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THE
HAMBURG DECLARATION ON ADULT LEARNING
Hamburg, 14-18 de julio
de 1997
1. We, the participants in the Fifth International Conference on Adult
Education, meeting in the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, reaffirm that
only human-centred development and a participatory society based on the full
respect of human rights will lead to sustainable and equitable development.
The informed and effective participation of men and women in every sphere of
life is needed if humanity is to survive and to meet the challenges of the
future.
2. Adult education thus becomes more than a right; it is a key to the twenty-first
century. It is both a consequence of active citizenship and a condition for
full participation in society. It is a powerful concept for fostering
ecologically sustainable development, for promoting democracy, justice,
gender equity, and scientific, social and economic development, and for
building a world in which violent conflict is replaced by dialogue and a
culture of peace based on justice. Adult learning can shape identity and
give meaning to life. Learning throughout life implies a rethinking of
content to reflect such factors as age, gender equality, disability,
language, culture and economic disparities.
3. Adult education denotes the entire body of ongoing learning processes,
formal or otherwise, whereby people regarded as adults by the society to
which they belong develop their abilities, enrich their knowledge, and
improve their technical or professional qualifications or turn them in a new
direction to meet their own needs and those of their society. Adult learning
encompasses both formal and continuing education, non-formal learning and
the spectrum of informal and incidental learning available in a
multicultural learning society, where theory- and practice-based approaches
are recognized.
4. Though the content of adult learning and of education for children and
adolescents will vary according to the economic, social, environmental and
cultural context, and the needs of the people in the societies in which they
take place, both are necessary elements of a new vision of education in
which learning becomes truly lifelong. The perspective of learning
throughout life commands such complementarity and continuity. The potential
contribution of adult and continuing education to the creation of an
informed and tolerant citizenry, economic and social development, the
promotion of literacy, the alleviation of poverty and the preservation of
the environment is enormous and should, therefore, be built upon.
5. The objectives of youth and adult education, viewed as a lifelong process,
are to develop the autonomy and the sense of responsibility of people and
communities, to reinforce the capacity to deal with the transformations
taking place in the economy, in culture and in society as a whole, and to
promote coexistence, tolerance and the informed and creative participation
of citizens in their communities, in short to enable people and communities
to take control of their destiny and society in order to face the challenges
ahead. It is essential that approaches to adult learning be based on
people's own heritage, culture, values and prior experiences and that the
diverse ways in which these approaches are implemented enable and encourage
every citizen to be actively involved and to have a voice.
6. This Conference recognizes the diversity of political, economic and
social systems and governmental structures among Member States. In
accordance with that diversity and to ensure full respect for human rights
and fundamental freedoms, this Conference acknowledges that the particular
circumstances of Member States will determine the measures governments may
introduce to further the spirit of our objectives.
7. The representatives of governments and organizations participating in the
Fifth International Conference on Adult Education have decided to explore
together the potential and the future of adult learning, broadly and
dynamically conceived within a framework of lifelong learning.
8. During the present decade, adult learning has undergone substantial
changes and experienced enormous growth in scope and scale. In the knowledge-based
societies that are emerging around the world, adult and continuing education
have become an imperative in the community and at the workplace. New demands
from society and working life raise expectations requiring each and every
individual to continue renewing knowledge and skills throughout the whole of
his or her life. At the heart of this transformation is a new role for the
state and the emergence of expanded partnerships devoted to adult learning
within civil society. The state remains the essential vehicle for ensuring
the right to education for all, particularly for the most vulnerable groups
of society, such as minorities and indigenous peoples, and for providing an
overall policy framework. Within the new partnership emerging between the
public, the private and the community sectors, the role of the state is
shifting. It is not only a provider of adult education services but also an
adviser, a funder, and a monitoring and evaluation agency. Governments and
social partners must take the necessary measures to support individuals in
expressing their educational needs and aspirations, and in gaining access to
educational opportunities throughout their lives. Within governments, adult
education is not confined to ministries of education; all ministries are
engaged in promoting adult learning, and interministerial co-operation is
essential. Moreover, employers, unions, non-governmental and community
organizations, and indigenous people's and women's groups are involved and
have a responsibility to interact and create opportunities for lifelong
learning, with provision for recognition and accreditation.
9. Basic education for all means that people, whatever their age, have an
opportunity, individually and collectively, to realize their potential. It
is not only a right, it is also a duty and a responsibility both to others
and to society as a whole. It is essential that the recognition of the right
to education throughout life should be accompanied by measures to create the
conditions required to exercise this right. The challenges of the twenty-first
century cannot be met by governments, organizations or institutions alone;
the energy, imagination and genius of people and their full, free and
vigorous participation in every aspect of life are also needed. Youth and
adult learning is one of the principal means of significantly increasing
creativity and productivity, in the widest sense of those terms, and these
in turn are indispensable to meeting the complex and interrelated problems
of a world beset by accelerating change and growing complexity and risk.
10. The new concept of youth and adult education presents a challenge to
existing practices because it calls for effective networking within the
formal and non-formal systems, and for innovation and more creativity and
flexibility. Such challenges should be met by new approaches to adult
education within the concept of learning throughout life. Promoting learning,
using mass media and local publicity, and offering impartial guidance are
responsibilities for governments, social partners and providers. The
ultimate goal should be the creation of a learning society committed to
social justice and general well-being.
