Policy Review on Adult Learning: The Adult Non-formal Education Policy of Mali, West Africa

Abstract

This article covers the issue of policy development on adult learning in Mali, West Africa. On January 2007, the Malian government adopted a policy document termed Adult Non-formal Education Policy Document. The document was intended to regulate the adult learning sector and federate the actions of policy makers, adult education providers, and adult learners. The purpose of this article is to critically review the policy document, highlighting its strengths and weaknesses. The article first depicts the context in which the policy was initiated and developed. Later on, it discusses the policy's effect on adult education practice, its limits, and its implication for the future of the field in Mali. Evolution of Adult Education in Mali: Why a Policy? Various terminologies are used to refer to the field of adult education such as literacy, andragogy, continuing education, non-formal education, popular education, adult education, lifelong education, and many more. Until the 1990s, some countries have rather stressed literacy, the acquisition of reading, writing, and numeracy skills. This activity was widespread in countries that had a very high rate of illiteracy. Meanwhile, other countries stressed continuing education through the skill development of working adults (Merriam & Brockett, 2007). The terminology of non-formal education was later used to refer to remedial educational opportunities beyond the formal school arena (Coombs & Ahmed, 1974). The concept of adult education stressing a larger dimension of learning opportunities for adults became popularized and internationalized through the UNESCO conference on adult education in 1976 (Torres, 1990). That definition was clarified further during the fifth edition of the International Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA) in 1997 to include all dimensions of learning opportunities for adults in all settings. CONFINTEA is the international adult education forum held by UNESCO every twelve years since 1949. As in many African countries, the concept of adult education is not widespread in Mali. The terminologies of literacy and non-formal education are often used when referring to adult education. The first literacy programs in Mali started in 1962, just a couple of years after the country got its independence (Ministry of Education and Literacy, 2007). From 1962 to 1990, literacy activities were carried out through several programs that were experimental and low in scale. Those programs related to the needs of the young country to undertake mass literacy initiatives. An important step was reached in the 1990s when the national context was influenced by the shift to democracy which saw the rapid growth of civil society organizations and their involvement in literacy. The same era was marked by UNESCO's Education For All conference in Jomtien, Thailand in 1990, setting an international agenda for adult education. The need for developing a policy document on adult learning became pressing in the year 2000. This movement was favored by both the national and international contexts. In the national arena, Mali moved to democracy and a decentralization era which called for reforms in several sectors including education. The Education Orientation Act and the Ten-Year Educational Development Program, both adopted in 1999 introduced the notion of adult nonformal education, which was supported by both technical and legislative organizations of adult education (African Platform for Adult Education, 2008; Doucoure & Diarra, 2006). The Poverty Reduction Strategy Documents adopted in 2002 and 2007 recognized the link between the low access to education among the population and poverty and the need to reorganize the adult learning sector (Ministry of Education and Literacy, 2008). The need for a policy to regulate adult learning was also inspired by the international agenda. Mali engaged in the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and the Educational For All (EFA) frameworks adopted by the United Nations and UNESCO in 2000, which, among other objectives, stressed the need for improved adult education opportunities. …