Representatives of education ministries, professionals from other government sectors, education planners and researchers from Cambodia, China, the Philippines and Rwanda will gather in Shanghai for a two-week workshop on strengthening national education systems from a lifelong learning perspective.
This event, which will be held from 28 October to 8 November 2019, is the second in a series of workshops co-organized by the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, the National Commission of the People’s Republic of China for UNESCO and Shanghai Open University. Both workshops have been planned in response to demand from Member States for guidance in creating policy frameworks for the promotion of lifelong learning opportunities for all. The first workshop, which took place in Shanghai in 2018, consisted of national teams of representatives from Indonesia, Kenya, Namibia and Viet Nam, who successfully developed a draft proposal for a policy or strategy to support the process of establishing lifelong learning-oriented education systems in their countries.
During this year’s workshop, participants will learn more about the concept of lifelong learning as an approach to addressing countries’ education issues in a holistic manner, and will explore which governance mechanisms and institutional capacities are required to implement lifelong learning policies. They will analyse, among others, emerging political, social, demographic, cultural, and environmental issues that may present challenges to the development of such policies. They will review and evaluate existing education policies from the perspective of lifelong learning. They will identify national priorities for lifelong learning, which include, but are not limited to, legal frameworks, policy mechanisms, opportunities for lifelong learning at the local level, all modalities of learning, information and communications technology, and learning opportunities for refugees and migrants. Country teams will begin to develop gender-responsive policies and strategies from a lifelong learning perspective. In addition, they will plan monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to assess the implementation of lifelong learning in their countries. At the end of the workshop, each national team will present their draft policy or strategy for strengthening lifelong learning.
By promoting a sound conceptual understanding of lifelong learning in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, identifying some common features of lifelong learning policies and strategies, highlighting different forms of lifelong learning implementation, and facilitating knowledge sharing and synergies of cooperation, this workshop will result in concrete actions to achieve lifelong learning opportunities for all in Member States.
