2013-07-09
Non-formal education development policy does not encourage adults to learn
An audit carried out by the National Audit Office revealed insufficient level of organisation and coordination of non-formal adult education (training of the person’s general culture, acquisition of knowledge and development and improvement of skills required for professional activities) and failure of its development to produce the expected results – the number of adult learners remains about 5 per cent and falls short of the target of 15 per cent of adult learners per year. "At present, organisation and coordination of non-formal adult education is carried out without having any priority directions and a development programme, which would specify the basic guidelines, funding priorities and principles, in place, funding is allocated without having established the training needs”, said Auditor General Giedrė Švedienė.
Funds allocated per capita for non-formal adult education trainings in regions differ up to 11 times. As a result, inhabitants of the country are not provided with equal opportunities to improve their life quality and address part of social problems and to be competitive by having access to lifelong learning. Municipalities lack sufficient focus on such education, which is developed unevenly. 78 per cent of municipalities do not examine such educational needs of the population, 91 per cent of funds are allocated for regular trainings of teachers and staff of municipal administration and municipal institutions.
Persons who have dropped out of the general education system, the disabled, prisoners and persons released from imprisonment, long-term unemployed persons, and people of older age (55-74 years) make up about 1 million inhabitants (about 40 per cent of all potential beneficiaries of non-formal adult education). The funds allocated for the training of these groups in the period 2007-2012 totalled only LTL 165.9 million, or 12 per cent of the total EU support for the development of non-formal adult education. Besides, the current funding mechanism increases the supply of education but does not encourage growth in demand.
There is also an imbalance in the funding of education areas. In the absence of funding priorities, the largest share – 95.8 per cent or LTL 1.37 billion – of all EU support allocated for this purpose for the period 2007-2013 has been intended only for one area, namely, for non-formal vocational adult education. Meanwhile the other area, non-formal non-vocational adult education (training of the person’s general culture), which addresses the quality of life issues, received LTL 61.8 million or 4.2 per cent of the funds during the said period.
The audit also showed that although a system of recognition of competences acquired in the non-formal and informal way and in practice has been developed, it has been introduced only partially. Also, the system of recognition of competences acquired in the non-formal and informal way has not been introduced in higher schools, where it would enable the candidate seeking to acquire higher education to receive a certain number of academic credits for competences acquired in different kinds of environment. Consequently, people’s motivation for lifelong learning and thus more successful competition in the labour market is not sufficiently strengthened.
The National Audit Office put forward recommendations to the Ministry of Education and Science, and to the Education Development Centre, that would help achieve better non-formal adult education development results.