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Interview with Ole Vig Jensen, who is a long time organiser of popular education, former MP and former government minister for education, on the occasion of his retirement.
By Michael Voss, information consultant, Danish Adult Education Association.
People seek knowledge of their own free will – without the stressing demands of grades and exams. At the same time they become part of a community, which televisions and computers cannot offer.
These are the basic features of the Danish Third Sector of education (see right column), built on the traditions of Grundtvig and the Folk High Schools.
According to Ole Vig Jensen (see right column) these features are also qualities that are needed in the future.
But the non-formal education will not survive on historic credentials alone. The tradition must be transformed to the present day. It must be consciously applied to new subjects and issues – to be able to prepare the citizens and society for the needs of the future.
“And that is a big challenge,” says Ole Vig Jensen
Succes from start
On the 15th September 2006 Ole Vig Jensen retired. This was not only his last working day as a director of one of the adult education associations in Denmark, Danish Education Association. It was also the end of 46 active years in education and especially non-formal adult education.
”In 1960 I was studying to be a teacher. As part of this I lived in a village in central Sealand to teach at the local primary school.
In my spare time I started organising an Evening High School with lectures on matters of politics and society for the local adults. I remember that the very first series of lectures was on the predecessor to the European Community, the so called Coal and Steel Union. Around 100 people participated, and I think that was great.
Anyway it encouraged me to revitalize the Evening High School when I returned to the village as a graduated teacher after another year at the college of education.” So tells Ole Vig Jensen.
Since then popular non-formal education has been an important part of Ole Vig Jensen’s working life and spare time, both in the education associations and in the parliament and government.
No real offer to the poor
When asked what has changed from his start in popular education until his retirement, Ole Vig Jensen says:
”Back in the early sixties non-formal adult education was an earnest offer to everybody – including people of low income and with little formal education.”
This is one of several hints to the present parliament majority and the present government. According to Ole Vig Jensen this government has made it much more difficult to engage in non-formal adult education.
“For us, who worked with non-formal adult education at that time, it was a primary ambition to promote knowledge to those groups in society that had not had the possibility to learn enough in school and in other parts of the formal education system.
To be able to recruit these people and engage them in study circles and lectures it was a must that the courses were free of charge. Over the years a smaller fee was introduced.
But the balance definitely tipped when the present government as one of its first measures cut down on public funding of non-formal adult education. As we know, the result was a 100% raise in participation fees.
Today you cannot claim that non-formal adult education is a valid offer for the poor of society. On the contrary statistics show that it is the better-off people who participate.
New subjects
It has not been 46 years of decline, though. Ole Vig Jensen also refers to positive developments in society that have had a big influence on non-formal adult education.
”40 years ago a large part of the population had only attended school for seven years or less. For that reason the basic subjects of Danish reading and writing and arithmetic were a substantial part of the activities in our evening schools,” explains Ole Vig Jensen.
”In the meantime society’s level of educations has drastically improved. This means that those subjects are less important to day.
Little by little other subjects like crafts, health programs, social and global issues have entered the stage. Also foreign languages have become increasingly important, because people travel much more today than in 1960.”
Quality demanded
Over this almost half century non-formal adult education has also been met by demands for higher quality.
”When the participants has to pay such a high fee, they are more conscious about the quality of the education. They want value for their money,” says Ole Vig Jensen.
”This does not only have a negative impact. It creates indirect but rather effective means of control that can ensure that the teachers are good enough. If not, the participants simply leave the course. That is one reason that the teachers in the Third Sector today are better qualified than 50 years ago.
Back then not everybody had very many pedagogical skills. On the other hand their teaching was fuelled by spirit. They were personally committed to their subject and the idea of popular education. They did not demand very much in salary, and the organisers contributed also with a lot of voluntary work without payment.
Since then there has been a change of attitude. Today everybody wants to be paid,” says Ole Vig Jensen.
The raising expectations for quality also create problems for the schools and organisers:
“It is very difficult to find finances for securing the quality of the education.
