Lifelong Education: Concept or Policy?

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Abstract
This article explores the idea of lifelong education as expounded by a number of writers published under the auspices of UNESCO. There is a short discussion of the problems involved in subjecting this kind of idea to critical analysis and it is suggested that a policy for education rather than a new concept of education is being expressed. Nevertheless, an implicit concept of education can be deduced from the policy, and there is a review of the role of concepts as a means of distinguishing and classifying areas of experience and areas of thought. It is suggested that writers on ‘lifelong education’ tend to blurr a number of distinctions traditionally drawn in education and it is suggested that the concept of ‘education’ is defined too broadly. As a result, it fails to distinguish between the totality of formative influences which determine our individuality and those influences which are intentionally chosen to form or influence us in desired and desirable ways. ‘Education’, it is suggested, should be restricted to areas of learning that are chosen because they produce effects which we and society wish to bring about. There is reference to the place of ‘knowledge’ in lifelong education and an extended discussion of some of the consequences which follow from failing to separate the concept of ‘training’ from the concept of ‘education’. It is argued that ‘education’ implies a concern for moral and evaluative issues consistent with a Humanistic approach, whereas ‘training’ being task and role oriented can ignore moral issues in the interests of efficient performances. This argument is, in effect, a case study to support the claim that finer conceptual distinctions are of practical importance.

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