2.16 One major, and disturbing, challenge in recent years has been the widening of social and economic inequality. With it have come increased poverty, social exclusion and reduced life chances for those who have not benefited from economic growth, greater prosperity and new opportunities. These inequalities and divisions range from those of income and wealth to the realms of housing, employment, transport, health, education and training. Many of them are multiple and mutually reinforcing, amounting to compound forms of exclusion on the one hand, and the emergence of a virtual 'super class' of privilege on the other.
2.17 This challenge, and the part that education can play in helping to meet it, have been powerfully expressed recently by the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals in a statement which can easily be extended to all forms and levels of learning, and not just the universities. Social cohesion, it states, "whereby a sense of solidarity and common interest binds a healthy society, is best engendered by education. As the economic need for a more highly educated and skilled workforce increases, the undereducated will fall even further behind than they are now. We cannot risk increasing the gap between those with high sills, and those with low skills - or none at all. The uneducated will become disaffected and disenfranchised. Widespread alienation poses a threat to the stability of society. Education is not cheap, but ignorance carries high social and economic costs." (CVCP, 1996, Our Universities Our Future)
2.18 In circumstances of widening social inequalities, it is scarcely surprising to find evidence of disaffection, alienation and hostility to those institutions, including education, which are perceived as either causing or endorsing them. Understandably, some people faced with systematic inequalities and exclusion make a life for themselves outside of and untouched by mainstream institutions, and remain unmoved by earnest inducements to participate in lifelong learning. This represents one of the single largest challenges to establishing a culture of lifelong learning for all in this country and will be a particular issue for the Government's New Deal for the long-term unemployed.
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