The eighties - New challenges

The beginning of the 80's was overshadowed by the illness and death of Bob Schouten, who had acted as honorary secretary of the Bureau since its beginning.

In the Steering Committee meeting of March 10, 1981 held in Amersfoort Helmuth Dolff commemorated him in the following terms: "If to-day there is a sort of international comradeship between adult educators this is very much to Bob Schouten's merit, who was influenced by de Saint-Exupéry's statement "le plus beau métier des hommes est d'unir les hommes" and had made this the main idea of his life".

The decision was taken to establish a fund in his honour, "to assist workers in adult education at the beginning of their career, making themselves familiar with international aspects of their work by studying abroad in one of the countries of Europe". Capital was accumulated for the Bob Schouten Fund using gifts from associations and personal friends. The rent was used for travel grants; several organisations offered to host the holders of bursaries when they wished to visit their countries.

Two years later Helmuth Dolff died of cancer. Jacob Horn, a direct colleague, wrote:

"Helmuth Dolff was elected as President in 1973 after a long period of active involvement in the Bureau's work. This election was symbolic of the work the Bureau tries to perform; it took place near the battlefield of Arnhem where several of the delegates had been serving on opposite sides- Helmuth himself as a boy of 15 as well. Helmuth felt very strongly about the value of international contacts; he was a fine colleague and a good friend..."
(Remembrance of Helmuth Dolff in Steering Committee meeting of January 17, 1984 by Arthur Stock)

Policy and Structure

As a successor of Helmuth Dolff, Arthur Stock was given the difficult task of steering the Bureau clear of the rocks that appeared in the 80's.

In the 70's the Bureau's work had been focused to a great extent on building a comprehensive system of Adult Education, with special attention to disadvantaged groups.

In the 80's, a period of economic decline and "retreating government", adult education organisations were confronted with economic stringency and were drawn back to their traditional "firebrigade function" to help in solving specific social problems.

The situation at the best offered narrow-front advances, which moreover, had been to the disadvantage of other areas of work.

In the educational field there was an ever growing influence of non-educational sources and it should be endeavoured to change the stress of their programmes into a more educational one. (Steering Committee meeting January 17, 1983)

The shift in policy was briefly defined by Arthur Stock in 1984 when he stated that politicians now tended to think in terms of trends in society, like the changing age composition in the population, the introduction of new technology, multi-racial societies, unemployment etc.

In his opinion Adult Education now had to focus on the educational dimensions of these large social trends.

We shall see these concerns reflected in the Bureau's activities in this period.

To be able to give guidance on new issues, the length of the Steering Committee meetings was increased to provide extra time for working groups on urgent topics.

Examples of Working parties Steering Committee

1980: Meeting of secretaries of National institutes as structures for advice and negotiation with national governments and their functioning in a time of economic recession; the priorities set by the different institutions for activities in the coming years.

1982: Information and Documentation in AE

1985: Programme of conferences/ Women's education

Secretariat and Structure

After the move of the Bureau's office to Amersfoort in 1971 the Bureau depended for approximately 50% on a grant from the Dutch Ministry of Culture, Recreation and Social Work (CRM).

The hardening economic climate also had a great influence on the Bureau's situation: the Ministry had in 1981 already introduced important economies in its subsidies to adult education but in 1982 it also decided to cut its subsidies to international work.

 
"July 30, 1982

Since 1969 your Bureau has been subsidized on a yearly basis at the discretion of this ministry.

From this side the work of the Bureau has always been highly appreciated. . due tor the decrease of the financial possibilities of the national government it is necessary to revise the priorities with regard to subsidized activities.

As this ministry has subsidised the Bureau for a considerable period , it seems to me that it should be the turn of other countries, which make use of your documentation material to cover the deficit in the Bureau's budget.

In order to give your Bureau the opportunity to explore alternative sources of finance, I am willing in principle to contribute a subsidy of maximally Hfl. 130.000 for the year 1982.

An eventual application for a subsidy in 1983 could only be honoured with a maximum of half of the subsidy granted for 1982. For 1984 no subsidy will be allocated.

I hope you will be able to find the necessary support for your activities elsewhere.

The Minister of Culture, Recreation and Social Welfare".

