Adult Education: A Worthy and Rising Focus

Today marks the first day of The Power of Youth and Adult Learning for Africa's Development conference in Nairobi, Kenya. The conference will run November 5 to 7 and will combine reports from 49 African nations regarding youth and adult education in the region. All reports have particularly highlighted the prominent role adult education will play in discussion during the conference.

This focus on adult education has been an increasingly frequent one for UNESCO. The Nairobi conference, for example, is one of the five regional UNESCO conferences on the topic. This will prepare for the Sixth Annual Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA VI) that will be held in Belem, Brazil, in May 2009. Information on past and future regional conferences can be found here.

UNESCO's global educational conferences throughout 2008 and 2009 stress the importance of inclusive education, and the Nairobi conference as well as these subsequent others will undoubtedly spark much intriguing debate.