Amarendra Kumar Mishra
The UNESCO prescribes ‘lifelong learning ‘in its various modes and manifestations as the most systematic and scientific approach to learning.
The term ‘lifelong learning’ is often used to define the attitude of staying in a learning mode.
‘Lifelong learning’ is the “ongoing, voluntary, and self-motivated” pursuit of knowledge for either personal or professional reasons. Therefore, it not only enhances social inclusion, active citizenship, and personal development, but also self-sustainability, rather than competitiveness and employability. The concept Lifelong Learning was introduced in Denmark as early as in 1971.
Evolved from the term “life-long learners” created by Leslie Watkins and used by Professor Clint Taylor of California State University, Los Angeles and Superintendent for the Temple City Unified School District’s mission statement in 1993, the term recognizes that learning is not confined to childhood or the classroom but takes place throughout life and in a range of situations. Allen Tough (1979), Canadian educator and researcher, asserts that almost 70% of learning projects are self-planned.
During the last fifty years, constant scientific and technological innovation and change has had a profound effect on learning needs and styles. Learning can no longer be divided into a place and time to acquire knowledge (school) and a place and time to apply the knowledge acquired (the workplace). Instead, learning can be seen as something that takes place on an ongoing basis from our daily interactions with others and with the world around us. It can take the form of formal learning or informal learning, or self-directed learning.
Lifelong learning is being recognized by traditional colleges and universities as valid in addition to degree attainment. Some learning is accomplished in segments or interest categories and can still be valuable to the individual and community. The economic impact of educational institutions at all levels will continue to be significant into the future as formal courses of study continue and interest-based subjects are pursued. The institutions produce educated citizens who buy goods and services in the community and the education facilities and personnel generate economic activity during the operations and institutional activities. Similar to health facilities, educational institutions are among the top employers in many cities and towns of the world. Whether brick-and-mortar institutions or on-line schools, there is a great economic impact worldwide from learning, including lifelong learning, for all age groups. The lifelong learners, including persons with academic or professional credentials, tend to find higher-paying occupations, leaving monetary, cultural, and entrepreneurial impressions on communities, according to educator Cassandra B. Whyte.
It is a term that is used loosely in India and lacks structure, importance, value and support that this concept enjoys in the developed countries.
Many countries, for example Canada, have Government programmes based on UNESCO guidelines and even offer subsidy and monetary support under Lifelong Learning Plans (LLPs). In the Indian context, learning is often done to earn a degree.
We are a degree-oriented country. A hard fact is that these degrees are sometimes mere pieces of paper, which do not establish any fact of real learning happening, or that some degrees do not merit or fetch a job in today’s times, is still not an accepted reality. The concept of voluntary and continuous learning, whether to enhance professional or personal skills, is still a long shot in India.
The whole idea of lifelong learning recognised the fact that not all learning need be formal, or restricted to student life until age of twenty-eight years. It can be a process that is continuous throughout life, based on situations and varied needs.
Take the case of a retired professional. He may be interested in fine arts, but wasn’t able to do so in her career. Can’t he then enrol in a degree programme of fine arts, after retirement? Our current system doesn’t quite support such needs of learning, for it doesn’t admit anybody beyond age of 45.
Another aspect of lifelong learning is ‘life-deep learning’. It is another word for value education. In earlier times, there used to be period in classroom learning called moral science that taught the importance of right versus wrong. A new term for it is ‘value education’ or value-based teaching’, where all periods end up teaching a value that be applied for the good of a society or community. The concept has taken a step further to incorporate the idea of life-deep learning that refers to delving into insights of life and dealing with emotional, spiritual and social quotients, in addition to intelligence quotient.
Further, ‘life-wide learning’ is a term that refers to lateral learning – from experiences and situations distinct from formal, structured education. The goal is to address different kinds of learning not covered in a traditional classroom. By including LWL with a traditional classroom, students are better equipped to attain whole person development and to develop the lifelong learning skills. It is the focus of education in Hong Kong.
Life-wide learning is also an approach to visualising learning and personal development as a whole of life enterprise. The concept was developed in higher education at the University of Surrey, England.
Life-wide learning adds important detail to the broad pattern of human development we call lifelong learning – all the learning and development we gain as we progress along the pathway of our life. Lifewide learning recognizes that most people, no matter what their age or circumstances, simultaneously inhabit a number of different spaces – like work or education, being a member of a family, being involved in clubs or societies, travelling and taking holidays and looking after their own well-being mentally, physically and spiritually. So the timeframes of lifelong learning and the spaces of life-wide learning will characteristically intermingle and who we are and who we are becoming are the consequences of this intermingling.
We live out our lives in these different spaces and most people have the freedom to choose which spaces we want to occupy and how we want to occupy them. In these spaces we make decisions about what to be involved in, we meet and interact with different people, have different sorts of relationships, adopt different roles and identities, and think, behave and communicate in different ways. In these different spaces we encounter different sorts of challenges and problems, seize, create or miss opportunities, and aspire to live and achieve our ambitions. It is in these spaces that we create the meaning that is our life. The promise of life-wide education is that we can more fully appreciate and value our lives for the potential they hold for enabling us to become the people we want and need to become. In other words our everyday pathway to actualising ourselves.
These three concepts – lifelong learning, life-deep learning and life-wide learning – constitute the framework of UNESCO’s recommendation to take education to the next level.
Are the regulatory bodies listening?
(The author is Principal KC Public School, Jammu)
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