The Committee's Terms of Reference and the Nature of the Task

1. Everyone who has worked in adult education during the last fifty years has had reason to be indebted to the eloquent and comprehensive Final Report of the Adult Education Committee of the Ministry of Reconstruction, presented in 1919. We too have found our thoughts stirred by this Report and have been struck by the extent to which the principles and values there enunciated are still valid. But that Report was the last - indeed, in terms of an official body, the only - major review of adult education in England and Wales ever to have been undertaken and it is over fifty years oId.

2. Our evidence shows that adult education has proved remarkably adaptive to changing conditions, so that much of present practice still operates satisfactorily, though clearly deriving from the principles of the 1919 Report. Nevertheless, the society of the 1970s is not that of 1919 and the accelerating rate of social and educational change has required us to pay at least as much attention to what is not being done in adult education as to what is, for some needs are being melt imperfectly and others not at all.

3. Our vision is of a comprehensive and flexible service of adult education, broad enough to meet the whole range of educational needs of the adult in our society. It must therefore be integrated with all the other sectors of the educational system but at the same time firmly rooted in the active life of local communities; and it must be readily accessible to all who need it, whatever their means or circumstances. Only in such terms can we conceive of education "as a process continuing throughout life".

4. Our terms of reference direct us to "the provision of non-vocational adult education" but define our field of study no further. In practice, and in the terms of the Education Act 1944, there is a spectrum called further education which at one end is clearly vocational (though still not unconnected with personal and social development) and at the other is personal, social, cultural and non-vocational. It has often been represented to us in evidence that what makes a course of study vocational or not is the student's motive for taking it: if he takes it to qualify for a job it is vocational; if he takes it for the pure love of learning it is not, whatever the subject; and there will be relatively few courses that are composed wholly of the one type or the other. We therefore see no virtue in attempting a sharp line of division anywhere across this spectrum, but have taken our terms of reference as being simply a convenient way of indicating that we should exclude the major areas of higher, technical and art education.

5. To produce a practical report, however, we have had to narrow our field in another way, for "provision" that educates adults is made by a vast range of agencies. At one end are the mass media, especially broadcasting: it has been suggested to us that the principal adult education force in Britain

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today may well be the general television output of the BBC and Independent Television (as distinct from their expressly educational work); yet we are able to do no more than note this in passing. At the other end are the innumerable national and local voluntary organisations and groups through which, by their own efforts and resources, people are learning about an almost limitless range of matter - birdwatching, beekeeping, barndancing. badminton, Brecht, Beethoven, the Bible, and so on. Many of these bodies, large and small, have given us valuable evidence and their importance is clear; yet they rarely gain specific mention in our Report.

6. For we have thought it practical to concentrate on those agencies whose sole or chief task is the provision of general services of adult education of a more or less formal nature, and which are funded or supported out of rates and taxes for that express purpose. In our recommendations it will be noted that we believe the range of such bodies and the opportunities for them to receive public aid may need to be extended. Throughout, however, we would lay stress on the importance of the connections which have been or could be forged between adult education as part of the educational system and the total educative resources of the community, including all those many media and bodies through which the education of adults is a growing part of social life as a whole.

7. The grounds for justifying public expenditure are not the same for all sectors of education, nor even for the whole range of further education. The need for basic education is now so well established that full-time attendance at school is legally enforced upon all young people in this country to the age of sixteen and avenues to many of the more responsible employments depend on full-time education continuing for several years beyond this minimum. Since the connection between the amount of, and success in, initial education and the style of life consequent upon it is so clear, initial education can easily be justified in material terms. Education for industry and commerce tends to find its justification, by natural transfer, in the economic importance of the process of production and marketing. Thus, because initial education and education connected with employment both have such an obvious pay-off in terms of production and consumption, these forms of education are immediately recognised as worthy of expenditure.

8. In fact these easily measurable effects of education are only a few of the benefits it confers. Education is concerned with developing the ability of individuals to understand and to articulate; to reason and to make judgments; and to develop sensitivity and creativity. Initial education is designed for these purposes too, but it would be surprising if individual development were completed and curiosity satisfied by the age of sixteen or even twenty-six. Indeed, we recognise that initial schooling is not completely successful for everyone. Many of those who have had the least schooling, and these form the great majority of the population, may have made only partial use of such opportunities as were then available to them; and a large number have rejected as irrelevant to their felt needs much of the early education they were offered. If individuals are to be given the chance to develop their talents and abilities to the full and to meet with understanding the impact of rapidly changing patterns of employment and the stresses of a rapidly changing society, they require access to education.

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in adult life as their needs emerge. There is no reason to expect that these will always be tied closely to some aspect of occupational training. This Report is therefore concerned with opportunities for men and women to continue to develop their knowledge, skills, judgment and creativity throughout adult life by taking part, from time to time, in learning situations which have been set up for the purpose as part of the total public provision of education. This is what we mean when we employ the phrase "adult education" in these pages.

9. The general argument of the Report, which is developed in the pages that follow, may be summarised thus:

9.1. Demands for adult education, which have risen steadily since the last war, cannot but continue to grow in the kind of society we see developing, not least as a consequence of improved schooling.

9.2. But in addition there are large areas of unmet need, especially among those little touched by the present provision of adult education. These include many school-leavers and young adults, older adults whose basic education preceded the developments of the last twenty years, the handicapped and the disadvantaged. The urgency of these unmet needs will be sharpened rather than abated by the current directions of educational advance.

9.3. The attainment of an acceptable quality of life for all and the development of a free, democratic society require that these demands and needs be met.

9.4. The formal system of schools and colleges cannot operate at full efficiency without attention to these adult needs. Schools work best when supported and not resisted by the adult society surrounding them; and much of their effort is wasted without opportunities for carrying on into adult life the intellectual, creative and recreational interests that a good school will implant.

9.5. These purposes demand a comprehensive and flexible system of adult education.

9.6. A basis for this already exists in present provision, in educational plant already in being, and in the general cultural resources of local communities. But these great potential resources are uncoordinated and under-utilised, mainly for lack of professional staff.

9.7. To make these resources progressively available for the essential tasks of adult education the investment of further public funds will be needed (1). But the scale of additional expenditure is small in relation to the resources released and the enhanced return on existing educational investment.

9.8. This we believe to constitute "the most effective and economical deployment of available resources".

10. Moreover we would claim that the time is ripe for this development. The achievements of the educational system during the present century have been spectacular, nowhere more so perhaps than in the growth of technical education in the last twenty years. But the impressiveness of

(1) The net expenditure on non-vocational adult education incurred by the local education authorities, universities and Workers' Educational Association in 1968/69 amounted to about £18m. With two million students enrolled, the net cost per student was less than £10.

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that achievement brings its own reminder that the effect of successful education is always to open windows on further fields of education. Any system of education that does not allow of lifelong continuance is bound to be incomplete. These words from our predecessors' Report are even more relevant today than when they were written in 1919:

"We do not wish to underrate the value of increased technical efficiency or the desirability of increasing productivity; but we believe that a short-sighted insistence upon these things will defeat its object. We wish to emphasise the necessity for a great development of non-technical studies, partly because we think that it would assist the growth of a truer conception of technical education, but more especially because it seems to us vital to provide the fullest opportunities for personal development and for the realisation of a higher standard of citizenship. Too great an emphasis has been laid on material considerations and too little regard paid to other aspects of life."

12. Our terms of reference also require an assessment of need. A firm starting-point for this is the present demand for adult education, since this arises from the felt needs of those seeking it. An outline of present provision is given in Part II. Here we ask what kinds of need can be deduced from this provision.

The Evidence of Present Demand

13. The largest providers are the local education authorities, on whom the Education Act lays the duty of securing provision. In 1968/69 they catered for some 1,700,000 students and employed about 800 full-time and nearly 80,000 part-time staff. Their net expenditure on adult education was some £16 million, that is 1.1 per cent of their net expenditure on all services. The institutional and administrative patterns vary greatly between authorities, as also do the signs of serious concern. But the type of activity provided is fairly constant. It ranges over the domestic arts and crafts; painting and

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the plastic arts; music, dance, drama and movement; speech and creative writing; office skills; physical skills and games; languages (including English); general education; and a steadily growing element of intellectual and humane studies, especially local studies of various kinds. At times, especially where economies were being sought, there has been a tendency, even in official pronouncements, to depreciate many of these subjects as "recreational" and therefore of little educational value; to assume that people go for social intercourse rather than to learn; and to dismiss certain kinds of activity (like classes in bridge, golf and entertaining in the home) as pandering to petit-bourgeois aspirations.

14. We do not subscribe to these disparagements. We see this whole range of activity as evidence of needs felt deeply enough to emerge as persistent demand, often in despite of adverse conditions and inadequate resources. Not only have the standards of craftmanship, skill and artistic achievement risen steadily in these classes but the education of taste and judgment and the enlargement of appreciation are now widely included in their objectives. Local education authority adult education has grown by giving ordinary men and women what they asked for. Often it has also attempted to give them more than they looked for. But what they have asked for in this broad range of arts, crafts, physical activities, intellectual pursuits and social opportunities is exactly the spread that the new thinking in secondary schools is coming to see as relevant to the whole ability-range of a total population.

15. The needs being met by adult education are clear enough: creativity and craftsmanship in an age of mass production; enrichment of the home environment and of family activity; benefit from social mobility and enhanced opportunity; and voluntary association with others of like interest.

16. The second largest providers are the universities. In 1968/69 they catered for some 163,000 students (1), employed about 285 full-time teachers and spent £21 million on adult education. Their early "extension" classes were aimed at the educationally deprived, especially women and manual workers. From this latter concern sprang the old alliance between the universities and the Workers' Educational Association (WEA). Despite the changes of recent years some two-thirds of the universities' work is still identifiably non-vocational adult education. Almost half of the courses are in the traditional humanities (archaeology, history, literature, philosophy and the arts) and a substantial proportion are related to the issues of contemporary society (economics, industrial and social studies, science) (2).

17. More recently, however, with the general enlargement of educational opportunity, the universities have taken on other roles in adult education, related to the demands of the better educated. Much of this new work is of a specialised or advanced kind, designed for specific groups rather than the undifferentiated general public. Some of the more important recent developments have been the foundation of project or research groups,

(1) This is the total of the enrolment figures for England and Wales in the Report of the University Council for Adult Education and the Department's figures for students attending courses of less than three meetings.

(2) See also Appendix B, Part 2, Tables 14(i) and 14(ii).

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especially in archaeology, local history, natural history and social studies; "role education" for professional or other groups with a common function, such as industrial managers, trade union officials, prison officers, magistrates, doctors, clergy, and voluntary social workers; post-experience courses in science and technology; and courses of a professional kind for social and community workers.

18. Although the universities' inherited function as general providers of liberal education has left them with some superficial and some elementary work, the distinguishing feature of the great bulk of university adult education lies in the intellectual demands it makes on students, enabling them to think and work independently in the best traditions of university scholarship, to meet with the latest results of research, or to appreciate the frameworks of theory within which professional activity is carried on.

19. The needs that have led to these lines of expansion in university adult education can be clearly seen: intellectual development; keeping abreast of new knowledge; the background for professional work, especially those forms involving personal service of some sort; the balancing of excessive specialisation in prior education; and the approach to certain kinds of qualification. But also the older tradition of intellectual support for those concerned about public issues continues in the aid given by the universities to the WEA in its tasks, and in certain newer forms of social education. social enquiry and community involvement.

20. The third major agency of direct provision is the Workers' Educational Association, which is concerned with the promotion of adult education either in collaboration with the universities or independently with the aid of direct grant from the Department of Education and Science. In 1968/69 the WEA catered for about 150,000 students (1), employed eighty-five full-time tutors and spent just over £1 million on adult education. A number of distinguishing features are claimed for this work. First, the subject areas of chief concern have been the social and economic studies that provide the background for voluntary action in social work, politics, trade unions and local government; though there is also a very substantial provision of classes in literature, music, local studies and the arts (2). Second, the WEA is a voluntary movement in which the organising of the classes is carried out by voluntary local branches with the help of a small number of professional tutor-organisers. The extent of this voluntary service is very considerable. Third, a good WEA class is a self-governing exercise in learning, tutor and students working out their programme of study together and modifying it in the light of their progress. Finally there is the particular concern for the working classes and the deprived, which is firmly expressed in the Association's national declarations of policy. This kind of work, seen most clearly in the classes held in factories and in the education of trade unionists through the special relationship with the TUC, has been undertaken by a cadre of professional organisers rather than by the democratic process of the voluntary branch or district organisation.

(1) WEA evidence. 37,149 of these students attended courses organised by the WEA and provided by the universities - Universities Council for Adult Education Report.

(2) See also Appendix B, Part 2, Tables 14(i) and 14(ii).

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21. We see none of these features as unique to the WEA. Many local education authority institutes are now developing schemes of student participation in management, as community associations and the Educational Centres have long been doing. Education for trade unionists and shop stewards is provided by university extra-mural departments and by local education authority colleges of further education on an increasing scale. The self-governing nature of the class and the special relationship of the tutor and students have been widely imitated in other forms of provision; and the WEA's work for the deprived is not on a large scale. Nevertheless most of these features have been pioneered by the WEA and contributed by it to the fabric of adult education. The Association is clearly meeting a number of needs. The genuineness and the importance of these is in no way diminished by the fact that they may also have been discerned by other providers.

22. The needs perceived in the WEA's original purpose still persist: it is as necessary as ever (if not more so) that the educationally and culturally under-privileged should have a chance to share in and contribute to the intellectual and cultural heritage enjoyed by others. Moreover, the voluntary nature of the WEA, with its active student participation in planning and organisation, serves as a model and a training-ground for those who may wish to apply the lessons in social, political or trade union activity. And continuing access to the knowledge on which an informed critique of society can be based is an essential element in the preservation of a free society.

23. We would also draw attention again here to the great number of other organisations, national and local, that contribute to the field of adult education, though few of them may provide classes directly and independently in the way the major providers do. The number of such bodies is immense. They range from large national organisations like the Educational Centres Association. the National Federation of Community Associations, the Women's Institutes and the Townswomen's Guilds, through enabling bodies like the Pre-Retirement Association or the Beekeeping Education Association, to the small local society devoted to a craft, a field of local study or some creative, religious, cultural or social activity. In sum they represent a prodigious outflow of energy and a resource of incalculable value if they can be linked into a national grid of adult education.

24. They also demonstrate, in the most practical way possible, the existence of widely felt needs for learning, for creative and intellectual activity and for association in an educative environment.

25. Finally, we see all round us evidence of the continuation into adult life of what was called "the trend" in the 1960s, namely the voluntary extension of schooling beyond the statutory minimum. The massive growth of further education, the pressure of demand for higher education, the spread of industrial training, the successful launching of the Open University, the wide response to the educational output of radio and television, in addition to the demand for adult education itself, all bear witness to the way in which the pursuit of education after schooldays has become a normal aspiration in the lives of great numbers of people (1). Adults who have relished their earlier

(1) See Appendix B, Part 4, Table 24(iii).

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education are rising to the challenges of new knowledge and of social and technological change, and are readily taking up such opportunities for learning as are offered to them, or, where none are provided, creating them by voluntary effort after such fashion as they can. What we do not observe is a commensurate provision of the means on an adequate and uniform scale and in a coherent form as part of the public system of education.

Unmet Needs

26. Evidence of current demand for adult education presents a heartening picture; but it is not the whole picture. The pressures of our society, which create or exacerbate the needs from which these demands emerge, set up a Darwinian situation in which the educationally fittest survive. But they are a minority. Almost three-quarters of the adult population left school at the minimum leaving age; three-fifths of today's adults received their schooling before the leaving-age was raised to fifteen; better opportunities for technical education and the broadening of entry into further and higher education came too late to benefit them; and the fresh approaches to education that are transforming many schools, notably primary schools, with whole new dimensions of educational experience, are unknown and inaccessible to all but today's children. Government statements over the years have testified to serious deficiencies of accommodation and staffing in a number of the nation's primary and secondary schools, particularly those in sub-standard dwelling areas. Research has demonstrated the advantages in rate of educational development that lie with children from the "better" school, to say nothing of the "better" home, and has shown that a substantial number of persons, because of their biological make-up, attain much later than others to the ability - often then of a higher order - for academic or creative work, social work or leadership. It cannot be in the interests of justice or the efficient use of human resources that numbers of our fellow citizens now find themselves too late at the gates of wider opportunity, and with no further recourse. Educationally we are still Two Nations, and among the educational "have-nots" the needs are vast.

27. But these are not simply the needs of the individual. They are needs of society too. It is central to our argument for a comprehensive service of adult education that deficiencies of educational opportunity must be remedied so that every individual has the educational resources, not only to fulfil himself as a person, but to play his full part in society. This is an essential basis for a just and democratic society, as well as for ensuring a reasonable quality of life for everyone.

Needs of the Future

28. If needs are to be assessed in these terms, however, account must be taken of the future. We have to look at the directions of change and ask whether present needs will be superseded and others emerge. Forecasting is a notoriously difficult art. We cannot foretell the society of the twenty-first century, nor can we attempt to quantify any predictions we may make. We simply indicate those trends that seem to us likely to affect the needs for adult education. They will include changes in the size and structure of the population; changes in patterns of work and leisure; changes in social and

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political structure; and changes in the system of education. If we appear to emphasise trends that are deepening rather than healing the divisions in our society this is because we see these as the consequences of the inequities of educational opportunity that adult education must help to set right.

The Size and Structure of the Population

29. A substantial increase in the total population seems inevitable (1). So there will be more adults to be catered for. Even if there is no change in the kinds of adult education provided, or in the needs to be met, demand will continue to grow inexorably, unless a policy of positive discouragement is adopted. Present needs alone, with an increased population, will commit us to expansion of the service.

30. If recent trends continue, however, there are likely to be changes in the number and sizes of households, in the proportion of the population at work, and in the ratios of the different age-groups, and these will in turn modify the needs for education. For example, the number of families with a single earner appears to be falling, the number with two or more earners to be rising noticeably, and the number with no earner (mainly old people) to be rising slowly. A general rise in the real personal incomes of earners is also forecast for the later years of the century. If these patterns continue they will have great effects on life-styles, that is the standards of expectation realised in material terms. Already expectations of rising living-standards often result from a wife's earnings which produce "free" money to devote to leisure pursuits or non-essential buying for the family. In the future status may come to be associated increasingly with such leisure consumption. Then the differences will sharpen between the affluent households with two or more earners, both with rising incomes, and that large minority with one earner or none. Pressure on housing space, with perhaps two million additional households to be accommodated in the next twenty years, may well intensify the trend towards spending on leisure outside the home and so deepen the gap between those who can afford it and those who cannot.

31. The needs of these two groups are different but equally important. There is already a tendency for family-centred activities to produce demand for adult education. This is seen, not only in classes related to home-making and domestic arts and crafts, but also in those giving instruction or coaching in outdoor activities that involve the family. This tendency will no doubt continue. There is no reason to expect any reduction in the demands from the two groups in the population who now seek adult education related to the home and family; that is, those whose earnings permit them to take seriously the graces of life, like foreign travel, or connoisseurship, or entertaining, and those who need to learn how to apply their own time and skill to the improvement of the home and the material standard of living of the family.

32. The needs of the affluent and the better educated are more likely to emerge as spontaneous demand than are those of the low earners. For the latter a number of special needs can be envisaged, some of which are found in present provision but not on anything like the scale required; at a simple

(1) See Appendix B, Part 4, Table 27(i).

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level, skills in doing and making and maintenance about the home; at another level, access to creative and recreative pursuits that bring personal fulfilment and counter the dehumanising effects of a deprived environment; at yet another, knowledge about welfare and rights and sources of help or advice; or again, access to skills that may open the way to earning.

33. The working sector of the population may also be expected to change. As opportunities increase for carrying on from school into further and higher education and as the age of retirement is lowered the age-band of the population at work will narrow. The working life for many people may come to be no more than 35 years, barely half the normally expected span of life. The balance of vocational and non-vocational needs in education would be radically affected by such a development.

Changes in Patterns of Work and Leisure

34. It is however at the level of individual patterns of work and leisure rather than in the structure of the population that the changes are likely to press hardest upon educational needs. Major shifts of employment are now commonly forecast. Demand for skills of many kinds, including ever new kinds, is expected to increase steeply with consequent requirements for training and re-training; but the place of the unskilled labourer is diminishing. Many people are thought likely to move from production to service employment, for among other things the growth of leisure will add to the demand for services; but such employments often involve a direct personal and moral relationship between worker and client, and there will be a need for education of a kind that fosters inter-personal skills. Change makes its own demands too, and there will be a need for personal education of a liberal kind that increases adaptability and the understanding of change, especially in work. (It is worth noting the value judgment often implied when such objectives are stated: change, when understood, is not necessarily to be welcomed or accepted. Mere adaptability without independence of judgment is not an adult human condition.)

35. Work is not simply a source of wages. Claims for the right to work go beyond the right to earn. For many people the working situation, whether in a factory or elsewhere, makes the most important pattern of human relationships they ever achieve outside the home, more especially perhaps in middle and later life. Studies of the impact of retirement and of long-term unemployment have shown how deeply self-respect can be bound up with the job, even an apparently boring one. But there seems to be no certainty that in the future there will be enough work to go round on the present scale and the choice may lie between shortening the working week all round and a substantial and permanent number of unemployed.

36. These considerations bear on the common assertion that one of the tasks of adult education is to promote the right use of leisure, for a simple-minded distinction between work and leisure will not fit these changing conditions. In the first place, this leisure frequently presents itself in unwelcome forms - short time, redundancy, retirement, long-term incapacity or unemployment - which in a work-oriented society can be deeply destructive of the personality and self-respect. The personal resources needed to withstand such

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influences have hardly been explored as yet, but they go far beyond the comfortable connotations of hobbies, or play, or recreation, that commonly attend the idea of leisure. The educational needs involved here have been little explored either: one can begin by specifying the opening of roots towards fresh employment, preparation for voluntary service (but in the sense of a true vocation), and opportunities for creative activity that will be as demanding and as satisfying as paid work.

37. The remainder of leisure, as an earned respite from work, is again not undifferentiated. Household chores, family obligations, the duties of citizenship and the demands of society all occupy a part of it. These may also, under some circumstances, become paid services and a form of part-time employment. If community participation in welfare services is developed in the forms now being advocated as desirable the distinction between part-time employment and voluntary service may become quite blurred, with an increasing number of people engaged for part of their time in socially useful services which may or may not be paid. The pattern of employment for many people may indeed come to consist of a lucrative but undemanding primary job, occupying rather less than would now be a normal working week; and a variety of other occupations that may include some paid service, some voluntary service and recreational pursuits. The requirements of knowledge, skill and training may well be greater in these secondary occupations than in the primary one. Adult education will then need to provide for the development of a quasi-professional skill in activities of a great range for those who will be no more than dedicated amateurs, but who will have the time and the means to become amateurs in the eighteenth-century sense.

38. A more complex, more open and more mobile society will also run the risk of discovering new forms of social casualty, and there is nothing in contemporary trends to suggest that, as we become wealthier as a nation, social casualties will not occur or that adequate funds will automatically appear for their relief. Voluntary action has been the traditional (as it may well be the only efficient) way of discovering how to deal with them. Such action needs compassion, skill and understanding based on firm knowledge, rather than simply generous impulses. Our present society is in many directions under-endowed with voluntary workers of this kind. The need for them will grow rather than diminish, and it will be a task of adult education, in collaboration with community and social workers. to help in equipping them.

39. A special note should be made here about education for retirement. The retired section of the population will increase in number as the population grows (1), and with a possible tendency towards earlier retirement (especially from the primary job) and improved medical care the period of active retirement may well lengthen considerably. This will therefore be an important sector of the population numerically, and one that could threaten heavy demands on welfare and health services. Until the end of the present century virtually all reaching their middle sixties will have completed their basic schooling before 1950, that is before the reforms of the Education Act 1944 had taken full effect. Studies have shown a clear division of educational

(1) See Appendix D, Part 4, Table 27(i).

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generations at this point: those who were educated before 1950 are less likely to have had further education, are less well qualified, and have fewer and narrower interests than those educated later. Experiments in pre-retirement education have shown the possibility of mitigating some of the problems of retirement but the scale is as yet small. Clearly there will remain a special remedial need here for many years to come.

40. Finally there is the leisure, properly so-called, of individual choice and personal cultivation. This has commonly been regarded as the prescribed area of non-vocational adult education, but even here the educational needs that arise are not simple. Not all education in leisure is education for leisure. The enlargement of free time is simply the framework within which the whole range of educational needs (and others) can be met. Again, not all leisure pursuits necessarily produce demands for formal education: fishing and gardening are two of the most widespread yet they appear relatively rarely in adult education class programmes. But in a climate where learning is regarded as normal there are countless possible stimuli to education in any leisure pursuit: a simple walk over a hill might precipitate a desire to take up sketching or photography, geology, botany, meteorology, ecology, local history, romantic poetry, map-making, orienteering, mountaineering, or even (if the car won't start on the way back) car maintenance.

Social Change

41. When we turn to trends in social structure and organisation forecasting becomes even more uncertain. It is clear however that the social climate will be affected by a number of factors deriving from the growth of population. Among these are the number and distribution of households and their consequent housing requirements, urban growth and the execution of planning decisions, and the pressure on amenities and services. The operation of these factors will result in processes that are always likely to be controversial. They call the individual's understanding into play in either of two ways: as a person (or member of a family) whose own quality of life may be involved and who therefore has rights that he may wish to invoke; or as a citizen who should be able to participate democratically in the decisions. The way of democracy is to submit areas of controversy to debate, in the belief that right judgments are built upon knowledge, critical enquiry and rational discussion. Those who lack the knowledge, or the tools of enquiry and expression, and who thereby feel excluded from a say in the decisions that govern their lives, are effectively disfranchised. The need for education in social and political understanding, recognised from the early days of Chartist and Cooperative adult education, and re-affirmed by the WEA, will continue to be one of the prime needs of the future. It is essentially a task for adult education rather than for the schools alone, requiring as it does from its students a background of practical experience, maturity of judgment and the serious motivation that comes from the challenges and responsibilities of adult life.

42. If adult education has not hitherto been outstandingly successful in meeting this kind of need, it is partly because of a certain unwillingness to become entangled with controversy. However, society needs an educational forum in which controversial issues can be studied and we believe adult

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education should be free to explore such areas fully. Practice in the handling and analysis of information, and in the questioning and rebutting of argument is quite as essential as access to the information. For dissemination of information the mass media are better equipped; for the cultivation of critical and independent powers of thought and expression, there is no substitute for the adult learning group.

43. The role of adult education in this connection is made more necessary by the rate of accretion of new knowledge. This is often remarked as a feature of our times but is commonly discussed as though it applied only to up-dating the already educated, an activity which the universities place high among their priorities in adult education. The extent to which new knowledge has to be absorbed by the common man in his daily life goes unremarked. Decimalisation and the imminence of metric measure are two examples where the education service has already an active role. The changing rights and duties, however, of the citizen, the consumer, the road user, the trade unionist, the recipient of welfare benefit, the householder, or the parent, are examples where adult education has barely begun and then only at the level of information to the specific group. The need for general understanding of the sources and channels of information and how to tap them, especially for those with minimal schooling, lies much deeper.

Trends in Education

44. Participation in adult education is associated with extended schooling: those with education beyond the statutory minimum are several times more likely to be found in adult classes than those without it. Since therefore the nation is now committed to various lines of educational expansion the effects of these upon the needs for adult education must also be estimated (1).

45. The needs that emerge from educational development are of two main kinds: those that underlie the efficient operation of the educational system and those that carry on from it. The former are perhaps the more important for the future and are certainly the more neglected in the planning of adult education. They raise the question whether we can properly speak of a system of education in this country at all.

46. Our future rests with the children and they must have the first priority in educational development. But they do not grow up in a vacuum. If we are to think of an integrated system of education rather than a chronological sequence of stages in the early life of an individual, then there must be an element of self-regulation in it: a "systems-approach" requires that each part must contribute to the efficiency of the other parts as well as performing its own separate tasks. If we then think of education as a set of experiences helping the individual towards self-fulfilment, rather than a set of institutions, we see a number of important trends. In the general development of an educational system, these will uncover needs that can be met only by educating the adults involved: if the needs are not met the system does not operate efficiently.

46.1. As a first example, the trend towards voluntary prolongation of schooling may well quicken; but it will not (being voluntary) embrace

(1) See Appendix B, Part 4, paras 71-74.

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everyone (1). The gap between those who have benefited from education and those who have rejected it will deepen. The concept of education continuing throughout life must include a conscious missionary effort towards all who were lost am the earlier stages and there will be a persisting need for remedial adult education of imaginative and varied kinds. This will apply with particular emphasis to disadvantaged and handicapped groups and also to those who happened to be born too early to benefit from educational reform. For it has to be remembered that such reforms take more than a generation to work through the population. In the meantime their effect is frequently not towards the unifying of society but towards the accentuation of differences. The enlargement of opportunity for some may mean the reinforcement of disadvantage for others and the consequent sharpening of the need for remedial provision. The Swedish concept, of an adult's entitlement to the equivalent of the basic minimum of education, rising as that minimum is raised for the children, has much to commend i:t.

46.2. The influences determining the ability to profit from schooling have been much studied and there is now a growing recognition of the critical importance of the surrounding environment, especially the home. Where the values of the home are at variance with the values of the school, it is the latter that are commonly rejected. If investment in extended secondary and further education is to yield its fullest return, action upon the environment - that is, the adults whose world and its values surround the children - will be essential. The need here is not just for parent education as hitherto conceived, for that is based on a view of education as something of value for others, namely the children, and does not imply commitment to education as essential to oneself; nor is it just for community activities of the kind attempted by some community associations in difficult areas, for there the social need often predominates; it is for a deliberate strategy of adult education as a concomitant of the development of schools, aimed at establishing in the public mind a positive belief in the value of learning. The mass media can no doubt help greatly in this, especially among that large section of the population whose attitudes are indifferent or hostile to education; but the main impetus must come from involving that public in active experiences of learning, so that they discover, or re-discover, the nature of education. They must see it as something relevant to their chosen aspirations and the quality of their lives, and not as the mysteriously testing and rejecting process that their own schooldays seemed to be. Only in such an environment can neighbourhood or community schools develop; indeed, only in such an environment can any schools and colleges, other perhaps than boarding schools, operate effectively.

46.3. Studies of intelligence and the development of intellectual ability have done away with the old concept of intelligence as an inborn fixed quantity and have shown that, to a considerable extent, it can be increased. Where such development occurs it is again the product of a total environment which is supportive and educative, rather than the achievement of the school alone. If, as seems likely, there will be diminishing need for unskilled operatives but a rapidly rising demand for workers with adaptability and intelligence, every support must be given to the schools in growing these qualities. The making of an educative society will be necessary not only for

(1) See Appendix B, Part 4, Table 27(ii).

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children to reach their full potential as now estimated, but also to enlarge the pool of ability from which skill can be drawn. Here again the full development of the school system needs support from the education of the adults in the child's environment.

46.4. There is the recognition of the importance of the pre-school years in forming predispositions towards creative activity and towards learning. As has been said of other schools, nursery schools and pre-school groups alone (however valuable and necessary) will be insufficient in themselves, since the most influential element in the pre-school environment is the mother. Unless she has opportunities to continue to approach self-fulfilment (as a person, not just as a mother) through her own experience of education, and to value education for this reason, it may well be that, by the time her children reach school, their progress towards intellectual maturity will already be slowing. The working mother is particularly important, perhaps with a special educational need; and as many more women will be at work during the coming decades, the influence of working mothers on children at the starting-point of the whole learning process will spread very widely. There will be a need for adult education to ensure that this too is a supportive influence.

47. An integrated education system will involve postponing to adult stages of life certain educational experiences that are appropriate to the needs of maturity. Included among these will be second and third chances for those whose first choice has led to a dead end; opportunities for updating in the many fields where knowledge is continuously developing; opportunities for trying out one's ability to study in a new field before committing oneself to it; activities related to specifically adult responsibilities like parenthood and citizenship; and studies involving value judgments that require maturity of experience for their comprehension. The need here, in terms of the educational system, is for a planned quaternary stage of education, identifiably adult.

48. Conversely, however, there are forms of educational activity in which all ages (including family groups) can profitably engage together. Music-making, certain forms of drama and dance, many kinds of artistic activity, and some sports and outdoor pursuits are examples. It would be wasteful to develop exclusive systems for the separate provision of these for different age-groups, and the growing tendency towards regarding schools and colleges as neighbourhood or community institutions opens the way towards new forms of common provision. There will be a need, however, for these to be built firmly into the planning and philosophy of the institutions concerned, for their relationship to other local organisations of art, sport or education to be carefully fostered, for their physical facilities to be adequate to the requirements of a total community, and for the distinction (where appropriate) between these shared activities and those that are specifically adult to be clearly marked and maintained.

49. It will be seen that this outline of the place of emerging adult needs in the whole educational system has much in common with the European concept of "permanent education". (This phrase, a literal rendering of the French éducation permanente, is used as a convenient alternative to the more cumbersome if more accurate form "lifelong integrated education" that appears in many official documents).

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50. Put briefly, the European concept of "permanent education" envisages a society in which the whole life-long learning needs of all citizens would be taken as the field with which the national education system is concerned in its basic planning structures and expenditure. The traditional notion of a terminal age for education somewhere between sixteen and twenty-five would be abandoned and the curriculum of the younger ages reconsidered in the light of what is to come in adult years. The education system would be re-made to meet people's life-long but discontinuous needs, which might recur in personal, social, academic or vocational life and make calls for adaptation and fresh educational resources. "Permanent education" is opposed to any concept of "failure" or finalisation of any kind in education and holds that a national system should correspond with the unpredictable development of people's abilities and aspirations at all ages. After an initial period of full-time education the citizen's normal expectation would be of a succession of shorter periods of full-time study sandwiched between gainful occupation. These would be available for all adults as a road, at any time, to academic and professional qualification as well as towards personal competence and development. At the same time there would be open courses at colleges, universities and other centres, and radio, TV and correspondence courses which could be taken by people in their leisure. Courses of all kinds - sandwich, release, and leisure - would, through graduated stages, subject to assessment, lead to all forms of recognised qualification, including degrees. And the whole complex of provision would be arranged on a cumulative credit basis with free movement between courses and stages, regardless of intervening drop-out. Although "permanent education" is as much concerned with infants as with adults, it has marked implications for adult education, staking a claim for it as an integral part of total provision, not as something for the less fortunate or more studious, but as something to be expected and experienced by the whole nation.

51. "Permanent education" is a long-term concept and we have not time to wait for it. Reference to it does serve however to reinforce the claim that an educational system must be a total system and that the effectiveness of the schools is jeopardised by neglect of adult needs. The provision we advocate in Part III is intended as an immediately practicable advance towards an integrated provision of education, by using in a systematic way the elements already there and progressively improving them. This cannot be attempted unless the needs of the system have been established. The foregoing paragraphs have indicated what these are.