And the high participation fees lead to less quality. The schools have to offer shorter courses, because shorter courses means fees that are affordable for more people.
In my mind shorter courses by themselves is lower quality. It makes it more difficult for the participants to become absorbed in the subject. And the possibility for absorption must be a very important part of non-formal adult education.”
Third Sector Houses
”The demand for quality is not only concerning the teachers. The participants also want high quality rooms and facilities.
For many years non-formal adult education took place in public school buildings in the afternoon and the evening – without any expenses for the Third Sector associations. Chairs and tables, teacher’s desk and blackboard were ready and usable for us.
But today public schools is furnished to fit the children who are actually using them and adapted to the kind of education that takes place in primary and secondary schools.
That is good, but it makes the classrooms less suitable for adult education. When on top of that the participants have higher demands for the facilities, it gets difficult for our sector.
In some municipalities the local authorities have converted closed down schools and factories into Houses of Third Sector Education. That is very laudable.”
No generation problem
Non-formal adult education associations are often criticised for not being able to attract young people. Both from outside and inside the sector it is predicted that this problem will lead to fewer and fewer participants.
Ole Vig Jensen does not think that this is fair, and it is not based on facts about the development over time:
”The schools of our sector have never really appealed to people under the age of 30. At that age, I think, people are much too busy with other activities. The need to learn more – and the time for it – is not realised until the mid-thirties. So it was in 1960 – and so is reality in 2006.
On the other hand non-formal adult education is in a better situation with new potential participants at the other end of the age scale. To day people retire earlier than before, and they live longer. For a longer period of our lives we are not working.
So a very large part of society has much more time for the kind of education that we provide.
Political achievements
For twenty years Ole Vig Jensen was a member of parliament and for seven years he was a member of government, all the time in charge of non-formal adult education.
“Most important in that period was the reform of the law in 1989. This reform introduced regulations that were much less binding and restricting for the non-formal adult education associations. It became much easier to set up a study circle or a series of lectures and to get public funding for it.
At the same time we introduced the special 10% fund. It means that every local branch of our national associations must earmark 10% of the fund, they receive, for creating debate on social, public and political matters. To me that has always been one of the most important tasks for our sector.”
When asked Ole Vig Jensen can tell about a long list of reforms and inventions related to non-formal adult education from his time in political charge, for example daytime high schools especially for the unemployed, the production schools for teenagers and young adults without success in public schools, the experiment of the Free Youth Education and the Development Center for Non-formal Adult Education.
”Sadly enough, most of it has been closed down or severely reduced by later governments,” comments Ole Vig Jensen.
Something special
The hardships of the Third Sector have not made Ole Vig Jensen a pessimist, though.
“In Denmark we have something very special: An offer to the citizens of education by their own choice, completely voluntary, and without exams and grades.
And precisely because people choose the courses, lectures and study circles by their own initiative, they also become part of a community of people when participating. In that way the Third Sector provides qualities that people cannot get out of using the internet or watching television. In front of the screen people are mostly alone, consuming entertainment, education or debate.”
The global outlook
When asked about what new themes and subjects non-formal adult education must address now and in the future, international relations are Ole Vig Jensen’s first point.
“In this age of globalisation the rest of the world is much more a part of people’s everyday life. We are immediately influenced by what goes on in other countries. And our actions have consequences far outside our own borders.
I am convinced that there exist a big need for and a big demand for knowledge about the rest of the world. Why do people in other parts of the world think as they do? What is the historical background for this?”
Ole Vig Jensen admits that these issues are not very visible in the yearly catalogues from the non-formal adult education associations.
”In my view they offer far too little in this field. I know that sometimes it is difficult to attract enough people to meetings and courses about international relations. But our sector must feel obliged to develop new forms of education and meetings that can attract. We could do much more.”
Competences without grades
In 2006 a government commission on the challenges of globalisation made its recommendations, and a few months later the government published a program of reforms with the aim of making Denmark prepared for and able to compete in a globalised world. Both the commission and the government focused very much on the need of all kinds of education. But non-formal adult education was only mentioned with a few words.
