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The Government wants to reinforce Danish power of cohesion and competition. Our suggestion is: Use non-formal adult education! Use non-residential folk high schools, evening schools and associations that know what it takes to motivate and incentivise the population to further education.
Why not offer every single Dane free English lessons during two semesters? Beginners could get started learning a foreign language. The others could improve their language skills. And competent English-speaking Danes could upgrade their skills even further e.g. within their work area.
This is the globalisation advice from the adult education associations to the Prime Minister and the Danish parliament “the Folketing” in connection with its adoption of a series of initiatives according to the globalisation strategy prepared by the Prime Minister’s own Globalisation Council.
As recently as January, the 24th, when the parliament discussed the work of the Globalisation Council, the Prime Minister formulated the requirement as follows: Education is a precondition for each individual to adapt to the global economy. Education is the key to include everybody in the development process.
Language skills are maybe one of the most important skills to get ready for a globalised world both as individuals and as a society. If the Danes are to be incorporated into the global world we have to speak foreign languages. And English is still an important language to the Danes.
A national education campaign, like the one we suggest, will allow us to build on the best Danish traditions and the experience capital that Denmark possesses. At the same time we can turn on to the rest of the world and qualify to the future.
Over a couple of years we will be able to raise the average achievement of the Danes regarding their English skills, even though we are well aware that not everybody will accept the offer.
The greatest effect is probably going to be measured among the group of people with a low level of educational attainment who in spite of the teaching in elementary school cannot read a homepage in English nor manage a conversation in English. They will not only improve their skills during one year, but they will also feel motivated to attend further education in English or in other studies, once they have finished the course.
We are not blind to the fact that a campaign like this one will raise a number of practical issues to consider. But we are also convinced that the challenges of the globalisation age need courageous and ambitious initiatives.
In any case our promise is that the educational associations are ready to rise to the challenge. Evening Schools, folk high schools, non-residential folk high schools and educational associations have considerable experience within this kind of popular education, and in addition the associations are located out in the corners of society, within the local communities and in the districts.
The very tradition of Danish adult education which is both non-compulsory for the participant and organised by volunteers would be highly suited to this campaign. Our ability to focus on the qualifications of each individual, and to improve them, is also a strong point in this connection.
It is very important to people with a low level of educational attainment that the teaching of adult education is focused on the spoken language rather than theory and grammar, which tend to deter this group of people. Non-formal adult education is not stuck to marking and examination either.
These methods make adult education associations able to incentivize to further education. In a recent Swedish survey, 90 per cent of the participants stated that having participated in an adult education activity they have been motivated to upgrade their skills. Some of them continue to the next step of the chosen education which the same adult education association is usually ready to offer. Others are guided back to the formal education system which they obviously had left too early.
But it is not enough that the Danes improve their English skills. Often they lack even more basic qualifications. Approx. 800,000 people in Denmark do not have sufficient skills regarding Danish and mathematics.
For many years adult education associations, folk high schools and non-residential folk high schools have taken a big role in the efforts to help citizens who did not learn to read in primary school. Only in Copenhagen the non-residential folk high schools organise a quarter of the preparatory adult education, and surveys show that the schools have been very successful.
But the capacity cannot meet the demands. We think it is evident that the Danish government and the parliament should give greater priority to these activities as part of the globalisation strategy.
To create a strong society and to ensure a sufficient labour force in the future, it is necessary to improve the incorporation of non-ethnic Danes into the Danish society.
One of our schools is very successful in offering immigrant parents Danish and math lessons so that the parents will be able to review the children’s lessons with them. In the middle of Aarhus, which last year was in a state of unrest and vandalism, more than 100 immigrant parents have registered “the homework assistance course”. This was obtainable because a local adult education association, called FO-Aarhus, has had very good experience with this kind of teaching in cooperation with the local housing association.
The adult education associations are keen to disseminate their knowledge throughout the country. With financial and political support from the political system we could contribute efficiently to the integration of immigrants in the Danish society, and at the same time improve the schooling of their children considerably.
To know about foreign countries and cultures is a necessary precondition to a strong global society. The work of many adult education associations include this knowledge and it is often a part of the courses, debate activities and lectures which are very well suited for communicating this kind of knowledge.