52. But in addition to the needs of the system there will be changes in the needs of individuals resulting from developments in education. Their prior experience of what education is like will become different and their expectations of it in adult life will differ correspondingly. For example, it is coming increasingly to be recognised that education has to do with personal development rather than the memorising of knowledge from the past. Curriculum study, which is an attempt to assess exactly what should be taught in each subject area, for what purposes and by what stages, is shifting attention from teaching to learning and challenging many traditional elements in school curricula. Methods of learning which depend on the activity and initiative of the pupil are becoming one of the commonest forms of

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educational experience. For those who have this experience, and they will progressIvely increase in number as the schools develop, the need to continue their education will be a need to continue learning in these active and participatory styles.

53. At the same time the range of studies open to school pupils is expanding rapidly. This results partly from a questioning of the traditional curriculum, not least by the pupils themselves, and a demand that the objectives of the school shall be clearly relevant to the needs of the adult world. It is also partly due to more flexible arrangements for assessment and certification of school-leavers. New subjects can be introduced and papers on special syllabuses requested even in the traditional public examinations, and leaving-certificates are coming to be seen as records of positive achievement rather than as measures of the narrowness by which failure has been avoided (or not). Thus foundations are being laid for further study over a much wider range of subjects than has been customary in the past. The most obvious examples here are in languages and craft subjects, sciences like navigation and astronomy, field studies, local history and archaeology.

54. Allied to this is the rapidly increasing overflow of school subjects into a great range of out-of-school activities, notably the practice of music and drama and many kinds of leisure pursuits like canoeing, sailing, orienteering, climbing, pottery and other arts and crafts. Again the effect will be to release into adult life large numbers of young people with skill and interest in this great range of stimulating pursuits, who will need facilities for further learning and practice. (What becomes of the tide of instrumentalists flowing out of youth orchestras?)

55. Finally, this expansion of the range of options in the schools means that everyone is required to select and therefore to specialise in some degree so that the school course will leave a feeling of incompleteness. Opportunities to remedy this and achieve a balanced education will need to be available at a later stage.

56. Consequently there will be many emergent needs for the continuance and development of interests aroused in school and for learning to proceed in active and often self-directed ways that schools will have made familiar. An opportunity is thus presented for adult education to encourage and help self-programming groups and to exploit the technology of self-instruction in ways that would seem alien to an earlier generation. But these will themselves generate recurrent demands for periods of formal face-to-face instruction. Sharp distinctions therefore between formal class provision, home study by various means and informal educative activity will be a handicap; these forms must complement and inter-penetrate one another.

A Specification of Needs for Adult Education

57. Adult education, being an activity voluntarily undertaken by responsible persons out of motives derived from their personal lives, must necessarily touch life at many points. There can be few aspects of life to which education has no contribution to make and it should not be surprising that the range of needs outlined in the foregoing sections is so extensive. Yet we make no claim that the list we have given is comprehensive. Others will no doubt

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be able to add to it. The items moreover are not mutually exclusive: a number of different needs will coexist in any individual at any time. The list derives mainly from the great body of evidence that has been presented by large numbers of individuals and organisations, supplemented by our own extrapolations into the future.

58. Nevertheless, if an assessment of needs is to be made the basis of a system of provision, then priorities, involving value judgments, will have to be established. No doubt some of the needs we envisage are capable of satisfaction by commercial enterprise and others by the independent action of individuals. Moreover needs change as circumstances change and the satisfaction of one need may lay the way open for others to appear. The following summary is designed therefore as a pattern of ascertainable needs upon which an evolving system of adult education could be based, concentrating on those which cannot be met by an individual acting on his own and those which enable an individual to play his part, in the most fully developed way, in a free and democratic society. It will have been evident, in this latter connection, that in most of the areas of need we have discussed the relative disadvantage of one group as compared with others has been a central feature.

58.1. We can identify those needs that are related to the functioning of the education service and particularly to the goal of equality of educational opportunity. By this we mean equality of opportunity for each individual actually to benefit, according to his personal capacities, from the total range of educational provision, and not simply to compete for its benefits, which is what equality of opportunity has often meant in practice. To this extent we are in accord with the concept of "permanent education". These needs may be summed up as follows:

58.1.1. Remedial education, or the completion of the schools' unfinished tasks. There will be many levels of this, from basic literacy upwards.

58.1.2. Balancing education: that is, filling in the gaps left by the inevitable specialisation of schools and colleges.

58.1.3. Second-chance education, or the opportunity to acquire qualifications whose relevance to the individual has become clear in adult life. The term "second-chance education" has gained currency, but it is not to be interpreted strictly: the need may equally be for third, fourth or nth chances.

58.1.4. Up-dating, or the opportunity to keep abreast of developments in fields where knowledge is rapidly expanding.

58.1.5. Education about education, or the planned promotion of an educative environment, in and around the family home, at work, and elsewhere, which will support and reinforce the work of the schools and colleges and not run counter to it. There can be no true system of education without this.

58.1.6. Counselling and the clarification of choices. There are two related needs here: for information about the range of educational opportunity provided and for help to an individual in assessing his own objectives and capacities in relation to those opportunities.

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58.2. Then we can identify those needs that are related to individual personal developments; for example:

58.2.1. Creativity, or the opportunity to fulfil oneself in creative activity of many kinds, ranging from the arts, like painting and three-dimensional arts and crafts, music, drama. dance, speech and writing, to problem-solving, mathematics and scientific activity.

58.2.2. Physical activity, especially the cultivation of skill in recreative pursuits, games and outdoor activities.

58.2.3. Educative social activity, or the opportunity for self-discovery and self-expression in groups of common interest. The health and vitality of local communities may depend as much on the meeting of this need as upon any other single form of activity.

58.2.4. Intellectual activity, towards which all other forms of education are likely to act as a stimulus.

58.3. There are those needs that are related to the place of the individual in society; for example:

58.3.1. "Role education", directed not to training for qualification but to providing the background of knowledge, especially in relation to social change, through which the individual's role can be more responsibly discharged in society, in industry, in voluntary service or in public work of any kind. Here again there will be many forms: examples are education for magistrates or policemen, for clergy or social workers. for shop stewards and trade unionists, for managers and local government officers.

58.3.2. Social and political education of very broad kinds, designed to enable the individual to understand and play his part as citizen, voluntary worker, consumer.

58.3.3. Community education, or providing the background of knowledge and understanding upon which effective action for community purposes, including community development in the strict sense, can be founded.

58.3.4. Education for social leadership. One of the prime needs here is for learning situations in which those with potentialities for leadership (including opinion-leaders) can discover themselves and try themselves out, rather than for set schemes that prepare and train leaders who have been selected in other ways.

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59. The specification of needs that has emerged from our study is of crucial importance for the health of our society and the quality of life of individual citizens. We are not concerned with the mere garnishing of leisure hours but with the full personal development of men and women in environments that are often inimical to creativity and independence of mind. And we are concerned with all the people, not simply with those whose prior acquaintance with education has led them to demand more. We take our cue from the Education Act 1944 which speaks of "the education of the people" and "the provision of a varied and comprehensive service in every area" (1). The comprehensive service of adult education that we are advocating and of which details are set out in Part III is an inescapable component of that provision.

60. To set up such a comprehensive service from scratch would be a mammoth task requiring huge expenditure. The result would no doubt be very different from the present structure with its three main providing agencies, financed from various sources and in varied ways, and the order of priorities might be different from what has emerged through spontaneous demand. Yet the achievements of the present structure are impressive. By any standards adult education is already a mass activity, with some two million adults purposefully engaged each year. In evidence submitted to us from one area it is estimated that one in three of the adult population is touched by adult education over a period of ten years. This achievement is all the more remarkable when one considers the minimal resources of money (barely one penny in every pound that is spent on education) (2), of staff (some 1,300 full-time professionals all over the country) (3), of accommodation and equipment, that have been employed in the education of those two million people. This is already a movement of popular, voluntary education rooted in a profound sense of need. If it is lacking in certain directions and has missed some large areas of development that we would regard as important, nevertheless the present structure cannot be written off as a failure.

61. We see no need therefore to propose drastic alterations. The basic machinery is there. But drastic action is now needed to enable the machinery to work comprehensively and to establish adult education as an indispensable element in the national system of education.

62. We have therefore begun our review of present provision, in Part II, which our terms of reference require of us, with an eye to the ready-made starting-points that it offers as a basis for our comprehensive system. Significant progress can be made quickly if the first objectives are to raise the standards throughout the country to the level of the best as at present known, and to remedy the obvious gaps such as provision for the handicapped and the socially and educationally disadvantaged. In this way, upon foundations already laid but with appropriate extensions, a flexible system can be

(1) See Appendix A, Annex 1, Section 1(1).

(2) See Appendix B, Part 4, Table 30.

(3) See Appendix B. Part 4, Table 28.

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built, capable of evolving and modifying itself as needs change and capable of taking full advantage of the nation's total investment in education. The broad characteristics of this system are set out below.

63. It must be a public service drawing upon public funds. The needs are such as few of our citizens could meet by their own efforts, and large sections of the population could not afford to meet them at full cost or through commercial provision. The lead must come from the central government, since it is a national system of uniform high quality that is required.

64. It must also be a service rooted firmly in local communities, responsive to local variations of need and opportunity, and with the active involvement of the local community in planning and management. One reason for this is clearly that education is a local government service and adult education must be an integral part of it. But more importantly perhaps, the cohesion and sense of identity of a local community depends largely on the vitality of the groupings that compose it; and one of the functions of adult education will be to form and sustain such groupings and to promote their interaction. A local adult education service is a requisite of community life.

65. The service must be professionally directed. That is to say, there must be an adequate cadre of professional staff with appropriate training to act as the animators of the service, the watchdogs of standards, the innovators or the exploiters of innovation, and the sustainers of morale and momentum. They will be needed as pioneers and organisers, as administrators at local level, as trainers, as teachers and as exemplars to the mass of part-time teachers. Above all they will be needed as recruiting agents and co-ordinators of the whole breadth of community resources.

66. For we also see the service as utilising the total educative resources of society. At present most of the teaching in adult education is done by part-time teachers and we would wish to see this continue, for we regard the part-time teacher as a positive advantage, not as a cheap substitute for full-time staff. In every community there are great resources of knowledge, skill and special expertise, and an adult education service of sufficient range and flexibility can be achieved only by mobilising these. We recognise and make recommendations about the consequent needs for training and in-service supervision by professional staff. Similarly, in every community there are resources of voluntary energy, either latent or formed already into clubs and associations. These too are a resource of great value to be drawn into collaboration with the service. In the same way, although certain kinds of accommodation will be used exclusively by adult education, a service that meets the range of needs that we envisage must be able to call on all educational plant - buildings, equipment and other resources - as well as ancillaries such as libraries, certain public buildings, sports complexes, recreation centres and arts centres. This again we regard, not merely as a means of drawing greater value from public investments, but as a positive contribution towards the integration of community resources into an active community life.

67. The service must be available to all according to need and interest and irrespective of means. We believe that participants in adult education should

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pay something towards its cost, and we make some observations at paragraphs 308 to 314 about the nature and level of student contributions. Nevertheless the principle of genuine accessibility for all is of primary importance. Administrative and financial arrangements must be under constant review to ensure that, far from inhibiting any section of the population from joining, they should positively encourage it.

68. The service must be consciously directed to the multiplicity of needs felt by all members of the community in their widely varying circumstances. It must be free therefore to go out beyond the traditional formulae of class provision: teaching methods, the duration and timing of activities, frequency and format of meetings, and all other features of the provision must be dictated by the real needs of people and not by irrelevant traditions from the time of the "night schools".

69. Finally we see the development of this comprehensive service as an evolution through a series of phases which, though we have set them out in priority, should overlap in time according to the progressive availability of resources.

70. The objective of the first phase would be to consolidate existing provision so that standards everywhere approximated to those of the best of current practice. Some indication of what these are is given in Part II. It would entail the immediate building up of an adequate cadre of full-time professional staff and the establishment of a workable code for the full community use of buildings and resources.

71. Overlapping with this phase would be the planned exploration of new areas of work, especially among the disadvantaged of all kinds, and the setting up and evaluation of experiments in provision for them. Out of this would develop a strategy for the systematic expansion of the active areas of adult education into those parts of the population at present untouched.

72. Again overlapping would be the experimental stage of a phase in the application of educational technology, especially multi-media approaches to adult learning and the development of self-instructional kits in association with more formal class work. Growth in this area is easy to foresee but difficult to forecast in time, for it will depend on developments in the production of material and in liberality in the provision of play-back equipment. The relevance to certain of the needs for adult education however is very clear. New forms of collaboration between the media and the adult education agencies will have to be evolved and this is where we see the experimental phase beginning.

73. A further phase would lie in the field of buildings. The community use of educational buildings would show up needs for additional building to ensure that facilities were available at all times when they might be required and to cater for emergent new needs or for changes in the demands of the other users.

74. Interpenetrating all these would be the stimulation of voluntary bodies of all kinds and the encouragement of new ones, whose functions would be to identify, and sometimes with public aid to meet, needs of specific groups within the total population.

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75. In Part III we show in some detail how we can begin to secure these developments. At this stage we would simply emphasise the importance of the adult education in relation to the primary needs we have described; the resources that are already to hand within the community for the purposes of adult education - resources of staff, experience and skill in the providing agencies and of buildings and equipment in the public control; and the modest level of additional funds that would be needed annually to mobilise these resources and channel them through the phases of development towards a fully comprehensive service of education for all, when once the necessary priorities have been recognised.

76. In Part I we have tried to assess the need for adult education. We turn in this part to the more prosaic task of describing present provision. We have weighed a great volume of evidence and we have visited many forms of provision and studied their operation. We are aware of the many weaknesses, the widely varying standards of provision and teaching, the mediocrities and the trivialities. We have been deeply impressed also by the quality of what can be achieved by thoughtful, sensitive teaching backed by constructive policy. We have not come lightly to the conclusion stated in paragraph 61 that what is required is not drastic revision of the present system but drastic action to make it work effectively. Therefore to tabulate our judgments in detail would not serve our purpose which is concerned with the future. This part of our Report therefore deals briefly with the major bodies involved and dwells on the more positive elements in the present system which, with the modifications, development and expansion that we recommend in Part Ill, may form the basis of a future service.

77. The Secretary of State for Education and Science has the duty under Part I of the Education Act, 1944, "to promote the education of the people of England and Wales and the progressive development of institutions devoted to that purpose, and to secure effective execution by local authorities, under his control and direction, of the national policy of providing a varied and comprehensive educational service in every area." He may secure the execution of national policy for adult education in the following ways:

77.1. By the issue of Circulars and Administrative Memoranda;

77.2. By advice in pamphlets and reports published for the Department;

77.3. By financial controls, direct or indirect, and by the normal processes of administration, for example the examination and approval of annual further education building programmes submitted by local education authorities and the annual assessment of grants to responsible bodies;

77.4. By consultation between local education authorities or responsible bodies and the Department's officers and HM Inspectors.

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No. 8, "Further Education") in the first few years after the Act. In 1954 the Ashby Committee published their Report on the responsible bodies under the title "The Organisation and Finance of Adult Education". Many of their recommendations were accepted by the Minister in Administrative Memorandum No. 256 of 1956 and were incorporated in subsequent grant regulations. In 1956 the Ministry issued Pamphlet No. 28 "Evening Institutes". Though it was referred to in the context of provision for the arts in Administrative Memorandum No. 9 of 1969, the last major positive statement about adult education was made in 1963 in Administrative Memorandum No. 6 "Adult Education (Accommodation and Staffing)". Subsequent statements affecting though not specifying adult education have been Administrative Memorandum No. 15 of 1967 on Further Education, "Fees for Classes in Leisure Time Activities", and Circular No. 4 of 1971 "Tuition Fees in Further Education". In Administrative Memorandum No. 15 of 1967, the Secretary of State wished "to remind those authorities who have not recently reviewed the scales of fees they charge for classes in leisure time activities in establishments of further education and evening institutes of the desirability of fixing fees at a level which calls for a reasonable contribution from the student towards the cost of the class". Circular No. 4 of 1971 dealt with "the Government's intention to seek increases from September 1971 in the tuition fees to be charged in further education establishments for non-vocational courses and vocational courses for those already in employment so as to achieve an additional £5 million of income from this source in a full year". The Circular went on, with reference to the apportionment of fee increases by local education authorities, to say that authorities should take into account, among other considerations, "the relative importance to the local community of the further education courses and classes and leisure time occupation in organised cultural training and recreative activities which it is the authority's statutory duty to provide".

79. HM Inspectors are responsible for the inspection of all education establishments and facilities for which the Secretary of State has responsibility. They also act as liaison officers between the Department and local education authorities and other bodies concerned in educational matters. Non-vocational adult education is part of the special responsibility of a Chief Inspector and three Staff Inspectors. All District Inspectors of Further Education in England and Wales include adult education in their responsibilities. About forty Inspectors have some special duties in adult education including liaison with responsible bodies. The influence of HM Inspectors has been felt throughout all sectors of adult education although to varying degrees in different parts of the country.

80. The Secretary of State can make plain the policy for adult education as for other aspects of the educational system, determine its place in the order of educational priorities and can very largely affect, though not determine, the total amount of public money available. These powers were thus used for example to secure the remarkable development of the "youth service" after the publication of the Albemarle Report and to bring about the reconstruction and expansion of vocational further education since 1956. The Ministry and later the Department of Education has been immediately concerned with adult education establishments receiving direct grant, the responsible bodies

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and long-term residential colleges. Throughout the period since the 1944 Act there has been a modest but steady increase in annual grant to these bodies and since 1966 a substantial grant-aided building programme for the residential colleges. In local education authority adult education the Department has been involved in only three ways:

80.1. agreement to proposals for capital expenditure on a number of further education projects within which provision was made for adult education;
80.2. additions to schools for "Evening Institute" purposes under the Circular FE letter of 1955 and its successors (1);
80.3. and certain community centre, village hall and sports projects which have received grant aid.

81. Section 41 of the Education Act 1944 converted a former power into a duty, without giving clear definition to the nature of the duty. It is "the duty of every local education authority to secure the provision for their area of adequate facilities for further education", and in doing so to "have regard to any facilities for further education provided for their area by universities, educational associations and other bodies, and [to] consult any such bodies as aforesaid and the local education authorities for adjacent areas". These requirements do not add up to a duty or a right to co-ordinate, but the local education authority is expected to take the initiative and also, presumably, the blame if adequate provision, in accordance with a scheme which must be submitted to and approved by the Secretary of State, is not secured. The standards of adequacy have never been defined nor have the sanctions which the Secretary of State and Parliament could apply in case of default. The Ministry's pamphlet "Further Education", published in 1947, presents imaginative and far-reaching advice on the preparation of schemes and stresses the need for a survey of area needs, and consultation, cooperation and joint planning to secure a balanced provision in an area. In practice local education authorities are expected to keep the total provision for their areas under review, to encourage positive cooperation between the providing bodies and to use their own resources of money, buildings and skilled manpower to the best effect for the full servicing of their area.

(1) Present procedures are outlined in the booklet "Notes on procedures for the approval of school building projects in England". The latest cost limits are in Administrative Memorandum No. 13 of 1972.

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82. These processes may involve them in paying grants to universities, to the WEA, to other voluntary associations, such as Councils of Social Service, Rural Community Councils, and district formations of Women's Institutes and Townswomen's Guilds, and to individual groups, such as Community Associations and specialised cultural groups. Much the greatest part of the local education authorities' effort goes into their own direct provision of classes in the various types of institutions which are described more fully below. Local education authority adult education is institutionalised to a far greater degree than that provided by the responsible bodies and is normally intended to complement rather than duplicate the provision of other agencies. The total number of adult students attending local education authority classes is about six times the number in university extra-mural and WEA classes and forms the largest number of individual students served by any type of post-school education.

83. Nearly 1.7 million students over the age of eighteen, about one in twenty of the adult population, attended local education authority classes in 1968/69. The total number of adults in current contact with local education authority adult education institutions is considerably increased through the affiliation of groups and societies - a characteristic of many areas. Overall contact is also enlarged by the turnover of students annually; an investigation in 1968/691 showed that 23 per cent of students were in their first class. Though membership of local education authority classes covers the whole social and educational range the lower middle class (C1) group is the most highly represented proportionately: investigations confirm that the less privileged social groups and those who had more more restricted previous education are under-represented (1). It is firmly believed by many closely associated with adult education that increased fees cause a further decline in the proportionate representation of the lower socio-economic groups. The overall proportion of men to women in 1968/69 in classes was about one to three, with a much lower participation of men in the north of England as compared with the east and south-east (1).

84. Vital to an understanding of the present provision of adult education by local education authorities is an appreciation of the steady change in the proportion of adults to young people attending "evening institutes". In 1960, 31.7 per cent of the students in evening institutes were seventeen years of age or under: in 1969, the proportion was 16.8 per cent. This change in age structure, the result of developments in schools and the growth of day-release, and, sometimes, of a deliberate policy on the part of authorities of providing more adult education, has produced a significant change in the total pattern of subject provision within these institutions and a great change in their atmosphere. Some adults are found in the declining number of classes which are still provided mainly for those who may be attending or have just left school and are principally concerned with school subjects and basic commercial skills; special classes on these subjects for adults are sometimes also found.

85. As a result of custom, convenience and working arrangements with other providing bodies the courses provided by the 163 local education authorities have, on the whole though not invariably, the following characteristics:

(1) National Institute of Adult Education "Adequacy of Provision" published March 1970.

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85.1. they are primarily concerned with interests and skills relevant to personal as compared with vocational life;

85.2. the subjects are those with a mainly practical or creative content rather than academic studies;

85.3. the great majority of classes are not designed to prepare students for examinations leading to recognised qualifications;

85.4. classes are intended to be taken during the students' leisure mostly on a one-class-per-week basis between the months of September and the following April: seven of every eight classes take place in the evening;

85.5. they usually take place on the premises of day schools or colleges of further education.

86. The subject provision for adults is very wide and a catalogue of class titles would extend to over two hundred items. It is modified somewhat from year to year to reflect the changing interests of a society through which prosperity, better education and sophistication are increasingly diffused. There are local variations but in most authorities domestic subjects, physical activities, arts and crafts, music and drama, foreign languages, and practical activities such as woodwork and car maintenance will account for about 80-90 per cent of the programme.

87. While there has been a certain stability in the overall basic pattern during the last twenty years or so, one striking change has been a substantial increase in the number of foreign language classes provided. Also a steady development of provision through shorter courses has enabled many classes to concentrate on one aspect of a subject rather than attempt a comprehensive treatment, and encouraged a diversification of courses to meet developing and more sophisticated tastes. Provision of greatly increased range and complexity has been noticeable in many areas of study, especially in classes concerned with outdoor pursuits. There is a growing provision of academic subjects such as astronomy, psychology, sociology and local studies.

88. All adult education provided by local education authorities serves the social as well as the educational needs of its students. This aspect varies widely in character and intensity, from personal contacts within classes based on common interests through to the well-organised social life of adult education institutions which provide developed cultural and social activities and amenities. Increasing numbers of institutions, even though they are still a minority, serve their neighbouring communities by forming or affiliating existing groups and societies, thus becoming cultural and educational centres for their localities.

89. There are several ways in which local education authorities organise their provision for adults. The most common forms are as follows:

89.1. Establishments, often of long standing, are known as "Evening Institutes", "FE Institutes", "Adult Education Centres", "Adult Institutes" or some similar title and are organised under a principal with the specific responsibility of arranging, publicising and supervising a programme of adult education. Such an institute often takes its name from the day school in which it is housed. Though many authorities still appoint teachers fully occupied in other duties during the day to run such establish-

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ments in the evenings, an increasing number of such appointments are now placed under the direction of full-time principals. Full-time appointments are not usually made unless there are about 1,000 students and the prospect of some daytime classes. Frequently adult education institutions of this type hold classes and activities both in the central building and in a number of subsidiary centres. In areas of scattered population a principal is sometimes responsible for organising classes only at a large number of small and dispersed centres.

89.2. The more fortunate adult institutions of the type outlined above have some accommodation of their own, providing both an administrative centre and some space for teaching and social activities under their own control and available at all times. Where, additionally, the principal's sole or main concern is with adult education even such modest facilities can make an adult institution very different in type from one which has at most an office and perhaps a store within a day school.

89.3. Adult education is sometimes provided in an area by an institution which serves the district both as a secondary school and as a base for youth and community activities and the building is sometimes combined with other facilities such as a public library, welfare clinic, sports centre and swimming bath. Such arrangements were pioneered in Cambridgeshire where they were called village colleges and have been modified and adapted in other areas. It is convenient to refer to them as "community colleges". Physical provision and organisational arrangements show great variations. In some cases buildings are planned with the needs of the whole community in view; in other cases youth and adult wings may be added to a secondary school building available for use by adults and young people in the evening. Some community schools attempt to operate in school buildings without additional accommodation. A principal or warden, sometimes mainly occupied as head of the school, is assisted by youth, adult or community tutors who often combine these duties with others in the school. Adult classes and activities are based mainly on the school facilities to which evening students are sometimes brought by special bus services; however classes may also be provided elsewhere. The intention is to provide a central agency which offers a totality of educational services to people allowing them to interchange naturally the roles of parent, adult class member, library user, member of clubs, societies or teams, and which is supported by their rates and taxes and in the government of which they may play a part.

89.4. Another major form of organisation which is at present adopted in some areas is to make a college of further education responsible for the provision in its catchment area. As well as providing the usual range of part-time and full-time courses related to occupational requirements in industry and commerce, together with courses in general education mainly in preparation for GCE examinations, the local college is given the responsibility for all non-vocational adult education in its area. Adult education is sometimes put under the head of a department set up specially for the purpose; classes and other activities are held in the college premises, especially in the evening when they are less in demand for vocational education, and in other premises. Sometimes the head of the adult education

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department has additional responsibilities and frequently all the departments of the college of further education contribute to non-vocational adult education on their own account. Even where the main provision of adult education is arranged in one of the other ways outlined above, many colleges of further education and colleges of art (the reorganisation of which in recent years has resulted in an increased contribution to adult education) include both non-vocational and general education courses in that part of their programme open to adults.

89.5. Any of the institutes or colleges providing adult education may on request provide classes as part of the programme of, and sometimes on the premises used by, other bodies or institutions such as Women's Institutes, Townswomen's Guilds, hospitals, welfare centres, old people's homes, youth clubs or business organisations. In this list community centres and voluntary adult education centres occupy a special place for both are sometimes used by authorities as principal agents for the provision of adult education. It must be stressed that the categories under which adult education is provided are rarely so clearly defined as may have been suggested above, and the picture in any one authority may well be of concurrent use of more than one form of organisation. Relations of the adult education service with the youth service, both organisationally and in the use of premises, in particular show increasing variety. Overall it is probable that about a fifth of all local education authority adult students attend courses in technical colleges and colleges of art: of the remainder the great majority are in evening institutes. These vary in size from centres with two or three classes to large institutes of several hundred classes and occasionally as many as 12,000 students.

90. Information supplied to the Committee by local education authorities shows that in 1968/69 there were 468 persons employed full-time by local education authorities as principals or heads of centres in adult institutes, heads of departments or others responsible for adult education in colleges of further education or in equivalent posts: 433 occupied appointments shared between adult education and other duties. More than three-quarters of them were graduates and more than half had had school teaching experience, although for their work in adult education the majority had at best in-service training. There were 1,713 part-time principals of institutes or heads of centres, of whom almost all were day-school teachers (1).

91. The number of salaried full-time teachers, other than principals or their assistants has grown very rapidly in the last few years but is still comparatively small in relation to the number of part-time tutors employed. Statistics supplied by local education authorities to the Committee showed that in 1968/69 there were about 340 full-time adult education staff employed essentially as teachers, often combining this with a subject supervisory role. There were also about 76,000 part-time teachers (1).

92. All the foregoing paragraphs have illustrated the diversity which exists in almost every aspect of local education authority adult education. Generalisation is apt to be very misleading. Atmosphere and activity are as varied as the institutional and administrative provision. Both range from

(1) Appendix B, Part 1, Table 5.

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a situation in which concept and consequent arrangements have altered little since the evening institute was primarily a means of providing continued education for elementary school-leavers to one illustrating in practice the possibilities of an adult education institution as a major centre of community educational and cultural life. The pace of change has in many places been rapid in recent years and has continued despite financial difficulties. One particularly significant development has been the emergence of an increasing number of induction and in-service training courses for the body of part-time tutors upon whom adult education must necessarily depend. These courses, although brief and by no means universal, are evidence of the concern of those responsible for local education authority adult education to improve the quality of teaching in the classes, and are making a practical contribution to the improvement of educational standards.

93. Section 42 of the Education Act 1944 states that authorities should, when preparing their Schemes of Further Education, have regard to any facilities provided for their area by "universities, educational associations and other bodies". The arrangements made for cooperation show wide variations both in form and in effectiveness (1). Joint Committees or arrangements for cross-representation on committees are known to exist in very many local education authority areas though sometimes the result is little more than a formal exchange of information about past programmes and proposals. In other authority areas reliance is placed on cooperation between officers. At a minimum level this can result in an agreement that the local education authority will refrain from certain kinds of provision, leaving the field free for one of the other providers. In a very few areas much more comprehensive arrangements have been attempted and committees widely representative of educational organisations and agencies have been established to examine the educational needs of adults and, in the light of local resources, consider a joint policy. Such arrangements are unusual and in practice have often fallen short of expectation. The traditions of the major providers, local education authorities, universities and WEA have tended to dominate the thinking of such committees, while representatives of current or potential students have seldom been consulted.

94. In Administrative Memorandum No. 6 of 1963 local education authorities are encouraged, among other things, to provide accommodation for the use of organisations engaged in adult education or to pay for the hire of such accommodation and to contribute to the administrative costs of the responsible bodies. Many local education authorities follow this advice and many are also prepared to pay the teaching costs where classes are arranged by organisations such as the Women's Institute, the Townswomen's Guild or retirement associations. Indeed many local education authorities, particularly in rural areas, make substantial provision in this way.

95. Cooperative action originates also with the work of an individual principal when the institute provides classes, either at their request or in his institute, for Community Associations, Women's Institutes or other organisations. Individual clubs and societies for, say, football or horticulture or opera, are very often affiliated as a matter of authority policy to a local

(1) Appendix B, Part I, Table 1.

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education authority establishment and enjoy preferential terms for the use of premises and for instruction. It is less usual to find any marked liaison between local education authority adult education programme-makers and residential colleges or with the youth service for members over eighteen. The most common form of cooperation with responsible bodies is the inclusion of their classes as part of a programme of a local education authority establishment, held on its premises and included in its publicity. A closer but temporary and occasional link between local education authority and responsible body occurs when both are functionally involved in joint ventures such as a course which includes both musicology and music-making or both the production and literary study of drama.

96. The cool phraseology of a report concentrating on the structure of provision gives no impression of the life and vigour of the institutions under scrutiny. The voluntary attendance of adults at classes presupposes genuine interest and a degree of enthusiasm which is commonly matched by that of the organising staff and of teachers for whom payment is often not even the most important part of their reward. Adult educational activity in the local education authority sector is therefore marked, though it is not differentiated from the responsible body and residential college sectors in this, by a warm atmosphere of cooperative endeavour, appreciation of which is as important to an understanding of the totality of provision as is a grasp of the organisational framework. It is often noticeable in individual classes but may be more varied in its influence and expression in a larger adult education centre which includes affiliated societies as well as classes and has a more vigorous cultural and intellectual life. Often such centres have some formal and institutionalised provision for student responsibility, or even self-government, matters in which increasing interest is being shown. There are however some serious weaknesses. Too often there are failures in teaching technique, in the skills that enable adults to learn effectively in the conditions in which these classes are carried on. The teaching is sometimes insensitive to the particular needs of adults. There is unevenness in standards of achievement; students are allowed to work below their capacities and intelligence and inventiveness are under-taxed. There is inadequacy of provision, particularly of equipment in certain subject areas like modern languages. Some of these weaknesses reflect the shortage of professional staff, the limited provision of training and a failure to develop curriculum studies in this area of education.

97. The extra-mural departments (a variety of titles is used) of twenty-three (1) universities, the seventeen districts of the WEA and the Welsh National Council of YMCAs are grant-aided by the Department of Education and Science as responsible bodies under Regulation 25 of the Further Education Regulations 1969. The grant is paid "towards the cost of providing tuition in any course of liberal adult education in a programme approved ..."

(1) One university has two extra-mural departments.

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by the Secretary of State. The history and work of the responsible bodies was reviewed in some detail in the report of the Ashby Committee published in 1954 (1).

98. The universities have been offering adult education for over a century, originally with the idea of giving some taste of university teaching to what were then the two most deprived classes in the community, women and manual workers. These "extension" classes of the universities increased in number and strength during the 19th century and into the 20th, and in cooperation with the WEA led to the high achievements of the tutorial class, lasting for not less than three years of weekly class meetings and requiring organised reading and written work.

99. The universities, and since 1924 the WEA, have been in a direct relationship with first the Board and now the Department of Education and Science, from whom they receive grant of up to some 75 per cent towards teaching costs. The WEA also receives a grant towards the administrative cost of its headquarters and the cost of the Service Centre for Social Studies (see also paragraph 124 below).

100. In addition, responsible bodies usually receive financial assistance from local education authorities towards administrative and organising costs, and are usually provided with local education authority accommodation for class meetings or, in some cases, with financial help towards the cost of hiring suitable premises when those of the local education authority are not available. Extra-mural departments also receive substantial income from university sources, mainly public funds channelled through the University Grants Committee. WEA districts find the balance of their income mainly from voluntary sources and students' fees. Details of the Department's grants to responsible bodies are set out in Table 16 of Appendix B.

101. In the years between 1956/7 and 1969/70 there has been a rise in the total number of students enrolled in responsible body courses of all kinds from 165,035 to 249,136; the number of courses has risen from 8,104 to 11,649 (2). During this period, the percentage of three-year tutorial classes has fallen from 10.7 per cent of the total to 6 per cent, and the proportion of the student body taking them from 8.1 to 5.2 per cent. The number of one-year sessional classes of twenty to twenty-four meetings has risen from 20.5 per cent to 27.5 per cent with a corresponding rise in the proportion of students from 17.3 per cent to 23.8 per cent. The percentage of terminal classes of ten to twelve meetings has remained about the same, but with a higher percentage of the students. The number of residential courses has nearly doubled in the period, with a slight rise in the percentage of both courses and students attending them. There has been a decline in classes of very short duration from 37.4 per cent of the total to 32.4 per cent, with the proportion of students falling from 45.5 per cent to 39.7 per cent. In using these figures, it has to be noted that although the national statistics for responsible body provision are very much fuller than for the local education authority sector, records for the shorter and residential

(1) The Organisation and Finance of Adult Education, Report by Committee under the chairmanship of Dr. Eric Ashby, published 1954.

(2) Appendix B, Part 2, Table 10.

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courses are grouped in very broad bands which do not permit precise interpretation. In the subjects offered, there has been, over the same period, a substantial increase in the proportion of classes in history and archaeology, social sciences and the sciences, particularly biology. The most marked decreases over the period have been in international affairs, philosophy and religion (1).

102. With the great improvements in secondary education since the Second World War and with easier access to higher education the role of the universities has altered. They have concentrated less upon the discharge of an obligation towards the education of the under-privileged and many universities now see their role as predominantly with those who have benefited from the greater accessibility of higher education. Even so, one field in which an obligation to the working man is increasingly recognised is that of industrial relations.

103. A substantial part of university work in adult education falls outside the scope of the Further Education Regulations 1969; its content is either not liberal in the meaning of the Regulations or for specific groups and therefore not open to general enrolment as the Regulations require. For these reasons it is ineligible for the Department's grants and is not included in their statistics, and some of it is outside the letter of our terms of reference. Even if all this non-grant-aided work is included, however, about two thirds of university extra-mural provision is predominantly non-vocational adult education. Nearly half of the total of all grant-aided courses is concerned with the traditional humanities (archaeology, history, literature, philosophy and appreciation of the arts). Science accounts for 13.4 per cent of all classes and economics, industrial studies and social studies for another 21 per cent. Most courses do not prepare students for examinations but a significant minority lead to extra-mural certificates or diplomas. A valued development of recent years has been the increasing number of classes concerned with "role-education", liberal education for professional and other groups with a common function eg prison officers, clergy, managers, voluntary social workers.

104. The contribution of the universities is organised by extra-mural and adult education departments whose directors often have professorial status, an indication of the increasing importance attaching to the work. These internal university appointments are backed by full-time teaching and administrative staff and some 300 full-time tutors are employed, of whose salaries up to 75 per cent is paid by direct grant under the Further Education Regulations. The establishment of these posts is subject to the approval of the Secretary of State. In addition an increasing number of university extra-mural and adult education departments employ lecturers paid wholly from university funds. The important and developing role of the universities

(1) Appendix B, Part 2, Table 14(i).

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in training adult education workers is considered in paragraphs 403-417 below.

105. Full-time university adult tutors may be concerned primarily with teaching a subject and be called staff tutors; or, in addition to their own teaching, they may be responsible for developing adult education in the territory where they are based, perhaps at a distance from the university, and be called resident tutors. Universities vary in their policies in this respect and in the nomenclature they use. Lecturers in extra-mural departments are members of the university staff on the same footing as their colleagues in the internal departments. They are expected to maintain a standard of scholarship appropriate to university teachers yet they may be stationed some way from the university itself; many help and advise part-time teachers of their subjects; they may be expected to assist in the organisation of the courses they teach and therefore to become key figures in local educational and cultural circles; they can expect a good deal of evening work and travelling, particularly in the winter half-year and they have a commitment also to teach at the summer schools.

106. University internal lecturers play an important part in bringing university scholarship to adult classes and the factors which may limit their availability as part-time adult tutors frequently cause concern to extra-mural directors. The pressures of internal university duties, the distance of classes from the university centre, the scale of remuneration and the regard in which extra-mural adult education is held are some of those which have to be taken into account. Classes are also taken by other university graduates, many of whom teach by day in schools.

107. Most university extra-mural departments have their own premises within the university precinct or city where both day and evening classes are accommodated. Some centres include the headquarters of the department's day lending library. Such buildings have been provided out of university funds, as have libraries and all other equipment. In addition, there are places at a distance from universities where premises have been acquired for responsible body work, often with the support of the local education authority. Resident university and WEA tutors may be based on such centres which become a focal point of responsible body and associated activities for the area, sometimes including a measure of local education authority adult education provision. The total number of centres of all these kinds throughout the country is small.

108. The standards which have come to be expected of university extra-mural courses are summarised in Regulation 25 (1) of the Further Education Regulations 1969 which refers to all responsible body work. The essence of university extra-mural education is a weekly class meeting with a teacher able to bring the values of the university to the work and guide individual students in required reading, written work and other exercises between meetings. As in all education the quality of the work is variable. Some of the least successful extra-mural classes make few demands on students other than attendance as members of a lecture audience. The best classes however enable their students to think and work independently in the best

(1) Appendix A, Annex II.

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traditions of university scholarship. Classes are not necessarily confined to the classroom or laboratory but may include field work or visits to museums, galleries or archives, though these are not widespread. Courses requiring field study may have special meetings for this purpose at weekends during the summer months, and some courses consist wholly or in part of a number of weekend residential meetings. Longer residential courses of this kind lasting from one to four weeks and sometimes located abroad are also increasing in popularity and tending to replace the traditional university summer schools.

109. At the present time several newly established universities are demonstrating their interest in adult education by supporting modest programmes, including one experimental family summer school, from their own resources. The pattern of university extra-mural areas, the form of extra-mural organisation and the content and administration of grant regulations for "courses of liberal adult education" are some of the aspects of the present provision which are either undergoing changes within the universities or are generally considered due for re-examination.

110. The Workers' Educational Association was founded in 1903 to organise and voice the educational claims of the working class. In 1907 it formed an alliance with the universities and became the intermediary between these institutions and working class students.

111. The WEA's original purpose remains its profession which is still: "to stimulate and to satisfy the demands of adults, in particular members of workers movements, for education by the promotion of courses and other facilities and generally to further the advancement of education to the end that all children, adolescents and adults may have full opportunities for the education needed for their complete individual and social development". Thus as a national movement the WEA claims an interest in the whole field of education, with a particular concern for the needs of working class families, and it has voiced its views over the years on all sorts of educational topics. But the particular area of education in which the WEA has been by far the most active is that of adult education. Since 1924 the districts of the WEA have been recognised as responsible bodies receiving direct grant. The role of the WEA is that both of promoter and provider. In spite of the growth of extra-mural departments, especially since 1945, most universities still rely on the WEA's help in arranging classes and in fact joint work (1), with the WEA accounts for about a third of all extra-mural department classes (18 per cent of all courses provided) and 26 per cent of all students, while rather more than 40 per cent of students in grant-aided classes are in those provided by the WEA directly. It can be argued that concern for the education of the working classes need be less pressing now than it was in 1903 when the WEA was founded. The educational system has been

(1) Including work not grant-aided by the Department.

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greatly expanded and improved and in consequence access to technical and higher education for the sons and daughters of working class homes is more open. However, the WEA among others point with concern to the relatively small proportion of young people from working class homes who in fact reach a university, at the handicap under which a child from an under-educated home labours throughout his school career, and the consequent need for the development of "second chance" education.

112. Classes which the WEA organises independently of the universities and local education authorities are arranged by local branches working under districts, each of which is a grant-receiving responsible body.

113. Its voluntary nature has two significant effects on the provision. Although branch organisation may have lost some of the vitality that marked the pre-war years, the amount of voluntary effort is still substantial. HM Inspectors have given us their opinion that the number of activists on the various committees is a small proportion of the total class membership but enormously greater overall than in local education authority or independent university class provision. A second effect of the voluntary nature of the WEA is that the classes are intended to be self-governing: tutor and students work out their programme together, modify it in the light of progress made and share in a joint discipline of study and discussion. The WEA at its best does help students to acquire habits of study that are then applicable at various academic levels including university work. Classes are not always at their best but they are sufficiently often so to have made WEA practice a valuable contribution to educational methodology. The WEA is no longer unique in a practice which has been adopted by a number of university and local education authority tutors. But, to quote HM Inspectors again, the WEA "provides a better link between the participants and the provision than has been forged by most local education authority establishments or university extra-mural departments". To this extent and in principle at least the WEA is a prototype of the sort of student controlled organisations which should be singularly appropriate to adult education.

114. The WEA's evidence to this committee confirms its belief "that its work for workers in industry and for educationally and socially deprived communities should have a high priority in its efforts" and this is firmly expressed in the movement's national declarations of policy. However the composition of WEA classes tends, as with other providing bodies, to reflect the socio-economic nature of the area in which they take place. A survey conducted between 1966 and 1969 by the National Institute of Adult Education showed that in the sample of seven areas studied the percentage of students in the two lowest socio-occupational groups was higher in WEA classes than in those provided by universities and local education authorities. In many areas however social composition of WEA classes and residential schools does not seem to differ significantly from those of other providing bodies.

115. The WEA enjoys cordial relations of long-standing with the TUC; its officers are members of the TUC's Regional Educational Advisory Councils and the Association contributes a substantial part of the TUC's programme for affiliated unions including its regional education schemes. University

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extra-mural departments and local education authority colleges of further education as well as the WEA provide adult education for trade unionists, often on a day-release basis, and colleges of further education now provide much more for shop stewards than does the WEA. But the WEA's tradition and methodology put it in a particularly strong position to disarm suspicion among trade unionists, and both the TUC and the universities recognise the success of the WEA's pioneering of day-release courses for trade unionists in the 1950s and 1960s. Of recognised potential in this field is the WEA Service Centre for Social Studies, established in 1969: the material it produces is already valued by industrial relations tutors outside as well as inside the WEA.

116. The WEA's concern for special groups has taken the form of classes and activities on a modest scale for hospital patients, prisoners, retired people and immigrants and the WEA attaches increasing importance to work of this kind. One particularly interesting experiment is taking place in an area of a northern city designated as needing "positive discrimination" under the government's Urban Programme (see para 144). This work which is at a pioneering stage requires an ability to use techniques unfamiliar to the movement and to form alliances of a new kind with the local education authority and with statutory and voluntary welfare and social organisations as well as with the university.

117. A great deal of WEA provision however is directed towards the general public and is in the field of academic humanities. These classes are often introductory in character, not yet of university standard, but calculated to lead on to longer courses of study at greater depth and calling for sustained independent work by the student. A subsequent class may be taken on by a university tutor. Other classes are however of a standard comparable in every respect to many classes provided by university responsible bodies.

118. The WEA has an increasing number of full-time staff engaged in its work for adult education. In addition to the staff at the central headquarters and the district secretaries and their administrative staff, the WEA employed eighty-five full-time tutors in 1968/69 (101 in 1971/72, double the number for whom the Department paid grant in 1960/61). In addition the WEA employs fifteen development officers whose salaries are not grant-aided.

119. The total provision of the local education authorities and responsible bodies does not meet all the needs of adult education in an area. A variety of services to different groups is also provided by some of the national voluntary organisations with a concern for adult education. Such are the National Federation of Women's Institutes, the National Union of Townswomen's Guilds and other organisations for women, and the National Federation of Community Associations. Democratic in constitution, these organisations put adult education prominent among their aims. Education will not stand first in the minds of most members, who are more likely to join

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a women's institute or community association for social than for educational reasons; the education grows out of a vigorous social life, stimulated by a central office and encouraged by district or other field officers. In the women's organisations some of the best educational work comes not so much from the organised classes but rather from the group discussion of current social topics often remitted from the centre. The strength of these voluntary organisations lies in their relative informality, their ability to encourage a sense of loyalty to a movement, and their skill in promoting adult education in a satisfying social setting. Many of them provide classes and educational activities out of their own resources but also promote classes to be tutored by local education authorities or responsible bodies.

120. The Educational Centres Association deserves particular mention. With the residential settlement movement it has been largely responsible for developing the idea and practice of a self-governing educational community. At one time recognised as a responsible body it exists now to spread the idea that an adult centre, whether provided by a local education authority, a university or a voluntary trust, should offer members a real opportunity to take part in its management and programming and should develop a strong social and corporate life deriving from the educational activities.

121. There is much of importance for adult education in the associated conception fostered by the National Federation of Community Associations of a self-governing association of individuals and representative groups in their neighbourhood coming together in a community centre for social and educational activities as well as for the promotion of the general well-being of the area. The varying interest of local education authorities has meant a very uneven distribution over the country and the movement has not met the immediate and high post-war expectations of 1945. One or two authorities have however made community centres one of their main vehicles of adult education; a larger number themselves maintain community centres which contribute towards adult education and may receive advice from the National Federation but which are debarred from full membership by lack of autonomy.

122. There are in addition tens of thousands of local educative societies in varying degrees of animation from somnolence to vigorous activity. They include church groups, drama and music groups, literary, scientific and historical societies and amateur sports clubs. They represent a genuine expression of local group needs and provide a framework for adult education of varying degrees of formality. Some local education authorities offer schemes of affiliation through which independent local societies can link themselves with local education authority institutes and obtain houseroom and other advantages. More than one county local education authority has formed adult centres by bringing together local societies in an area which then constitute a joint committee and prepare an adult education programme for the neighbourhood with the advice of the adult tutor who is their secretary.

123. In addition to clubs and societies which exist for the pursuit of personal interests there is another group of organisations which aim at serving the community. Those which come most directly into contact with formal adult

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education include pre-retirement associations, old people's welfare organisations and consumer groups. There are national organisations to promote the interests of these groups, which include educational activities for members, and also the training of voluntary officers and helpers, particularly for work with old people. Local education authorities and responsible bodies assist with the provision of classes and training courses locally in the customary way and the Department is represented on certain national committees.

124. Financially most voluntary organisations rely heavily on subscriptions and fund raising; some local groups receive grants from their local education authorities, more receive indirect financial assistance through the payment of teachers, the services of specialist advisers or the provision of accommodation. The extent of help offered by the local education authorities shows wide variation. Capital grants on a considerable scale have been made available by central government in association with local education authorities for village halls and community centre buildings and sports facilities used for much of the local group activity. The Sports Council has since 1971 taken over from the Department support for sports organisations. The Department gives grant to the national headquarters expenses of certain organisations for the adult education part of their activities, the amount for 1971/72 being

125. There is a large, important and varied group of bodies whose primary function in adult education is to offer support, often to individuals; a number of them also provide direct group teaching. Such bodies include public libraries, museums and art galleries, arts centres, the broadcasting authorities, public utilities, correspondence colleges and commercial agencies.

126. Public libraries are a standing reservoir of source material for the serious student. In addition they may lend collections of books for limited periods to adult institutions of all kinds (including penal establishments) or to individual classes; a major practical difficulty is the provision of sets of

(1) The Department also makes a grant towards the administrative costs of the WEA headquarters and the cost of its Service Centre for Social Studies: in 1971/72 this grant was £8,000 (see para 99 above).

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the same text for class use. Some urban libraries promote educational activities for adults direct, including lectures, exhibitions, film-shows, concerts and theatre, and such developments were further strongly advocated in a joint report of the Library Advisory Councils for England and for Wales in 1971 ("Public Library Service Points" published by HMSO). The archives departments of local authorities produce material, allow students access to documents and run exhibitions, all valuable aids to students particularly in classes in local history and archaeology. Museums and art galleries provide permanent opportunities for information, study and appreciation to adult students of fine arts and crafts, history, science and technology. Many offer accommodation to adult classes. A minority have education officers, working mainly with schools but anxious to extend their services to adults when finance allows. Permanent staff may act as part-time adult tutors in their spare time or cooperate with full-time tutors in the provision of adult courses. The loan services they offer nearly always go to schools; problems of security in shared premises sometimes discourage loans to adult groups. However, libraries, museums and art galleries are educative institutions. They are coming increasingly under pressure to provide explicit educational services but find difficulty in doing so on any large scale because their resources are intended primarily for other purposes.

127. The development of arts centres has been systematically encouraged since 1964 by the Department in collaboration with the Arts Council. The emphasis varies in these centres but all offer opportunities for the practice and enjoyment of the arts and are a most valuable ancillary to organised adult education. Some of their functions are performed by adult education establishments of all kinds, colleges and institutes of further education, community centres and adult residential colleges, and a few adult education centres and arts centres work together in very close cooperation. Local authorities at all levels are now empowered to maintain or support "the arts and crafts which serve them". Regional arts associations and local arts councils are already in some places playing the supportive role advocated in Administrative Memorandum No 9 of 1969 on "Arts Facilities in Educational and Other Establishments".

128. Radio and more recently television have had a profound and pervasive influence. Although they have an obligation to provide education, as well as information and entertainment, neither the BBC nor the IBA are educational institutions. Yet over and above the provision of educative general output, both organisations maintain the public service tradition inaugurated in 1927 when R S Lambert started a series of talks for the BBC's Adult Education Department on "One Hundred Years of Working Class Progress". Programmes consisting of educational courses now occupy more than 450 (1) hours a year on television, and 350 (1) on network radio, apart from the educational offerings now available in differing patterns on local radio. That first series of Lambert's was reinforced by a pamphlet, which also inaugurated a persisting tradition of what is now known as "support literature", additional documents or resources to deepen the impact of ephemeral sounds and images. Most of these broadcast adult education series are aimed at the

(1) Excludes Open University programmes.

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public in their homes, although some are designed for institutions of further and adult education, or to provide opportunities to specialised sections of the public for professional updating. The majority of them could certainly be classified as "non-vocational" and, even though they are normally transmitted at relatively unfavourable, off-peak times, they attract audiences which are huge by educational standards, running into 250,000 and more, one in ten of whom might buy a supporting paperback or set of practice discs.

129. Attempts have been made to link broadcast adult education with the educational service. BBC education officers and those from Independent Television have stimulated the formation of viewing and discussion groups through institutions, voluntary bodies such as parent-teacher groups and industrial firms. Both the BBC and IBA plan their output with the aid of advisory bodies widely representative of the world of adult education. Some experiments have also been made with joint broadcast and correspondence tuition. The high quality of the broadcast material is increasingly recognised but the customary times of transmission, the lack of training of part-time teachers in methods of using it and the difficulties and expense of setting up multi-media systems have so far restricted the exploitation of the resources of broadcasting in the normal fields of adult education.

130. Commerce and industry already make contributions of considerable importance. Demonstrations organised by a number of industrial firms and public utilities, particularly gas and electricity, are often technically admirable and very well attended. Adult education leans very heavily on the publishers, particularly the publishers of academic texts and works of scholarship; and there is also some class use as well as educational value in records, women's magazines, do-it-yourself magazines, canoe-building and dinghy-building kits and the like.

131. The growth of adult education student numbers and the consequent enlargement of markets is making some impact on commercial providers. At present, however, organised adult education, largely because of narrow resources, makes relatively little use of the hardware and software of educational technology in comparison with technical and even secondary education.

132. Correspondence education has also so far made only a restricted contribution to adult education. Many adult students can work only at home or prefer to do so. Until recently the only bodies to serve them were the correspondence colleges (1), private independent institutions concerned predominantly with preparation for public, GCE, professional and other vocational examinations. The National Extension College, exceptional among correspondence institutions in being a non-profit making body, has, among its other activities, cooperated with the BBC in providing GCE courses. The possibilities of correspondence methods in adult education have also been demonstrated by an association between a responsible body (Nottingham University) and an independent television company (ATV).

(1) Many of these colleges have combined to establish the "Council for the Accreditation of Correspondence Colleges" membership of which is open to colleges that provide a satisfactory and responsible service.

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133. Residential courses have long been a feature of adult education particularly in the form of summer schools organised by the responsible bodies. Since the end of the second world war there has been a considerable growth in the provision of residential colleges and centres which aim to provide courses of their own or accommodation for courses organised by other agencies. Many of the colleges and centres are wholly or partly used as conference meeting places; some have specific educational aims (for example the field-study centres and management studies centres); and a few are committed to a particular religious denomination, a political party or in one case, the Cooperative Movement.

134. The main feature distinguishing residential adult colleges from the large number of conference centres is the appointment of an academic head whose title is "principal" or "warden". Such an appointment is usually a recognition of the fact that the particular college makes a positive educational provision of its own, even if for part of the time it is available for hire as a meeting place for courses and conferences arranged by outside bodies. If "residential adult education" is taken in this sense, two groups of colleges may be distinguished, the long-term and the short-term. The differences between them amount to much more than the duration of their courses; they have different objectives, attract different types of student, and are staffed and equipped in different ways.

135. In England and Wales the Department gives grant to six independent long-term residential colleges providing courses of liberal adult education of one or two years' duration; these are Ruskin College, Oxford; Plater College, Oxford; Fircroft College, Birmingham; Hillcroft College, Surbiton; Coleg Harlech, Wales and, from April 1969, the Cooperative College, Loughborough. Recurrent grants from the Department for the 1970/71 session were Ruskin £80,178; Fircroft £26,293; Plater £26,236; Hillcroft £26,912; Coleg Harlech £68,708 and the Cooperative College £6,000 (1). A programme of improvements and expansion of the colleges' premises has been undertaken, helped by 50 per cent grants from the Department towards approved projects which will amount to more than £¾ million (1).

136. The impetus behind these colleges is broadly similar to that which lay behind the WEA and the tutorial classes movement, namely the provision of opportunities of higher education for working class men and women. Ruskin since its foundation in 1899, has been closely associated with the Trade Union Movement; Plater College, formerly the Catholic Workers' College, has sought to equip its students for a "lay apostolate in industry"; while Hillcroft is a college for women. The colleges no longer expect the majority of their students to return to their former work places after their course. They offer a major channel of "second chance" education appropriate to a more open society and enable increasing numbers to go on directly to new professional or occupational training or to the universities as mature students. Some of these gain State Scholarships for Mature Students awarded by the Department.

(1) Appendix B, Part 3, Table 21.

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137. Since 1945 these colleges have increased considerably in size, yet they still remain relatively small institutions with places for a total of about five hundred students (1). Most of the teaching is done by the colleges' own full-time staff. All but one of the colleges are situated in or near university towns and most have special arrangements whereby a number of their students sit the examinations for university diplomas. Most of the students attending are dependent upon discretionary grants from local education authorities (2).

138. Something over thirty-five short-term residential colleges can be identified in England and Wales; of these the majority are provided by local education authorities or jointly by a group of authorities; others belong to university extra-mural departments, voluntary organisations or independent sponsors. All save one of the short-term colleges have been established since 1945 and their development, sparked off by interest in the Danish Folk High Schools, however little they resemble them, has been related to the general increase in adult education since the war as much as to the growth of demand for residential conferences and training centres. A number of other residential establishments catering mainly for industrial conferences or in-service work for teachers or youth workers also include occasional courses of non-vocational adult education.

139. The staple provision of most colleges is mid-week and weekend courses with a few ten-day or two-week courses and summer schools. Some of the colleges have specific purposes, such as management education or education from religious or ethical viewpoints, others have varied their provision of short courses open to the general public with particular types of course for a specific kind of student group. One college for example works closely with a group of colleges of further education in providing courses of liberal studies for technical students; another provides a series of weekend courses for trade unionists; a third promotes a series of pre-retirement courses; a fourth works closely with an extra-mural department in adding a residential period to some of the conventional adult classes.

140. The perpetual round of short courses of such variety has meant that at times a college may seem to lack a central purpose and its programme to approach the ephemeral. On the other hand their very freedom has enabled the short-term colleges to experiment with and to pioneer a wide variety of different courses for a range of adult students who do not usually attend classes and courses provided by other adult education agencies. The element common to this work is the exploitation of the appeal of and advantages arising from a short period of residence, chiefly the concentration of effort and the opportunity for informal group discussion.

141. These advantages have also led an increasing number of other bodies to incorporate residential courses into their normal programmes. University extra-mural departments, WEA districts and many local education authority centres of adult education arrange short residential courses, sometimes in collaboration with the short-term colleges but also to an increasing extent as independent ventures at hotels, guest houses and conference centres. The courses are often a direct extension of normal day or evening classes, to

(1) Appendix B, Part 3, Table 19.

(2) Appendix B, Part 3, Table 20.

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which they can add a valuable experience of intensive study. Open University students also find that their residential summer schools give an additional stimulus to their studies by correspondence or broadcasting.

142. Lastly the provision made by the Ministry of Defence and the Home Office remains to be described. All three Armed Services provide "on the spot" further education facilities for service men and women and to some extent, particularly in overseas stations, for families. Reference and recreational libraries are supplied to ships and establishments. In addition, special arrangements are made to encourage service personnel to take advantage of local civilian adult education provision; and the Forces Correspondence Course Scheme facilitates individual private study in a wide range of subjects at greatly reduced cost. Financial assistance is also given to personnel studying with the Open University in the UK, and the Services are helping the Open University to run courses overseas on an experimental basis. All the Services have pioneered the use of educational technology, and the Army has an interesting record of teaching functionally illiterate adults. Many professional courses in all three Services include a strong education content, and an increasing number lead to nationally recognised civilian qualifications. Liaison with university extra-mural departments and institutions such as the Royal Institute of International Affairs continues to contribute a liberal element to professional education.

143. Home Office provision has been in two distinct fields. Education in penal establishments has for long been promoted by the Prison Commission and its successor the Prison Department of the Home Office. The present collaboration between the Department and local education authorities stems from the 1947 Committee on Education in Penal Establishments under Sir Lionel Fox, then chairman of the Prison Commission. Full-time tutor organisers were appointed wherever circumstances at the time justified them; elsewhere half-time or part-time tutor organisers were established. Tutor organisers were appointed by the local education authorities in consultation with the Prison Commission and immediately assigned for duty with the Commission which paid their salaries; in many areas local education authorities also provided valuable professional support and advice. Responsible bodies have also provided tutors for classes and HM Inspectors have given advice. Education has often been handicapped by poor accommodation and over-riding prison operational requirements, although more recently there have been steady improvements in accommodation and operational requirements are being more flexibly managed. It was and still is provided mainly through evening classes on evening institute lines, although in recent years there has been a significant expansion of day facilities, especially for remedial education and in some instances for study leading to public examinations. Education has always been divorced from physical education and until a few years ago from vocational education as well; but now that

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the Prison Department has its own Chief Education Officer responsible for the vocational training as well as education, close attention is being given to the development of a more comprehensive service along modern adult and further education lines as these are more generally understood in the community.

144. The Home Office has also been active in community development in association with the Urban Programme (1). In 1969 the Home Secretary launched a Community Development Project as an experiment in meeting the needs of areas with multiple social problems. In 1970 work began in four areas and has now been extended to the full planned total of twelve. The experiment may be expected to continue for several years. The object is to discover how people in areas suffering from multiple social problems can be effectively helped and one of the methods proposed is to tap the resources of self help and self expression available in communities. This has much in common with schemes already undertaken by adult education agencies. The Home Office project is, however, being planned with unusual care and is backed by research and considerable finance. Among many other areas of investigation there are possibilities for study of the planning of community schools in areas of high social need in ways which will reflect role in management, as well as possibilities for new developments in adult education.

145. Our terms of reference exclude the main areas of technical, art and higher education; for the mainstream of non-vocational adult education is not intended to cater for those who seek formal qualifications. In evidence however we have met many examples of students attending adult education classes either to acquire these or to prepare for their acquisition. Virtually all the major providing bodies are involved for the needs emerge at many levels. Some university extra-mural departments provide diploma or certificate courses, as do most of the long-term residential colleges, and whilst these are not intended as qualifications in themselves they are increasingly coming to be recognised as valid evidence of educational achievement. Many mature students have sought to qualify through colleges of further education for entry to teacher training, social work courses or university degrees. Educational broadcasting has been linked with correspondence tuition for the same purpose. The Open University has justified the belief in which it was founded, that large numbers without formal educational qualifications would seek a remedy through its facilities, as many have in the past through correspondence courses. Its existence has already stimulated the provision of preparatory courses in many centres and there is an increasing range of other courses of preliminary study, including an impressive development of daytime courses for women who wish to be teachers or social workers.

(1) The Urban Programme is a grant-aided programme aimed at alleviating social need. Started in 1968 it is co-ordinated by the Home Office and also involves the Departments of Education and Science, the Environment, and Health and Social Security.

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There is also evidence that, where facilities of this kind are provided with a view to qualification, they draw in an appreciable number of "eavesdropping" students whose interest is solely in the study itself and not in the qualification.

146. The most evident feature of adult education in England and Wales is its rich diversity, the product of history and successive but piecemeal response to individual perceptions of need and opportunity. We ourselves were surprised at the range and number of bodies that submitted evidence to us, presumably because they saw themselves as part of the world of adult education. A brief review cannot do justice to this range: it has to be selective and to deal in broad generalisations. It is to be feared that many of our witnesses (1) will feel that scant justice has been done to the sterling work they contribute to the whole activity; but we have not been unmindful of them. In this section we have been endeavouring to draw out from the great wealth of evidence submitted to us the broad features of the present situation which may be taken as the starting points for further development. Our review of the evidence has at times revealed weaknesses - looseness of organisation, uncertainty of purpose, overlapping and defensiveness of attitude, needs unperceived and unmet, inadequate standards, lack of resources. But it has also shown us the strengths and it is upon these that we have concentrated. Here is a pattern of activity that, despite the weaknesses, despite meagre official encouragement and shortage of means, engages the sustained voluntary attention of two million adults and adds to their number yearly, that ranges over the whole gamut of personal interest and that does so at a cost of little more than a hundredth of what is spent on public education as a whole. The evidence shows substantial achievement and great potential.

(1) Appendix D.

147. In Part I we set out the general and specific needs that adult education must attempt to meet and came to the conclusion that these called for a varied and comprehensive service of adult education in every part of the country, as foreshadowed in the words of the Education Act 1944. In Part II our review of the present scene outlined what the providing and supporting bodies are now contributing to adult education. We next turn to the structures by which the varied and comprehensive service we deem necessary may best be achieved.

148. The present structure of adult education in England and Wales is the result of historical evolution. We have had to ask whether the present pattern, with its variety of providing bodies and sources of finance, should be scrapped or radically altered: we have already indicated that we believe this is not so.

149. Alternatives to the present pattern have been suggested to us. These include first, a single national providing body for adult education funded directly by the central government; second, a similar provision administered regionally; and third, sole provision by the local education authority, somewhat after the practice in Scotland. We have considered these in detail and have decided not to recommend them.

150. We make no apology for our rejection. We see substantial advantages in the present system over any other, and we indicate these in paragraph 153 below. We have however examined seriously and dispassionately the three possible variants suggested to us. The proposals for a single national providing body or for regional providing bodies are both open to the same fundamental objection. Either of them would be divisive in its effect, separating the administration of adult education from the rest of the educational service. Either would presuppose finance wholly from exchequer grant or partly from national funds and partly by a precept upon local authorities which would be quite without precedent for an educational service and could well be a disastrous beginning to a new era in adult education. The third proposal however, sole provision by the local education authority, deserves much closer study.

151. The local education authority is already the centre of the provision. The question then is whether it should become the sole provider, using other agencies as it chooses but bearing the full responsibility for making the provision of adult education in its area. This would go further than the

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present Act, which requires the local education authority to "secure the provision". Such a system is operated in Scotland and we have examined its implications with great care, remembering that the history of adult education in Scotland is very different from that of England and Wales. Such a system applied to this country would mean cessation of direct grant from central government towards the provision by the universities and the WEA. Such work as was done by the universities and voluntary bodies, including the WEA, would be paid for either by the local education authority as a direct purchase of services or through the resources of universities and voluntary organisations; resources available to universities would include funds received through the University Grants Committee.

152. Now the local education authorities are already the most important providers; theirs is the statutory responsibility for securing adequate provision, they provide the greatest part of the finance, they attract the largest number of students, they retain the largest number of staff; and many of the developments we are recommending will be their direct responsibility. Moreover they administer the rest of the education service and can easily relate adult education to it. As the new local authorities, after the impending reorganisation of local government, will be more uniform in size and generally larger, they would appear to be better able to support the cost of a full service of adult education. The argument for making them the sole providers is a strong one; nevertheless we are not convinced.

153. In the first place none of the bodies representative of local authorities has put this case to us; on the contrary they have expressly commended the contributions of the universities and the voluntary providers. They recognise that the educational needs of an area are so diffused and the activities of the providing bodies so diverse that something important would be lost under unilateral direction, above all the enterprise and accumulated experience of the bodies involved. Certain of these are national bodies serving specific types of need over a wider area than that of the local education authority and this wider vision may often import a freshness and flexibility into the purely local initiatives from which so much of adult education derives. Moreover each of the providing bodies has access to resources of its own - be they premises, teaching staff or voluntary workers - which can be released into the mainstream of adult education by a conscious policy of cooperation. We consider the traditional partnership between statutory and voluntary agencies to be a valuable feature of social organisation in this country and particularly appropriate to adult education. Partnership in this sense could not exist if the voluntary organisations operated only as agents of the local education authority. This view is also in accord with our principle that adult education should draw on the total cultural resources of each community. We believe that the administrative and financial structure should recognise this principle and that the local education authorities should therefore be seen, as we know that they would wish to see themselves, as major partners rather than as monopolists. Finally we draw the lesson from community development projects as well as from the traditions of adult education itself that there are situations in which voluntary organisations can work, at any rate in the first instance, more freely than statutory bodies, especially in controversial fields. As has been pointed out in Part I, adult

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education is emasculated if it cannot venture into areas of social, political, industrial, religious or moral controversy: the right to do so is implicit in the word "adult". Boldness in these matters is often easier for voluntary organisations. For these reasons we have come to the conviction that the variety and flexibility demanded by the range of needs for adult education in England and Wales are not compatible with a single type of providing body.

154. Adult education, by its voluntary nature and the extent of its potential relevance to all areas of adult life, is different from the rest of education. A structure of variety and complexity is inescapable. This general structure we see as a series of interlocking contributions from a number of providing bodies of different kinds. The lead in general policy and in the establishment of national standards of adequacy must come from the central government, and there must be means of consultation at a national level. Since adult education must be seen as part of the total education service, which in England and Wales is a locally administered service, it follows that the local education authority will be the major provider and should take the initiative in cooperative planning with the other providing bodies. These will exist at three levels: a certain number of national agencies in receipt of direct grant from central government; a larger number of voluntary bodies aided by local education authorities; and a further range of local societies and clubs whose work will be supported by the adult education service of the local education authority through some form of affiliation.

155. We have outlined in Part II the limited extent of the leadership from the central government in the development of adult education in this country. Yet such initiatives as have come from the Ministry of Education and its successor the Department of Education and Science have had a significant effect on local authorities: for example, the growth in the number of full-time appointments since 1963 shows with what seriousness the Administrative Memorandum No. 6 of that year was acted upon. Unfortunately the other circulars and memoranda emanating from the Department have usually had the raising of fees as their primary concern, but these have also been influential upon all but the most committed local education authorities. In a negative sense the recent history of adult education makes clear how important is the lead from central government. Conversely the recent history of technical education makes clear in a positive sense how an energetic lead from central government can transform a sector of education.

156. That the Education Act 1944 (1) invites such a lead for adult education is also clear: it is the Minister's duty (Section 1) "to promote the education of the people of England and Wales" and "to secure the effective execution by local authorities, under his control and direction, of the national policy of providing a varied and comprehensive education service in every area". Section 7 prescribes first the three progressive stages of primary, secondary

(1) Appendix A, Annex I.

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and further education, and, second, the general duty of local education authorities: "and it shall be the duty of the local education authority for every area, so far as their powers extend, to contribute towards the spiritual, moral, mental and physical development of the community by securing that efficient education throughout these stages shall be available to meet the needs of the population of their area." The italics are ours, to indicate how explicit is the assumption in the Act that the education service is to be comprehensive for everyone, for adults as well as children and young persons.