The Dutch treasurer, Mr van Houte, had already warned in 1979 that such a decision might be taken and the Steering committee had taken measures to improve the income from membership fees, but the gravity of this decision, which involved 50% of the Bureau's budget, required more drastic measures.

Mr Kees Stapel, then elected member in the Steering Committee, contacted the European Cultural Foundation which resulted in a grant to bridge the lack of subsidy in the second half of 1993.

In the meantime the two Dutch organisations which shared their office with the Bureau in Amersfoort negotiated a grant for a part-time function for bilateral international relations. This resulted in the offering of a 60% post to the Bureau's secretary and a 50% post for secretarial assistance by the Dutch Centre of Adult Education NCVO, on the understanding that this post could also be used for the work of the European Bureau. This meant relief of ¦ 111.314,- on the total budget of ¦ 177.702,- in 1984 and offered a feasible outcome to the problems.

The economies in adult education were introduced in the framework of a decentralisation policy where the power of decision as well as the financial responsibilities were to fall on the local authorities. This also affected the situation of national co-ordinating bodies, which lost their subsidy in 1988 in the context of a restructuration operation. This put an end to the Dutch Centre for Adult Education, NCVO.

On that occasion the Bureau could get back a subsidy for a 40% assignment, thanks to the support of "the Friends of the European Bureau", an association which had been founded in 1984 to defend the Bureau's case. Nevertheless it became clear that for the future other structural measures had to be taken, to give the Bureau's work a less insecure footing and meet the need for an increase in staff to answer the many new tasks ahead.

In the period 1988-1992 the chair was held by Lenie Oglesby and she undertook to promote the development of a new structure together with the realisation of a useful programme which met the needs of the membership.

In this period the Dutch Study Centre for Adult Education in Amersfoort was willing to give local support to the Bureau's secretariat.

Mr Jan de Vries, the secretary to this Centre suggested organizing the Bureau on two foundations:

"organisations, or parts of organisations, that are mainly involved with "advocating" and

organisations or parts of them that are mainly involved with more scientific-supportive activities".

As the main responsibilities of the study centre were in the field of adult basic education however, its interests did not quite fit the structure of the Steering Committee. This meant that this form of co-operation was ended in 1992; the Amersfoort office then had a small independent office placed at its disposal.

To remedy the shortage of staff it was decided in 1988 to put more emphasis on work in subcommittees which were responsible for specific areas of work, following the model developed by the Women's Committee since 1985.

The issues dealt with this way were: Women and Education - Literacy and Adult Basic Education - Education and Training in a Changing Employment Market.

At the same time a more informal network was established for educational work with older adults.

As a more fundamental solution to the structural problems the Steering Committee decided to investigate the feasibility of opening linkoffices in various regions of Europe. By the end of 1991 it was clear that the Catalonian government was willing to fund an office in Barcelona.

Co-operation with International Organisations

In this period of financial stringency the Bureau became more dependent on project-money to continue its activities. Apart from the support from member organisations and national governments, support from international bodies also became a vital element for the continuity of the Bureau's secretariat.

 
UNESCO

In 1985 the fourth UNESCO world conference took place in Paris. The Danish officer, Mr Bertelsen, who was in charge of the preparations was concerned about the input of Non Governmental Organisations and the Bureau was involved in this endeavour in close co-operation with the International Council for Adult Education.

UNESCO requested the Bureau to prepare materials to provide an image of the Adult Education situation in Europe. As early as 1980 the Bureau had received a subsidy to help finance the publication of four conference reports and for the preparation of abstracts of significant adult education publications.

In 1982 a contract was concluded to prepare a new report on Adult Education Legislation.

European Communities

The action of the European parliament from 1972 onwards finally lead to the establishment in 1981 of a creditline (article 634) for Continuing Education and Co-operation between Residential Centres for Adult Education.

A proportion of the funds made available went to the European Education of Adults largely through the International Federation of Europe Houses and the International Centre for European Training.

The remainder was intended for a programme dealing with the contribution Adult Education could make to a number of priority fields in Europe. It provided Adult Education organisations with the possibility of organising trans-national workshops and conferences in fields such as

- Adult Education in disadvantaged areas

- Integrated programmes for socio-economic development

- Adult Basic Education

- Education and training measures for long-term unemployed adults and

- Education to meet the needs of cultural and linguistic minorities.