11. Adult literacy. Literacy, broadly conceived as the basic knowledge and
skills needed by all in a rapidly changing world, is a fundamental human
right. In every society literacy is a necessary skill in itself and one of
the foundations of other life skills. There are millions, the majority of
whom are women, who lack opportunities to learn or who have insufficient
skills to be able to assert this right. The challenge is to enable them to
do so. This will often imply the creation of preconditions for learning
through awareness-raising and empowerment. Literacy is also a catalyst for
participation in social, cultural, political and economic activities, and
for learning throughout life. We therefore commit ourselves to ensuring
opportunities for all to acquire and maintain literacy skills, and to create
in all Member States a literate environment to support oral culture. The
provision of learning opportunities for all, including the unreached and the
excluded, is the most urgent concern. The Conference welcomes the initiative
for a literacy decade in honour of Paulo Freire, to begin in 1998.
12. Recognition of the right to education and the right to learn throughout
life is more than ever a necessity; it is the right to read and write, the
right to question and analyse, the right to have access to resources, and to
develop and practise individual and collective skills and competences.
13. Women's integration and empowerment. Women have a right to equal
opportunities; society, in turn, depends on their full contribution in all
fields of work and aspects of life. Youth and adult learning policies should
be responsive to local cultures and give priority to expanding educational
opportunities for all women, while respecting their diversity and
eliminating prejudices and stereotypes that both limit their access to youth
and adult education and restrict the benefits they derive from them. Any
attempts to restrict women's right to literacy, education and training must
be considered unacceptable. Practices and measures should be taken to
counter them.
14. Culture of peace and education for citizenship and democracy. One of the
foremost challenges of our age is to eliminate the culture of violence and
to construct a culture of peace based on justice and tolerance within which
dialogue, mutual recognition and negotiation will replace violence, in homes
and communities, within nations and between countries.
15. Diversity and equality. Adult learning should reflect the richness of
cultural diversity and respect traditional and indigenous peoples' knowledge
and systems of learning; the right to learn in the mother tongue should be
respected and implemented. Adult education faces an acute challenge in
preserving and documenting the oral wisdom of minority groups, indigenous
peoples and nomadic peoples. In turn, intercultural education should
encourage learning between and about different cultures in support of peace,
human rights and fundamental freedoms, democracy, justice, liberty,
coexistence and diversity.
16. Health. Health is a basic human right. Investments in education are
investments in health. Lifelong learning can contribute substantially to the
promotion of health and the prevention of disease. Adult education offers
significant opportunities to provide relevant, equitable and sustainable
access to health knowledge.
17. Environmental sustainability. Education for environmental sustainability
should be a lifelong learning process which recognizes that ecological
problems exist within a socio-economic, political and cultural context. A
sustainable future cannot be achieved without addressing the relationship
between environmental problems and current development paradigms. Adult
environmental education can play an important role in sensitizing and
mobilizing communities and decision-makers towards sustained environmental
action.
18. Indigenous education and culture. Indigenous peoples and nomadic peoples
have the right of access to all levels and forms of education provided by
the state. However, they are not to be denied the right to enjoy their own
culture, or to use their own languages. Education for indigenous peoples and
nomadic peoples should be linguistically and culturally appropriate to their
needs and should facilitate access to further education and training.
19. Transformation of the economy. Globalization, changes in production
patterns, rising unemployment and the difficulty of ensuring secure
livelihoods call for more active labour policies and increased investment in
developing the necessary skills to enable men and women to participate in
the labour market and income-generating activities.
20. Access to information. The development of the new information and
communication technologies brings with it new risks of social and
occupational exclusion for groups of individuals and even businesses which
are unable to adapt to this context. One of the roles of adult education in
the future should therefore be to limit these risks of exclusion so that the
information society does not lose sight of the human dimension.
21. The ageing population. There are now more older people in the world in
relation to the total population than ever before, and the proportion is
still rising. These older adults have much to contribute to the development
of society. Therefore, it is important that they have the opportunity to
learn on equal terms and in appropriate ways. Their skills and abilities
should be recognized, valued and made use of.
22. In line with the Salamanca Statement, integration and access for people
with disabilities should be promoted. Disabled persons have the right to
equitable learning opportunities which recognize and respond to their
educational needs and goals, and in which appropriate learning technology
matches their special learning needs.
23. We must act with the utmost urgency to increase and guarantee national
and international investment in youth and adult learning, and the commitment
of private and community resources to them. The Agenda for the Future which
we have adopted here is designed to achieve this end.
24. We call upon UNESCO as the United Nations lead agency in the field of
education to play the leading role in promoting adult education as an
integral part of a system of learning and to mobilize the support of all
partners, particularly those within the United Nations system, in order to
give priority to implementing the Agenda for the Future and to facilitating
provision of the services needed for reinforcing international co-ordination
and co-operation.
25. We urge UNESCO to encourage Member States to adopt policies and
legislation that are favourable to and accommodate people with disabilities
in educational programmes, as well as being sensitive to cultural,
linguistic, gender and economic diversity.
26. We solemnly declare that all parties will closely follow up the
implementation of this Declaration and the Agenda for the Future, clearly
distinguishing their respective responsibilities and complementing and
co-operating with one another. We are determined to ensure that lifelong
learning will become a more significant reality in the early twenty-first
century. To that end, we commit ourselves to promoting the culture of
learning through the "one hour a day for learning" movement and the
development of a United Nations Week of Adult Learning.
27. We, gathered together in Hamburg, convinced of the necessity of adult
learning, pledge that all men and women shall be provided with the
opportunity to learn throughout their lives. To that end, we will forge
extended alliances to mobilize and share resources in order to make adult
learning a joy, a tool, a right and a shared responsibility.
http://www.unesco.org/education/uie/confintea/declaeng.htm
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