Adult Learners' Week around the world

International Adult Learners' Week: background

When governments met in Jomtien for the World Conference on Education for All in 1990, among the goals set were universal access to and completion of primary education, and reduction of the adult illiteracy rate to one half its 1990 level by 2000. Ten years later, governments met in Dakar and still 113 million children have no access to primary education and 880 million adults, the majority of them women, are illiterate.

It is against this background that International Adult Learners' Week takes place.

What is the International Week?

The move to create a wider celebration of adult learning began with the American Association for the Advancement of Education (AAAE) in the late 1980s. The US week focused on a Congressional Breakfast for outstanding adult learners backed by an activities pack for AAAE members.

Adult Learners' Week commenced in the United Kingdom in 1992. Australia, along with South Africa and Jamaica, picked up on the success of Adult Learners' Week and the first Australian ALW was organised in 1995 to promote and encourage lifelong learning

When UNESCO's General Conference in November 1999 approved the International Adult Learners' Week, a larger dimension came into being. The aim is to bridge the activities during the national adult learners' weeks, to learn from the experiences of other countries, to share the celebration with people in other contexts and to amplify the cooperation between agencies active in the promotion of adult learning at international level.

Since then, organisers in more than 40 countries (see below) have organised or are preparing learning festivals. These not only raise awareness of the need to create more opportunities for adults to learn, but celebrate the efforts and achievements of the thousands who find the courage to 'take that first step back'.

International Literacy Day and Adult Learners' Week are used as mobilisation initiatives in many countries. They become a key element of national adult learning policies, promoting wider access to adult learning by celebrating individual and collective achievements, and using their experiences to stimulate a demand for learning elsewhere.

Many of the most successful events take place in venues that adults find accessible, friendly, and familiar, such as cafes, bars, community centres, on public transport, sports grounds or village halls. The experiences of some other countries illustrate the different 'festivals of learning' now occurring.

In 2000, 40 countries on every continent organised an Adult Learners' Week and the international community of Adult Learners' Week nations continues to grow.

The following countries have celebrated Adult Learners' Weeks in recent years: