Adult Education in the Czech Republic – Who Participates and Why

Abstract

Adult education as a part of lifelong learning is nowadays the topic emphasised in all documents concerning educational policy, employment policy, and human resources development in the Czech Republic. Older empirical data indicate, however, that the participation of the Czech adult population in programmes of adult learning is not very common. The aim of this article, which is based on a special representative survey, ‘Adult Learning 2005’, is to confront how far Czech reality is from the ideal concepts of ‘lifelong learning’ and a ‘learning society’. The authors pursue three questions: 1) To what extent is it true that education in the Czech Republic is a lifelong affair? 2) Does education of this kind occur on both a formal and non-formal level? 3) Do the Czechs engage in lifelong education, regardless of age, attained level of education, gender, and occupational status? Empirical data reveal that, despite the fact that Czech educational authorities give formal support to adult education, reality ‘in the field’ is somewhat different. Education in the Czech Republic is still not lifelong; if it exists it occurs mainly within the framework of non-formal education, and only higher educated people and those with some experience in adult education participate in it.