157. The Act makes no direct mention of adult education embracing this under the general stage of further education. Section 41 however is again explicit: "it shall be the duty of every local education authority to secure the provision for their area of adequate facilities for further education, that is to say:

(a) full-time and part-time education for persons over compulsory school age; and

(b) leisure time occupation in such organised cultural training and recreative activities as are suited to their requirements, for any persons over compulsory school age who are able and willing to profit by the facilities provided for that purpose:

157.1. However, the effect of the proviso, read (as it must be) with Section 42, is that, notwithstanding the width of the substantive words an authority has power to do anything for which provision is made by its scheme of further education but a duty to do only that which it is directed to do under Section 42(2), which reads as follows:

"42(2). Where a scheme of further education has been submitted to the Minister by a local education authority, the Minister may, after making in the scheme such modifications if any as after consultation with the authority he thinks expedient, approve the scheme, and thereupon it shall be the duty of the local education authority to take such measures as the Minister may from time to time, after consultation with the authority, direct for the purpose of giving effect to the scheme."

158. We are advised, therefore, that while it may have been surprising, it was not in the circumstances unlawful for one or two local authorities in 1968 to propose as measures of economy to suspend their adult education altogether, including their support of other providing agencies. We feel sure that, had there been a consistent lead from the Secretary of State ever since 1944 for the effective provision of adult education, this situation would never have arisen. We also believe that the duty of local education authorities in this matter would have been clearer had there been separate mention, by name, of adult education in Section 41 of the Act and if the regulations made under the Act were described as Regulations for Further and Adult Education. We believe that, when opportunity arises, Sections 41 and 42 of the Act should be revised.

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159. As a more immediate measure we advocate an early statement of policy by the Secretary of State to local education authorities clarifying what, in her view, is meant by "a varied and comprehensive service of education" in so far as adult education is concerned. Many of the recommendations that we make in this Report are intended to assist in this purpose.

160. The object of the foregoing recommendations is to secure a clear commitment from the central government to the place of adult education as an essential element in the national system of education. Without this lead local education authorities, whose resources are under steady and mounting pressure, will find difficulty in maintaining a continuous momentum of development in their adult education services. We are not seeking uniformity of administrative pattern nor even a common scale of provision in all areas, for we recognise that priorities within adult education will differ. We do expect, however, that once the priorities are established energetic action should be taken by local education authorities in every area towards the full discharge of their responsibilities under the Act. In an evolving service, however, the needs will change from time to time and it is essential that the Secretary of State should be in a position continuously to promote a national policy, as the Act requires. To assist further in this purpose we make the four following recommendations.

160.1. In Part I (Paras 69-74) we have indicated what we see as the general phases of an evolving system of adult education. We would recommend that the Secretary of State invite each local education authority to review the provision made in its area, both by itself and by other bodies, and to prepare, in consultation with those bodies through the machinery described in paragraphs 170-175 below, proposals for the development of adult education. These would not be analogous to the Schemes of Further Education required under Section 42 of the Education Act 1944 (1), but would serve as a declaration of intent which would indicate to the public, to the professionals in the field and to all the bodies whose collaboration and support would be involved, what were the priorities and the expected rate of development. In some instances the amendment or extension of Schemes of Further Education would be required.

160.2. It has seemed to us that part of the general uncertainty about the priority accorded to adult education by central government has derived from the fact that it had no obvious place in the administrative structure of the Department of Education and Science. Its administrative base in the Department will certainly need strengthening and clarifying for the extended and comprehensive service we wish to see develop.

160.3. An important element in the development of adult education would be the availability of information about good practice in other areas. We have been impressed by the evidence that has come to us of the contribution made in this way by those HM Inspectors who devote part of their time to adult education. We see the need, in the evolution of a comprehensive service of adult education, for a much larger contribution of this kind and we would recommend the enlargement of HM Inspectorate accordingly, if that

(1) Appendix A, Annex I.

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should prove necessary. What is essential in this period of evolution is that adult education should have an adequate staff of HM Inspectors with a substantial knowledge of its characteristics.

160.4. For the Secretary of State to exercise the leadership we have advocated and the control and direction of national policy enjoined by the Act, a national channel of consultation and advice is required. Therefore a Development Council for Adult Education for England and Wales should be established. The title is chosen advisedly to indicate the purpose of the Council.

161. The main purpose of the Development Council for Adult Education would be to keep the development of adult education under continuing review and to advise the Secretary of State, by means of reports and in other ways. on the national policy necessary, especially as regards:

161.1. the identification of needs
161.2. changes of priority
161.3. the encouragement of new developments, including curriculum development
161.4. the expansion of existing facilities
161.5. the supply and training of staff
161.6. the improvement of accommodation and equipment
161.7. the joint use of educational plant
161.8. appropriate research.

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an effective programme of curriculum development for adult education in this way will require the attention of a body that combines an overall national view of adult education with the opportunity of regular communication with the field. The Council will be ideally placed for the purpose.

163. The Council would expect to be kept informed by the Department of new proposals emerging from local education authorities and from national and other providing bodies. It should also receive reports on relevant progress from regional advisory councils for further education and from other consultative bodies such as the National Institute for Adult Education. For ongoing information about activities in the field it would also look to HM Inspectors.

164. Members of the Council should be appointed by the Secretary of State after consultation with such bodies as, for example, the local authority associations, the Universities Council for Adult Education, the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals, the Workers' Educational Association, associations of tutors and teachers, the Confederation of British Industry, the Trades Union Congress, the BBC and IBA. The Secretary of State would doubtless have regard to the importance of including both elected members of local education authorities and those with professional experience in the field of adult education. It is also very desirable that there should be members with current or recent experience as participants in adult classes or group activities. The Secretary of State might also wish to appoint a number of assessors. While the Council should be as widely representative as possible, it must not be too large. The quality and experience of the members, not their number, will determine the quality of their work and their advice. A secretariat should be provided by the Department of Education and Science.

165. The value to technical education of the cooperation made possible by the regional advisory councils for further education suggests that some similar provision for adult education would be advantageous. Certain of the regional advisory councils have already set up adult education sub-committees and we advocate this practice for general adoption. These sub-committees need to be widely representative of statutory and voluntary bodies concerned with adult education. They would act as channels of communication and consultation between these bodies and the local education authorities of the regions, but, as at present, they would be wholly consultative committees.

166. The existing sub-committees have so far been mainly concerned with regional schemes for the training of part-time teachers of adults and this is clearly one field in which regional cooperation can usefully develop. Another such field might be the means of pooling library and other ancillary resources.

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167. One of the important functions of regional advisory councils has been to facilitate consultation between neighbouring authorities on the admission of extra-district students. This is a difficult matter, but one of great importance to the student. It is not immediately apparent to an adult taxpayer why he is sometimes denied attendance at a class of his choice at an institution conveniently situated for him, simply because that institution lies over a local boundary. For many reasons nowadays adults may be likely to wish to attend such a class; those who work and live in different areas may not be able to reach classes in their home districts at the times when the classes are held; the increasing limitations of public transport may mean that the nearest institution to their home is not necessarily the most accessible for those without cars; conversely, for those with cars the range of choice is widened. The more that classes become purposive and specialised as a result of developments in the training of teachers, the more desirable it will be for the student to be able to select accurately the class whose syllabus meets his particular needs and interests and this may involve travel to another area. In brief, students should enjoy equal opportunities and should not be deprived of taking part in activities because they live in one area rather than another. We are of the opinion that, in the interests of securing equality of opportunity to profit from the facilities provided, "free trade" should be established between neighbouring authorities and that all questions concerning inter-authority payments and any other difficulties ensuing from this policy should be resolved by regional consultation.

168. A further function of regional advisory councils has been to recommend agreed scales of payment for part-time teachers in further education, as laid down in the Further Education Salaries Document. We consider this matter as relating to adult education in paragraph 397 below and give our reasons for believing that, while it may be useful for regional advisory councils to indicate part-time salary scales for adult education, their inflexible adoption would not always be in the interests of the service.

169. In Wales such problems as those outlined in paragraphs 165-168 should continue to be the concern of the Welsh Joint Education Committee.

170. Whatever the national policy for adult education, the local education authority will be the means of translating it into action, as is recognised by the Education Act, 1944. In "securing the provision" of adult education the local education authority will make a substantial contribution of its own and will aid the work of other bodies: we set out the details of this in paragraphs 176-203 below. But it will also have to take the initiative in consulting these bodies and in ensuring the cooperative planning of provision within its area.

171. As has been outlined in paragraph 154 above, the comprehensive service of adult education will be made up of statutory providers (namely the local

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education authorities themselves), major providers in receipt of direct government grant, local voluntary bodies and local units of national bodies who would look to the local education authority for support in cash and facilities, and purely local societies of many kinds. In maintaining the development and momentum of this varied service the main initiative towards cooperation must lie with the local education authority.

172. Much of the evidence presented to us has stressed the importance of close and frank consultation. Without it the kind of service we regard as essential becomes impossible. The initiative that lies with the local education authority is critical but it cannot include coercive powers: the service requires a real sense of partnership between the bodies concerned, and it is necessary to be clear about what this implies. It would be naive to underestimate the difficulties that arise from time to time in persuading traditionally autonomous bodies to subordinate their individual aspirations to a somewhat hazy notion of a common good, especially if it is the financially strongest partner's perception of the common good that is expected to prevail. However, we see in the independence of each of the partners a greater strength for the whole. The adult education service must be flexible, which may sometimes mean some overlapping of provision, and there must be machinery of consultation in which the grounds for independent action can be fully explored in an atmosphere of good will between free partners, in which plans and programmes can be brought into effective relationship. Nevertheless these measures of cooperation must not be so rigid as to frustrate the pioneering efforts of any providing body and jeopardise the flexibility of the service.

173. We see the need therefore for a local counterpart of the Development Council for Adult Education described in paragraphs 161-164. The reorganisation of local government, aimed as it is at the establishment of a new pattern of areas geared to the efficient administration and development of major services such as education seems to us to provide the new local education authorities with an immediate opportunity, while they are engaged in planning their new services, to ensure the closest consultation between the various partners. Some local education authorities will, of course, find themselves inheriting satisfactory arrangements for doing this. We recommend the establishment in every local education authority area of a "Local Development Council for Adult Education". We have in mind an ad hoc council widely representative of those who have an interest in adult education as providers or users and students. Representatives might be drawn from the major providing bodies, the educational and quasi-educational institutions, associations of tutors and teachers, industry, voluntary, social and community organisations, associations for the disadvantaged, local radio, local societies, students' councils of adult education institutions and similar bodies. The major functions would be: to facilitate discussion and consultation between all those interested in adult education so as to review and influence the

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planning of adult education in the area; to ensure that needs are met and that full advantage is taken of the cultural and educational resources of the area; to indicate directions in which provision is inadequate and to sponsor or suggest experiments. The council would have no financial or other powers, but as well as being fully consulted during the drawing up of local proposals for development and their subsequent extensions or revisions, it should be given as much information as possible about the finances involved, both short-term and long-term. The council should be serviced by the local education authority to whom, as the body responsible under the Education Act 1944 for securing the provision, the majority of its reports would be directed.

174. The local development councils might well be large bodies and much of the detailed work might have to be carried on in sub-committee or at officer level. The existence however of a large body of this kind is important in at least two ways: as a means of involving the wide range of contributory interests in the planning of the service, and as a physical manifestation to all concerned of the extent to which the service permeates the whole life of the community. We lay great emphasis on the creation of this widespread awareness of what adult education is and what it can do for the quality of life at all levels of the community.

175. Within the locality served by an area organisation of adult education (see paras 193-195), we would expect there to be a close working relationship between the providing bodies. It is at this level that many of the detailed proposals for local development will be put into effect and it is vital that there should be cooperation, goodwill and mutual understanding, not only among the officers of the providing bodies, but between those officers and representatives of organisations with which and through which they work and with students. We do not wish to suggest any particular form of machinery because local conditions vary so much but we would expect that informal consultation among officers would be close and continuous and that they would ensure that their plans for courses, accommodation and publicity were discussed well in advance of implementation and were agreed not only mutually but with others closely involved either as organisations or students.

176. It has been made clear in Part II of this Report (paras 81-96) that the local education authorities are at present the largest provider of adult education, and we have expressed our view that they should extend and develop their present activities until an effective and many-sided provision is available as widely as possible throughout England and Wales. This means that in addition to supporting and facilitating the work of voluntary bodies and other agencies the local education authorities must always assume a major role as direct providers of courses and other facilities offering a wide range of creative, physical and intellectual activities directed by skilled staff and housed in appropriate accommodation.

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177. The local education authorities have a good record of teaching creative and practical subjects to adults: it now remains to extend the best practice as widely as possible and to sustain continuing innovation in all aspects of the arts and crafts. Drama, movement and dance, and choral or instrumental music-making are clear examples of educational activities which can be pursued only by groups meeting outside the home. In certain kinds of work in art and in crafts creative activity depends on the use of special tools and equipment. Although they require the stimulus of effective teaching, supported by appropriate resources, these are all cases where individual skills can develop only in the context of group activities.

178. The local education authorities have also brought within the range of creative education a whole host of pursuits that might appear to be mundane and utilitarian, notably those related to the improvement and embellishment of the home and the quality and attractiveness of living within it. They range from soft furnishing and flower arranging to dress crafts and cookery of all varieties. With teaching and facilities of the right quality these become much more than the transmission of customary skills: they are activities involving taste and imagination, appreciation of form, colour and design, and understanding of the nature and proper use of materials.

179. Similarly in physical activities the range has been extended. Good teaching has introduced creative and imaginative elements into classes of general physical activity, often known under such titles as "Keep Fit", and has turned them into opportunities for personal self-development in line with the best current thinking about physical education. The same ideals have also been brought into a widening range of games and outdoor activities, and into what are commonly thought of as leisure pursuits.

180. Opportunities for study and activity making more specifically intellectual demands must also be seen as a normal part of a well balanced programme of adult education as provided by local education authorities. Languages and the study of foreign cultures, local studies and local history, and social studies often with a local perspective, are already widely followed, but the range can be enlarged. The content of a local authority's programme however can be determined only in consultation with other providers, particularly the universities and the WEA.

181. We have in mind developments such as those outlined in the foregoing paragraphs when we speak of the best practice and the sustaining of innovation. These popular areas of the curriculum, characterised as many of them are by their strong practical content, must be universally recognised as educational activities of high importance, and developed energetically in every local education authority area. They depend on two main requirements: the right facilities and good teaching. Recognising this we make recommendations in later sections of our Report about premises and equipment and about the training of tutors and staff development.

182. The good teacher is also one who will promote and make use of the social relationships formed in his class. The importance of this aspect of adult education must not be under-rated. Many areas, especially in our great cities and conurbations, are lonely places for those who are strangers, but adult education classes, especially of a kind where the individual is

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drawn into activity with the group, provide an opportunity for men and women of like interest to meet on equal terms as independent human beings. The informal activities, such as clubs and societies, that often grow out of class work carry these opportunities further, offering a means of introducing newcomers to the active life of the community. The mitigation of loneliness and the creation of such opportunities for social contact are important subsidiary functions of adult education centres.

183. More opportunities should also be created for adults to continue a general education curtailed prematurely by early school-leaving or by dropping out after failing some examination. Local education authority adult education should make widely known and available opportunities to take up and complete formal general education, ranging from the achievement of basic literacy for some to preparation for entry to higher education for others. Many colleges of further education already make provision of this sort. We believe that local education authorities should extend such provision, within their colleges of further education or outside them as may be most appropriate for the particular area, in order to present to the public an accessible and easily understood programme of general education at various levels. In a later section (paragraphs 286-299) we discuss in more detail the contribution of adult education to the gaining of qualifications in mature life. This more formal side of adult education, however, involving preparation for examinations, should not be made at the expense of non-examined courses which may be serving different but equally valid purposes.

184. The range of provision made by local education authorities should be presented so that it reaches the widest possible public, including those among whom there has traditionally been little participation in adult education. Special kinds of approaches will have to be made in order to bring relevant and acceptable provision to various identifiable groups in the population. Such groups may, for example, be made up of individuals drawn together in the first place by occupational bonds, who seek to be better equipped to take part in voluntary service as shop stewards or other officers of trades unions. Voluntary social and youth workers, mothers wishing to run playgroups, candidates for local government office or citizens faced with a change to metrication or with some local planning development may all form identifiable groups which local education authority adult education may be able to assist in specific tasks. Other identifiable groups may result from the changing roles and circumstances of individual and family life, such as setting up a home, parenthood, bereavement, retirement and old age. Others may share some common physical or mental handicap, perhaps resulting in institutional residence in hospitals or special homes. It is important that local education authorities should identify the special educational needs and interests of all such groups and secure appropriate provision for them. In some cases local education authorities will be supported by the existence of established voluntary organisations, of whom the Women's Institutes and Townswomen's Guilds are strong examples, but in others they may have to depend heavily upon their own resources of skilled staff. Where such groups are of an educative character planning and carrying through their own programme, the local education authority can affiliate them to its area organisations for adult education and thus support their work and bring

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them into active association with the adult education service. In rural areas such links may be particularly important: we return to this matter in paragraph 307.

185. Every local education authority should aim to provide a broadly-based and varied programme of adult education which is sensitive to local needs and quick to respond to them, assisting university extra-mural departments, the WEA and other voluntary agencies where appropriate but acting directly over much of the field. Much of the provision will, naturally, be in the form of classes and courses, but beyond the large and important core of classes, it will be necessary to provide and experiment with a variety of informal activities. One form these should take, allied to and perhaps growing out of class provision, will be making available the premises which men and women can use to pursue practical activities which cannot be accommodated in the home, particularly in crowded urban surroundings. There has already been a growth of arts centres and of sports centres, and this is to be welcomed. A full provision of adult education should also include "community workshops" to which adults can resort in their own time and not simply to attend formal classes.

186. As learning resources become more sophisticated, and micro-film, cassettes, and other audio-visual media become as familiar as books, provision of private study facilities within local education authority arrangements for adult education may become as essential to an increasingly educated community as, in their day, were the first reading rooms; this has been appreciated by the Open University. Community associations and centres have pioneered the establishment of meeting places to foster constructive social activity in a locality, and as adult education extends its appeal the best characteristics of the community centre will require support and development. Without claiming to move into areas already covered by other cultural and commercial interests, it is already clear that lively adult education leads naturally into the sponsorship of musical recitals and concerts and exhibitions of works of art. All these kinds of educational service to the community must be seen as proper to the local education authority provision of adult education in whatever forms and to whatever degree are appropriate to the local circumstances. The essential and important programmes of formal courses and classes together with the less formal activities of the kind which have been described should, in the ways and proportions most suited to the local situation, support and enrich one another and the adult population they serve. Local education authorities should ensure that such educational opportunities are made available to adults by a combination of provision by their own institutions and other bodies in their areas.

187. When we speak of a comprehensive service however we mean one that caters for all the people, including those hitherto untouched by adult education. Many of them are handicapped or disadvantaged in various ways, discouraged from participating in existing provision by their own limitations and circumstances, by unsuitable premises, by a sense of their own inadequacy, by the fear of an unwelcoming bureaucracy in the administrative arrangements, or simply by the language we commonly use in describing the service. They merit special consideration. They are all members of

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the adult community, entitled to benefit from adult education according to their need, not simply according to their capacity to join in whatever activities are provided for the public at large.

188. It will be necessary for each of the adult education area organisations, either singly or as members of a group, to make contact with all the agencies and services which are already involved and with them to explore with care the educational needs of the handicapped and the disadvantaged. In paragraphs 277-285 below we set out some of the considerations to be borne in mind, particularly with regard to the special contributions of the major providing bodies, and we make recommendations on which we lay particular emphasis.

189. Provision, however good, is pointless unless it is known to those for whom it is designed. One of the essential skills of the professional adult education staff will be the securing of effective publicity. The sums spent on this at present are usually derisory and they must clearly be increased. Lavish and expensive advertising however is less important than effectively aimed information: much of what we have described in paragraph 184 as the identification of special groups will carry within it the means of appropriate publicity. Equally important is the provision of information to the individual enquirer, and in paragraph 315 below we point to the advantages of established adult education centres as points of enquiry about any matter relating to the education of adults or the cultural resources of the area. Help of this kind, to enable the individual to identify and locate the most suitable activity for his educational needs, is an essential component of a comprehensive service of adult education and one which the full-time staff of adult education institutions will be constantly called on to furnish.

190. Such action is sometimes referred to as counselling. We believe that term is better reserved for the full guidance services that are being developed in certain other sectors of education. These, which use trained counsellors and accepted diagnostic approaches, are distinct from the information services that we are here considering. To establish a true counselling service for adult education would be a costly and elaborate undertaking with heavy training demands, for inexpert counselling is potentially harmful. We cannot recommend the diversion of resources in that direction at the present time, but we do emphasise the importance of an adequate information service at every adult education centre, especially at those times of year when new activities are beginning. It should contain three elements: access to the fullest possible information about education and cultural activities open to adults both locally and through residential study; ready contact with existing counselling services, including vocational guidance, for those who appear to need it; and an opportunity for the individual enquirer to clarify his choice for himself through discussion with someone informed about all the possibilities. This, whilst a long way short of counselling (and it is vital that the difference be recognised) is not a task for a clerical assistant but for the professional adult education staff and it should figure appropriately in their training.

191. In the foregoing paragraphs, we have indicated in general terms the sorts of provision which all local education authorities should make in their areas, in association with universities, the WEA and other agencies. We

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now turn our attention to the framework of organisation which, although amenable to varied local interpretations, we consider to be essential in order to secure a basic service of the necessary quality and diversity.

192. The essential characteristics of the adult education area organisations are that they should be competent and free to implement the declared adult education policy of the local education authority; readily identifiable by the public which they exist to serve; and appropriately staffed, accommodated and equipped, both at the centre and wherever necessary at out-stations, to perform their designated tasks. (We deal separately with staff and accommodation in later paragraphs.)

193. It is characteristic of our educational system that nationally adopted educational policies should be implemented through locally determined modes of organisation. We have, therefore, considered it inappropriate to recommend one single form which the area adult education organisations should take. Past experience and current practice indicate three possible forms of organisation for a comprehensive local education authority adult education service. These are:

193.1. Area adult education institutions (by whatever name) established especially for the purpose of providing adult education. We think of an area as having a total population of say 75,000, though in rural counties the figure may be much less, and as having some recognisable pattern of communications. At some central point accessible to the population of the area will be located the headquarters of the institution with sufficient premises of its own to hold some classes and activities throughout the day, week and year, and to serve as a base for the professional, clerical and technician staff of the institution and for a central pool of teaching materials and equipment. In addition to using its headquarters, the area institution should have the opportunity, under the local education authority's policy, to use other educational buildings throughout the area as well as other suitable buildings that can be borrowed or hired. The amount of work so accommodated will often be much greater than that at the headquarters. The larger local centres, most likely to be based on secondary schools, would continue, as at present, to require some accommodation of their own, and would no doubt house the local full-time or part-time assistants to the area head. In thinly populated rural areas an organisation comprising an appreciable number of local centres of very modest size may serve the population best. There is already considerable experience of this form of organisation, and many established well known examples, each with its own special characteristics. Such arrangements often include the close association, and sometimes integration, of the youth service with adult education and community provision. We certainly would not wish to see any arbitrary divisions between the component parts of continuing post-school education, but we do recognise a difference of approach, emphasis and technique between what is generally called "youth work" and what we regard as adult education. Much youth work is essentially of a social character, including understandably noisy activities, and, particularly where accommodation is limited, these may prove a grave embarrassment to much adult education. Adults have a right to their own educational service. This being so, it is essential that any form of organisation which combines the two should not operate to the detriment of either.

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193.2. Adult education is sometimes provided in an area by an institution which combines a secondary school with adult education and youth service components and possibly other facilities such as a public library, welfare clinic, sports centre and swimming bath. This form of organisation, commonly referred to as the community college, has already gained quite wide acceptance and has much to commend it. The member of staff responsible for adult education in the catchment area of the community college will be based in the central college building although he may well have responsibility for making provision in other outlying centres. In principle, all the appropriate facilities of the main building will be available for adult education at appropriate times, and additions will have been made to the school building so that a measure of accommodation is available during school hours. Certain specific conditions should be met in arrangements for governing, staffing, administering and accommodating the adult education provision and overall executive control should be vested in someone equally concerned for adult and secondary education. We appreciate the possibilities of community colleges, especially in areas of less-dense population, and their achievements so far, but consider it essential that the arrangements for their direction and control should be formulated so that adult education can play its part as an equal partner with the secondary education provided in the college.

193.3. A third major form of organisation which is at present adopted in some areas is to make a local college of further education responsible for adult education in its catchment area. Such a college provides the usual range of part-time and full-time courses related to occupational requirements in industry and commerce, mainly for young people between the ages of sixteen and nineteen and also a range of full-time courses of more general education mainly in preparation for GCE examinations. To this familiar pattern of a local college of further education is then added responsibility for all non-vocational adult education in the area of the college, and perhaps also the youth service. Colleges of further education are usually organised on a departmental basis and adult education may be made the responsibility of the head of a department set up for the purpose. Classes and activities use the college premises when possible and also appropriate accommodation in secondary schools and other buildings throughout the area. Sometimes adult education is combined with general studies, or even commercial studies, into one department, and frequently the other departments of a college of further education continue to make some non-vocational adult education provision on their own account in a more or less easy relationship with their adult education colleagues. At face value, this appears to be a logical and effective way of providing adult education, but in practice it has so far usually depended for its success on the size of the adult education provision relative to the rest of the work of the college, and the attitude of the principal of the college towards it. In some cases, the adult education work in or based upon the college may come to constitute the largest department of all, and the adult education department would then clearly be in a strong position. In other cases expanding vocational needs may create such pressure that adult education will have to relinquish resources and premises to make way for growing vocational interests and become relegated to a marginal position in the college, operating mainly from bases outside. It is not unreasonable to hope for a further expansion of day-release for young workers in the next decade,

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as well as to expect changes in the relationship of further education to industrial training, both of which would increase the demands on colleges of further education. Such circumstances may diminish the confidence of the head of department responsible for adult education, depress his standing and that of his department, and create conditions unfavourable for an extensive and imaginative adult education provision. This form of organisation undoubtedly has attractions, however, particularly in the area of authorities whose further education is mainly provided through a group of medium-sized colleges (which then become a different type of community college).

194. It must be emphasised that the examples quoted above only indicate some possible forms of organisation. A local education authority, in developing or amending its organisational pattern, will doubtless take account of such local factors as the density and distribution of the population in its total area, the size, accommodation, and location of its secondary schools and colleges of further education, together with the systems of communication within its area and any relevant local traditions. In some local education authorities the needs of the population in one area may be best met by one form of organisation, in another by another form. This might well prove to be so in some authorities that are mainly rural.

195. We therefore believe that every local education authority should provide an area organisation for adult education, that each area should be under the direction of an area head, that each area should be seen to have a central focal point for both educational provision and administration, that this should be supplemented as required by the use of educational and other facilities in appropriate places throughout the area, and that wherever appropriate there should be major sub-centres suitably staffed under the area head. The area organisation should be supported by the necessary professional, clerical and technical staff (see paragraphs 356-358 and 381-384).

196. It will be the responsibility of such area organisations, of whatever form, to offer programmes of courses and classes relevant to the needs of the community and provided at appropriate places. We have already mentioned in paragraph 57 and 58 above some of the special needs which may be identified within the groups who make up society, and the importance of the provision of a varied programme of courses available to individual members of the general public. These courses, in addition to being skilfully constructed and taught, should be provided at times of the day and year which are most convenient to the public. Evening courses will always form a high proportion; day courses are increasing and the demand for morning and afternoon provision is widely recognised; courses on one, other or both of the weekend days can be found in local education authority adult institutions, but are rare. The great majority of courses are still provided in the winter six months of the year, and whilst this is traditionally acceptable to adult participants there is no justification for neglecting provision between April and September. It is necessary to break down the existing barriers to the use of school premises outside the periods of the school children's terms, and to make the necessary caretaking, cleaning and maintenance arrangements fit more nearly with the requirements of adult education, if the public is not to be excluded as is at present frequently the case from some of its

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most costly and attractive community buildings, for large parts of every day, week and year. (Paragraphs 381-384 below).

197. Having dealt above with many of the practical aspects of providing adult education we must also refer to arrangements for the government or management of area organisations for adult education. Among the many existing arrangements are the following. Sometimes the head of the area organisation has direct responsibility for the establishment without the assistance of a management committee of any type. Sometimes there is an advisory committee with varying degrees of influence on the affairs, financial or otherwise, of the establishment. Sometimes a local voluntary association has been formed to manage the establishment with, of course, assistance in grant and in kind from the local education authority and supported by its staff. Such an arrangement may be applied to the "adult wing" of a community college. Where the organisation is based on the local college of further education, the adult education department is like other departments of the college under the general direction of the governing body, but there may be an advisory committee to assist it.

198. We have no doubt that the members of an area organisation of adult education should have the opportunity of undertaking considerable responsibility for the management of its affairs. This concept of partnership between the providing body, the organising and teaching staff, and the student member is particularly relevant to adult education and has been actively promoted by the Educational Centres Association for several years. Further, where there is a measure of financial responsibility, there have usually been signs that this enhances the value and interest of the participation of student members. We wish to see a management committee or body for the area organisation, on which among others could be included members of the sub-committee of the local education authority responsible for adult education, members of staff and student members of the organisation, and representatives of appropriate voluntary organisations. We suggest that the management committee should take part in planning the programme and, within rules laid down by the local education authority, have considerable responsibility for the finances of the organisation.

199. There is, however, one major difficulty. Statutory provision was made by the Education Act, 1944 for the establishment of managers and governors of primary and secondary schools respectively. Again provision was made for the government of colleges of education, of further education institutions providing full-time education and of special schools by the Education (No 2) Act, 1968. The great majority of organisations of adult education are unlikely in the foreseeable future to provide full-time education. Thus there is at present no legal enactment under which governing or managing bodies of organisations of adult education directly maintained by local education authorities (except where they are part of colleges of further education) can be established otherwise than as a committee of the authority or as a sub-committee of that committee. In practice this means that the powers of the education committee are delegated to a major sub-committee, such as the further education sub-committee itself. In any case the constitution of a sub-committee is subject to any restrictions imposed by the local education authority, for example, through its standing orders, which in many cases

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would inhibit the kind of membership outlined in paragraph 198. There does not, therefore, appear to be any way in which a management committee of an organisation for adult education established by a local education authority can enjoy any financial powers of its own unless it has been set up as a local voluntary association. In all other circumstances the management committee must be an advisory committee.

200. That is the quandary. The only solution that we can see is that when opportunity affords the Secretary of State should introduce legislation with regard to the government and conduct of organisations of adult education maintained by a local education authority. While a very few large organisations might require instruments and articles of government of the types envisaged in Circular No 7 of 1970, for the great majority of organisations we anticipate simple arrangements. In the meantime all local education authorities should be encouraged to set up management committees, as many are now doing, even though they will be technically advisory committees. What is important is that the voices of those most closely concerned with the organisation should be heard and that their advice should in all reasonable circumstances be followed.

Accordingly we advise:

200.1. that the Secretary of State should introduce appropriate legislation when opportunity offers;

200.2. that local education authorities should set up management committees of the kind and with the responsibility we have delineated.

201. Earlier in this Report we have dealt with the need for joint planning and cooperation between the various providing bodies within a local education authority area, and suggested that it should be the duty of the local education authority to bring this about. Of equal importance will be measures to enable the various institutions within the authority's own further education system to make their distinctive contribution to the education of adults in the authority's area. Where, for example, the prime responsibility for adult education lies with an institution set up for the purpose, certain departments of the colleges of art and the technical colleges in the area may well continue to provide courses of non-vocational adult education, as so many of them do at the present time. What matters is that they should be seen to do so as an important part of an overall strategy and that their provision should be known to both the general public and their fellow providers. Sometimes the contribution of the colleges may be through more advanced courses, perhaps leading to qualifications, but sometimes the contribution of their staff and premises, to add to the general provision of an area, may be of equal importance.

202. The polytechnics may offer extremely fruitful possibilities of cooperation within the local education authority sector itself. In their evidence the Committee of Directors of Polytechnics expressed their interest in making a contribution to adult education and, indeed, some polytechnics already offer programmes of part-time adult education courses. As institutions of higher education, the polytechnics. through their staff and appropriate departments, are a potential addition to the existing university responsible bodies in certain subject areas of which science and technology, art and the social

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sciences are clear examples. We suggest that the special contributions which the polytechnics may make to adult education are likely to result from initiatives taken within their own institutions. When local education authorities have a considered and constantly revised plan for adult education it will be easy for the contribution of the polytechnic to be added to the total for the area, and so long as polytechnics are financed under local education authority arrangements their adult education work can be taken into account when budgeting both for the polytechnic and for adult education. It is clear that an institution maintained by a local education authority cannot also be a "direct grant" institution under present administrative arrangements and for the general reasons we have given above we see advantages for adult education in the possibility of some provision being made by institutions of higher education outside the present responsible body system. The existing participation of polytechnics in school-teacher training offer possibilities for the training of adult education staff at various levels which should be taken into account in regional arrangements for this purpose.

203. By far the greatest volume of adult education provided directly by local education authorities will continue in the form of part-time courses and through some residential courses. The latter are at present accommodated mainly in the short-term adult residential colleges, about thirty of which are provided by local education authorities, singly or in association with other local education authorities, universities or voluntary organisations. We recognise the value of short periods of concentrated study in residence and commend the local education authorities who have founded and maintained colleges. A comprehensive and varied provision of adult education requires that the work of short-term residential colleges be consolidated and developed. Local education authorities should continue to develop or support colleges so as to serve to the full the general needs of their areas and regions, as well as to serve a national catchment for some special courses. A number of new colleges should be established, particularly in the northern half of England where at present there are fewer than in the south.

204. The principle of direct grant from central government is well established in our educational and cultural provision. Support of this kind is given to activities in the arts, in crafts, in sport and outdoor recreation, to rural industries, to certain national museums, galleries and libraries, to a number of colleges of different kinds and to various other bodies. The present responsible bodies carry this principle into adult education, receiving direct grant towards their teaching costs, and a small number of other national bodies receive grants towards their general educational work for adults. In nearly all of these instances the direct grant represents only a contribution towards the total expenditure, its effect being to remove some of the attendant financial anxiety and leave the promoters more free to concentrate on the quality of their provision. Any one of these grants, viewed on its own, is liable to appear marginal and, to a tidy administrative mind, anomalous;

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but to the recipient the subvention is usually of critical importance for his survival. Even in the limited field of adult education this fact is abundantly dear, recurring time and again in the evidence received from bodies of many kinds and sizes, whether or not they were already in receipt of grant.

205. Nevertheless it has been necessary for us to review the arrangements and ask whether they represented the most economical deployment of available resources. We have already given our reasons for rejecting the idea that all adult education should be financed by local education authorities and this decision brings sharply into focus the place of the direct grant principle in adult education. The great virtue of this principle, and one which has weighed with us, is that a relatively modest grant can release the whole resources of the organisation involved. For example, a total annual grant of little more than £1 million makes potentially available the varied teaching resources of the universities of England and Wales, which in sum represent an investment of many millions annually. Again, a total grant of little more than £¼ million ensures the mobilisation of some thousands of voluntary workers in branches and districts of the WEA whose services, if paid for, would be a heavy additional expense. Although other methods of financing these bodies can be mooted none seems to us guaranteed to produce so impressive a result so cheaply and so simply.

