lifetime. Second, you should create an integrated structure so that, from a policy point of view, the adult learner can walk as if through a building and go from one institution to another, from one part to another. Co-ordination has always been an important issue in adult continuing education, but look at reality. In our country as in many countries there are four ministries dealing with education: school education, cultural affairs, trade and commerce and of course also the labour department. There is very little co-ordination, we are not as lucky as the Catalans, although the Catalans do have their problems. The field is extremely diverse, five major sectors, - social and cultural education, basic adult education, then vocational education, then training within industry and then public education and training - these are the 5 major sectors. We counted, in 1964, 4,200 different offerings. How can learners find their way in this wood? Good question. The answer is: they cannot. We had the Adelphi Project starting in 1990 and it was called Education 92. We had 3 rounds. We involved 300 people in these 5 sectors, from ministries and so on. We asked them all sorts of questions. We came together at the end in a colloquy with 110 participants and the conclusion, unanimous, was, 'You should do more research and development on co-ordination, not at the national but at the regional level, or sub-regional level.' So we said we would try to do that. We went to the Minister of Education and he approved that. We also had a Euro Adelphi study in 17 countries. One of the conclusions of that big study involving 1,810 persons was also that co-ordination in policy is very important, but it is poorly executed. Governments in the 17 countries got 3.2 on a scale of 6, so it is not very good, is it? We had this research project RIO. - RIO stands in Dutch for regional, so RIO means regional co-ordination and consultancy in adult continuing education. Three Tasks We planned 3 phases. First make an inventory of all offerings at regional basis. These were non existent. Secondly, try to find where people are co-operating in all these sectors and especially not co-operating, and thirdly, try to develop regional networks. These were the three things we wanted to do in two years. Politicians always want quick results. Ask the question today, do the research tomorrow, give me the report next month. We got two years for these three tasks. Of course we did not fulfil the three tasks, but we had an experiment in three regions, near the coast, in the centre, and in Limburg. Then we talked about a concept and this is very important, not about lifelong but about lifewide education, especially telling them it is not just vocational or professional education, it is lifewide. After 2 years, we had inventories of all these offerings in these regions, a tremendous overview. We found there was little co-operation and that there were almost no co-ordination networks. The conclusion of again 120 participants in a final policy was, 'Please work towards these regional networks'. So we got the go-ahead from the ministry. We worked for 2 more years and then finally we had a concept of regional platforms, which was accepted both by the field and the government at that time, and a theoretical framework of course. If you are a researcher you have to have theoretical concepts, so we had a learning network model which we used, not just as a theory but as an instrument, as a mirror for all these people to look at and situate themselves and see where they could go. Now the conclusions after four years, notwithstanding difficulties - jealousies, territories, resistance. We developed fairly stable groups in three regions of people who had never worked together in their whole life, never in their institutional history, sitting together looking at a regional point of view. That was one thing. Secondly, we were at the end of the project and we were waiting for the government, so all these people in these regions said, 'OK, but now we want a signal from above that what we have done will be implemented as a policy.' Finally the representative of the government came and said, 'We will now install a new policy, so we will create Educational Forums at the regional level involving all publicly sponsored workers in adult education. So you have to make,' they told us, 'a blueprint and then we will have an experimental period of five years with a fixed budget.' Educational Forums That was the decision, so what did these Educational Forums have to do? First, an educational map, so the regional platform must develop its own educational map, giving an overview of what is being offered by whom to what target groups, what kind of participation and money, all that. Secondly, a needs report. Look at your region, think 2-3 years ahead and say what the needs are for this region in terms of adult continuing education. This is new. It is not thinking from an institutional point of view, it is regional. That is of course something not easy but in these three experiments they had more or less succeeded. And then finally the educational plan which you have to make after 1.5 years and which should be for the next 2 years, describing what are going to be the major educational activities and who shall co-operate with whom, or maybe not. The experimental period was five years with a budget of 1 million Ecu per year. Five years is 5 million Ecu. This is important but it is only money that shows that politicians have a certain intention: it is not declarations, not the press, the media. Structure We said, 'OK'. They clearly wanted local structure, twelve representatives from the five sectors, plus some other people, sitting together there with an independent president - difficult to find, but there are such people - and sector-specific hearings, which means each of these sectors will have their hearings feeding in the regional platform. Finally, a central structure in which all presidents of the 13 regions sit together at the national level. They talk with ministers and with heads of administration. There are twelve co-ordinators working for these thirteen regions. Now the Internet, that was something that was very important from the outset. We developed immediately a website. And we created that and experimented with it in one region, so that people could communicate with one another. Paperless communication! But this is a dream that, when the Internet comes, paper will diminish. I think when the Internet comes, paper still increases. With the Internet everyone can communicate with one another. If you sit there in Bruges, and you have done something, put it on the Internet and people from everywhere can consult it. On the other hand, potential users can consult all offerings that exist. We have databases, one for vocational education, one for school education, one for basic education, and they are not linked. So we created a link through which you could enter all these systems and look for training in painting, for instance, or in website construction or whatever. Now each organisation is responsible for the input and the updating of the website. That was a contract that we made, because of course otherwise you would need again ten people at the central office working to that end and making phone calls all the time. Now it is an unfinished symphony. We have an option report from the government saying that is what we want to do. Then they have a report spelling out all these things which I just talked about, and that was approved by the entire government unanimously. Now the cabinet invited me again and said, 'You do the tour of Flanders now. Go everywhere in each of these regions. Present this plan and somebody from the government will come and we will talk.' We had 1,300 people coming to these 13 meetings and they listened, they made remarks, we made a report and we put that all together. Then we had a report with the conclusions of that and then we had one with the specific instruments for planning, for needs analysis and for educational planning, and then silence. So we are now confronted with five months of silence. Spring'98 should be the beginning of all this and it is not happening. After this conference, I will send another fax to the Prime Minister, saying that in Manchester there was this new learning age, there was this policy construct, there were these cases presented, there is the Catalan government and so on. You decided democratically that we had this research, we went around to everybody, why is nothing happening any more now? I do not have the answer. Maybe he has: what should you do if you do that type of research? I finish with 6 points:
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