Ole Vig Jensen thinks that it was a great mistake.
“Our tradition has something very special to contribute. The formal system of education may be better in providing hard core knowledge and competences, but in the non-formal sector the citizens can acquire “life competences”, like social competences, communication competences, competences to be able to learn and culture competences.
These competences are very much a result of the personal commitment that comes from the voluntary character of the education.”
Having worked both as a politician and as an organiser of non-formal adult education Ole Vig Jensen is very much aware that the political establishment, the formal educational institutions and the employers often voice a demand for documentation of these broader competences. And this demand can be difficult to combine with the Third Sector principle of no exams and no grades.
“This is a big discussion inside our sector. Personally I do not think that we shall compromise our principles,” states Ole Vig Jensen.
“We will not gain anything from it. In that field the formal education system is much better suited, and it receives much better funding.
I realise that without grades and exams the rest of society is less inclined to acknowledge the competences that we provide. But our primary aim must be to make the individual participant him- or herself realise their own competences and acknowledge that they actually learn much more than can be stated in a certificate.
If we on top of that can develop a model of documentation, that the employers will accept, I think it will be very good.”
Local democracy in big units
The Third Sector must deal with much more than the big global problems:
“The Danish municipalities have been reorganised in larger units. It is a centralising reform. There are advantages in that reform, but it also entails the risk, that the individual citizen is alienated from the politicians and the political institutions.
This is a challenge for the Third Sector. We must deal with the issues of the municipalities. And most important we must keep on creating small circles of social solidarity and community. Because the risk is that they will vanish inside these large municipalities.”
Ole Vig Jensen admits that the consequence may be that the non-formal adult education associations must enter areas that are much more controversial than teaching Italian or wickerwork.
“If the associations start organising education and debates on controversial local issues, it may provoke exactly those local politicians, who administer the funding of non-formal adult education.
But I hope that they are broadminded enough to se the need for committing the citizens to the local democracy. At first it may seem annoying for them, but on long term basis it is essential for democracy as such. The worst danger for democracy is indifference.”
Lifestyle and popular health
Another key issue for Ole Vig Jensen is popular health:
“More and more people realises that we cannot pay our way out of illness. We must do something ourselves, sometime changing our lifestyle. If not, the life quality of the individual will be worse, and society will be faced with enormous expenses.
So it is of common interest for both citizen and society to improve popular health. In my education society we have done a lot of work in this field.
Spending time at the beaches this summer I have been struck by the fact that so many young people are overweight. This confirms my conviction that the Third Sector has a job to do here.
…and send more money
No surprise, Ole Vig Jensen wants the state to channel more money into non-formal adult education.
“People are willing to pay, but to a limit. So I think it would help a lot, if we were able to lower the fees.
On the other hand you can say that if the participants pay these high fees, we must provide quality. My proposal is that the government earmarks some extra funding for the national associations to help the local branches and schools in controlling and improving quality, for example by educating teachers and local organisers,” says Ole Vig Jensen..
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Oktober 2006
The Third Sector in Denmark
Non-formal adult education has a long history in Denmark. Some of its characteristics are:
- Courses and lectures are voluntary chosen by participants
- No restriction on content
- No grades
- No exams
- Organisational independence of state and local authorities
- Public funding if organised in association
- A broad spectre of types of organisations: educational associations, folk high schools (residential and non-residential), issue defined associations (women’s, environmental, artistic, Third World, etc.), co-operatives.
Danish Adult Education Association is the umbrella organisation of this sector.
Ole Vig Jensen
• Born 17. of May 1935
• Former primary school teacher
• Former deputy head of primary school
• Former chairman of the Free Adult Education Association
• Former chairman of Danish Association of Adult Education
• Former chairman of the Folk High School secretariat
• Former Member of Parliament for the Danish Social-Liberal Party
• Former Minister of Culture and Minister of Education
• Director of the Danish Education Association until 15. of September 2006.
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