206. The important point is not merely that the payment of grant can tap resources that are very much larger than itself, but that these resources might not otherwise be available at all. Direct grant to the universities is earmarked for adult education as funds from the University Grants Committee are not. In a later paragraph we pay tribute to the matching contribution from their own funds which the universities in receipt of direct grant have been prepared to make and we urge the University Grants Committee and individual universities to continue and extend it. But we cannot ignore the fact that new universities not recognised as responsible bodies have found it impossible to devote substantial funds to adult education even where there has been a strongly expressed desire to engage in it; nor the fact that the financial pressures on universities are becoming acute, as the University Grants Committee was at pains to point out to us in evidence, with the real danger that university adult education might be severely restricted. For universities have come to operate, and largely to regard themselves, as national institutions, drawing their students from the whole kingdom and finding their academic connections along international networks of scholarship. The strong ties with a local community that characterised the civic foundations earlier in this century are not felt everywhere now. Action in an essentially local service of adult education will not necessarily command high priority in some university quarters. Yet the service cannot be truly comprehensive without the guarantee of an effective university contribution.

207. Direct grant is also a means of demonstrating the importance that central government attaches to adult education. It can enable the Department to give active encouragement to bodies engaged in the promotion of particular areas of adult education or to underline certain priorities, along such lines as we indicate later in specific recommendations. But there is a corresponding danger: to withdraw the system of direct grant at this stage,

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as has been suggested to us, might be widely interpreted as an indication that the government regarded work of the types hitherto supported by direct grant as inessential or superseded. The effect could well be the submergence of such work rather than the stimulation of other sources of finance for it. This is not a matter simply of preserving traditions from the past, nor the creation of unnecessary duplication of effort, which we have already suggested ways of avoiding. We see a service of adult education as having a number of elements interpenetrating and cooperating with one another, each having its own ethos, its own sources of strength and its own contribution, but all brought into active participation in the public system of education. We see it moreover as an evolving service which must build on the achievements of the present situation. Our conclusion is that a system of direct grant for certain kinds of work in adult education will be at least as necessary as ever, if the comprehensive service we envisage is to be achieved.

208. Some enlargement of function will however be needed. Our evidence shows that certain lines of development have at times been limited by lack of finance because narrowness in the phrasing of the Further Education Regulations seemed to preclude them. The Regulations have in recent years been more broadly interpreted than they used to be, but revision is now needed to allow of greater flexibility. The directions of revision are set out in paragraph 209ff. Underlying them are certain basic distinctions:

208.1. The term "responsible body", as a category within the Regulations, seems to imply a permanence and rigidity that are not now necessary and we suggest it be discarded to admit of a series of positive formulations for the payment of direct grant for particular types of service (paragraph 209). But we would preserve the broad distinction between major providing bodies (in practice the universities and the WEA) and promotional bodies (see paragraph 209.4 below). Otherwise cooperative planning at local level becomes difficult.

208.2. The present responsible bodies consist on the one hand of universities and on the other of the WEA and the Welsh National Council of YMCAs. The former supplement the grants they receive from the Department for adult education with substantial further funds of their own. These are mainly drawn from the University Grants Committee's general grant to the universities and will be contributed wholly at the discretion of the individual university. But the source of the money is the Exchequer: it is still public money. The other responsible bodies do not have access to other central funds like this, though most of the responsible bodies, universities included, receive some financial aid from local education authorities.

208.3. To bodies other than the major providers the direct grant will normally be paid in general support of their educational work rather than for the making of specific local provision. This is so that these bodies can make their most effective contribution in the promotion of adult education, the local provision of which will normally be made with the support of the local education authorities or the other major providers.

208.4. All the bodies in receipt of direct grant will have other resources and other income. They will thus be free to develop forms of activity which do not necessarily rank for grant as part of the public provision of

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adult education. It will be for the Department to indicate to each body the extent to which its activities in the broad field of adult education are approved for grant. In doing so the Department will have regard to the total sums available for grants and the priorities it wishes to reinforce in pursuit of a balanced and comprehensive service.

209. We advise that the category of "responsible body", defined in the Further Education Regulations, be discarded and that in a revision of the regulations provision be made for direct grants of the following kinds:

209.1. For universities, grant should be payable towards approved teaching costs including salaries and expenses of staff, as described in paragraphs 213-214.

209.2. For the WEA (1) grant should be payable towards approved teaching costs, including the salaries and expenses of staff and towards central administrative costs and the costs of development work. (See paras. 232-241).

209.3. For the long-term adult residential colleges: direct grants should be payable as set out in paragraph 255 below.

209.4. For other bodies active in promoting adult education, even though the provision may not be made by them, direct grant should be payable towards the general development of their work. The types of organisation and the purposes of the grants are indicated in paragraphs 243-244 below.

210. The object of these proposals, which we discuss in the paragraphs which follow, is to ensure that the existing investment in all these different types of body shall be available for the further development of adult education as a whole. Here we see the best safeguard of that flexibility which the system must have if the multifarious educational needs of a total population are to be met. Each body will have a particular kind of contribution to make to the system, and it must be enabled to make it. But as the system evolves these contributions may well change: we expect therefore that the proposals made here will be the subject of periodic review by the Secretary of State and the Development Council for Adult Education.

The Universities

211. The record of adult education, as we have indicated in Part II, shows how important has been the involvement of the universities. It is also clear that their involvement has been facilitated by their recognition as responsible bodies eligible for grant aid. We believe that they have a unique contribution to make to a fully comprehensive service of adult education and we wish to see their involvement continued and improved. But adult education is a part of the total system of public education. In their adult education work the universities must be brought visibly and directly into participation in the public system of education and we advocate the device of direct grant as the most sure and economical means of achieving this.

212. We have already stated that the local education authorities will be by far the major providers, as they have now become, and that the initiatives

(1) Although we refer here only to the WEA which at present enjoys a unique status we would not wish to exclude the possibility that at some time in the future another body might qualify for the same kinds of grant, for a similar range of purposes.

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towards cooperation will lie with them. What we say about the university contribution, and indeed that of other providing bodies, needs to be read in that context. It is none the less important. Intellectual education of a kind appropriate to universities will always be a minority concern, though we expect the minority to enlarge rapidly in the next ten years. The Universities, which deploy some of our most expensive and rare resources, will wish to concentrate on work of university quality, apart perhaps from certain pioneering activities in which the specialisms of the university can be used to open up the cultivation of a new field that, once established, can be handed over to another agency. The criteria for deciding what is appropriate for university provision are not capable of precise definition and are a matter mainly for the universities to determine for themselves. They may indeed vary at different times and places according to the local teaching resources of other agencies. Local development councils will keep this balance of provision under review. What we would emphasise is that the need for adult education at a high intellectual level, including help to those seeking advanced qualifications in mature life, is likely to tax the universities' teaching resources to the full and we see no reason to expect a serious overlap or competition between the university contribution to a full service of adult education and that made by any other providing body.

213. New regulations should provide for the payment of direct grant to universities for their work in adult education in the areas indicated below. The intention is that, for the direct cost of those portions of their provision that properly form part of the public service of adult education, the universities should receive substantial financial support (normally 75 per cent) from the Department. The balance of that cost and that of the supporting services would be met from other income or from University Grants Committee funds, as also would the other forms of university adult education which would not be grant-aided. The share falling on University Grants Committee funds would thus be considerable (see paragraphs 222-223 below) and a system of joint financing of university adult education would result, The kinds of work which we believe should be grant-aided in this way would be mainly:

213.1. A continuing provision of liberal studies of the traditional kind, characterised by intellectual effort by the students, the guidance of a tutor with firmly based scholarship, and the customary freedom from externally imposed syllabuses and examinations.

213.2. "Balancing" studies of an academic character, designed to complement earlier specialisation in education.

213.3. "Role education". By this we mean education of a liberal and academic nature designed to provide a relevant background of knowledge and appropriate intellectual skills for groups whose common element is their role in society. They may be occupational groups from industry or the professions - such as training and personnel officers, doctors, clergy or social workers - or their role may be voluntary, as with magistrates or local councillors.

213.4. Industrial education, namely courses of a liberal and academic character related to human relationships rather than technical processes, for all levels of industry from management to shop floor.

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213.5. Project work, in which a group of adult students, under the guidance of a university teacher, engages in a process of research or enquiry one of whose objects is to teach the techniques or disciplines involved.

213.6. Training (other than courses leading to a professional qualification) for those engaged in the education of adults. The nature of the university involvement and its relation to the training schemes of other bodies is discussed fully in paragraphs 403-417.

213.7. Development or pioneer work in connection with special problems of adult education or new fields of work. The grant in these instances would act as a "pump-priming" for a limited period in the expectation that continuing provision would be made by other agencies or under the university's own financial arrangements. Examples would be:

213.7.1. Courses in new fields for professional or vocational groups, including refresher and post-experience courses giving access to new knowledge or the results of research. The bulk of a university's work under this heading would be excluded since it is well established and can draw on its own sources of finance; but new developments might need initial support in order to establish themselves or to clarify the nature of the need.

213.7.2. Work of an informal or pioneer character with disadvantaged sections of the population, including the training or orientation of those working in such fields, especially voluntarily.

213.7.3. Provision for adult access to graduation or other qualification at an advanced level. We see a mounting need here, deriving from the steady increase in the numbers who, by virtue of the improved opportunities they have enjoyed in school and further education, have the basic requirements for higher education but cannot gain full-time places; from those whose ambitions towards higher education develop in adult life; and from those who need re-qualification for a change of career. The most economical means of meeting these needs is by part-time study and our evidence has included enough examples of successful provision to show the effectiveness of this form of higher education. The inception of the Open University has confirmed the demand for degrees, but we see also the likelihood of need for more specialised degrees than those offered by that institution and for a further range of diplomas and certificates. We hope that universities will explore this field energetically, perhaps seeking to establish some form of collaboration with the Open University. Our recommendation for grant towards the teaching costs involved in the experimental stages is intended to facilitate such explorations.

215. None of the categories given in paragraph 213 would be the exclusive province of the universities, nor would it be expected that any one university would be equally active in all of them. But they are areas where we see the universities as having resources to make a high-level contribution.

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Through representation on local development councils in the region normally served by the university this contribution will be identified and related to the general service of adult education in each area.

216. At present each university responsible body has an agreed region in which it makes provision and the boundaries of these regions have been periodically adjusted by local government. The foundation of new universities, not all of which as yet want to undertake a formal role in adult education, and the emergence of other institutions of higher education which might well contribute to the academic forms of adult education, have complicated the geography. In some areas the potential teaching resources have been greatly enriched by these developments, while in others the remoteness of university institutions continues as an intractable problem. Nowhere, however, do we see a superfluity of resources, having regard to the range of needs to be met in the kinds of education we have listed in paragraph 213 and we are satisfied that the demarcation of roles and areas is best regarded as an issue, to be revolved by consultation and arrangement, in the facilitating of which local development councils may have a useful role. We would commend the existing examples of cooperation between neighbouring institutions of higher education that have come to our notice.

217. The machinery to be adopted for carrying out its role in adult education is a matter for each university to determine. The traditional department of extra-mural studies or of adult education has clear and well-tried advantages: an accumulation of expertise, wide-ranging contacts in the local region, ready machinery (in the persons of its full-time staff) for consultation both in the university and outside, an identity within the university through which the claims of the work can be voiced, an identity towards the outside world and especially towards the rest of the education service that promotes the free flow of ideas, and a capability for research in the whole field of adult education. We should expect that those universities which already have such specialist departments would retain them and in later paragraphs we make some observations about their staffing. But we also follow the thinking behind the decision of certain newer universities to eschew the traditional extra-mural department and to seek ways of integrating the extra-mural work more closely with their day-to-day teaching and research. There is no reason why the principle of direct grant towards teaching costs should not be capable of application, under the criteria set out in paragraphs 213-214, to any such arrangements. This would be one example of the flexibility that would derive from abandoning the concept of the "Responsible Body".

218. In addition to their extra-mural role university departments are increasingly engaging in the study and teaching of adult education as an academic discipline. This has hardly yet reached an adequate scale for the needs of a comprehensive service and we would urge universities to give attention to it. We are also convinced that more research into the many facets of adult education is necessary and in paragraphs, 431-433 we discuss its funding. The obvious place for much of this research to be located is in the departments of adult education in our universities and we would

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invite the University Grants Committee to consider the problems associated with the financing of research into adult education and make their views known to universities.

219. Research is the foundation upon which the training and qualification of professional adult educators should be built. Several universities are already active here and we would wish to see further development. The nature of the university contribution in the whole field of training and professional qualification is discussed in paragraphs 403-417 below. In the planning of a university's adult education we hope that this contribution will be borne in mind.

220. The cost of university adult education will be met partly from direct grant and partly from other sources. Contributions to the cost will be drawn from the students. Except where special provision for closed groups is being made or where other special conditions apply, we should expect the fees paid by students for grant-aided university courses to be of the same order as in other fields of adult education and to conform to the general guidelines about students contributions that we have set out in paragraph 312.

221. The grant-aided work of a university will be a contribution to the total service of adult education in an area. In Administrative Memorandum No. 6 of 1963 local education authorities were invited to consider making grants to the responsible bodies in respect of teaching costs as well as the costs of administration as had previously been the custom. It is much to be hoped that local education authorities will give this financial support, as many of them do already.

222. Our recommendations also presuppose a substantial contribution from the university itself. This will include the difference between the amount of grant and any other income, and the total cost of the teaching by full-time and part-time staff. It will include an appropriate structure of administration and direction, normally an academic head of department with such assistants as the size and range of the programme may necessitate, and supporting staff for administrative and clerical duties. It will include the provision of accommodation and equipment. Almost all universities do in fact provide these reasonably adequately. The head of department is commonly of professorial rank and we regard this as important in establishing the status of this work within the university. Almost all universities maintain premises for their adult education, especially where the main campus is not centrally placed, though widespread use is generally made of the university's other buildings. We would emphasise the value of both forms of accommodation in promoting the links between the public and the university as a centre of teaching. A few universities have given an impressive lead in establishing libraries and resource centres for their work in adult education. Indeed a realistic costing of the universities' services in adult education would show that at present the contribution in the form of grant from the Department amounts to no more than some 35 per cent of the total cost (1), with the bulk of the remainder being met from University Grants Committee funds. It is however significant that, while this is true of those universities

(1) This figure relates to all adult education activities not only those which are grant aided by the Department and includes allowances for accommodation and clerical staff, heating, lighting etc. none of which are included in Table 30 of Appendix B.

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which are responsible bodies, the other universities, drawing wholly on University Grants Committee funds, are able to make a much slighter investment in adult education. This supports the view that has been strongly represented to us that the existence of grant from the Department towards teaching costs has been an effective stimulant to universities to set up a service of adult education.

223. Nevertheless we regard this investment of their own funds as eloquent testimony to the value that the universities have placed on their tradition of adult education. Yet we cannot but recognise that pressures on university resources are mounting. The University Grants Committee have confirmed to us in evidence that estimates of expenditure on adult education are taken into account when arriving at quinquennial settlements with universities, but this has not been set out in their memoranda of guidance. We trust that the University Grants Committee will now recognise the force of the recommendations we have made about an enhanced contribution from universities to a comprehensive service of adult education, will encourage universities to regard their corresponding expenditure on it as a proper utilisation of resources, and will ensure that the resources are there.

The Voluntary Sector of Adult Education

224. In any free society voluntaryism is inherent. However complex society may become it should be possible for an individual or a group of individuals to move events. Adult education is one of the fields, as its historical traditions show, where this applies with particular force. At no stage of education is variety of provision of greater importance in order to meet the variety of needs and demands from prospective participants, and voluntary organisations can help to bring about this variety of provision. They may not themselves be recognised as providing bodies: by drawing the attention of providing bodies to the needs they discern they can secure an extension of hitherto existing provision in their area.

225. The voluntary sector of adult education will need careful tending. The cost of maintaining the essential fabric of any voluntary body is now so high that much of the energy of the active members may be absorbed merely in keeping it in being. Since some causes have more immediate appeal than others and since the differences do not correlate with the educational needs to be met, reliance on voluntary subscriptions may not be sufficient. Experience also shows that in many cases voluntary effort is fully effective only when there is a cadre of professional organisers and advisers. Evidence from a number of voluntary bodies concerned with educational work suggests that they cannot afford fully qualified professional staff, such as organisers and field officers, and have to sacrifice standards to survive. Appropriate grant-aid can provide a context in which democratic participation and the well directed work of voluntary supporters combine effectively for the pioneering of new fields, the response to important minority or specialised needs, or the planting of a significant educational component in activities that are otherwise mainly artistic, recreational or concerned with welfare. In the paragraphs which follow we make recommendations towards safeguarding the contribution of voluntary organisations to a comprehensive service of adult education.

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The Workers' Educational Association

226. Unique among the voluntary bodies is the Workers' Educational Association which has for many years been a pioneer not only in bringing university quality adult education to a wide public but also in the teaching methods it has fostered and the degree and kind of student participation it has encouraged.

227. In origin the WEA came into being as an organising body for classes provided by the universities under the extension schemes, but very soon special committees, called "Joint Committees", were set up because of the special needs of "workpeople". For many years now, however, the districts of the WEA have been responsible bodies making their own provision of classes and although the alliance with the universities is still important each of the partners to it now has a major commitment elsewhere: the ratio of "joint committee" work (that is, classes provided by universities for WEA groups) to the separate provision of either the universities or the WEA steadily declines although the total number of such classes is rising. It is questionable whether the present level of "joint committee" work could have been reached, either in numbers or in standards, if the WEA had not been able to provide classes of its own. These, being at a somewhat lower academic level, have often acted as a preparation for subsequent university classes. Conversely, there is evidence from a number of areas that the volume of university tutorial class work would be considerably less without the active help of university resident tutors to the WEA branches. There has been support both ways.

228. These considerations have led us to the conclusion that the roles of the WEA as both promoter of adult education for the universities (and other bodies) and provider of its own programme of classes should continue and with grant-aid. We cannot accept the view that has been put to us that, in a fully integrated service of adult education, the WEA would be best employed in organising groups of students, in stimulating demand and in exploring needs, whilst the provision was made wholly by universities or by the local education authorities. We do not underestimate the value to adult education of the voluntary organising strength of the WEA, but we are satisfied that some of the flexibility we desire in our service of adult education would be lost if the WEA did not retain its providing powers. The vitality of the Association in England and Wales is closely bound up with its class provision. Its particular ethos derives from its dual function of promotion and provision and is a unique feature of adult education In this country. The loss of it would be an impoverishment of the basic resources from which a comprehensive service of adult education is to be built up. This is not to say that the WEA should attempt to provide a complete range of activities in any area, but we indicate below the clear place we see for it as both a promotional body and as a provider of classes without wasteful duplication of the work of other bodies.

229. One of the Association's traditional functions has been to press for improvements in the education service at all levels: to do this in adult education, by drawing attention to unmet needs would be in line with that tradition. Locally through its branches, regionally through its districts and

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nationally through its central organisation, the Association can act importantly as a channel of expression from large numbers of ordinary men and women who are committed to and participating in adult education. It will not be the only body so engaged. Indeed, as local education authority centres develop machinery of student participation in planning and management (as we have recommended elsewhere that they should), relationships of some delicacy, not to say conflict, will be liable to arise. A lively community will not lose by them. Out of them can come a challenge to prevailing assumptions and a stimulus to fresh thought and action as well as a valuable informal education in the democratic ways of enlisting power. A comfortable consensus may mean stagnation.

230. We thus see a clear and continuing function for the WEA as a promoter of adult education through its structure as a representative organisation of students. But the students are those in its own classes and the character of their representations will reflect the nature and scope of those classes. We recognise that the WEA fulfils different functions in different parts of the country and that generalisations about its work as though this were uniform may be quite misleading. Moreover, any voluntary body must make its own policy for itself. We can only indicate what aspects of its work should be particularly deserving of support from public funds in the light of the place we see for the WEA as a provider of classes in our comprehensive service.

231. If, locally and nationally, the WEA adds the weight of its opinion and experience to the pressure on all providing bodies for the improvement of their service, some of its functions as a general provider can be left to them. The rate at which this occurs will vary in different places and will be a matter for consultation through local development councils. But we would see the WEA as giving particular emphasis to the tasks we set out below.

232. In its evidence to us the WEA has pointed to four areas in which its recent experience shows possibilities of expansion that it would wish to pursue. In general terms these are all concerned with sectors of the population who might not otherwise be touched by adult education and they are therefore a logical development of the Association's traditional concern for the underprivileged. We strongly support the Association's desire to undertake such work. The four areas are:

232.1 Education for the socially and culturally deprived living in urban areas. Many other bodies are engaged in such areas - local authorities through community development projects involving housing and social services departments as well as education, the Home Office, universities, and local organisations such as Councils of Social Service, community associations, neighbourhood committees and local action groups. The involvement of the WEA would have to be in a strictly educational role and closely integrated with the work of the other bodies. It would also have to be of an experimental and informal character, requiring new forms of activity and unfamiliar techniques.

232.2. Work in an industrial context, especially classes held in factories or other workplaces, and programmes arranged in consultation with the TUC and with individual trade unions, including courses for shop stewards.

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232.3. Political and social education. Traditionally the WEA has believed that much of its work in general education was directed to greater social and political awareness as well as intellectual enlightenment. This conception we feel to have special value today. New avenues for activity have begun to appear in courses run in cooperation with OXFAM, SHELTER and similar socially oriented organisations, and in certain kinds of "role education" for those engaged in local government and in social and political activity.

232.4. Courses of liberal and academic study below the level of university work, intended either for those who find that this level and kind of course satisfies their intellectual ambition, or for those who wish to prepare for the more rigorous university courses. This is the area of provision where there is the greatest likelihood of overlapping with the work of the local education authorities as academic studies come to find a place in the programmes of their centres. It is an area in which the role of the WEA may gradually come to include a greater element of promotional work, encouraging and supporting balanced programmes by local education authorities as well as making provision of its own.

233. These tasks would once again cast the WEA largely in the role of educational pioneer, bringing to those in great need services that they may have hitherto rejected. The work cannot be easy and will require additional money and manpower: special provision will be necessary and we make recommendations about it. The importance of these tasks can hardly be overstated however and we see the WEA as having a unique opportunity to undertake them. To do so the WEA will need to forge new or closer links with the local authority departments of health and social service and other relevant departments, Councils of Social Service, community associations and many other local and national groups. It will need, through its representation on local development councils, to keep the direction of its policy for an area under continual review and ensure that it does not use up its resources on work that could equally be done by others.

234. Such developments would also mean a weakening of the traditionally close links with the universities in "joint committee" work, though we would not wish to see that work cease. It should take its place among the universities' general provision of academically demanding courses and should not require any special financial arrangements.

235. It must however be recognised that the emphasis we are here placing on certain kinds of adult education will not necessarily conform to the thinking of WEA branches in many areas. These branches have been built up for more diffused educational purposes to serve the interests of their present members. A shift of emphasis from a wide range of general provision to more specific priorities and a more general role in the promotion of adult education will require a substantial effort of reorientation on the part of branch and district committees. Much of the work we have described will be pioneered by professional tutor-organisers and development officers. It will be important that, wherever necessary, they carry the active lay members with them into these new fields, which would otherwise lose the vital contribution of the Association as a democratic body.

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236. It is important to recognise that for much of the work we have mentioned in paragraph 232 as the proper province of the WEA the distinction between teaching and organising, which lay at the root of the present arrangement whereby grant is payable only for academic teaching staff (albeit with an additional organising function), is not applicable. The teaching will often be of an informal character not to be measured by class meetings or student-hours; the development work, without which no teaching at all, formal or informal, is possible, depends on perceptions of educational opportunity in many kinds of activity that may seem a long way from class-going and it will thus require an academic background and some training in education for the development officer. The roles of those who will teach and those who do the field work will overlap at many points. Both are necessary for effective adult education to emerge; they should both be grant-aided.

237. Direct grant should be paid normally at the rate of 75 per cent towards the costs of an approved programme, these to comprise the fees and expenses of full-time and part-time tutors and the salaries and expenses of an appropriate establishment of tutor-organisers and development officers.

238. At present each WEA district is separately recognised as a responsible body, submits its programmes individually to the Department for approval and receives grant accordingly. Additionally and quite separately the central organisation of the WEA receives a grant from the Department in support of its general administrative expenses and of the activities of the Service Centre for Social Studies. The WEA nationally now holds the view that direct grant for teaching costs should be paid not to the districts but as one sum to the national Association, which would itself be responsible for distributing the grant to the districts. We have recommended the abandonment of the category of responsible body from the Regulations and it would be in line with our thinking on this matter that direct grant from the Department should be paid centrally to the WEA. The adjustment of programmes as between districts and the relative priority given to the types of work mentioned in paragraph 232 can then be reviewed by the Association nationally before negotiations about grant are begun with the Department. Not only will this give greater flexibility than the present system; it will also mean that priority in the allocation of resources can be given to those forms of work or those regions which are regarded nationally as of high priority; and such decisions will be taken through the democratic processes of the Association. If, however, grant were given for any specific purpose it would be necessary for the Association to show that it had been applied to that purpose.

239. Even after receipt of grant from central funds, there remains the difference between this grant and the total teaching costs (amounting to some 25 per cent of these) as well as the full cost of administration and development, all of which the WEA has to raise for itself. This income is drawn from membership and other subscriptions, students' fees for attendance at classes and grants from local education authorities. We should expect these sources of income to continue, including a substantial contribution from local education authorities since the WEA would be playing a significant part in the local plans for adult education. Moreover we believe the

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WEA should have and would always wish to have a considerable share in its own financing.

240. We do however recognise that a voluntary body needs a sound administrative structure to support both the professional field staff and the voluntary movement. Accordingly we suggest, in place of the existing administrative grant, the payment by the Department to the WEA of an additional grant as a contribution towards the administrative expenses incurred in arranging and promoting an approved programme of courses. A simple and reasonable figure for this amount would be 12½ per cent of the total grant for the year.

241. In recent years the WEA has also received a special grant to develop the Service Centre for Social Studies which has begun to supply information and teaching materials to tutors not only of its own classes but those of other bodies. This is an important work which we wish to see further developed. We advocate the continuance and enlargement of the special grant for the Service Centre for Social Studies.

Other Direct Grant Bodies

242. In order to establish a comprehensive service that draws in all the potentially educational resources of local communities, it will be necessary for a great variety of voluntary bodies to be actively encouraged to participate. Most of these will be local and, in so far as they require financial support or the provision of teaching services, it will be proper for them to look to the local education authorities. Many local education authorities already give support in this way to community associations, women's organisations, music and drama groups, old people's clubs and other social organisations, and we regard it as of prime importance that these groups should be brought into the local structures of adult education. The range can also be widened, especially in order to bring many more disadvantaged or handicapped groups into an integral relationship with the service. Professional staff in adult education will need to be enterprising in seeking out such groups and establishing working relationships with them; and local education authorities will need to be generous (as many of them already are) in the application of schemes of affiliation between bodies of this kind and the institutions of adult education. If the service is to reach out to hitherto untouched sectors of the population all available networks of communication must be used. The kinds of relationship we envisage would include not only the provision by the adult education service of tuition or coaching for members of a performing group or sports club, but also expertise and advice in the planning of activities by the groups themselves, help with accommodation and publicity, and the use of such groups and their contacts in extending the work of the adult education centres into new directions. Where financial support to the organisations concerned will increase their effectiveness as collaborators in the service of adult education we hope that the local education authorities will provide it: as so often in the voluntary sector, a modest financial contribution will bring large returns.

243. Many local organisations of a cultural or potentially educational character are related to national bodies whose work is primarily promotional

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and it will therefore be necessary to tap the national networks if the most effective contact is to be made with the local ones. The initiative here must be with the Department. The Department, having satisfied itself that a body is engaged in educational work, should be able to make a grant which the body could then use within its total budget to support existing work, to develop new work or projects, to produce teaching material or to improve its organising from the centre. At present some seven national bodies receive grant towards their expenses (see paragraph 124). Total support should be increased and ought to be more widely distributed than at present. We believe that relatively small sums expended in this way release substantial voluntary resources, both in cash and manpower, which enable interesting and valuable experiments to be undertaken. These grants may be given to national organisations even though at any one time activity may be directed to a particular locality. The admission of bodies to this category of grant-aided organisations will be for the Department, who might wish to seek the advice of the Development Council for Adult Education.

244. Generally speaking these are promotional bodies rather than direct providers and their most useful functions will normally lie in promotion, the identification of needs, the stimulation of their local groups to relate themselves to the adult education service and the preparation and distribution of teaching material. We do not, however, rule out the possibility that from time to time direct grant might be applied to the provision of courses, where the national body was the obvious provider rather than a local body in association with a local education authority: for example, in residential courses recruited nationally, or in training courses for voluntary workers in a particular field of service, where a common format of course would be applicable over the whole country.

245. The considerations raised in paragraph 243 appear in an immediate form in connection with the Welsh National Council of YMCAs, which is the only body other than universities or WEA Districts at present accorded the status of responsible body under the Regulations. It is clearly a providing body of a quite different kind from the other responsible bodies: its concern with adult education is peripheral to its main activities and absorbs only a small share of its resources; it employs no full-time organising or teaching staff for adult education; its provision is not clearly defined in terms of geographical location, range of programme or type of student. On the other hand the Council has been engaged in adult education for many years, has made an important contribution in certain localities through providing classes for the elderly and the mentally ill, and has, because of its Christian orientation, been able to engage the services of a number of voluntary and paid part-time tutors and other helpers who might not otherwise have been involved with adult education.

246. If the work hitherto undertaken by the Welsh National Council of YMCAs among people for whom it is our wish to ensure better provision had to be abandoned the loss to a full service of adult education would be serious. There is no reason why this should happen. Some of the classes could and should be taken over by one or other of the major providing bodies - local education authorities, universities or the WEA. Others the

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Council will wish to continue, itself supporting them by grant from the local education authority in whose area the classes take place; the Department's Administrative Memorandum No. 6 of 1963 specifically asks local education authorities to cooperate in this kind of joint venture. Yet others again the Council will wish to organise and pay for from its own funds. We advise that the Welsh National Council of YMCAs should be included in the list of bodies receiving direct grant, with a view to safeguarding its work in adult education by supporting the central organisation so that better promotion can be made, and by allowing the Council to receive grant towards teaching costs for its own provision where it is clear that no other body can do the work so effectively. This direct grant should include the sums at present paid to the National Council of YMCAs in England and Wales to aid the cost of educational activities in Wales, for it is logical that the Welsh Council should oversee all such work. This is a further instance of the increased flexibility that can follow from an abandonment of the category of responsible body in the Regulations.

Full-time Adult Education: The Long-Term Residential Colleges

247. One of the consequences of adult education has been, from its early days, a demand from a minority of students for full-time study. There is no reason to suppose that this demand, small but clear, will disappear as higher education expands, for it comes from the adult who, for whatever reason, did not take the normal route onwards from school. It is essential to keep open an alternative route for the adult late developers, especially those from unpropitious environments whose perceptions of the possibility of higher education come only in mature life. The long-term residential colleges have an impressive record in creating such opportunities, not only as an entry to university or college, but as a form of higher education in their own right.

248. The colleges themselves have given us evidence of a substantial latent demand. Although they do very little advertising they receive approximately ten enquiries and three firm applications for every place available; and they have therefore suggested both a substantial enlargement of existing colleges and the creation of new ones. This proposal raises a number of questions: for example, whether the present grant arrangements should be taken into the new structure of direct grants and whether such grants would, in accordance with our general principle, release resources which would not otherwise be available for adult education; whether this form of provision is the most appropriate for the need, both now and in the future, or whether the provision could not be made by other parts of the education service as they may be seen developing.

249. On the first point, there is no doubt that the long-term residential colleges have managed to raise for themselves substantial proportions of their costs, approximately 50 per cent on capital and development accounts and 40 per cent on current accounts, although this latter figure includes income from student's fees most of which is drawn from public funds in the form of local education authority awards. The colleges have some income of their own but they clearly could not continue in being without

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the support of public funds. Their position is not identical with the bodies considered in paragraphs 211-246 where large additional resources are brought into play by a small direct grant - it is more analogous to that of the voluntary colleges of education - but it is sufficiently similar to justify the continuation of direct-grant arrangements if the colleges can be shown to have a clear and continuing function.

250. The question whether this form of provision is the most appropriate involves asking first whether residence is essential and secondly whether it has to be residence in this particular type of institution. Residential education, of any kind, is expensive, though we have no evidence that the long-term residential colleges are in general more expensive than other forms of residential education. But we have to ask whether, in a field so much in need of development as adult education is, the diversion of funds into this particular sector is justified. The colleges have a remarkable record of finding men and women from unpromising backgrounds and developing their intellectual capacities and personalities so that they have gone on to make important contributions to society. The colleges have done this by developing, each in its own way, an ethos which combines the traditions of liberal adult education with academically demanding courses and a strong community spirit. Several factors, all deriving from the fact of residence, have contributed to this ethos. Most of the colleges are near to a university with which their students can associate, but within the colleges themselves there has been the stimulus of cultural activities, and close contact with other students sharing similar aspirations and problems but drawn from all parts of the country and many other parts of the world. Full-time study makes sustained intellectual demands and, when combined with individual tuition and the full life of the college, produces much more rapid intellectual growth than is possible under conditions of part-time study. None of this would be within reach of, for example, students from deprived backgrounds without the change of environment and the temporary release from voluntary activities and family responsibilities that a residential course offers.

251. The greater however the need for removal from home and family to achieve educational progress, the greater is likely to be the cultural distance between the student and his home as his course develops. The student whose college is not too far from his home and who can therefore maintain regular contact with his family is at an advantage; but all the existing English colleges are in the southern half of England although a substantial proportion of applicants live in the north. The geographical distribution could be better.

252. It remains to ask whether the development of other sectors of higher education, and especially the proposed diversification of colleges of education will not meet the needs of the remaining minority who need residential full-time study. Here again we see an important contribution. Many colleges of education already take in mature students for teacher-training; in some areas there are also day annexes for mature students who cannot take up residence; and a small number of colleges of education already prepare mature students for other fields of work than teaching. We should regret any slackening of momentum in these directions, and if some colleges of education become general institutions of higher education they will offer to adult students a range of opportunities of great value.

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253. Nevertheless we do not see the whole need being met in these ways. If colleges of education are to achieve, in two-year courses, standards which will command acceptance in the academic world, it seems probable that, unlike the long-term residential colleges, they will have to lay stress on formal entrance requirements. For the foreseeable future there will be a significant group of late developers whose social and intellectual background demands the retention of the traditional route to educational maturity that the long-term residential colleges have afforded. It is one of the principles of our comprehensive service of adult education that the special needs of such minority groups should be safeguarded.