There is no shortage of education and teaching offers from our part. But we have other abilities which are even better or at least more economic!
We can help recognize and assess all the unrecorded and invisible knowledge.
Everybody acquires knowledge and qualifications outside the formal education system: In their family, at their working place and not the least by participating in association activities and adult education. These qualifications are seldom registered and they are very difficult to document.
This applies to both specific professional knowledge and informal qualifications which on the other hand are in high demand on the labour market, and quite indispensable in the global knowledge society: The ability to acquire new skills, the ability to develop new ideas, open-mindedness towards people of other social, cultural or ethnic backgrounds, co-operativeness and much more.
For over a century non-formal adult education has created unrecorded qualifications. In recent years we have started working within the field of recognising real competencies or prior learning.
This work is to make each individual aware of his or her own actual competencies. On that basis it will be easier for people to select which adult education courses to attend.
At the same time it will make it possible to present these competencies to future employers or formal educational institutions they want to apply for.
A systematic assessment of prior learning will raise the profile of, so far, undetected competencies. This will provide the basis for using the competencies more effectively on the labour market and in the society as such, and for specifically targeting education offers to the individual. Why attend teaching in something you have learned previously?
We have now come up with suggestions on the part of the globalisation strategy of the Prime Minister which is to ensure that Denmark will be able to counter international competition. But as he said in the parliamentary debate on the 24 January, Mr. Anders Fogh Rasmussen has two main objectives regarding the globalisation strategy: To strengthen our competitive power and to strengthen our power of cohesion.
Non-formal adult education is also able to contribute to the last objective. The power of cohesion is admittedly not the most clearly defined term used in the public debate. Nevertheless, we risk our neck and claim that: Non-formal adult education can do that!
Every year we manage to get thousands of people off their couches and into conference rooms or class rooms to be with other people – often across social differences, differences of age and ethnic backgrounds. This achievement alone is an indispensable contribution to the power of cohesion in a society where many people voluntarily or involuntarily are isolated in narrow circles or in the loneliness of their apartments.
In most cases they do not only spend some time with other people. But the participants also exchange ideas and create progress jointly. They become part of a community which improves their ability to create and maintain communities.
A lot of the activities of the associations and schools relate to becoming active citizens who have the potential to be take part in the development of society both locally and globally.
These issues are on the agenda of our local schools and associations; and it is a key priority of Danish Adult Education Association to ensure a contribution to the development of democracy and active citizenship and thus the power of cohesion of our society.
But there is still room for improvement. It is not an easy task to develop democracy and involve citizens in the decision-making process in a globalised society where it becomes more and more difficult to determine where decisions are made and why.
At the same time the Danish conception of democracy has lately been increasingly confronted with other values and norms for establishing a society – exactly because of the globalisation. The dramatic turn of events in connection with the Danish cartoon crisis is an excellent example.
There arises a need to not only explain and defend the traditional Danish conception of democracy, but also to make it a topic of public debate.
It is necessary to strengthen the constructive debate on democracy and put enhanced efforts to induce more people than currently to take part in democracy and in society: In debates, association activities, user’s democracy, activities relating to democracy, globalisation, lifelong learning, active citizenship etc.
We suggest that a pooled democracy budget is allocated for adult education associations and for educational association activities to boost activation of democracy with the following purposes:
- to focus on democracy and democratic values
- to call for a debate on how democracy works and how to improve democracy
- to conduct experiments and development tests of new methods to provide inducement for citizens who do not participate in association activities or in other democratic forums. It could be mentoring or training courses on how associations operate, “How to become actively involved in…”, “How to achieve influence”, “This is how Denmark works”, “How to write a discussion”.
Will we have the ability to meet the challenges of globalisation? This is a question many people ask on their own behalf and on behalf of the Danish society.
We are not as concerned as many people are. This is due to our origin as Danish adult education associations and that we advance the concept of “Folkeoplysning” (liberal adult education) in order to make contribution to the present as well as the future.
This feature article is intended to show the grounds for our optimism. It is now our hope that the Prime Minister, the Government and the Parliament accept our globalisation counsel.
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Feature article by Naser Khader, former head of Danish Adult Education Association (DAEA) and Per Paludan Hansen deputy head of DAEA. The feature was published in the Danish newspaper Politiken, 3 March 2006
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