The political economy of adult education and development

The contribution of adult education to poverty reduction and to other key development goals is often ignored in favour of a focus on the education of children, especially basic primary education. While school education is clearly necessary, this chapter's focus is on the equally important and complementary role that adult education has to play in reconstruction and development in East Timor. It begins by defining adult education and discussing briefly its historical links with development theory and practice. It then presents some initial data on current adult education policy and programming in East Timor, based on interviews and observations undertaken on three recent field trips and on an analysis of a range of policy documents and program reports. The next section introduces a framework for analysing the adult education effort at a national level, in a way that allows for a critical assessment of its overall impact on East Timor's development goals. The conclusion draws out some implications from the analysis in relation to the adult education workforce, including its national leadership, and to the issue of adult literacy.