254. The majority of the long-term residential colleges now provide diploma courses which are recognised by some universities and other institutions of higher education as qualifications for admission and in a growing number of cases for exemption from part of a degree course. This has been a development of great value in opening access to higher education for the late developers we have in mind, for whom time is an important consideration. We trust that universities and other institutions of higher education will give all recognition and credit they can to holders of these diplomas who seek admission to study for degrees or courses of professional training.

255. It is our view that:

255.1. the existing long-term residential colleges should continue to receive direct grant from the Department;

255.2. consideration should be given to the establishment of one further college in the northern half of England;

255.3. the colleges should be encouraged to bring their existing accommodation up to modern standards;

255.4. in relation to current expenditure and any future building programmes the colleges should enjoy financial treatment from the Department not less favourable than that accorded to the voluntary colleges of education (1);

255.5. the Department should examine the present indebtedness of the individual colleges and offer assistance where necessary to ensure that they are not prevented by the burden of existing debts from undertaking the modernisation we advocate.

256. In paragraphs 125 to 132 we referred briefly to the part already played by the "servicing bodies" and in paragraph 72 we looked forward to a new phase in the development of adult education through the application of educational technology and experiment with multi-media approaches to adult learning in association with more formal class growth. Some of the possibilities are already evident in the current applications of broadcasting, on its own or in association with other media, to the purposes of adult education. We can distinguish three broad modes of use and we base certain recommendations for the future on a consideration of present practice.

(1) The Training of Teachers Regulations, 1967, S.I. No. 792, paragraphs 28, 29.

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256.1. On all channels, both radio and television, some hundreds of hours every year are devoted to systematic adult education courses addressed primarily to listeners and viewers at home. Audiences for such series, although small by broadcasting standards, are enormous by educational ones and the sales of supporting literature, discs, kits and other materials suggest that these audiences are not necessarily inert, though not enough is yet known of the educational effectiveness of these programmes. Broadcasting is already a major component in the total provision of adult education in this country, valuable in several ways. First, it is accessible; none of the other agencies with which we are concerned is ever likely to rival the ability of broadcasting to make education available to people who cannot or will not have recourse to it outside the home. And accessibility, we must emphasise again, is one of the criteria by which a well-developed system of adult education must be judged. Second, it can recruit experts of national or international standing using the most highly refined techniques of presentation. Broadcasting can draw on material from all parts of the world and assemble it for use in a twenty or thirty minute programme to an extent beyond the power of any other agency. Certain kinds of teaching or demonstration indeed can be accomplished more effectively through broadcasting than in any other way.

256.2. Some of these series, though primarily intended for home viewers, provide educational software easily used for adult classes. Tutors may base whole courses on them or quote from them as they would from other forms of documentation or provide sequences for students to use at their own pace, singly or in groups. The exploitation of broadcast material in these ways is more fully developed in schools and vocational further education than in adult education. Progress will depend on the availability of proper and sufficient recording equipment, reasonably priced, adequately maintained and used with understanding (both technical and pedagogical) by tutors, factors which we have in mind in making certain recommendations in paragraphs 344 and 345 below.

256.3. Certain broadcast series are intended for use by viewing groups, together with appropriate supporting material. This mode of use enables the advantages of broadcasting - its relative neutrality, its specific strengths as a means of communication - to be applied to areas of particular social need. A notable example of this use was the BBC's multi-media series "Representing the Union", mounted in collaboration with the TUC. HTV's successive series providing in-service training for teachers and the BBC's massive "ROSLA and After" operation have demonstrated the power of educational broadcasting to bring about a change of climate within which individuals are helped to develop by taking part in learning groups using discussion, case-study material and the like. This mode is particularly important when the numbers of students with similar learning needs are likely to be large at any one time. We give examples below of such large scale demand - trade union and pre-retirement education - in paragraphs 268 and 276.

257. Out of experience of these modes of use derives the Open University, a permanent multi-media system of higher education for adults. Its successes to date indicate how remarkably efficient this mode can be when operated

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with the exemplary professional skill which has marked the Open University since its inception. The Open University however operates predominantly at one high academic level, that of the degree course which we have held to be outside our strict terms of reference. Nevertheless the example of the Open University is likely to bring into prominence the need for similar forms of provision at other levels and in non-academic fields which would benefit from being serviced by modest analogues of the Open University. For other reasons moreover, and particularly because of the general pressures which were analysed in Part I of this Report, we expect a steady increase in the demand for series that can be used by home viewers.

258. These two factors taken together will produce a greater demand for broadcasting devoted to systematic adult education, as distinct from "serious output" which is often highly educative. On the face of it an increase in this kind of broadcasting could be predicted as a natural consequence of the lifting of restrictions on the hours of broadcasting announced by the Government in January 1972. The very presence, however, of adult education in the schedules of the BBC and Independent Television was largely a consequence of an act of Government in 1964 which exempted adult education. religious and Welsh language programme from the controls then exercised by the Government on the hours of broadcasting. Now that the Government has allowed the broadcasting organisations to decide for themselves how long to be on the air, adult education is no longer a protected category, and we note that so far neither the BBC nor the IBA has felt it necessary to do more than declare publicly that they would not reduce the amount of adult education in the new situation.

259. Because of this, because too of their recognition that there are many other legitimate claims upon transmission time than those of adult education, some adult educationists have come to favour the concept of additional channels for radio and television. We have not thought it right to make a recommendation to that effect. The concept is in any case controversial among adult education specialists; and the question whether the so-called "Fourth Channel" or an additional radio channel should be devoted exclusively to education connects with the still more complex question of the future organisation of British broadcasting: it is obvious that both questions go far beyond our terms of reference.

260. We wish, however, to make two recommendations in the strongest terms. First, the broadcasting organisations should endeavour to take advantage of increased broadcasting time to enlarge and develop their systematic service to adult education at times suitable for the working population if possible. In making this recommendation we recognise the difficulty of meeting public needs on a limited number of channels. Second, we believe that whatever solutions are ultimately found for the problems of channel allocation they would not be in the public interest unless they facilitated a considerably enlarged contribution from broadcasting to adult education.

261. We are arguing not only for an increase in broadcast time for adult education but for an increase sufficient to make it possible to create what we have called analogues to the Open University at a lower academic level. By this term we mean multi-media systems combining teaching at a distance

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with face-to-face tuition, some relatively permanent, others transitory or perhaps ephemeral. It is not likely and not necessarily desirable that a permanent institution or a range of institutions like the Open University should be created for adult education below degree level. What is desirable is not a super-organisation but an organisational framework. Within such a framework learning systems could be established involving different media and agencies, despite the logistical and organisational problems known to be associated with this kind of enterprise, despite the difficulties that can arise from matters of contract and copyright and from attempts to combine publicly funded institutions with commercial organisations. Even more than this would be possible and necessary; diagnosis of need could be made; curriculum studies carried out, of a kind at present undertaken for adult education only by the Open University at degree course level; and separate institutions brought together for the equivalents of the Open University's course team work.

262. We suggest that the Development Council for Adult Education should regard it as a priority task to consider ways in which such partnerships between the media and adult education agencies should be conceived. It is likely that the Council and the National Institute of Adult Education between them could diagnose needs which they would then refer to the National Council for Educational Technology (or its successor). The Council for Educational Technology could help to decide which combination of media and agency was appropriate to the educational need in question and then act as broker between the interested parties. It would be for the Development Council for Adult Education to recommend the Secretary of State to commission the necessary curriculum studies and to arrange for the monitoring of the operation of the multi-media courses in order to build up a body of experience of their working.

263. So far in this part of our Report we have been concerned with structures and administrative arrangements and we return to these in considering buildings and staffing in later sections. We would however pause here to re-emphasise that the basis of our recommendations lies in the perception of needs and not in administrative structures. A comprehensive service is not a uniform service; a flexible service requires a multiplicity of agents; and co-ordination is best aimed at active partnership rather than restrictive demarcations. Our recommendation of local development councils is in that direction.

264. Some examples are given here of special areas of adult education in which a number of providing bodies will be involved and in which the importance we attach to the work is seen most clearly in terms of the overall needs rather than in terms of who should do what. All have been touched on previously (1) but only piecemeal under the heading of each providing body.

(1) See paragraphs 184, 188, 213, 232.

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Adult Education in Relation to Industry

265. In Part I we have referred (paragraphs 34-40, 58.3) to the effects on adult education of likely changes in patterns of work and leisure and the needs of adults in their economic and occupational roles. It is widely recognised that in a period of radical and rapid change the economic health of the nation will depend as much upon the perception and satisfaction of the "non-vocational" needs, including those thrown up in the course of employment, as upon an adequate provision of technical education. No one agency will meet all of these, occurring as they do at different levels and in different contexts; but each of the major providing bodies will have its own role to play.

266. In recent years post-experience courses in management education have developed rapidly in universities, business schools and further education establishments. Technical and scientific courses are arranged for qualified employees who need a refresher course, an introduction to modern developments, or study in fields related to their own. Such courses may be related to the specific requirements of a firm or industry and there is often close cooperation between the industrial sponsors and the educational agency in planning the syllabus. Some of these post-experience courses are paid for by industry through fees approximating to economic costs, but in general there tends to be a subsidy from the educational institution.

267. The education of trade unionists has traditionally been a function of adult education, and in cooperation with the TUC and major trade unions, is one of the fastest growing points in "role education". Extra-mural departments, the WEA, some polytechnics and an increasing number of technical colleges are involved in the education and training of shop stewards which is being developed in accordance with an agreement between the CBI and the TUC (1); and the long-term residential colleges, notably Ruskin, offer courses for trade union students and others interested in the study of industrial relations, through which many trade union officers and tutors have received their education.

268. In a period when industrial relations are becoming increasingly complex, it is of vital importance that the large numbers involved on both sides of industry should be given the opportunity to study the problems and acquire the necessary techniques. It is a multi-disciplinary study, embracing elements from economics, psychology, sociology and political science. Whilst the growth of day-release and factory based classes for shop stewards and trade unionists is encouraging, only a small proportion of the estimated 170,000 shop stewards (with an appreciable annual turnover rate) is yet covered and an even smaller proportion of rank and file workers. The Code of Industrial Relations Practice encourages trade unions and management to "take all reasonable steps to ensure that stewards receive the training they require" and "to seek to agree on arrangements for leave" for this purpose. The study of industrial relations by management is equally essential. The whole field is so extensive and so important that all the major providing bodies, including the residential colleges, can contribute to it. Where, as is sometimes done already, the two sides of industry can join

(1) Training Shop Stewards, TUC, 1968.

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to study the subject together, greater mutual understanding can result. Adult education, whoever may be the immediate provider, should be able to promote such developments.

269. The TUC regard trade union education as "a distinct sector within the total provision of adult education", separate from vocational training on the one hand and liberal adult education for trade unionists on the other. The evidence of the educational agencies concerned is that this work could be rapidly expanded if increasing resources were made available. The WEA Social Studies Service Centre provides a nucleus for the provision of teaching materials. There is urgent need for the development of tutor training in this field and for the appointment of an increased number of specialised tutors. The TUC in its evidence urged that increased grants be made available to the educational bodies concerned in trade union education to enable them to expand their work to meet this growing need. We regard this partnership between the trade unions and the adult education movement as a fruitful one, ensuring that genuine educational values and an objective approach are fostered. Like other voluntary bodies, the trade unions cannot be expected to meet the full cost of this type of "role" education and the same principles as are adopted for the provision of other forms of adult education should apply. The main contribution of industry to this work takes the form of paid educational leave, the costs of which are met in some cases from industrial training grants.

Educational Leave

270. The bulk of non-vocational adult education has always taken place outside working hours, in evening classes, at weekends, or in summer schools. For many years, however, the principle of day-release for young workers up to eighteen has been embodied in education legislation in this country. The Education Act, 1944 provided for compulsory day or block release for one day a week or eight weeks a year for all young persons under eighteen for "such further education ... as will enable them to develop their various aptitudes and capacities and will prepare them for the responsibilities of citizenship", but this part of the Act has not yet been brought into effect. Day-release, primarily for vocational education or apprenticeships, is available in many industries, and in 1970 there were over 600,000 benefiting from it at all ages (150,000 over twenty-one). A further 52,000 students were taking block release courses. The growth of such schemes however is disappointingly slow, and affects only certain industries and sections of workers. Only 10 per cent of women employees under eighteen were taking day-release courses in 1969, compared with 40 per cent of young men. Provision for general education courses compares unfavourably with that for vocational courses. There has however been some growth of these, particularly for trade union education. Joint CBI-TUC statements in 1963 and 1967 provided for shop steward training during working hours, and in 1967 the Central Training Council encouraged industrial training boards to give grants for this purpose.

271. We have referred in paragraphs 49-50 to the concept of "permanent education". A feature of the European discussion of this concept has been the increasing attention paid to the question of "educational leave" for workers. As long ago as 1964 a UNESCO general conference invited member states "to grant workers leave, paid if possible, necessary for training in

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the framework of permanent education". The International Labour Organisation has also been studying this question since 1965 and has under active consideration a proposed international instrument concerning paid educational leave. The consensus of views such as these is that paid educational leave would be regarded as a new social right responding to the needs of modern society, and would embrace general, social and civic education, training at all levels, and trade union education. Minimum rights of paid educational leave would have to be established by law or by collective agreements, and the arrangements would be the joint concern of the public authorities, educational institutions, and organisations of workers and of employers. For trade union education the unions would be fully involved in the selection of candidates and the approval of programmes.

272. Some countries in Western Europe have anticipated these recommendations by introducing legislation which provides for specified periods of paid leave for approved courses of social, trade union or vocational training, and which is usually supplemented by collective bargaining agreements between national employers' associations and trade union centres.

273. A general review of the position in England and Wales is now needed. We hope that the TUC and CBI, in consultation with the appropriate government departments and educational agencies, will take action to ensure that we do not lag behind, and that adequate opportunities are given for workers seeking day or block release with pay for appropriate courses, including courses of the "role education" type provided by universities, WEA districts and technical colleges in partnership with trade unions and similar bodies. Facilities for these should be equivalent to those offered to management and professional groups for post-experience courses.

The Broader Education of Workers

274. Trade union education and training is one of the means by which many people are brought into contact for the first time with organised adult education. Courses in industrial relations stimulate wider interests and there is therefore a great opportunity for the adult education agencies to provide "follow-on" courses for individual trade unionists and others. Courses in social studies, communications and similar subjects primarily for trade union groups are a valuable means of bringing industrial workers into contact with the wider world of adult education. We would support any action that further strengthens the links between trade union education and the general provision of adult education.

275. Particular attention needs also to be given to the education of women in industry. Day-release opportunities for young workers have on the whole been much more extensive and more successful for young men than for young women and there are sections of industry employing large numbers of young women for whom training opportunities are few and educational opportunities virtually unprovided. In paragraph 46.4 we have pointed out the need for working mothers to maintain and enlarge their educational experience, not only for their own intellectual progress but also for their influence on their children. The record of both industry and education, apart from one or two promising experiments, is poor in this field. Yet for many women the combination of job and home leaves no time for their

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own intellectual advancement unless opportunities are given at the workplace, or in close association with it. The work that has already been done suggests that the approach needs to be informal and the activities usually practical. But this does not mean that the intellectual level is low and all the providing bodies, including the WEA and the universities, will have many directions in which they can contribute. We would urge them to seek the cooperation of industry in initiating further experiments in the education of working women.

Education for Retirement and for Occupational Change

276. Preparation for the conclusion of a working career is an equally important facet of the process by which education can assist in setting work in a meaningful relationship with a whole life. In paragraphs 34-39 we have emphasised the continuing need of those approaching retirement to be helped in preparing for it and we have related this to the needs arising from other enforced changes of occupation. Retirement may well come earlier in life than is now usual and for some people may be indistinguishable from long-term redundancy. For many there will be regular changes of job, with new skills to be learnt and perhaps removal to new homes. Good relationships in industry require that these processes are widely understood and that, when change arises in any of these forms, those involved can meet it in an informed way with full account of its impact on personal and family life as well as its relation to social or economic policies. A start has been made with pre-retirement education which has shown what educational help the individual can be given, but such help may also be needed much earlier as well. Some employers have already taken a laudable initiative in preparation-for-retirement schemes, usually calling upon the education service, through either the local education authority or the WEA, to make the provision often at the place of employment. We would welcome both an increase and a broadening of this work by collaboration between industry and the adult education agencies, with an especial eye to the smaller firms who cannot be expected to operate schemes of their own.

Adult Education and the Disadvantaged

277. We have already indicated (paragraphs 187-188) our particular concern for the disadvantaged, whose participation in adult education is at present minimal. We give a wide interpretation to the term "disadvantaged" and include in it the physically and mentally handicapped as well as those who, on account of their limited educational background, present cultural or social environment, age, location, occupation or status, cannot easily take part in adult education as normally provided. Here again the lines of approach are clearer if they are related to the total range of needs rather than to the offerings of particular bodies.

278. A study commissioned for us by the Department and carried out by the University of Leicester (1) revealed the great variety of needs. Blanket terms like "the disadvantaged" or "the handicapped" carry an implication that these are undifferentiated masses whose needs, when once identified,

(1) Mr. Peter Clyne carried out this study. A book written by him and published by Longmans - "The Disadvantaged Adult" is substantially founded in the experience he gained and the conclusions he reached while completing this study.

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will be alike. But in educational terms one cannot speak even of the physically handicapped or the mentally handicapped as single categories: the needs and potentialities of paraplegics and the blind are quite dissimilar, and the range of mental handicap presents a corresponding range of educational challenges. Very often educational needs will be closely interwoven with therapeutic or welfare needs. The task of the education service will be to collaborate with social services and other relevant departments in ensuring that disadvantaged individuals are not debarred by lack of education from active participation in the life of their local communities. It is also important to ensure that, beside the personal needs of disadvantaged individuals - needs which may be economic, cultural, creative or associative as for all the rest of us - an opportunity of integration into society is given in terms of social usefulness. Clear examples are the elderly and the mentally ill, who are not just to be tolerated in society, but need a useful role to establish their self-respect. Another example would be those affected by long-term unemployment to whom we have referred in Part I.

279. Further, the study suggested that, if for this purpose the test of disadvantage is taken to be the extent to which such integration into active society is prevented, the factors are found to lie mainly in three areas: personal capacity (which includes both physical and mental conditions), social disadvantage (which includes geographical isolation as well as poverty or social deprivation) and educational disadvantage (which might mean, not only a lack of basic education or literacy, but also such things as imperfect language in the born-deaf and isolation from the messages of the standard educational agencies through ignorance or rejection of the imagery and vocabulary they use). But it is also clear that these factors interact and that, while physically handicapped or sub-normal or mentally ill people will be found in all classes of the population, they are likely to appear in greater proportions among the socially deprived. Different types of disadvantage tend to accumulate: illness may interrupt schooling and so limit occupational opportunity and lead to low earnings, irrespective of the individual's intellectual endowment; but also a mental handicap can produce the same sequence. What is needed is to renew the educational opportunity in terms applicable to the state of disadvantage.

280. Action through adult education, once the needs have been identified, should proceed at various levels:

280.1. First-line provision for identified groups of disadvantaged adults. The initial impetus may come from social service agencies, voluntary action groups, community and social organisations, employers or the explorations of the adult educators. It will then be for the adult education service to determine whether, by suitable adaptation of its arrangements, the disadvantaged can be brought to join in its normal activities or whether special provision has to be made for groups with common needs. Often such special provision will be an inescapable starting-point but the objective should be, wherever possible, to integrate the members of such groups into the full life of the community and not to segregate them longer than is necessary. The range of needs is so great here that provision will have to be made in many different ways, some of which we discuss in paragraph 281 below.

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280.2. Second-line provision, that is the special training of those who will undertake the special first-line work, whether as professionals in adult education, as welfare or social workers, as part-time paid workers or as volunteers. The objective of the training will be to clarify the educational component of their work and to improve the teaching techniques used. In this field substantial provision may be made by the universities, drawing on their resources for the teaching of social studies and social work and for the training of teachers; and also by some of the national voluntary organisations with a concern for particular disadvantaged groups.

280.3. Community orientation, that is the education of the public about disadvantaged or handicapped groups and about their needs. The case of immigrants is an obvious one where the cultural life of an area can be enriched by an understanding of what they can contribute to it: interesting beginnings have been made in some places with, for example, the teaching of Urdu and other languages to police, industrial supervisors and welfare staffs, or with the promotion of African and Asian music, dance and drama groups for local performance. Another case would be the mentally ill: with the development of the concept of community care as a means of early release from institutions their needs are likely to become increasingly pressing in this respect. In large measure community orientation is a process that will go on informally through broadcasting and the press. The adult education service, at all its levels. including those of major voluntary providers, must then seize the opportunities created by the mass media, for it can at least help to inform public attitudes even where it cannot change them.

280.4. Family support, that is the training and orientation of those closely involved in living with the handicapped. The difficulty is often to break through the ties imposed by the care of a handicapped person. This is where the sharing of local knowledge between educational organising staff and the social service and medical agencies is vital. The educational contribution can extend from simple bits of know-how (like finger-spelling for those with a deaf relative or the disposition of a kitchen for use by someone with impaired movement), to an understanding of the psychological pressures on the handicapped or learning how best to promote their independence, and then on to the support that comes simply from constructive association with others facing similar problems.

281. Unless the concept of community education is limited to community development projects in deprived urban areas, it must include attention to this great range of very specific needs among and to do with the disadvantaged of all kinds. All the major providing bodies and many voluntary organisations, national and local, have a share to contribute. In what we have called first-line provision, for example, the WEA, with its traditions of the critical study of society, will have a special and important role, as we have indicated in paragraph 232.1. This will lie especially in providing the educational background for those interested in community action in deprived urban areas, and in work associated with places of employment. Other needs will call for energetic provision by the local education authorities. The largest is probably for basic education, including literacy, and one of the most pressing is among the deaf: for the born deaf, the further development

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of language and general education to a point at which formal qualifications come within reach, and for the deafened or hard-of-hearing adult access to the skills and understanding that will enable him to cope with his changed world. In many of these fields too voluntary groups of different types are already active and their resources must also be utilised. In planning this work the focus must always be upon the disadvantaged individual in the context of his own community, and we therefore see the area organisations of adult education as occupying the central role in exploring the diverse educational needs of the area and in drawing together and facilitating the provision of the various educational agencies. We believe that this should be a major responsibility of one of the full-time staff of the area organisation.

282. The same approach seems to us to be practicable for determining the place of adult education in community development areas, especially as social deprivation is often associated with other disadvantage, physical, mental, economic or educational. The approach must be based on the ascertained needs of individuals and must lead to a flexible and varied provision related to that range of needs. It will aim always at the creation of learning situations, maintaining an essentially educational rather than social or political role. This will be equally true whether the providing agency is the local education authority, for example through unattached workers or community education officers, or the WEA as we have proposed in paragraph 232 or any other agency. The work will include the kind of experiments that have been made in some areas in bringing informal adult education into community development projects, but it will be wider than those, having as its objective not only social action upon the local environment but also the attainment by the individual of a sufficient level of self-realisation to join confidently in the active life of the groups he chooses to belong to.

283. The study brought in many examples of good practice with specific groups from many parts of the country: what was lacking was the attempt to deal comprehensively with disadvantaged groups of all kinds. Single initiatives can come from many sources, including voluntary bodies concerned with particular problems, and adult education should respond to them. But there is also a great need for cooperation between all the bodies concerned with the wellbeing of the disadvantaged. All too often they work independently, with the danger of piecemeal provision and inadequate information. Where good provision was made we found it often came as a direct result of close cooperation and sometimes joint provision. The adult education service should be in a position to see the educational picture as a whole including the educational needs and possibilities arising through the social services or voluntary action, and bring its resources to bear wherever they are needed.

284. It must however be recognised that work of the kinds we are here considering may be ill suited to the customary modes of adult education. Buildings will have to be designed or adapted so that they can be used freely by the handicapped and entered confidently by the diffident. Insistence upon regular times of meeting, the routines of enrolment and registration of attendance, minimum numbers, the charging of fees in advance (or at all), and formal class teaching will often destroy any chance of successful educational penetration into these sectors of the population. Whatever the providing

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body, it must be imaginative and flexible in approach, it must recognise that progress will often be slow and difficult to evaluate, it must be prepared to support its staff in discouragements and false starts, and it must allow for the inevitable expense. It will rightly look for a return upon its expenditure and will seek to satisfy itself that its resources are not being misapplied. But where there is doubt the work must have the benefit of it. These tasks are too important in the fabric of our society to be sacrificed to narrowly conceived and over-hasty judgements.

285. We advocate that, in the local planning of adult education, particular attention be paid to these groups of disadvantaged people; that area organisations of adult education ensure that some member of their organising staff has special responsibility for them; that suitable accommodation and equipment is available for those whose movement, sight or hearing is impaired; that the timing of classes and the administrative arrangements are always capable of adjustment to the needs of particular disadvantaged groups or individuals; and that the experimental phase of development proposed in paragraph 71 be commenced in all areas as a matter of urgency.

Second Chance: Adult Access to Qualification

286. In paragraph 145 reference was made to the many examples we met of adults seeking to obtain or to prepare themselves for attempting formal qualifications at various levels, and we outlined a number of the current forms of provision that enable them to do so. All these we believe to be forms of approach that ought to be developed widely by day and evening, for there are many adults who would welcome the chance to improve their capacity for study and their general education by part-time day or evening work with the long-term intention of following more formal courses leading eventually to professional or other qualifications. We regard such work as a valid and important part of adult education.

287. As we have shown in Part I, this need is inherent in the present structure of our educational system and is potentially very large. For the rest of this century the vast majority of the adult population will have ended their formal education at fourteen, fifteen or sixteen, and all but the determined few will have found their career horizons set by their periods of schooling. Many, lacking the opportunity of higher education, will have stopped short of their potential and will be employed in occupations that neither extend their capacities nor engage their interests. We have reached the conclusion that one of the more important services that adult education can provide for the nation is to create opportunities for people whose education has been curtailed and who later wish to qualify themselves.

288. Not the least important aspect of this lies in the changed patterns of employment that we have described in paragraph 34. Fewer people may now expect to remain in one occupation throughout life. If occupational mobility is to be achieved without social and political friction and without personal distress it must mean more than direction to a new job and re-training for it. The individual will need an understanding of the processes of change, of the need for change and most importantly of the range of opportunities open at each moment of change. Second chance education

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must include this general educational objective. Vocational education will usually be concerned with preparing people, especially young people, for entry to a specific career after a choice has been made by them or for them, and with the "in-service" development of those already embarked on an occupation. Adult education has the function of helping to clarify choices before transfer is made and of assisting in the process of transfer by preparing for entry to the training needed.

289. In this kind of education three different objectives can be stated. First there is the improvement of general education from the point where initial schooling ceased. For some this may go back to basic education of an elementary kind, including functional literacy and numeracy. Secondly, there must be an opportunity for those contemplating further formal study to try themselves out and assess not only their ability but the strength of their motivation before embarking on it. And thirdly there will be specific forms of preparation for formal courses. In this connection it has been suggested to us that the GCE syllabuses which are commonly regarded as the basic qualifications for advanced study are not always wholly suitable for adults, being designed primarily for full-time study in schools. We therefore welcome the experiments being made by certain of the examining boards in devising courses of a more flexible character and forms of assessment more appropriate to adults.

290. These needs occur throughout the entire population and emerge at different educational levels. They should be present in the planning of all the major providers of adult education, and they will form a clear set of links between adult education and all other sectors of the education system: in following through these links therefore we cannot avoid making observations about sectors of education that strictly lie beyond our terms of reference.

291. At the level of basic and remedial education there will be an evident role for the area organisations, many of which are already active in it. But also the total programme of an area organisation of adult education must contain the elements of continuing general education that may be required by adults with an eye on later formal qualification. This may be achieved in a number of ways according to the local circumstances: direct provision by the area organisation; the incorporation of appropriate WEA or university courses in the programme; or active collaboration with other educational institutions in the area. Some authorities, whose secondary schools are organised as neighbourhood schools or community colleges, have begun to admit adult students alongside sixth-formers in advanced level courses in the schools; the practice could well be extended to activities in art and music, craft work and certain forms of science. The colleges of further education however are of the greatest importance here, for they already provide many of the courses leading to formal qualifications that the adult student may aspire to. In those areas where adult education is centred in departments of colleges of further education inter-departmental links should be easy to establish, so that the adult student may move from general preparatory or background study in the adult education department to the formal course of his later choice. In other areas such links should be forged by the area organisations of adult education which will need to have available through

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their information service particulars of the courses of all kinds at the colleges of further education in the area. Conversely the colleges will need to be in a position to advise their own students, especially young people on full-time or day-release courses, about the general, liberal and recreational education available through the adult education agencies.

292. Many adults will also aspire to higher education and it will be the task of adult education to help them to. The three traditional routes for the mature student are by gaining GCE advanced levels, usually at a college of further education, and then applying for admission on the same footing as a school-leaver; by gaining one of the State Scholarships for Mature Students awarded by the Department; and by progression from a long-term residential college whose own diplomas are, as we have observed in paragraph 254, increasingly acceptable by universities as grounds for admission. We believe that there is sufficient demand to justify enlargement of all these facilities and we consider in paragraphs 300-306 the matter of financial support for those who take them.

293. Not everyone however can become a full-time student. Personal and family circumstances may prohibit it to many adults and it is doubtful whether the institutions of higher education could be expanded to provide enough full-time places for the demand we believe to exist. It would be unacceptable to think of second-chance education in terms of full-time study only. The development of a full service of adult education and the links it should forge with other parts of the education system will produce a great demand for access to qualifications by part-time study. But regrettably the opportunities for acquiring professional qualifications in this way seem to be diminishing. We would urge all those bodies who are concerned in the award of professional qualifications to reflect upon the situation we are here considering - the period of social and occupational change that lies ahead, the possible advantages in a new profession of the adults' broader experience of life and work, and the effect of the more direct motivation that commonly characterises the mature student - and to review the opportunities they afford for adults to qualify by part-time study or by combinations of part-time study and practical experience.

294. The universities, because of their activity in adult education already, are considerably involved here. We have seen evidence of the way in which participation in adult education of university quality will generate a desire for graduation in the subject, which may not necessarily be directed to a change of occupation. Access to such awards is a logical consequence of the universities' provision of adult education. The basis of this must necessarily be part-time study, though we would urge the consideration as a long-term aim of combined periods of part-time and full-time study. Moreover if the forecasts of generally shorter working hours and our recommendations for day-release and educational leave take effect, more adults will be able to undertake daytime study in universities, either in courses especially for them or alongside the internal students.

295. The Open University has of course clearly demonstrated the existence of demand here but we have reason to think that the demand goes much wider. Adult students do not necessarily want to engage in the wide spread

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of subject matter that Open University degree courses at present include. Their motivation will often be narrower and more specific, more akin to the single-subject or combined honours degrees of traditional universities, and, in our view, legitimately so. Moreover the extra-mural student of a particular university often sees himself as in membership of that university and we believe he should be actively encouraged to do so. It is understandable that he should wish to proceed from his initial studies to graduation in his own university.

296. In two respects the experience of the Open University offers useful guidance. The credit system that it operates is appropriate to the circumstances in which adults study, especially as it also allows for certain prior study elsewhere to count for credit. Since part-time students must necessarily take a long time over a degree course, perhaps five years, there will be many who, through change of employment or promotion, will be unable to complete their course in the institution in which they began. A credit structure that allows for transfer of credit has the flexibility that adult students require. Secondly, the Open University's unique combination of centrally prepared study materials and local personal tuition is particularly suited to the needs and ways of working of the adult part-time student.

297. We would urge all universities to create opportunities for adult students to read for degrees, diplomas or other awards by part-time study and to expand such opportunities where they exist already. To meet some of the problems of such students we believe a transferable credit structure is appropriate and we would invite the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals, the Council for National Academic Awards and the Committee of Directors of Polytechnics to give consideration to the possibility, including that of combined courses with the Open University. We would urge the University Grants Committee to ensure that such developments were not hampered for lack of funds, staff and resources.

298. The multi-media approach of the Open University has shown the possibilities of this form of learning in higher education. We believe they exist at other levels too. We have elsewhere recommended that the Development Council for Adult Education should take the initiative in bringing together those concerned in educational broadcasting (see paragraphs 256-262), in adult education and in relevant commercial interests such as publishing, to explore these possibilities and to make available to adult education appropriate learning materials. Since such provision would be made on a national scale it has a particular application in this field of adult qualifications.

299. We see this as an important area of adult education in which the partnership and inter-relation of the various participating bodies are more important than the contribution of any one of them. Only through such a partnership can the progressive needs of the individual student be met.

Student Support

300. It will be convenient at this point to state our views on the financial support of adult students in both full-time and part-time education. It is clear that many of our proposals which, following our terms of reference,

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relate to education as a process continuing throughout life will be ineffective unless adults, during their discontinuous periods as part-time or full-time students, are eligible for necessary financial assistance. It may be required, in different measure, for full-time or part-time study, for residential courses or for correspondence courses; and may need to take account of travel costs and fees as well as other educational costs such as books or stationery. We feel it essential that the necessary financial assistance should be forthcoming.

301. Under the Education Act 1962, local education authorities are required to give awards at prescribed rates of grant and conditions to suitably qualified students accepted for first degree or designated comparable courses. Section 2 of the Act empowers authorities to make awards at their discretion to students who do not qualify for mandatory awards and to students, admitted to other full-time courses of further education and to provide assistance to students who are following courses of part-time study. The Department in various circulars about awards offers advice to local education authorities on aspects of student support including interpretation of the Statutory Instruments which govern mandatory awards, and the exercise of discretionary powers in relation to full-time courses and part-time study.

302. The students who attend long-term residential colleges for one or two years have no entitlement to a mandatory award for these courses. A few obtain scholarships of one kind or another but the vast majority must rely on discretionary awards from their local education authorities. This is a major problem for the students, the colleges and, we recognise, the local education authorities. It is sometimes September or even October before a local education authority is able to tell a student that his application for a discretionary award has or has not been accepted. For the student, and particularly the mature student, this situation is one of great difficulty. He will have been forced to face decisions much earlier about his employment, his family and the offer of a place from the college. To be told so late in the year, sometimes after he has started his course, that he will receive no financial assistance puts him in an intolerable position. The bitterness and frustration which the students and college authorities feel in this situation is understandable. The colleges are anxious to accept the most suitable students and, knowing that most will need to make careful arrangements to meet their responsibilities before they can attend a course, give ample notification of a place but they are aware that it is often the area in which a student lives that will decide whether or not he will be able to attend a course rather than his potential for it.

303. An obvious solution is to make anyone selected for a long-term residential college course automatically eligible for a mandatory award. However we appreciate that this would require legislation, and as it would involve a whole range of other one- and two-year courses might at present prove unacceptable.

304. In the meantime we advocate that consideration be given to the inclusion of the cost of these awards in local authority pooling arrangements. Students are drawn from a national constituency: it seems to us not unreasonable that as, for example, in teacher training, the costs should be shared.

