A handbook on lifelong learning, which was revised by UNESCO and its member states during a forum in Shanghai from Oct. 18 to 19, will be published in 2019, making it the first global guideline for the comprehensive management and pragmatic development of lifelong learning.
The main content of the Handbook for Lifelong Learning: Policy and Practice will focus on key concepts of lifelong learning, practical approaches to mainstreaming lifelong learning in education and development policies, its impact on governance, and relevant governmental strategies to develop it worldwide.
"The handbook will offer member states and all lifelong-learning stakeholders concrete directions to formulate and implement lifelong learning policies and strategies," said David Atchoarena, director of the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, at the International Consultative Meeting on Lifelong Learning at East China Normal University in Shanghai on Oct. 18 and 19.
The concrete terms, according to Atchoarena, refer to detailed information, such as the role of the government in promoting lifelong learning, ways of making education systems and institutions more open to a wide diversity of learners and the main challenges that need to be addressed in the process.
Lifelong learning, defined as all learning activities for the pursuit of knowledge, recognizes that learning is not limited to childhood or the classroom, but takes place throughout life.
"The importance of lifelong learning is growing fast on the global stage," says Atchoarena.
Lifelong learning is an integral part of the plan to achieve sustainable development worldwide, he says.
"This is why the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning launched the strategic project of the handbook to assist countries to operationalize lifelong learning in a way that meets their needs in line with specific conditions."
The idea of lifelong education was introduced to China in the late 1970s. Today, there are numerous universities for the elderly across the country. Many are so popular that their courses are consistently overbooked.
According to the China Association of the Universities for the Aged, there are currently more than 70,000 universities in China for the elderly with over 8 million enrolled students.
