I would like to thank-the House for this opportunity to speak on this important matter. I welcome the Minister to the House and I wish him well in his appointment. This is a very wide area and I can only touch the surface here and there, I will go through it as fast as I can.
Most people find difficulties with definitions of adult education, so I will not dwell on them. Suffice it to say that for today's adult and the adult of tomorrow there will be little choice but to be an adult learner. No longer is it possible to say that one's education can be completed in the first 17 years or so of one's life. The concept of learning throughout one's life must now be instilled in students from their first day of schooling.
Adult education can take many forms and cater for many different levels of need. It must be flexible and quickly adaptable to changing needs and developments. It should not be an adjunct to the educational system as a whole but rather an integrated part of it. It should not be a follower-on of the education system, depending on the cast off or limited resources of other branches of the system, but rather it should be the leader, leading the way into new technologies, pioneering new methods, updating skills, including those for its own personnel, and generally responding at local level to the problems of its time.
An adult is an autonomous being and as such must be given a say in the decisions which effect him or her. Things which sometimes seem trivial or unimportant to some are responding to needs not associated with everyone else's well-being, but to that person they are most important. Adults wish to choose the methods by which they will learn. These can vary from structured, directed, imposed and subject-centred to unstructured, self-directed, agreed and student-centred learning experiences. Adult education must no longer be seen as something one does in the winter evenings to shorten the season. It must become and continue to be a vibrant force in maintaining that freedom which is the consequence of education and which can be lost in a world where obsolescence is affecting everyone's lives at a pace which continues to accelerate. It may not be the panacea for all our ills but adult education certainly can go a long way to reducing or preventing some of them.
A recognition by Government of the contribution which adult education can make would go a long way to making it acceptable to the masses. The present attitude of Government that adult education should be self-financing not only makes it seem unnecessary but leaves it available only to those who can afford it. Is this the mark of a caring Government?
I want to say a few words about equal opportunity. There are two ways to reach the top in any profession or business. One way is to continue on in education right through third level and post-graduate and to then enter the profession or business at the top or within sight of it. This option is not open to all, but only to those whose parents or guardians can afford it, and they are a small minority. This method also puts a very heavy burden on the State and the taxpayer since it is very heavily subsidised relative to the number who enter it.
The second path to the top is more difficult and much longer, and for the majority it is out of sight, unattainable, as are the rewards that go with it. This group, the majority, leave school at second level, many without finishing their studies and enter the job market at the lower reaches. They will have to fight their way up every inch of the way, proving themselves to all and sundry, and only very few will make it. They may get into the professions, but again it will be against the odds. Now when this group first enter employment they immediately start contributing through their taxes to the education of their own age group at third level. They are in fact contributing to those who will later enter employment at levels way above themselves and better remunerated as a result. The higher educated groups attain this at the expense of those who could not afford third level education in the first place and who have been contributing for five to seven years towards those in higher education. This is not equality of educational opportunity for all.
In order to redress this imbalance, those who do not or cannot in the first instance avail of third level education should be entitled to compensate, at the State's expense and through the developed adult education system, with whatever further education they require during their working lives. With the rapid social and technological changes affecting to a greater extent the less well educated, the need for a commitment is now greater than ever before and will become even more acute in the future. The concept of paid educational leave could be linked to this proposal and the ILO Convention 140 ratified and implemented. The necessary commitment should now be given by Government and phased in over the next three to five years.
A simple system of education credits could be introduced which would relate to the number of years an individual might have but who did not have third level education. For example, a scale could be drawn up on the the basis that one could be subsidised at third level for seven years. Then, if one only attended for six years he or she would have one credit which could be cashed in at any time later in life. If one did not attend third level at all, he or she would be entitled to seven credits. Credits could be cashed in against recognised courses at recognised institutes whenever the person felt the need. This would be particularly appropriate for unemployed and unwaged persons, especially in times of recession, when they could improve their employment potential. This system would be more cost efficient since recipients of credits would be educated as required and would not be part of the "brain drain" where we get no return on our investment.