Each year approximately 20 meetings could be organised in this context.

The European Bureau has been involved in this programme and in co-operation with its associates has initiated meetings on - Adult Basic Education (1983), - Adult Education and Local/Regional Development (1984), - New /Information Technology and Adult Education (1985),- Adult Education and Social Development in Southern Europe (1988), - Adult Education for a Multi-Cultural Society (1991)- Women and Decisionmaking (1991).

These meetings have been most useful for establishing closer contacts between member organisations of the Bureau and spreading new ideas. Moreover the budget made it possible to collect basic documentation for these meetings and to publish this material in the Bureau's new publication, "Newsletter".

The follow-up of these meetings however could only take place on the national level, through the work of the national associates of EBAE: unfortunately the scheme did not offer possibilities for a trans-national follow-up by e.g. the establishment of more regular trans-national network activities or through the development of experimental trans-national activities.

A sort of intermediate solution was found by the Bureau by organising a series of interrelated meetings, which built on each others experience and developed related issues, as was done in the 4-year programme, Education and Training of Adults in a Changing Employment Market, which started with a large conference in Toulouse in 1987.

The overall aim of this series was to study the part played by informal, general and community-based education in the vocational education and training of adults.

In this framework the following meetings were organised:

- Education and training for unemployed adults in the mid-life years (1987);

- Special programmes for the long term unemployed (1988);

- Women's Vocational Education and Training (1988);

- Liberal and general education programmes in the framework of provision made for unemployed adults (1989);

- Educational guidance for adults (1990, 1991);

- Tutor Experiences on grassroots courses for Women (1990).

In 1989 the Bureau undertook a seminar in Valkenburg, the Netherlands, for organizers involved in the credit-line programme, in order to discuss and analyse developments and links with EC policies as recommended by the EC coordination meeting held in Brussels, 1988.

This Valkenburg meeting made recommendations on the future programme of the credit line and also made suggestions for other forms of working and emphasised the need for more effective co-operation among adult educators, working in common areas. A possibility was for existing umbrella organizations to be funded to co-ordinate activities in particular fields.

Following the Valkenburg meeting, the Bureau elaborated a co-operative plan of action together with two other European organisations EZA, the European Centre for Workers-Questions and CEPFAR, The European Training and Development Centre for Farming and Rural Life. This plan was submitted to the European Parliament.

Following this step the EC increased the budget available for meetings, which enabled the Bureau to launch four new activities in 1991.

After a period of ten years, in 1991, the Commission decided to review its policy in this field, with the aim of reducing the dispersion of funds over many small activities and secondly, to give Adult Education a more prominent place in the work of the Commission.

The Bureau collaborated with CEPFAR and EZA to help establish the basis for such a new policy:

CEPFAR prepared an analysis of the situation for Adult education in the rural world,

The Bureau worked on an inventory of organisations and establishments dealing with continuing education in each memberstate of the Community and EZA drew up an inventory of the aims and needs of Adult Education in the following ten years.

International Council of Adult Education

Thanks to its contacts with the Kellog Foundation the International Council was able to give support to the Bureau's work on two vital occasions:

At the end of the seventies the International Council provided a grant to the Bureau which made it possible to publish four issues of a new periodical "Newsletter". When the subsidy period for this activity came to an end its was possible to continue the publication during the 80's with the help of associates, who helped to publish special issues, and by using the Newsletter to publish the basic documentation for conferences within the framework of budget-line 634.

In 1988 the Bureau received a second grant to help it to carry through the structural changes that had become necessary.

Membership; Growth in Southern and Eastern Europe, Israel

After the publication of the French version of his booklet on the history of the Bureau, Mr Schouten received the following letter from Professor de Sanctis, which opened up a new period in the relations with Southern Europe.

