| Liberal adult education receives welfare objectives | | Print | |
| Terhi Kouvo | 15.02.2010 | National Affairs - News items [en] [fi] | ||||
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FINLAND. Liberal adult educational establishments are becoming increasingly active in addressing health and welfare questions and sustainable development, which are the new legally stipulated objectives.
According to the law reform at the turn of the year, the furtherance of welfare, well being and sustainable development are at the core of adult education. The traditional adult education values of independent learning and a sense of community are also included in the law. The law reform clarifies the objectives of the educational establishments and the division of work. The overlaps are eliminated and the educational establishments are obliged to cooperate. Funding enables development that continues to improve. LAW FOUNDED ON ADULT EDUCATION The law concerns adult education centres, folk high schools, summer universities, sport training centres and education centres, a total of over 330 education establishments, in which over a million Finnish people study every year. The former law that dates from 1998 has been specified over the years. The reform was prepared in the Ministry of Education and its representatives. It clarifies the Ministry's goals of the development programme that extends to 2010. The most common form of educational establishment is the adult education centre, of which there are about 200. They were satisfied to accept the new legally stipulated objectives. “Cherishing the cultural environment, for example, provides an excellent opportunity to realise the task by strengthening multi-administration and cooperation with the third sector”, says Jaana Nuottanen, the executive director of the Finnish Association of Adult Education Centres, which looks after the interests of the educational establishments. The account drawn up in the summer of 2009 shows that medical officers appreciate the adult education centres for their preventive health care work and refer their patients to the low threshold sport groups. THE VALUE OF A SENSE OF COMMUNITY The adult education professor Petri Salo followed the law reform from the university researcher’s point of view, from the Åbo campus of Åbo Akademi University. He is thankful that the law enhances independent learning, a sense of community and partnership, features which represent the special character and relationship of liberal adult education to other adult education. “The success story of Finnish liberal adult education is connected to furthering the individual’s inner growth and developing self-education. Now is the time to get Finnish people working in a study group and learning together”, he says. The law reform has not escaped criticism. The supporter of the traditional Grundtvig adult education, Seppo Niemelä, criticized the law draftsmen for leaving society out of consideration. The people who participated in the preparation of the reform answered that the familiar issues are now expressed with new words. ACCORDING TO THE LAW, THE PURPOSE OF LIBERAL ADULT EDUCATION is “to organise, based on the principle of lifelong learning, education that supports unity in society, equality and active citizenship”. THE GOAL OF LIBERAL ADULT EDUCATION is “to further the many-faceted development of people, welfare and realisation of democracy, pluralism, sustainable development, multiculturalism and internationalism”. |
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