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305. The Statutory Instruments which govern mandatory awards offer some recognition and relief to older students. Some local education authorities already apply these regulations to their discretionary awards and we strongly support the view that discretionary awards to older students should be on terms not less favourable than those set out in the Statutory Instruments.

306. A further difficulty confronts the growing number of students at long-term residential colleges who wish to go on to study for a degree (and whom some universities will admit to the second year of a degree course). Before attending these colleges the students will have had little contact with formal education and to realise their full potential they need careful preparation for academic study: this is what the colleges have provided with conspicuous success. But mandatory awards are not available to these students and if they are accepted by a university they must either rely once again on the discretionary powers of their local education authorities - who are often understandably reluctant to continue an award beyond the two-year course, partly at least because of the pressure from other potential students of all kinds who are demanding discretionary awards - or compete for one of the thirty mature student awards offered annually by the Department. The Department's awards are too few in number and the competition for them does not always fit properly into the work of the college students. We are of the opinion, therefore, that these awards should be increased so that, in addition to the number offered for open competition among all adult students, an award is available for any student who has completed his course at one of the long-term residential colleges and who is accepted for an undergraduate course.

Adult Education in Rural Areas

307. Special problems attend the provision of a comprehensive service of adult education in rural areas, yet the needs there are clear and sharp. There is no doubt that the decline of public transport has resulted in the severe isolation of those who have no transport of their own and that their numbers, especially among young people and the elderly, are much greater than is commonly recognised. Implicit in our proposals for area organisations of adult education with satellite centres, and in our principle that adult education must draw on the total educational resources of the community, is the expectation that appropriate provision can be made for rural areas, if the problems are tackled with energy and imagination. In one or two counties there have been for a long time schemes of locally organised transport to bring students to centres where essential facilities are available for their work. Conversely assistance is often given to village groups such as Women's Institutes. These provisions are capable of extension. New local groupings may be fostered to form the basis of study circles or activity groups creating their own learning situations with the aid of a consultant at the area base. The resources for individual home study, including correspondence, access to a library of cassettes, tapes and illustrations as well as books, and the opportunity for tutorial consultation when required, are more necessary for these areas than for others and the area organisations may well look to the model of the Open University in the planning of their provision of this kind over the whole range of adult education. Finally, the use of village schools

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may need careful re-examination. Examples have been shown to us of the imaginative re-planning of village primary schools, with ample storage space adjoining the teaching areas and with a community centre attached, which have become true educational centres for the local population. Such multiple use of educational buildings impresses us as a genuine economy in the deployment of resources.

308. As part of the public educational system adult education is largely financed from public funds but students have been expected to make a contribution and in recent years it has been part of the policy of successive governments to enlarge this. Administrative Memorandum No 15 of 1967 and Circular No 4 of 1971 both dealt specifically with this question. Though the appropriate level of students' contributions or fees is a difficult and controversial subject comparatively little information is available about it.

309. In Appendix C we give the detailed results of a questionnaire which we circulated to local education authorities and to responsible bodies concerning fee structures over the period 1963/64 to 1971/72 and draw some conclusions. Fee levels vary widely from one area to another, the overall range in 1970/71 being from 4p to 25p for a two-hour class. Differential fee policies also vary widely, according to subjects in some areas or categories of students in others. Fees for "recreational" courses tend to be above the average and some authorities seek to recoup economic costs for certain types of class. Special concessions are often granted to retirement pensioners and less frequently to other handicapped groups. Over the review period fees rose sharply: local education authority fees increased on average by 140 per cent, WEA fees by 137 per cent and extra-mural department fees by 107 per cent (the Retail Price Index rose by little more than 50 per cent between January 1964 and December 1971). Measures such as reductions in the length of courses, limitations of full or part-time staff, increases in minimum enrolment numbers, were also enforced in many areas. These had the effect of retarding the expansion of student numbers. In this respect sudden and large fee increases were especially disruptive. Even though numbers tend to recover after a time there is good reason to believe that those sectors of the population whose links with adult education are least well established may be particularly affected. Thus a number of local education authorities who together are responsible for some 30 per cent of the population of England and Wales indicated that in their opinion the lower socio-economic groups were adversely affected by fee increases.

310. We are aware that there exist widely different schools of thought concerning the principles that should govern student contributions to the cost of adult education.

310.1. At one extreme it is argued that adult education should be regarded as a social service and provided free. It makes an important contribution to the well-being of the community and is a valuable public investment. Fee paying is a deterrent in particular to many of those most in need: the socially and educationally disadvantaged, who rarely have the resources

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to pay, have been accustomed to expect education to be provided free of charge and are reluctant to apply for any available financial concessions, even if they are aware of them. Adult education is regarded as a "second chance" for those who received the minimum of education in their youth and who later wish to improve themselves for their own benefit and for the benefit of society. Additionally, it is suggested, abolition would make possible considerable savings in administrative costs.

310.2. At the other extreme there are those who regard adult education as a luxury and who believe that those who benefit from it should be expected to meet the economic costs, perhaps with some selective concessions for special categories such as pensioners or the handicapped. Realistic payments, they argue, would give people more effective influence and control over programmes and the nature of the teaching. Students paying economic fees would have a greater sense of commitment to their classes. Given the demands on the educational budget, economic fees, it is argued, should be levied to raise resources out of which expansion and improvement of the service could be financed.

311. After careful consideration we do not feel that students' contributions should be abolished. Such a policy would not be generally acceptable at this time. Unlike school children the majority of the consumers of adult education have salaries, wages or other income and can afford to make a contribution towards the cost of their courses. The claims for increased expenditure on public education are pressing, and an established source of income like student fees could not easily be foregone. We do, however, regard adult education as an important social service and an integral part of the educational system which it is entirely legitimate to subsidise from public funds, both national and local. As we have said on page xi no academic subject or social or creative activity is superior to another provided those engaged in it develop a greater awareness of their own capacities and a more certain knowledge of the totality of their responsibilities as human beings.

312. We draw from current enlightened practice the guide lines set out below which, we suggest, should be embodied in the Department's statement of policy to which we refer in paragraph 159. We prefer the term "contribution" to "fee" as we hope that there will be a move away from the old concept of a single class fee to various forms of combined contribution, payable in instalments where necessary, carrying with it membership of the parent organisation and the opportunity to participate in its general activities.

312.1. Adult education should be readily available to all who wish to take advantage of it: therefore, student contributions should be set at such a level as would not discourage any significant number or category of people from making use of the provision and special arrangements should be made for those who might be deprived of the opportunity to attend classes because of their inability to pay.

312.2. Contributions may legitimately vary within a modest range but permanent or substantial discrimination to the disadvantage of particular subjects should be avoided: minority and specialist interests should be catered for on normal terms.

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312.3. These guide lines should apply not only in the case of individual students but also when deciding the contributions to be paid by special groups of students following adult education courses, whether the contributions are payable by the students themselves or by the organisations to which they belong (women's organisations, trade unions, societies or clubs etc).

313. Elsewhere in this Report we develop the concept of area organisations of adult education with their own management committees. We would like to see such committees, working within prescribed budgets, having the power to fix appropriate levels of student contributions in the light of the guide lines we offer. It is of course desirable that student contributions required by all providing bodies should, as far as possible, be at comparable levels and, in order to facilitate "free trade", there should be some uniformity of policy between neighbouring areas. Where pioneering and experimental work is involved, for example in educational priority areas, considerable flexibility may be required and in some cases contributions would be inappropriate. Regional advisory councils might make recommendations with these issues in mind.

314. Whilst we accept the principle of students' contributions to the cost of adult education our considered view is that the service should continue to be financed predominantly from public funds as an integral part of the educational system.

Educational Premises

315. We have stated above (paragraph 195) our view that every local education authority should provide an area organisation for adult education. We have also said (paragraph 194) that it is for local education authorities to devise forms of organisation appropriate to their own areas, but, from experience, it appears that the main kinds are likely to be area institutes especially for adult education; community schools which combine secondary and adult education provision with other community facilities; and colleges of further education serving the community in the widest sense, including the provision of adult education activities. A full-time adult education head should be responsible for each area, with full- or part-time heads of such major sub-centres, as may be appropriate, together with the other full-time and part-time staff. We are aware that the size of the adult education areas will vary from place to place, and in particular between densely populated conurbations and sparsely populated rural areas. The essential feature is that the area should be readily recognisable to the population it serves and that the unit should be of a size which it is possible for the head to control effectively in an educational as well as in an administrative sense. The area centres of adult education would not only accommodate courses provided by the local education authorities but would also facilitate the provision of activities provided by other agencies including the university extra-mural departments, the WEA and other adult voluntary organisations. The area centres, and the sub-centres where appropriate, should not only be the focal

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points for the provision of classes and activities but should also become established as places to which any enquiries relating to the education of adults or the social and cultural opportunities of the area can be addressed by anyone at any time.

316. We set out our proposals for the kinds of organisation (paragraphs 194-195) and staffing (paragraph 356) which we consider to be a necessary minimum provision by local education authorities and we must also deal with the accommodation which such patterns of organisation will require. It has been a remarkable characteristic of adult education throughout its long history that, with limited exceptions such as the Mechanics' Institutes and a few special foundations exclusively for adult education mainly in a few big cities, adult education has, until recently, not only survived but increased in volume although mainly conducted in premises likely to deter rather than attract potential students. University extra-mural departments have fared little better and the WEA and other voluntary organisations have usually had to make do with what was left of an already inadequate provision. In recent years, however, there has been a steady increase in the number of premises on which local education authority adult education has the first call, partly through small additions made to secondary schools and also through local education authorities handing over to adult education, often with adaptations, a variety of old buildings. At the same time, a number of universities have provided accommodation not only for the headquarters staff of the extra-mural department but also for centres where adult classes can meet, either within a university campus or in another centre of population. In addition, within the last two or three years, starts have been made on a small number of projects involving buildings for adult education on quite a substantial scale, although none of these has yet been completed. We regard the provision during the last ten years of some basic accommodation for local education authority adult education as evidence that local education authorities are aware of this urgent need. They have managed to divert a small fraction of their authorised capital expenditure to this end despite the administration of annual further education major building programmes which normally have every outward appearance of excluding non-vocational further education, although in the strict letter of the regulations this is not in fact the case. When buildings are made available for adult education it is usually the experience that they quickly become used during day as well as evening hours, and some of them must have the heaviest room loading in any sector of education.

317. Accommodation of the right kind should be made available primarily for adult education at appropriate points in every adult education area. Additionally adult education should make the maximum possible use of all educational and community buildings, which have been provided primarily for some other purpose, at times when they would otherwise be either empty or under-used.

318. For the most part, this will mean secondary schools, because these provide a high standard of specialist teaching rooms and workshops which are essential for adult courses in the wide range of arts and crafts which are taught in secondary schools and which many adults want increasingly to take up again later in life. Under present arrangements, adult education

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in many areas does not enjoy the full use of secondary school buildings, sometimes because school governors support head teachers who seek to "protect" the school building from being used also as an adult institute. We are convinced that it is the duty of local education authorities to ensure the maximum use of school buildings; and that adult education is very often an appropriate use and one which provides a more economic return to the community on expensive buildings. We find it remarkable that this principle has not already been universally accepted: to do so would make available for the first time in some areas a significant volume of accommodation for adult education. This might involve some limited capital expenditure: it would also be essential to provide adequate caretaking and cleaning services and meet the additional maintenance costs caused by increased use of the accommodation.

319. It must be recognised that however good the facilities of school buildings may be, when shared with adult education they will not alone provide an adequate base for the area centre. We believe that, as quickly as possible, every area centre of adult education should have some accommodation of its own. This would provide a nucleus of accommodation for teaching: but most classes would continue to take place in educational accommodation shared with other users. Small though the teaching space may be, it would have the great merit of being available to adults throughout the day as well as in the evening. We see such centres as providing office accommodation for the head, his full-time staff and clerical assistants and staffed to act as information centres for matters relating to educational activities for adults throughout the area. The size of the centres would have to be related to the population of the area served and the proximity of other relevant facilities. All that can usefully be said is that, in general, they should include a number of teaching rooms equipped to give the greatest possible flexibility of use, for example as seminar rooms and also as practical rooms for light crafts. There must be adequate storage space for a large number of classes to use each room each week for a variety of purposes, and also to accommodate equipment which would be kept at the centre for the use of the area as a whole. Since the provision of daytime classes would be bound to attract many women with children below school age the premises should incorporate space, including suitable toilet facilities, where small children may be looked after while their mothers are attending classes. This should be planned in consultation with appropriate local agencies so that the accommodation would be suitable for use in teaching about the care of pre-school age children. The remaining essential feature of the area centre is a common room with refreshment service adequate to provide light meals when the centre is in use throughout weekdays and at weekends.

320. In some parts of the country buildings approximating to what has been described above are already to be found in use as adult education centres, and provide a base for the equivalent of an area head. These may occupy a building which has been taken over from some other use, perhaps a large house, a former school or a former art college or technical institution which has been replaced on another site. Adult education has gladly accepted such opportunities partly because the possibility of new buildings seemed so remote but also because they are often sited in town centres

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where new buildings might be out of the question. Adaptation in the hands of a skilful architect has often provided a most attractive and workmanlike environment for adult education. Much investigation is needed into the best kind of accommodation for area adult education centres and this could, with advantage, be started by examining the experience of the existing centres. It should then be possible to arrive at a useful model for new purpose-built area centres where conversion and adaptation are either impossible or inappropriate.

321. When dealing above with the accommodation appropriate to an area centre reference was made to other appropriate facilities which might already be available in the neighbourhood. What we have in mind are such things as a local theatre, reasonably available for amateur use; an arts centre, probably with a bias either towards music, the visual arts or drama; or an educational building such as a secondary school or college of further education which has a good hall or gymnasium. We are not suggesting that such facilities should be duplicated at an area adult education centre, but where such facilities are lacking it would be greatly to the advantage of the community if the adult education centre were to incorporate, for example, an auditorium which could become the focal point for music and drama for a wide area. On the whole, however, we expect adult education to use the specialist facilities of other educational buildings but to have far greater access to them than at present.

322. The provision of an area adult education centre is calculated to increase the volume of adult education activity generally so that the secondary schools of a neighbourhood are likely to be used more rather than less by adult students. We have noted with satisfaction the arrangements made since 1955 for the inclusion of a small additional allowance to the permitted cost of new or converted secondary school buildings for the use of the "evening institute". As this has been administered, for convenience, within the school building programme, the amount of the monetary allowance has increased as cost limits have been revised and in 1972 had reached £10,500 in respect of a building expected to accommodate an evening institute with 1,000 students. This amount was intended from the outset to provide a small office for the principal, a store, and some kind of general purpose or common room. Because it was allowed within the school building regulations, local education authorities with a positive attitude towards adult education and skilful architects were able to get the best possible value, often by incorporating some element of school circulation or social space within the adult education area. The results, especially when well-furnished and equipped, have provided in schools throughout the country a number of useful meeting and common rooms for adult use. Because of their siting within the school complex and the limited uses to which such a room can be put, these have rarely contributed to the daytime use of the premises by adults, but have been a considerable asset to the evening users. In the daytime, the common rooms have often been used by the older pupils in the school, and it has not been unknown for them to be diverted entirely to school use, perhaps as an extra classroom.

323. We commend both the Department and the local education authorities who have taken up this opportunity to add to schools in order to aid their use

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as community buildings, and we suggest that the practice be extended to all future secondary school buildings, and the amount of the allowance and consequently of the space made available be somewhat increased. Even more important than making the space larger is the siting of it with relation both to parts of the school building which adult students are most likely to use in the evening and also to access in the daytime and at times when the school is not in session.

324. Such additions to school premises are needed for all schools where adult education takes place, and not only at the schools which become the district adult education centres. At the district centres, of course, accommodation for the centre head and his clerical assistant will be particularly important. We are advised that resources available for these additions, currently running at £0.5 million a year, are deducted from allocations intended for primary and secondary school pupils. In future they should be provided as an addition to those allocations.

325. What we have said so far has applied to a form of organisation based on independent adult education centres. Where the basis is that of a community college or college of further education the terms used need modification, but the general principle remains. If a local college of further education is endowed with buildings suitable for the establishment of an area adult education centre, and this is already the case in some places, it remains only to ensure that the accommodation for adult education is adequate and that it is safe-guarded from possible contraction in the face of expanding demands for vocational further education. If the college can, understandably, provide no substantial accommodation for adult education within its own premises, the department of adult education will have to establish the area adult education centre outside the college, whilst using such college premises as are available for classes. This will be no new departure for colleges of further education which frequently have substantial departments in detached premises, in some cases including adult education departments. Such an arrangement does however call in question whether in the circumstances the form of organisation chosen is the most suitable.

326. Community colleges should, in principle, accommodate adult education within the school complex, but in practice they have not yet been built with substantial accommodation at the disposal of adult education throughout the day as well as evening. Indeed, most community colleges have had as a base for adult education little or no more accommodation than the allowance for evening institutes referred to in an earlier paragraph. Local education authorities who choose to provide adult education through a form of community college organisation are likely to have to add to existing community college buildings to provide adequate area adult education centres. Only by doing so will it be possible to create a satisfactory base for adult education and, in particular, for daytime provision. In addition to accommodation for this purpose, substantial use of the facilities of a community college by adults during the day requires the acceptance by school staffs of open access to educational facilities which have traditionally been regarded as entirely under school control during and after school hours. We have been told of local education authority areas where community colleges have

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already integrated adult students into appropriate parts of the daytime provision of the school, for example in certain sixth form studies and art and crafts activities. We recognise that community colleges will face a considerable challenge when the volume and range of adult education provision is substantially extended and that the provision of appropriate premises to meet the needs of joint use will be essential. In addition the community college will require access to other educational buildings in its area in the same way as any other form of adult education organisation.

327. So far, we have been dealing with the kinds of premises which must be made available for provision of local education authority adult education in the area and district centres. We must emphasise that adult education should be provided, as far as possible, in whatever locations are most suitable to the public, so that any arrangement of area and district centres will need to utilise whatever supplementary meeting places may be necessary. We realise that a limiting factor is the nature of the class or activity, but there are many purposes for which a well lit and heated meeting hall or room with seating accommodation and facilities for projection and a blackboard will serve the needs of an adult education group. Community centres, village halls and youth clubs are obvious possible meeting places and should be used to the full. Public libraries, museums and galleries should not only provide regular adult education activities but should also be given every encouragement to contribute through their own expertise and full-time staff and should be allocated additional resources to enable this to be done. Efforts to make the fullest use of their premises would be a practical way of obtaining their greater involvement and their participation in the local cooperative planning which through the local development council for adult education should be actively sought. We appreciate that many new public library buildings have meeting rooms, and that modern library buildings afford excellent meeting places for certain kinds of adult classes.

Other Premises

328. All the kinds of buildings we have mentioned should be available for use by the local education authority adult education area organisation. It must also be made clear that these premises should not be regarded as available only to local education authority classes and groups. It is convenient to deal mainly in terms of local education authority provision since this now includes a very wide range of subjects, including practical subjects and physical activities, which call for a high proportion of specialist accommodation. Intellectual pursuits involving a study of the humanities require less specialised accommodation, although the significant amount of scientific study, which it is hoped will increase, requires access to laboratories which should be given much more freely than is the case at present. Classes provided by the university extra-mural departments and WEA are now often accommodated in local education authority centres of various kinds, and this should in future be regarded as normal practice. At the same time, where a WEA branch or other student group prefers to meet in suitable accommodation of their own choosing this should not be discouraged since a return to school premises does not appeal immediately to many adults.

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329. Many universities have provided, out of university funds, a centre in the university or university town to accommodate extra-mural classes, and often also those of the WEA. We recognise the value of these university contributions and appreciate that they make manifest the interest of the universities in the education of the general public. The university adult education centres, some of which are quite large and well appointed buildings, constitute physical evidence of an extremely important and valuable characteristic of English adult education. We commend the universities who have made this provision and urge the University Grants Committee to recognise the significance of such proposals when they are included in future university estimates.

330. In addition to premises for staff and classes some universities have accommodated substantial libraries of books for adult class use (a matter to which we shall return) and we consider these to be of the greatest value to adult education. The swift circulation of books for the use of classes is an important factor in their success and as the scale of activity increases it becomes all the more necessary to have suitable premises for the storage of books and the handling of book traffic.

331. We have so far dealt with the kind of provision which exists at least in outline in most parts of the country and which has, in recent years, been developed on a significant scale in a limited number of areas. We wish to see the provision of premises throughout the country raised to a standard where every area organisation has at least an adequate minimum of accommodation under its own control to provide a servicing and administrative base and to accommodate sufficient classes at any time of the day to provide an adequate service for the area. In addition, adult education must have access to other educational buildings in which to accommodate classes and activities in the evening and at other times when the main users are not occupying the accommodation concerned. Because adult education has in so many places been traditionally accommodated in makeshift or inadequate premises, or has been unable to develop, especially in the day time, because of lack of premises, building work should be undertaken urgently to provide the necessary minimum accommodation.

Building Programme

332. We have given much consideration to the ways in which we think major adult education buildings should be provided in the local education authority sector, and after examining all the possibilities we consider that this should be done within the framework of the existing further education major building programme. Indeed it has been pointed out to us by the Department that the existing arrangements for the administration of this programme admit of adult education projects if these are accorded the necessary priority, and that several large projects have featured in recent annual programmes. While we agree that the further education major building programme is the best vehicle for adult education purposes, we are not satisfied that existing arrangements are adequate to ensure that local education authorities do, in fact, use the programme for this purpose. The terms in which bids for inclusion in the programme are invited, the grounds

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on which the case for inclusion has to be set out on the forms provided, and the conventions of administrative practice within both the Department and local education authority offices combine to give the strong impression that, hitherto, the further education building programme has not been designed to meet the needs of non-vocational adult education. A separate major building programme would, in our view, be cumbersome, inappropriate and liable to divide adult education unnecessarily from other branches of further education. However, to safeguard adult education during the period when it is making good after a long period of neglect, we recommend that the Secretary of State should, in authorising the further education major building programme, take into account the particular needs of adult education. The amount generally needed for adult education projects will be small by comparison with most technical college developments and their order of priority will have to be arrived at by different criteria. From a questionnaire circulated to all local education authorities we have formed the view that a total sum of about £12 million or £13 million (1968/69 prices) spent over the period up to 1980 is required.

333. Under present arrangements, the major further education building programme would deal with projects which cost more than £40,000, since building which costs less can be financed through local education authority minor works programmes. Many of the adaptations of and additions to existing buildings which we have said above are often all that is needed to provide useful and appropriate bases for adult education will fall within the cost of minor works. Since the choice of individual minor works projects is a matter for local decision it is necessary for local education authorities to recognise the importance of including adult education projects in their annual programmes of minor works. In the initial period of making good the deficiencies in premises for adult education it is particularly important that the Secretary of State should take this need into account when the total sums which local education authorities are permitted to spend on minor works are determined. Additional resources are needed and should if possible be earmarked for this purpose.

334. We have already underlined the important contribution made to accommodating adult education by the provision of at least a small sum to facilitate the dual use of school buildings by the allowance made for some evening institute provision within the school building programme. We realise that if community colleges based on schools are to make a significant provision for adult education throughout the day as well as in the evening, either the maximum amount allowed under the existing schools building programme will have to be substantially increased or else joint arrangements will have to be made with the further education building programme. We do not consider it appropriate for us to recommend one or other administrative arrangement, but we consider it of the utmost importance that schools which are to serve as community colleges should be provided, by whatever process is most convenient, with adequate accommodation for adult education on a scale no less than would be appropriate for an independent area adult education centre serving a community of the same size. The same should apply, on the appropriate scale, to all secondary schools which will accommodate adult education, whether as area or district centres or as other

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local bases. The provisions for schools at present cover new school buildings and buildings which are being extended. This leaves a large number of old schools which still accommodate a large and important number of adult classes and groups without even a small amount of accommodation specially for adult education. In these cases, and, of course, particularly where they may be used as centres with a full-time head, they should be provided with basic accommodation for adult education on a scale no less favourable than that for new schools.

335. Up to now, no information has been available centrally about the accommodation for adult education throughout the country and to obtain anything of a national picture we had ourselves to address a special enquiry to local education authorities. For the future local education authorities should be asked to indicate their intentions in their proposals for development. The architects of the Department are available to give advice and guidance to local education authorities on the provision of suitable accommodation for adult education. Recent development projects have shown how consideration of adult needs at an early stage of planning can substantially increase the range of opportunity offered to adults in secondary school provision. Experience in planning already gained has demonstrated the advantages to be obtained from the close integration of accommodation for non-vocational further education activities with other education and community facilities. In whatever measures are employed, it is essential to remember one lesson which has been learned by all concerned with adult education, but which is far too rarely applied in practice. This is the need for a far greater proportion of storage space of all kinds for adult education than for other forms of education where the turnover of student groups in a day or week is far smaller. Another hitherto neglected aspect is the development of equipment for buildings which have multiple use. Portable equipment has been devised for infants' schools and, to a smaller extent, for youth work and the principle should be extended to schools which accommodate adult education. The provision of toilet accommodation for adult students, direction signs inside and outside buildings, adequate lighting on all approaches to premises used in the evening, and appropriate display and notice boards may seem small points of detail to mention in the context of a national building programme, but they are of vital importance to the daily conduct of adult education and are still quite inadequate over large areas of the country.

336. We have so far confined our comments to the general area provision for adult education but we recognise that there is also a place for certain larger specialist institutions of adult education, some of which already exist in a few large cities. The existing institutions provide courses of a mainly intellectual kind, and we see the possibility of a few local education authorities developing major centres of adult education which can provide teaching in a wider range of subjects and of a quality which cannot be offered in smaller centres. The provision of advanced or intensive modern language courses is an obvious example of possible development, as are non-residential courses of general education of various kinds and at different levels. There are arrangements in some parts of the country for women students of dress subjects from local adult institutes to take courses which will develop both their subject knowledge and their ability to teach to the point where they,

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in turn, become part-time adult tutors. More courses of these kinds, together with a variety of training courses for part-time and full-time adult education staff at a level higher than those which can be provided by many individual local education authorities could also be held at such major centres. The form these centres take should depend on existing facilities of all kinds including art and sports centres as well as further education colleges, and we urge upon regional advisory councils the examination of regional requirements in this respect.

337. The two essential considerations in the provision of accommodation are that adult education should not be restricted because it lacks the basic premises under its own control from which to operate; and that the maximum multi-purpose use should be made of educational and other community buildings by well-planned and constructive cooperation between users. The Department has given a lead in several recent publications; Administrative Memorandum No 9 of 1969 dealt with Arts Facilities in Educational and Other Establishments and Circular No 2 of 1970, "A Chance to Share" dealt with sports facilities. Some of the Department's recent building bulletins have mentioned the difficulty of providing, in the smaller secondary schools, accommodation of a suitable standard for such things as physical education, drama and music. In the words of one bulletin, "one way out of the difficulty would seem to be to harness school and community resources together, for a wider range of facilities is in demand for both and separate facilities would in many cases be uneconomic". We urge the Department to extend these recommendations specifically into the field of adult education and to give a firm lead to local education authorities which will make it plain that public educational facilities cannot be provided separately for every age group and all must be made jointly available to the widest possible range of users by means of skilful design, management and staffing.

338. We have necessarily dealt with accommodation from the standpoint of adult education but this should not be taken as advocacy of the separation of adult education provision from other kinds of community buildings. The creation of social centres which include provision for adult education together with a library, welfare clinic, theatre and restaurant is an ideal towards which some authorities are already aspiring. Together with provision for adult groups and classes to meet, we also support experiment with community workshops to which adults could resort at any time to pursue their practical interests with the appropriate facilities to hand.

339. A source of accommodation rarely tapped for adult education lies within the control of industrial and commercial concerns. Although sports facilities are sometimes made available to the general public it is rare to find adult education using the training premises which exist in many companies. There are no doubt many organisational difficulties but it would be wrong to leave unexplored the possibility of using any suitable resources anywhere within the community, including those within factories, offices and shops.

Residential Accommodation

340. By far the largest proportion of adult education will continue to take the form of part-time study by adults engaged in the normal processes of

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living and working. There are, also, as we have already noted, some residential adult education establishments to which adult students may go, for short or long spells, to pursue a relatively intense period of study in an environment free from the demands and distractions of everyday life. We have discussed the long-term residential colleges elsewhere (paragraphs 247-255) and have expressed our views on the value of such colleges. In the circumstances of contemporary life, and given the increased range of opportunities for continuing general non-residential education which our recommendations would create, we do not foresee a great increase in the number of colleges. We have however recommended (paragraph 255) that consideration should be given to establishing one further college and that the standard of all the accommodation in the existing colleges should be brought up to the level of the more recent provision. The building work involved in these proposals would thus be limited and mainly non-recurring.

341. The short-term residential colleges provide opportunities for adults to study in an appropriate environment for periods from a few days to a few weeks. Accommodation for short stays can be less elaborate than for full-time residence yet the educational benefit of concentrated study can be great. We note with satisfaction that at least two local education authorities have opened new adult short-term colleges in recent years and consider that the establishment of further short-term colleges should be undertaken, particularly in the northern half of the country where fewer exist at present. Although for some specialised courses short-term colleges, with advantage, draw students from all parts of the country, there is much to be said for linking the work of the colleges with other forms of adult education in their regions and also for making it possible for students to attend without a great expenditure of time and money on travelling. Many colleges now occupy converted large houses and these can provide very suitable accommodation. The establishment of new colleges should be examined on a regional basis as the existing practice by which several local education authorities combine, perhaps also with a universal extra-mural department, to provide a short-term residential college to meet regional needs in a suitable pattern for further extension.

Resources

342. Frequently the premises provided for adult education have been makeshift and inappropriate but the provision of equipment for the use of adult students has generally been on a smaller and even more deplorably inadequate scale. Although adult classes may use the excellent premises of some new secondary schools it is not unusual to find that much school equipment is locked away so that adult students must use either a limited duplicate stock or do without. Equipment which is heavily used needs maintenance on a scale larger than is necessary when, as school equipment only, it is in use for only part of the day for about 40 weeks each year. But if full value is to be obtained from equipment its use must not be confined only to the children, from whom it would be cut off if later they wanted to continue their education into adult life.

343. A barrier to the use of equipment in schools is the control exercised by day-school teachers over equipment in practical rooms, which often includes

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locking it away from part-time evening tutors. The increasing awareness of the nature and value of adult education must be translated into a sense of partnership between teachers of children and teachers of adults if current uneconomical and restrictive practices are to be broken down. No teacher should claim exclusive rights to publicly provided equipment; they would not do so in respect of other daytime staff and the same attitude must be applied to cooperation with part-time adult education colleagues. When local education authorities have created a spirit of cooperation in this respect much equipment and many special facilities will become available to adult education without any immediate capital outlay, though, because of greater use, faster depreciation should be allowed for.

344. The resources required for a full and varied programme of adult education go beyond the equipment available in secondary schools. Area adult education centres will require a stock of portable teaching aids such as tape recorders and projectors of various kinds for use in classes, and facilities for recording and reproducing both audio-visual and printed material. As it becomes increasingly easy to record from television, equipment for doing so will be of great value to adult classes and for tutor-training purposes. Such equipment should be stored and maintained at adult education centres and be at the disposal of all bodies providing adult education classes in the area. Only when such equipment is readily available will it be possible to utilise to the full the valuable output of sound broadcasting and television.

345. The production of teaching material specifically for adult students should be explored since there is at present very little such material for either class or individual use. The Open University has already set an example in the production of multi-media teaching material and we refer later to the ways in which this example should be followed. As the service of adult education expands there will be growing markets for commercially produced material; but much more needs to be done to enable those engaged in teaching adults to develop and produce teaching materials related closely to their own practice. The Social Studies Service Centre of the WEA is one source and we have recommended its expansion. Local opportunities may be even more important and may usefully develop out of training schemes. Teachers of related subjects in a locality should be encouraged to form study groups with a view to preparing and evaluating teaching materials and should be given facilities, particularly reprographic facilities, for doing so. Some of this material will be for home use in support of class work: it is then a small step to the production of self-instruction kits designed wholly for home study. This we regard as also falling within the scope of the adult education service. Parallel with that development is the need of individuals for access to audio-visual equipment. The Open University study centres again point the way, with their study materials, availability of equipment and presence of advisory staff.

346. Reference to such material leads us into the province of the libraries, museums and galleries. In addition to securing the supply of books, adult education centres and public libraries should cooperate in lending materials for individual self-instruction, as these become available. We do not wish to lay down where such resources are to be located in any area, although the adult education centre is clearly an appropriate place; but we must

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emphasise the importance of keeping abreast of technological developments and creating facilities for the general public to use them. Increasingly private individuals are likely to add to the stock of audio-visual equipment in their homes, and in the future will expect to be able to borrow relevant educational material as easily as they now borrow books.

347. At present, insufficient use is made in adult education of audio-visual media, and, as well as making more resources available, more attention must be paid to training adult education tutors in their use. All additional means possible should be employed to facilitate learning in conditions where contact with the tutor is confined to one weekly meeting. Training is needed in both the theory and the practical use of audio-visual aids in teaching and learning. This should be a function of area adult education centres, where a range of material should be available, as well as appearing in more advanced training arrangements.

348. Much of what has been said previously concerning the principles underlying the supply and distribution of equipment will apply equally to the provision of books for adult students. We think that many of the set texts and basic works should be bought by the student. With the improved quality, range and availability of paperbacks students should be encouraged to build up their own collections, and thus to extend what they have learnt during their attendance at classes. Good bookshops however are not to be found everywhere, especially in rural areas; and adult education centres should consider the possibilities of arranging for the sale of books to students.

349. Many public libraries supply class collections and background reading for adult education and the goodwill of those librarians who cooperate in this way is much appreciated. But the provision of multiple copies for simultaneous use by a class is difficult, for the public libraries cannot be expected to provide them; yet the basic texts for a class may not be recommended for purchase by the students for various reasons including cost. The presence in the classroom of the relevant books in sufficient number, so that their use can be integrated into the teaching, we regard as of great importance. Local education authorities and universities should arrange for the holding of multiple copies of titles in regular demand and should whenever possible issue sets to classes as required, either direct or through the area libraries referred to later. Although each must give priority to the claims of their own classes we would welcome the interchange of such sets between them, whenever this could be arranged.

350. Where libraries are provided by the aid of public funds for particular institutions, we would also like to see efforts being made to allow all reasonable access to adult education students. In many subjects studied in adult education classes useful literature is of a specialised kind not to be found readily in the public libraries. Access to institutional libraries, even if only as a reader, could save much duplication of purchases. Although we recognise the inherent difficulties we believe they could largely be overcome with active cooperation between the library and the adult education centre concerned.

351. We think, however, that reserve resources of class collections in less constant demand and background reading over a wider range and for subjects

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less generally studied, should be held centrally in a library which is organised to meet the common needs of all adult education classes in the area. This may be based on a county or city library or an extra-mural department library or at an adult education centre and would need to be supported by a special allocation from education funds. As well as stock holders such libraries should be bibliographical and advisory centres. The existence of such area libraries would be of benefit to local libraries in that they would help to avoid unnecessary duplication of stock. A library which is to act as such a base for reserve stock may well need a trained assistant with a special responsibility for adult education.