"In reading the pages of your historical study I was sorry to see that my country has played an extremely limited role in the life of the Bureau. This situation grieves all those who endorse the motto of A. de Saint-Exupéry "Le plus beau métier des hommes est d'unir les hommes" and wish to make a contribution to the development of adult education. I think that in the future we need to overcome this distance by co-operation on the European level with colleagues who see their task in overcoming traditional education and in answering the educational needs of workers.(...)
At any rate I endorse my readiness to co-operate fully with initiatives of the Bureau with the aim of a more intensive collaboration between those working in the field of adult education in Europe".
Professor Filippo M. De Sanctis, letter of 15-4-1980

Professor de Sanctis became a member of the Steering Committee and the University of Florence took an active part in the preparation of publications like the Directory, the survey of Adult Education legislation and the Italian version of the Bureau's list of terms in 1982. The meeting organised in Pistoia in 1986 was a great stimulus for the contacts with Southern European organisations.

These links were also stimulated to a great extend by the initiative of the French member organisation Peuple et Culture to bring together Southern European colleagues at a meeting in Toulouse in 1982, which lead to a series of meetings to which the Bureau's secretariat was also invited.

This led to the entry of new members from Spain, Cyprus, Italy and Yugoslavia in the period 1983-1986.

The Southern European presence in the Bureau strongly influenced its programme. In the years of economic problems the Bureau had a great deal of help from their experience in difficult situations and their activities in local development greatly stimulated the Bureau's programme.

The relations with Middle and Eastern Europe started on an informal basis in the seventies by bilateral study visits and exchanges of information.

Thanks to the relations of Europäische Akademie Berlin, the meetings organised in Berlin in 1979 and 1980 attracted participants from Poland, Hungary and Rumania.

At the beginning of the 80's Steering Committee members visited various organisations and further contacts were stimulated by the common work in the International Council of Adult Education.

In 1986 the Bureau received the first application for membership from an organisation in Central Europe, TWP in Poland.

In the discussion on the Bureau's fee structure in 1985 the starting point was that financial and political barriers were less important than the aim to have the whole of Europe in membership. In subsequent years the membership increased, following the end of the Cold War.

At the request of the International Council of Adult Education the Israeli Association of AE had been accepted as an associate member of the Bureau in 1976, whereas the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, PLO had become a member in the Arab region of ICAE.

In 1984 it was decided to adopt the regional division of ICAE for the Bureau's membership as well, which made, that the Israeli organisation was accepted as a regular member and got a place in the Steering Committee.

Programme of Activities

New issues

In 1980 the first meeting on Women and Adult Education was held in close co-operation with the National Institute of Adult Education (England and Wales).

This event lead to the establishment in 1985 of a subcommittee of the Steering Committee to promote the participation of women in Bureau activities and decisionmaking in Adult Education. The remit of the committee also included identifying major research needs and the production of publications concerning women in European Adult Education.

For a detailed description of the working methods and activities of this committee we refer to the article of Lenie Oglesby, who, as an elected member in the Steering Committee, was a driving force in this committee, and served the Bureau as president in the period 1988-1991.(See Chapter XI)

A grant from Deutscher Volkshochschul Verband, DVV made it possible to explore policies and activities in the fields of Health and Adult Education (1985) and Adult Education for a Multi-Cultural Society (1986, 1991).

Important issues in the 1986 meeting were programmes to deal with the covert racism in the majority population, the promotion of the employment of ethnic minority staff in adult education institutions and didactic use of the media.

Ongoing activities

 
Specialist Meetings

Also in the 80's the Bureau continued meetings providing an occasion for specialists in various fields to exchange information about their work and to draw up plans for common action.

 
1982/1988: Information and Documentation in AE: Application of information technology in AE Documentation and possibilities for further co-operation between documentation centres.

1983: Meeting of editors of AE journals;

Policymaking in Adult education

As a forerunner to the 1985 UNESCO world conference a meeting was organised in Sweden, 1994 to discuss the survey of Adult Education legislation prepared by the Bureau and the outcomes of the questionnaire circulated by UNESCO.

 
"Adult Education is on the defensive and apologetic. It must become more positive.(...) The division between general and personal education on the one hand and occupational education and training, on the other, is becoming more worrying. It is not simply a question of where the money is going but that there is a wall between the sections. While we work on the margins we will be considered to be marginal. There is little regard paid to the social and political importance of education for adults. Yet this is most important".
(Peter Clyne, Common trends in national reports prepared for the UNESCO International Conference)

Following the decentralisation policy in various countries of Europe increased attention was also given to the role of local and regional government in policy making. The role of Adult Education in local/regional development was a common interest which connected organisations in Northern and Southern Europe. Meetings in Pistoia (1984) and Madrid (1988) further elaborated this issue.

