by Certified NPO Development Education Association (DEAR)
What is adult learning / education?
About the UNESCO International Conference on Adult Education
Commentary: Makiko Kondo Kondo / Makiko
UNESCO International Conference on Adult Education
(CONFINTEA)
Under the leadership of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), we will promote adult education, which has been held once every 12 years since the first meeting in Elsinoa, Denmark in 1949 after World War II. It is a meeting for. Known by the abbreviation CONFINTEA, this is an acronym in French. The 3rd meeting (1972) was held in Tokyo. Each time, government representatives from each country and civil society organizations involved in adult education participate.
The outcome documents from the 4th meeting onward present the important principles for education and adult education, and the framework of concrete actions to realize those principles. At the 4th Paris Conference, through the adoption of the "Learning Right Declaration", the idea of Education For All (EFA) that learning is a basic human right was raised. The declaration states that the right to learn is "not a cultural luxury," "it is not something that is exercised after the desire for survival is satisfied," and "it is not just a means of economic development." It will change people from the objects that make them go, to the actors who create their own history. "
The "Hamburg Declaration" adopted at the 5th Hamburg Conference shows the value of education such as sustainable development, human rights, gender equality and global citizenship, and its contents are reflected almost as it is in the current SDG 4.7. It has been. At the 6th Belen Conference, which was the last time, the "Belen Action Framework" for realizing EFA was adopted, and five evaluation viewpoints of policy, governance, finance, participation / inclusion, and quality were established. In particular, the emphasis was placed on the "quality" of education, which became the title of the current SDG4.
Assuming that the 12-year interval between meetings is too long, "CONFINTEA V + 6" will be held in the middle year between the 5th and 6th meetings, and "CONFINTEA VI Mid-" will be held in the middle year between the 6th and 7th meetings. Term Review: MTR ”is being held (*).
* There was no government representative participant in "CONFINTEA V + 6", only civil society organizations (CSOs) participated, but government representatives from each country also participated in "Mid-Term Review", and the Ministry of Education from South Korea sponsored it. There was also a deputy minister of science on stage
HISTORY
| Year of the event | Meeting venue | Achievement document |
|---|---|---|
| 1949 | 1st Elsinore (Denmark) | - |
| 1960 | 2nd Montreal (Canada) | - |
| 1972 | 3rd Tokyo (Japan) | - |
| 1985 | 4th Paris (France) | "Declaration of learning right" |
| 1997 | 5th Hamburg (Germany) | "Hamburg Declaration" |
| 2003 | CONFINTEA V + 6 Thailand (Bangkok) | - |
| 2009 | 6th Belem (Brazil) | "Beren Action Framework" |
| 2017 | CONFINTEA VI Mid-Term Review Suwon (Korea) | "Towards CONFINTEA VII: Adult Learning / Education and the 2030 Agenda" |
| 2022 | 7th Marrakech (Morocco) "Marrakech Framework for Action" (planned) | - |
What has been done in the last 12 years?
In the 12 years since the 6th meeting, the "Global Report on Adult Education and Learning (commonly known as GRALE)" has been prepared and published from the 1st to the 5th in order to measure the progress of each country in the "Beren Action Framework". Has been done. It is recommended that each country's survey sent by UNESCO to the government be prepared together with various stakeholders in the country, but sharing between the government and CSOs requires a network-based relationship, which is quite difficult. The current situation is. Monitoring through cooperation and cooperation has not been successful in Japan as well, and the Japanese government's response in the second report (2013) stated, "The Japanese school education system is well-managed, and almost all children are compulsory education. Therefore, the problem of non-literacy in adults is not recognized as a social problem. "
Under such circumstances, regarding the fifth report, which will be the final report issued at the 7th meeting, the Japan Society for Social Education, the Society for Basic Education Security, and the Japan Public Hall will be centered on the ALE (Adult Learning and Education) project team of DEAR. As a result of collaborating with people involved in social education related to the academic society and making comments and suggestions to the answers from the Ministry of Education, many points were reflected. At the pre-meeting (September 2021) of the Asia-South Pacific Basic and Adult Education Association (ASPBAE), a network of adult education organizations in the Asia-Pacific, this case study of Japan was introduced as a model case.
The 6th year Mid-Term Review was held based on the 4th report. In addition, the relationship between the "Recommendations for Adult Learning and Education (commonly known as the 2015 Recommendations)" adopted by the UNESCO General Assembly in 2015 and the SDG4 was discussed.
(Figure) Overview of the 6th to 7th meetings
(Source) From UNESCO Lifelong Learning Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL)
https://uil.unesco.org/adult-education/confintea/seventh-international-conference-adult-education-confintea-vii
Overview of the global report
| Number of countries | Features and contents | |
|---|---|---|
| GRALE 1（2009） 第一次レポート |
154 |
|
| GRALE２（2013） 第二次レポート |
141 |
|
| GRALE３（2016） 第三次レポート |
139 |
|
| GRALE４（2019） 第四次レポート |
159 |
|
| GRALE５（2022） 第五次レポート |
not |
|
(*) In Japan, no official literacy survey has been conducted since 1948, and no evaluation index for literacy ability has been established. There are many public and voluntary night junior high school, literacy classes, and Japanese language classes all over the country, and the problem of compulsory education graduates has become apparent. The current situation of people who do not speak Japanese as their mother tongue is unknown.