Responding to needs is of critical importance. The recent report of the Commission on Adult Education pointed to the lack of awareness, misunderstanding, lack of knowledge of the nature of adult education and the lack of participants from among the working class people and the rural dwellers. If adult education were perceived as contributing to the welfare of these people rather than something only available to the more financially better off, then adult education could make some inroads in assisting with the many problems associated with the lack of education of the working classes and the less well off.
Over recent years much effort and attention was focused on the plight of our younger population. More recently, with the decline in the birth rate, that population bulge has gradually moved into the lower reaches of the adult population. New and different types of problems are starting to emerge, as many of those who were the youth change status from single to married and start raising their own families. Many of these will never have known secure paid employment and for those fortunate enough to have had some employment the nature and patterns of work will continue to change. Jobs which ten years ago appeared secure will in many instances become obsolete. The greater role of women in society, their increasing roles at work, their increased availability for work, their wish to return to work after family rearing and the laws on equality will increase their number in the workforce.
Robotics and new technologies will reduce the labour intensity of many jobs and reduce the number of monotonous, repetitive jobs. This in turn will reduce the number of semi-skilled jobs and replace many with more highly skilled service and maintenance work. Whatever solution is found to the great problem of unemployment it is certain to create more discretionary time for everybody. These and other factors mean that the needs which can be met by and through adult education are ever changing. Therefore, positive strategies must be developed and the constraints to participation in the provision of adult education must be eliminated. Adult education must always respond to adults' needs for basic education and provide, free, a programme of literacy, numeracy, communication, life and coping skills. This programme must be fully and properly resourced.
The recent report of the Commission on Adult Education entitled Lifelong Learning has, by its very title, recognised the problems and indicated the main thrust of the solution — lifelong learning. We must remove the barriers to participation. Very few would disagree with the concepts in Lifelong Learning. Most would see them as a very positive response to the problems and as a way forward, provided the proper commitment is given to providing the structures and removing the barriers to participation.
Adult Education is not seen as part of the education system. It is more often seen, wrongly, as a facility for providing leisure time activities to those who can afford it. At present for those who can take the trouble to find out there is a vast comprehensive programme embracing areas from literacy and basic life skills to courses leading to nationally and internationally recognised certification. Adult education will only be acceptable when it is seen to have a contribution to make to the educational welfare of the communities it serves and as a response to their needs throughout life. For many these needs are for free or low cost programmes or through the credits system mentioned earlier.
The Government must give recognition, commitment and support to adult education. This may well have started with the recent decision to provide the ad hoc VEC adult education boards with a budget, however small, for literacy and community education. In the more recent Green Paper Partners in Education, the previous Minister for Education failed to follow through when the adult education boards did not receive any standing in the summary of the main proposals. The adult education boards should have been structured in, thereby recognising adult education as an integral part of the education process. Failure to do this makes one wonder if the Government are taking adult education seriously. It is indeed very serious if they do not recognise the potential and present goodwill of providers and public alike.
The policy of self-financing in adult education must be removed and a system introduced which recognises inability to pay and other constraints which prevent many from participating. For certain courses recognised for the purpose the system of credits proposed earlier should be available to participants. Households where both parents are unemployed, husband and wife, should be charged only a minimum fee. This should also apply to old aged pensioners and identified disadvantaged groups. It should apply to all courses, since for many in these categories the development of discretionary time is of great importance.
The regulations governing receipt of benefit under the social welfare system must be changed so that the unemployed are not prohibited from attending day time courses. Surely it is more appropriate that they constructively occupy their time and they will still be available for work and not in the black economy as some would accuse. Creches should be provided free or at very little charge in order that women with children can readily attend day adult education courses. A counselling service should be provided in each adult education board area so that adults, whether requiring literacy or third level education, could be properly advised and directed. The youth employment levy should provide funding to adult education boards to provide early school leavers with compensatory skills, industrial and business skills, communications skills and an introduction to modern technology.
The lack of tutors in rural areas is due in the main to the penal system of taxation which makes teaching evening courses most unattractive, taken in conjunction with the preparation, distance to centre, poor remuneration, unsocial hours and lack of resources suited to the needs of adults. Some method of tax incentive would encourage professionals to return to servicing adult education. Adult education should provide the base for new technologies where teachers and business people could learn about these before introducing them to classrooms or business situations. This would be more efficient all round.
Daytime adult education provision should be encouraged. It is not. Indeed, it would seem that barriers are raised which prevent the continuation of developing programmes. These barriers take many forms — the non provision of resources, the withdrawal of resources, rooms or buildings, no commitment towards upkeep or replacement of equipment, no adequate provision for literacy schemes, no organisational people at local level, no creche provision for women with young children, examination regulations which militate against adults on second chance courses, no suitable adult qualifications geared to part time learning, no easy access to third level or open university courses.
Anyone can set himself or herself up as a provider of adult education. The black economy is full of people who find it more lucrative to go it alone, not subject to interference from tax laws, rather than to be part of a structure where the penalty is not alone the tax taken but the harrassment when the powers that be become aware of additional income. How easy it is to operate with no tax, no insurance, no overheads, no administration, no accountability, no commitment and cash in the hand. Perhaps the time is ripe for requiring all providers to be registered before they are allowed to run such programmes.
The method of appointing school officers with full-time jobs on the basis of points generated in the system two years previously and attempting a comparison with posts of responsibility in the post primary system is a deterrent in attracting suitable, committed personnel to these positions. There is no incentive for the bona fide, non-statutory, voluntary provider to co-operate with the statutory since there is no commitment to sharing resources or expertise. The statutory agency depends on a points system to provide the personnel to run the scheme; so, in fact, they tend to be in competition.
Action, therefore, is needed in many areas including the following. A Government commitment to the concept of lifelong learning. The Government should withdraw the self financing regulation. The Government should provide all necessary literacy and basic education free as a right of every citizen. The Government should remove the barriers to participation by the unemployed and subsidise their attendance at all courses they attend; courses which enhance their employment prospects should be encouraged and should be free. The Government should ratify the ILO Convention 140 on paid educational leave. The Government should take the necessary steps to implement the educational credits scheme by 1988. Any revision of the Green Paper Partners in Education must place the adult education boards firmly in the structure, on a county organised basis and at the same level as schools' boards of mangement. Adult education directors at school principal level, one for each population district of 50,000 to 60,000 people, should be appointed to respond to the growing needs and demands for adult and community education and should be available to assist all bona fide organisations, who should be registered with the adult education boards.
A more appropriate system of appointment of local area officers should be devised, and, in areas where adult education registered activity exceeds 15,000 attendance hours for the previous year, this position would be at vice principal level. Further "A" and "B" posts should be created — the "B" post for each additional 5,000 attendance hours and an "A" post at 10,000 attendance hours. Daytime provision of adult education should be positively encouraged and all new post primary schools and school building extensions where adult education is on offer should have provision for adult education included. This could be available to the school after the adult education provision had been met. This should include creche provision.
A locally devised system of examination for adults, having parity with the existing system but taking the adult point of view, should be put into operation before 1988. Negotiation should take place immediately to enable Irish citizens full access to all Open University courses and awards. Some funding from the youth employment levy should be provided to adult education boards to provide special education and pre-work programmes for early school leavers. In order that the best qualified people will service the programmes in adult education and taking account of the other elements — unsocial hours, preparation time etc. — and not wishing to increase the burden of fees on participants, all payments for teaching on adult programmes should have a flat rate of 10 per cent applied. A counselling service should be set up in every adult education board area.
As a former part-time teacher and one who enjoyed getting a diploma in part-time adult education teaching, I have a great interest in this area. I want to pay tribute to all the people who have been involved in adult education. I would like to pay tribute particularly to the VEC in my own county and to Mr. Jim Marsden, the adult education officer in County Meath.