It was a paradox that the local authorities that made possible so many developments and were the example for many countries were "legislated away in England and Wales and replaced by centrally imposed restrictions". (Don Clarke, Report Conference Pistoia)

Education and Training in a Changing Employment Market, Unemployment

Following the meeting in France in 1979, the issue of unemployment became a most urgent one in the 80's.

In 1984 a meeting was organised in Amersfoort, in co-operation with the Dutch Study Centre for Adult Education, SVE, which dealt with projects connected to the local situation and geared to a combination of general and vocational education. Various examples were given of the use of modular systems, job creation and the use of guidance and counselling.

The issue was also the main interest in the 4-years programme Education and Training in a Changing Employment Market, which was aimed at intensifying the part played by informal education and development work in the field of vocational education for adults.

The Training of Adult Educators and Volunteers

This issue had been dealt with extensively in the sixties in the context of the growing professionalisation in adult education.

The conference in Geiranger, Norway 1982, came back on this issue with special attention to qualifications in this field.

Following this meeting the Bureau collected national reports on the state of the art in the training and further training of adult educators in sixteen countries of Europe, which were published in co-operation with the University of Surrey.(see Chapter VII, written by Derek Legge)

A special issue in the Geiranger meeting was the co-operation between volunteers and professionals which was dealt with more in depth in 1987. The conference in Malle, Belgium, considered especially the ways and means to organise training based on experience in voluntary work, the rights of volunteers and support services for volunteers.

In this meeting there was a keen awareness that the growing recognition for volunteer work was also due to the fact, that it served as a cheap solution for getting work done while being based on exploitation.

Information and Counselling Services

Thanks to the invitation of Europäischer Akademie Berlin it was possible in 1981 to investigate the situation for information and counselling services in various countries, with special attention to the outreach dimension of advisory services and the value of the independent counselling and advisory centre, as contrasted with a network approach.

The activities in this field were able to be continued at the end of the 80's thanks to the support of the European Communities budget-line 634.

Co-operation with the Media and new Technology

The 1982 conference in Denmark, a follow-up of the 1976 meeting in Belgium, dealt with practical experiences in e.g. the Dutch Open School and the new British Channel IV as well as the possibilities offered by local broadcasting.

The Conference on New Technology, held in Woburn, England, 1985 offered an opportunity to learn from the experience of the nearby Open University. The meeting advocated the training of Adult Educators and staff at all levels to ensure adequate expertise in the use of information technology; this should include reference to changing roles.

Greater attention should be given to the education of the population at large to ensure the establishment of democratic control over developments. "Only in this way can dangerous divisions in society be prevented".

Literacy and Adult Basic Education

In 1982 a studytour was organised to Israel which paid particular attention to literacy, language training for immigrants and community work. Literacy was especially important for women, who had immigrated from Arab countries. A special newspaper for new readers and immigrants brought them into contact with developments in the world around them and served as a basis for political awareness.

In the context of the 1988 restructuring of activities a special subcommittee for Literacy and ABE was established, under the auspices of the Dutch Study Centre for AE.

"It is clear that on matters of methodology of teaching, learning goals, tutor training and strategies for development of the field there is emerging a common core of thinking(...)Key words in this respect are Student-centred learning, use of every-day experience in the learning process, contributing to emancipation processes in the learner and society etc. (...) As a follow-up of the 1987 conference in Angers a group of colleagues from 6 countries discussed the possibilities of a network and prepared a working plan for the first years dealing with the systematic exchange of information and cooperation in the fields of -Tutor Exchange, -Student Exchange, -Policy matters, -Research and development, -Tutor Training, -and -Documentation".

For the work of the subcommittee on Adult education in a Changing Employment Market we can refer to the paragraph on co-operation with the European Community.

Publications

Newsletter

After the end of the period covered by the grant of the International Council of Adult Education it became necessary in the beginning of the eighties to raise the funds for each newsletter specifically.

In a number of cases steering committee members could raise funds in their own countries for the preparation of specific issues or could give local support with editorial work. A number of issues were also published as basic documentation for theme-based conferences and could be financed in the framework of the EC credit-line 634.

During the eighties it was possible to secure the publication of two issues a year in this way.