352. Specialist works, rarer and more expensive items are available on request through the national and inter-library lending systems and it should be possible to channel such requests readily through the area library. We are of the opinion that the Department should earmark part of its grant to the British Library for adult education and that this grant should be much improved so that the supply of such books can be substantially extended. To help prevent unnecessary duplication, it would be useful if for inter-lending purposes a national union catalogue existed of sets of books for adult education, so that it would be possible for centres to find out where a certain set of books might be available at any particular time.

353. If it becomes general practice for area libraries to be based on the public library system the Department should issue guidance to local education authorities and library authorities concerning the role of the latter in supplying books to adult education classes. At present this provision is dependent on the goodwill of the individual library. As and when the Regional Library Systems provided for under the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 are set up, we would hope that cooperation between public libraries and adult education agencies would be achieved through sub-committees of these regional bodies. Meanwhile adult education agencies should cooperate as much as possible with the existing voluntary regional systems for internal library cooperation. There may be a case for establishing an adult education section within Regional Library Bureaux.

354. It is important to ensure that the expansion of the public library service for adult education should not be a burden carried at the expense of the ordinary borrowers, since demands by adult education classes are usually for long-term use, and thus deprive the community of books for continuous periods. It follows, therefore, that libraries required to meet extended demands ought to have the means to provide for additional stock and adequate staffing for the cataloguing, processing, despatch and maintenance of collections.

General

355. The provision of staff of good quality, in sufficient numbers, with the necessary training and wisely and economically deployed, is critical to all the developments in adult education which we recommend. Before dealing with particular aspects of this fundamental matter, two general characteristics

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of adult education must be emphasised, First, as will already have been made clear in this Report, adult education takes a great many forms and, consequently, is the concern of many agencies which we have placed within the categories of local education authority institutions, direct grant institutions (university extra-mural departments, the WEA, and long-term residential colleges), other voluntary organisations and the servicing bodies. Within each of these there is a wide variety of work connected with adult education which includes teaching, organising, administration, and all the associated ancillary services which, in their variety, call for a considerable range of occupational skills. Whilst, therefore, it is both useful and necessary to refer to the staffing of adult education in general, it is equally important to take into account the diversity of roles which this covers. The second factor, coupled with this diversity, is the common need for a relatively small cadre of full-time staff to make possible the effective deployment of a vastly larger number of part-timers. From this it follows that the effective recruitment and appropriate training of part-time staff is essential to the provision of adult education on a significant scale and that a considerable proportion of the efforts of full-time staff must be applied to making the contribution of the part-timers as widespread and effective as possible.

356. We have said earlier in paragraphs 191-195 that the provision made and supported by the local education authorities should be established on the basis of area organisations and that these organisations will take different forms according to the nature of the area and the authority's general policy. Each area organisation will require a professional head and sufficient other professional staff to ensure competent administration and reputable standards of achievement. Usually the professional head will be engaged full-time on adult education with a team of professional assistants, also full-time, sufficient to enable the organisation to function affectively. To assess the size of the professional team required we take, purely by way of example, a possible structure for an area with an adult population of about 50,000 providing an enrolment of about 5,500 students to its area institution of adult education. Such an area institution will have a central base which will be the headquarters of the principal who, in an institution of this size, will certainly need a full-time deputy or vice-principal also based on the area centre. The area institution is also likely to have a number of outlying centres; some of these will require heads of centre, usually part-time, but one or two, because of their size or specialist function, may need full-time heads. In addition we see the principal or area head as needing two or three full-time specialist tutors who will both teach themselves and will oversee the teaching of their subject areas (such as art and crafts, languages, home economics or physical education) throughout the institution. This would mean a total of five full-time professionals with various functions, and in some areas this number might need to be augmented by a full-time educational development officer to develop provision in socially disadvantaged sectors of the community. We emphasise that this is no more than an illustration; we are not specifying any optimum size for area organisations and we realise that many, particularly in rural areas, will be much smaller than this. We realise also that the kind of staffing suggested in our illustration is not applicable to those areas where the local education authorities base their adult education provision on colleges of further education or community

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colleges. Where adult education is so organised, the functions of the single head will be shared by two persons, by the principal and a head of department in a college of further education, by the warden and his adult tutor in a community college. The principal and warden can give only part of their time to adult education. In colleges of further education in the future we strongly suggest that adult education should be the sole responsibility of a head of department; in community colleges many adult tutors will continue to divide their time between their adult work and teaching in school, but we note with satisfaction the growing practice of appointing full-time members of staff with general oversight of adult work under the wardens. One of the purposes of either type of organisation is to enable professional teachers to work at different times in different fields of education with the minimal regard to administrative boundaries. We can suggest only that in these establishments of mixed function there should be enough professional workers, to whom adult education is a major if not full-time responsibility, to ensure effective organisation and adequate specialist oversight of the standards of teaching.

357. The deployment of staff will, of course, vary with the forms of organisation adopted, and specialist adult education colleges in large urban areas will make a higher proportion of full-time teaching appointments than will the general purpose area centres. All the indications we give here are intended to go no further than an acceptable minimum provision. We are conscious that there is such a wide variation in the standards of the present provision for adult education that in some areas our minimum requirements may already have been exceeded. We applaud this and must emphasise that in view of the size of the national requirement we have confined ourselves to minimum standards rather than to what would be desirable where resources permit.

358. We see the area heads as key figures and we draw attention to certain aspects of their work. At the outset we emphasise that they should be regarded as teaching staff in the same way as heads or deputy heads of schools and principals and heads of departments of colleges of further education. They are responsible for the content of the curriculum and for the quality of teaching and learning in their institutions and, in this sense, must be seen as senior members of the teaching profession. This has to be made clear since the existing small number of full-time adult education principals (about 470 (1), see Table 28 Appendix B) are usually so short of assistant staff that the organising work necessary to set up an adult education programme of any size may now seem to dominate their working time. In the few local education authorities where full-time adult education staffing is beginning to approach a reasonable level the appointment of full-time deputies and assistants to the principals, including staff for organising work in the community, is beginning to free the principals for some of the hitherto relatively neglected aspects of their work relating to the nature and quality of the teaching and the supervision and development of staff which are fundamental to it.

(1) 1968/69. This figure excludes 433 principals whose appointment is shared between adult education and other duties-full-time equivalent 141.7.

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359. The number of area heads now employed in the local education authority sector of adult education is so small that they appear never to have received from the Burnham Further Education Committee the attention that their special circumstances warrant. A career structure implies a graded organisation, and salary scales related to responsibility and experience. For area heads local education authorities appear to have different policies: most apply a Burnham scale, some a Soulbury scale and some, for certain posts, an ad hoc scale. There are many anomalies and we have formed the opinion that unless a proper national structure is established adult education in the local education authority sector will be at a great disadvantage in attracting personnel.

360. As we have already indicated, the organisation of adult education is not, and should not be, homogeneous throughout the country. The kinds of buildings employed and the use to which they are put, the form of appointment and nomenclature of staff, and the salary scales, all vary widely. It would not be appropriate for us to attempt to offer specific salary scales for the various forms of organisation that are followed. We therefore suggest that the Burnham Further Education Committee should be invited to give special consideration to the salaries of adult education staff and to make recommendations. What we say below about full-time and part-time staff expresses the views that we would wish to put before them.

361. We are of the opinion that the critical figure in the salary structure is the professional area head though in some areas his counterpart is the head of an adult education department of a college of further education or a community college: he is the head of a fairly common and basic unit of organisation; he may now, and will in future, have full-time staff working for him; he will have many part-time teachers and some part-time organisers on his staff; he is responsible, at ground level, for perceiving need and satisfying it; his work lies clearly and exclusively within the field of adult education. Once a proper foundation has been established on which the salaries of area heads can be based it should be possible, without undue difficulty, to determine the salaries of other professional members of staff.

Salaries of Full-time Local Education Authority Staff

362. We have drawn attention in paragraph 359 to the anomalies in the payment of area heads of local education authority establishments of adult education. We feel that the present arrangements are unsatisfactory, partly because of their confusion, partly because they do not adequately reflect those considerations which we feel should be given weight when salaries for full-time adult education principals are settled, and partly because there is no obvious link with a career structure for those engaged in adult education.

363. The salary scales for heads set out in the Further Education Salaries Document are based on unit totals which are derived from the number of student hours and the standard of the work defined in terms of recognised examinations. Establishments of vocational further education have a large number of full-time students and an immediately recognisable hierarchy of academic levels and the unit total system is readily applicable. However, the application of this system to the salaries of full-time heads in adult education militates against the financial recognition that the work and

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responsibility should receive. We do not seek to put the adult education head in a specially advantageous position, but we would suggest, for the reasons set out below, that the salary structure should give less mathematical importance to quantity and greater refinement to quality so that the nature and purpose of the head's work in adult education are more adequately reflected and consequently the remuneration offered more closely related to the work undertaken.

364. We appreciate that under the Further Education Salaries Document a local education authority may in exceptional circumstances, with the approval of the Secretary of State, pay a higher scale of salary than a strict unit total would indicate. We are also aware that in a statement on the grading of courses in the same document, appropriate grading of non-vocational courses is encouraged. However, we understand that approval under the former provision is rarely sought for adult education heads, and our enquiries confirm that the vast preponderance of courses in adult education institutions or the equivalent are graded for unit total purposes at the lowest category. Thus the provisions that exist and which if applied might offer some benefits to adult education heads are invoked so infrequently and so sparingly as to give no adequate answer to the problem with which we are concerned.

365. Most of the work undertaken in adult education centres is not primarily directed at obtaining formal qualifications, but because the courses are not directly related to examinations it does not mean that they are bereft of any development. Indeed, some courses are progressive in that they lead from first year or introductory work to second and third year courses requiring greater skill and broader knowledge of the subject. Development of this kind is desirable in adult education and should be encouraged; one way of doing this would be by giving it greater weight when fixing the salaries of full-time staff.

366. The programmes of adult education centres should be deeply rooted in the essential social needs of the community and the individuals who comprise it. This means that adult education as a service, and especially those employed full-time in it, should direct a great deal of time and effort to establishing the educational needs of those who would not otherwise look to the educational service for help. Consequently, students have to be sought and provision has to be taken outside the centres, for example to hospitals, homes, clubs and places of work. The more difficult the area the greater will be the effort to achieve any results at all, and in numerical terms the results are likely to be smaller than in easier areas. Adult education work in areas which are socially, culturally or economically deprived, with groups of people who are old, handicapped, institutionalised or otherwise disadvantaged or with people who are semi-literate and in desperate need of remedial education is not susceptible to evaluation only by the numbers of hours students attended, or in terms of the GCE equivalent standard of the work undertaken. Such work can be of great value to society as well as to the individual and should be recognised by other criteria as well as those applicable to orthodox establishments.

367. The organisational problems should also be recognised. The adult education centre will rely heavily on the services of part-time staff, many of

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whom are not teachers of adults by profession and will require guidance, help and reassurance. Centres run a very wide range of courses, many of a practical kind, usually housed in a number of different buildings which are used for other purposes for most of the time and in rooms not always particularly well suited to the subject being studied.

368. We are of the opinion that the Burnham Further Education Committee should review all adult education salaries. If this is done we suggest that the Committee might find it possible to recommend a salary range for adult education full-time heads containing a fairly substantial number of points, perhaps as many as 15 or 16, and that this range should fall within the scales for principals of other further education establishments. We also hope that the Committee in its report would recommend that local education authorities, when selecting a number of consecutive points (five or six) from the range for a particular post, and therefore considering the duties and responsibilities of the post in question, should have regard not only to the number of student hours and the level of work done, but also the points of special consideration which we have set out below. Where the head of an adult education department in the college of further education has duties and responsibilities very similar to those of a principal of an adult education centre our remarks are equally applicable and we comment further on this in paragraph 373. There is also the related matter, taken up in paragraph 372, of similar posts within the structure of community secondary schools. It is, in our view, imperative that principals in adult education should receive appropriate recognition, financial and otherwise, for the work they do and that they should be accorded the same considerations and status that their colleagues in the further education field at present enjoy.

Points for Special Consideration in Determining the Salary Scales of Full-Time Adult Education Principals

A. Organisational Responsibilities

1. The number of students enrolled during the academic year.
2. The number of locations where classes take place.
3. The number of classes arranged.
4. The ratio of day to evening provision.
5. The volume of weekend and holiday work.
6. The size of the population and geographical area served.
7. The socio-economic, educational and cultural background of the population served.
8. The extent of cooperation with other agencies, for example:

Adult voluntary organisations including Women's Institutes, Townswomen's Guilds, and local musical, dramatic and other cultural societies.
Other adult education agencies, for example the university extra-mural department and WEA.
Voluntary and local authority welfare and social security organisations.
Industry and Trades Unions.

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9. Special measures to reach disadvantaged groups.
10. The extent of cooperation with groups, clubs and societies affiliated to or associated with the adult education area organisation.

The nature, scope and balance of the courses provided, for example:

1. Single meetings, lectures, demonstrations, concerts, etc.
2. Short courses (eg up to a term in length).
3. Long courses, including those progressing over several years.
4. Intensive full-time courses, including those with a residential element.

1. The number of full-time staff.
2. The number of part-time tutors.
3. The number of part-time heads of centres or the equivalent.
4. Any special responsibility for the professional training of

(a) full-time staff;
(b) part-time supervisory staff (heads of centres etc);
(c) part-time tutors.

370. Finally, there may now be an extremely small number of major institutions of adult education where the full-time staff, including the head, are enjoying salaries and allowances under the further education salary scales better than our suggestions might provide. If there are any such instances local education authorities would need to be authorised to exceed the suggested new scale in such exceptional circumstances.

371. In dealing above with the clear-cut case of an area adult education head we touched upon two forms of organisation under which the same work may be undertaken within the framework of organisations with terms of reference wider than adult education alone, as in the cases of some colleges of further education and in community colleges (see paragraphs 193 and 356 above). It will not be difficult to devise appropriate salary scales for the heads of adult education departments in such institutions once an

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appropriate formula has been devised for area heads. but it must be noted that the staffing structure for adult education within multi-purpose institutions has certain special characteristics.

372. The warden of a village or community college is the head both of a secondary school and of an area organisation of adult education; he is the head of one institution, not of two. Nevertheless his functions in his two fields are very different. Both he and his local education authority will regard the direction of his school as his first and major responsibility even with the help of his deputy and heads of department. In adult education he must share the responsibilities of his headship very largely with his adult tutors, but experience of this form of adult education organisation shows how greatly its value depends on the vision, energy and personal involvement of the warden. If he is to bring these qualities to bear effectively upon adult education, the senior staff of the school will need to be appropriately augmented; and we hope also that heads of department and other experienced specialists in the school can feel it part of their responsibility to help the warden and adult tutors in the oversight of the techniques and standards of adult classes. Only when all the warden's responsibilities have been taken fully into account will it be possible to define his functions in relation to adult education and to reflect these in his remuneration.

373. Similar considerations apply to those colleges of further education which are the vehicles for the local education authority provision of adult education in their areas. Here too the college principal is the area head sharing some of his responsibilities with a head of department; here too much of the vitality of adult education will derive from his direct personal interest. The degree of organisational autonomy enjoyed by the larger departments in colleges of further education is customarily greater than in secondary schools and the result may approximate to a federal structure within which the head of the department responsible for adult education can operate effectively. Scales of salary of full-time heads of adult education departments should come within the Burnham Committee's review and the criteria set out in paragraph 368 above should be borne in mind in determining them. Good teaching techniques and standards of achievement can be obtained the more easily where the head of the department responsible succeeds in enlisting the active cooperation of fellow heads and other specialist members of staff. Both in colleges of further education and in community colleges many members of staff can be involved in the promotion of occasional events such as concerts, arts festivals and science weeks.

374. In any form of multi-purpose organisation the responsibilities of senior staff for adult education need to be made clear at the outset in the interests both of the effective working of the organisation and of the individual members of staff. All local education authorities using organisations of these kinds should make the responsibilities of senior staff explicit in order to determine effectively their scales of remuneration.

375. A further significant aspect of staffing community colleges is that some members of staff may be engaged full-time in adult education whilst others, particularly in smaller institutions, will spend some of their working time in the secondary school and some in adult education (or in the youth service).

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There is, by now, considerable experience of such "joint" or "shared" appointments, and the staff holding them are divided in their opinions of the arrangement. It is generally said that contacts with the secondary school staff are made easier by working with them and being one of them, at least part-time. This provides a good basis from which to make the adult work of the institution known and understood, and has practical advantages in recruiting part-time tutors for adult classes and the acceptance of adult classes as evening users of school specialist rooms. The principle, not yet much developed in practice, of mixing some adult students into day school classes would add point to the value of close contact between members of the college staff. Some holders of joint appointments on the other hand find real difficulty in doing justice to their work both in school and in adult education within the confines of a normal working week. Work in either field is liable to generate activities which require further follow up so that the holder of the joint appointment is in constant danger of overburdening himself. The practicable working arrangements of such joint appointments need continuing study to establish the conditions in which they are most likely to be effective.

376. Given a satisfactory salary structure for full-time adult education staff, the variation in size of adult education area and district institutions is a factor which will favour a flexible though progressive career structure. The full-time assistant of an area principal, or the full-time head of a district centre in an organisation of medium size might wish to resume a teaching specialism as head of a subject department in a large institution, from which another step might be to an area principal's job. A structure which would make this sort of move possible within local education authority adult education as well as between this and other phases of education is necessary to the continuing health of an expanding service.

377. We hope that by establishing an appropriate career structure and levels of remuneration for area heads a basis will have been established for the negotiation of suitable conditions of service for other posts in the local education authority sector of adult education. At the present time the heads and wardens of short-term residential colleges have no nationally agreed scale of pay and some individual wardens even have to negotiate separately with their employing authorities to keep in line with Burnham Committee recommendations or increases in the cost of living. This is a totally unsatisfactory situation and appropriate scales should be established for the principals of short-term residential colleges based, as in the case of area principals. on criteria relevant to the special conditions of their work.

378. We realise that joint negotiating machinery already exists to determine the salary of full-time community centre wardens and we therefore make no specific recommendations in this field. We recognise, however, that as other local education authority adult education institutions make increasingly effective efforts to penetrate areas of need within the community their partnership with community centres and associations should be strengthened. It is important that there should be the fullest understanding of the respective roles of community centre wardens and other full-time adult education staff in local education areas and that the pay and conditions of service of all should be constructively determined and inter-related.

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Administrative and Advisory Staff

379. In dealing with local education authority full-time adult education staff we have so far dealt only with teachers, including principals of institutions, with a brief mention of some organising staff who may not always be teachers. It remains to emphasise the importance of two further groups of professional staff in key positions within the local education authority service. We refer here to the administrative officers and the local education authority advisers or inspectors who are concerned with adult education. The results of the enquiry we addressed to local education authorities showed that only in a few of the largest authorities did adult education occupy a substantial proportion of the time of a senior administrator, and that it was frequently combined with other responsibilities which might well have been extremely heavy on their own account. A few large authorities employ inspectors or advisers full-time for adult education, and the effect some have had on the development of the service provides positive evidence of the value of such posts. Specialist subject advisers are very rarely appointed solely for adult education; and there are advantages in employing them across more than one phase of education: the same is true of resource officers. However, it is usual to find that such advisers and officers are appointed primarily to work in schools or major establishments of further education, and that their contact with adult education is forced into the third, and evening, session of a working day and so comes to be regarded as peripheral to the advisers' main duties. In future, with considerably more professional workers in the field, the full-time head is no longer likely to suffer from the sense of isolation which has sometimes been his condition in the past, but the importance of regular contact between him and the local education authority officer will be as great as ever.

380. We envisage an adult education service more extensive and more varied than at present and each local education authority should therefore designate a senior education officer for whom adult education is a major responsibility. Subject advisory staffs should be augmented and authorities of appropriate size should also appoint inspectors or advisers for adult education.

Ancillary Staff

381. As necessary to the effective provision of adult education as teachers, organisers and administrators are the ancillary staff who enable the principals and heads of centres to employ their professional staff most efficiently and to utilise their capital equipment, both buildings and apparatus, for as many hours, days and weeks of the year as possible. The needs of adult education in these respects are even more pressing than for most aspects of vocational education, and are of a completely different order from those of primary and secondary education. Even a basic provision of classes in the staple, traditional subjects has to be made known to the public by various devices of advertisement; arrangements have to be made for the classes to be held at a variety of places and times; and tutors as well as students have to be recruited. To extend this work imaginatively, to keep in touch with it and the teaching staff whilst it is in progress, and to supply the material which will sustain work not only during but between once weekly meetings, calls for administrative, secretarial and clerical support on a quite different scale

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from that which is appropriate to less fragmented institutions. Over the years, many adult education principals have carried a quite unjustifiable load of routine clerical work which, ultimately, is undertaken at the expense of the educational supervision of the courses for which they are responsible. We advise that local education authorities eliminate such unsatisfactory and uneconomical practices by the provision of appropriate office staff for adult education centres. One set of procedures may be singled out for urgent action: these are the arrangements during enrolment periods by which adult education principals may find themselves responsible for the custody of considerable sums of money under very unsuitable circumstances.

382. We make it plain at the appropriate points throughout this Report that adult education should be provided at times of the day, week and year when adults are available to take advantage of it, and that it should utilise to the full the premises and equipment of schools and colleges when they are not fully occupied with their primary tasks. Indeed, without such use by adult students some of the best and most expensive of our community buildings would be empty during most evenings and weekends, as well as throughout the day during the months of school or college holidays. At the same time that the importance of making these buildings available for adult education is accepted it is necessary to provide adequate cleaning, caretaking and maintenance staff for the purpose. Up to now, most authorities have provided such staff to meet the needs of the daytime users of the building, usually a secondary school, so that when it is used for adult education in the evening the caretakers have to work additional hours. The power of caretakers over the use of buildings was impressed upon us so strongly that we consulted some organisations representing them. They accepted the principle that school buildings should be used for adult education, but stressed that caretaking and cleaning staff should be provided on a scale commensurate with both day and evening use of the buildings, both in and out of school terms, a view which we strongly support and recommend local education authorities to act upon.

383. It has also to be emphasised that the evening use of school premises for adult education requires more than opening the doors and turning up the heat for an additional three hours, though both of these are essential. Adult classes require some re-arrangement of furniture and the movement of equipment. At present, the rooms used by adults are rarely prepared in advance unless by the tutors and students themselves and if they do not replace things exactly where they find them there are likely to be complaints by the school to the adult education principal. Moveable equipment for adult classes, including such items as typewriters and sewing machines, may have to be carried by women tutors and students from store cupboards to meeting rooms and returned at the end of the evening. Adults taking part in classes and other activities are usually fully prepared to assist in appropriate ways with their own arrangements, but there are many cases when unjustifiable risks are taken through the inadequacy of porterage services.

384. All that has been said about staff for the caretaking, cleaning and maintenance of buildings applies with at least equal force to staff for the maintenance of equipment. Even when premises are used for adult education as well as secondary school purposes it is commonly found that the

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school is reluctant to allow adult students full access to school equipment. There appears to be a deeply ingrained belief among teachers that adult students are more careless and less responsible than the day school children who may be their teenage sons and daughters, and also that part-time adult tutors cannot be trusted to use practical rooms, although by day they may be teachers in other schools, colleges, or universities, or responsible for industrial workshops. It will contribute greatly to the diminution of restrictive attitudes, and the limitations on the use of premises and selection of part-time adult education teaching staff which follow from them, if adequate maintenance staff is provided for the practical rooms and equipment of all kinds which are shared by day and evening users. (See paragraph 343.) Maintenance staff should be provided with all equipment on a scale which takes account of the total use, so that the provision of duplicate sets of equipment, locked away from one or other user of the building, can as far as possible be eliminated.

Staff of Other Major Providing Bodies

385. We have dealt so far with full-time adult education staff employed by local education authorities and turn next to full-time staff employed by the bodies which we recommend should continue to receive direct grant from the Department for the provision of adult education courses. At present these are the university extra-mural departments, the WEA and the long-term residential colleges. (See paragraphs 211-223; 226-241; 247-255.)

386. In the universities, the departments of extra-mural studies or adult education employ a large group of full-time adult education teachers (over 300) who, as indicated in Part II, may hold different kinds of appointments. We recognise that there are many variations of roles and titles between universities but for convenience we here select two types of role and call them by the names most generally used. First, there is the staff tutor whose functions lie in the teaching of his subject to adult groups, in research, and in developing the teaching of his subject both qualitatively through guidance to his part-time teacher colleagues and quantitatively by exploring the demands for the subject throughout the university regions. Second, the resident tutor who, in addition to teaching and research in his own subject, is responsible for the general development of his university's provision of adult education in all subjects over a specified geographical area within which he lives, sometimes at a distance from the university.

387. As a comprehensive service of adult education evolves these roles will inevitably change though the rate of change will vary from place to place. It will be the concern of each university to review the tasks of its staff from time to time, particularly in the light of the reports of the local development councils in its region. The continuing role of the subject organising tutor, whose professional field of action is adult education but who shares the academic interests of the part-time tutors of his subject, is clear enough. As we point out below, the bulk of teaching in university adult education will be by part-time tutors, drawn mainly from the universities, from other institutions of higher education and from research establishments. Every tutor will be a specialist in some aspect of his subject but when engaged to teach extra-murally he will profit from guidance

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about the objectives of his work, and he may well need help in adjusting his teaching styles to the needs and capacities of adult students. Providing such help is an essential function of the staff tutor, whose professional field of action is adult education but who shares the academic interests of the part-time tutors in his subject. In addition, through his contacts with the network of related interests throughout the region, he will be in a position to advise the university about needs to be met, to indicate ways in which these can be identified and converted into demand, and to mobilise the potential teaching forces of the region in his own and cognate subjects. He will be in touch with on-going research projects in the region to which adult classes may profitably relate. Above all he will be concerned to ensure that the provision made is appropriate, in the local situation, to the university contribution and that the standards achieved bear scrutiny from that standpoint. It is essential, therefore, that his own research should continue and that his experience of teaching adults, which is one of his primary specialisms, should remain the central point of his professional life.

388. We see a diminishing role for the resident tutor with general responsibility for a district. When the general service of adult education has been developed effectively, when there is close contact between adult education field workers of all kinds and when there is good consultation through local development councils, the maintenance of contacts between the universities and the public in their regions should become easier, although there may be special difficulty in rural areas remote from universities. We accept the view that has been put to us that resident tutors generally bear a disproportionate burden of organising at the expense of academic work. It is essential to maintain a balance in favour of the latter if such appointments are to maintain the distinctive presence of the university at a distance from the centre, and we hope that the organising work can be reduced as the general coverage of all kinds of adult education increases.

389. Universities should receive grant-aid, at the rate of 75 per cent of the salaries and expenses, sufficient to establish an adequate range of subject organising tutor appointments to cover the major subject areas that appear in the annual programme of classes. The teaching component of each such appointment should normally amount to three-fifths of the tutor's time and it should include such activities as training or orientation conferences for part-time tutors of the subject; acting as tutor-in-charge to provide the continuity in courses with a number of specialist contributors; directing research or enquiry projects by groups of adult students; and experimental or development work in the teaching of the subject. From time to time there might be remission or reduction of the teaching load for a period of study leave or research. In line with our recommendation in paragraph 213.6 we would see adult education itself, and the training of those engaged in it, as an area of study for which the appointment of subject organising tutors under the provisions of this paragraph would be appropriate. We also recommend that universities should receive grant-aid on the same basis for the appointment of resident tutors although we should expect to see a diminishing number of such appointments. Where universities find them advantageous the teaching component should correspond with the conditions we have recommended above for subject staff tutors.

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390. At present the individual WEA districts, like the universities, receive direct grant from the Department towards the teaching costs of an approved programme of adult classes. Included in these costs are the salaries of about one hundred full-time tutor-organisers, mostly employed to support WEA branches in the areas where they are resident, by teaching and organising. In addition, a small number of WEA tutors are engaged full-time on industrial studies, mainly on courses organised in cooperation with trade unions.

391. These full-time tutors, spread over the seventeen WEA districts, form the only professional, permanent teaching staff available to the Association, so that they constitute a vital direct link between the lay voluntary officers and the educational provision made by the WEA. As in the case of university resident tutors, already referred to above, the demands of organising can operate to the detriment of teaching, but we recognise that the presence of a tutor at the earliest stages of establishing new student groups is an important way of extending adult education into new areas. We consider that such appointments continue to be an appropriate use of staff so long as the WEA exercises vigilance to ensure that the staff concerned are, in fact, employed mainly as tutors; in order to carry out the tasks to which we have invited the attention of the WEA there should be an adequate establishment of such tutor organisers.

392. The WEA now employs a small number of full-time non-teaching staff, called development officers, to organise and extend the association's teaching work. If the Association is to develop its programmes, especially in the difficult areas indicated in paragraph 237, a substantial increase in the number of these appointments will, in the Association's view, be needed. We accept the value of these appointments and recommend that the salaries and expenses of development officers, as well as of tutor-organisers, should rank for inclusion in the total costs of the teaching programmes which should attract direct grant from the Department (see paragraph 232).

393. The WEA full-time staff is at present distributed somewhat unevenly throughout the country and this is unavoidable in a voluntary organisation dependent for its autonomy on raising a small but vital proportion of its income. There is, in consequence, scope for the employment of additional full-time tutor-organisers and development officers as resources permit and the redeployment of some existing staff. The distribution should be made with reference to the plans of local development councils and the distribution of the full-time adult education staff employed by local education authorities, universities and other bodies. Direct grant arrangements should be made so as to provide for the adjustment of their salaries in relation to those applicable in the rest of the adult education service.

394. Elsewhere in this Report (paragraphs 242-246) we refer to other voluntary organisations who are active in promoting adult education although they may not themselves provide courses or classes. We have said that direct grant should continue to be paid towards the general development of such work, and this will be used to some extent for full-time staff. Some national voluntary organisations already employ not only headquarters administrative staff but a small number of full-time specialists who sustain various aspects

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of the educational work of their organisations. We would suggest no particular pattern since this is best left to the needs of individual organisations. But we recognise the importance of such full-time staff for the promotion of adult education activities, and expect that their work will be even more productive within the comprehensive provision of adult education which the measures we recommend in general are intended to bring about.

Part-time Staff

395. So far, we have been concerned with the full-time adult education staff upon whom the operation of an effective structure for the provision of adult education must very largely depend. We said at the outset, and return to it now, that it is characteristic of adult education that by far the greatest proportion of the teaching will be carried out by a very large number of part-time staff. At present, the total of staff employed full-time in adult education in all its forms amounts to something like 1300 individuals, whilst the present number of part-time tutors in all sectors probably approaches 100,000.

396. Both the quantity and quality of adult education will always depend upon the part-time tutor force, and we recommend that their importance should be recognised and reflected in two essential respects: first, in the engagement and terms of service of part-time tutors; and second, in their induction and training. Adult education is open to the criticism that some of the teaching by part-time staff is weak, and in the past it might also have been said with some justice that little was done to remedy this. In recent years, and particularly following the appointment of more full-time heads, a new range of opportunities has been created for part-time staff to receive induction into their work and at least some minimal training in the teaching of adults.

397. The Further Education Salaries Document recommends that salaries for part-time teachers (1) should "normally be determined on a regionally uniform basis having regard to the standards of work set out in this document and that local education authorities should invariably adopt the rates so determined". The difficulty about this is that conditions vary enormously within regions, which often include within their borders large cities and isolated rural areas. It seems to us that while it may be useful for the regional advisory council for further education to indicate part-time salary scales for the guidance of local education authorities the adoption of these scales should not be "invariable" and local education authorities should be free to augment them when local conditions of recruitment make this desirable. If, therefore, it is possible to evolve national salary scales for part-time teachers we hope that they will be flexible. Perhaps the most important factor regarding part-time salaries, and certainly one we wish to stress, is that they should be adjusted swiftly and appropriately whenever full-time salaries are increased. This we believe to be a principle of fundamental importance not only because, in equity, part-time staff should receive proper financial reward, but also because the integrity of the service requires that its servants should be treated with due consideration.

(1) See Appendix B, Part 4, Table 29.

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398. We have already indicated that we do not think that the criteria set out for determining the salary of principals and other teachers in further education establishments often with a large complement of full-time students should apply to adult education staff; similarly, we do not think that it is possible to settle the salaries of part-time staff without proper consideration of other factors besides the academic level of the work being done. Some of the factors we have set out above (paragraph 368) will be of great relevance to part-time teachers and we hope that the Burnham Committee will recommend that local education authorities should have regard to them when selecting from a series of flexible salary scales for their part-time staff.

399. The current practice of grading nearly all adult education at the lowest level for payment is in our view intrinsically wrong. While some courses progress through stated stages, a great deal which is attempted or accomplished with the handicapped and deprived is no less exacting although it is not susceptible of measurement by normal academic standards or examinations. Many special groups require special teaching skills.

400. As we have said above, where adult education provision may be weak through the poor quality of the teaching of some part-time staff this is because a substantial number of them have received no training as teachers, and we refer later to the creation of more opportunities for such training. About half of the part-time staff in the local education authority sector will not be professional teachers and it is inevitable and desirable that this should be so. They bring to the classroom not only expertise but, because they are daily engaged in the activity they teach, a consciousness of the real world which gives their knowledge and skill an immediacy and relevance that is of great value. It is important that once they have become engaged in and gained experience of teaching adults they should be retained in the service. We advise, therefore, that the salary paid to part-time staff should include increments which properly reflect the service they have given and the experience of teaching they have accumulated, and that further supplements should be given to those who have satisfactorily completed an appropriate course of training in adult teaching.

401. In their grant-aided adult education programmes, university extra-mural departments have usually offered to part-time tutors a range of fees which takes into account both the experience of the tutor and his academic distinction. The fees offered have increased over the years with the financial support of the Department yet it is generally held that they do not stand at a level which makes the reward for taking an extra-mural class competitive with the internal university pressures and the alternative opportunities for fee-earning which are open to internal university teachers. We hope that such considerations will be taken into account in keeping the levels of fees paid to university part-time tutors under review, but are also conscious that a wide gap sometimes exists between the fees paid to part-time university tutors and the fees paid to part-time local education authority tutors. It would be unrealistic to pretend that the differences in the quality of teaching or the difficulties in the teaching situations are necessarily correlated with the differences in levels of fee. We are here operating in the area of well-established differential payments within the educational

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system which is beyond our purview, and we can only hope that fee structures will be adopted which will ensure the continuing participation as part-time tutors in adult education of a significant number of internal university teachers, including those of professorial rank. In this field too part-time salaries should be capable of rapid adjustment whenever full-time salaries are increased.

402. As a body providing adult education, the WEA pays its part-time tutors rates which are lower than those paid by university extra-mural departments, but usually higher than those paid by local education authorities. If local education authorities revise their fees in the way we have recommended above the advantage hitherto enjoyed by WEA part-time tutors will be somewhat eroded. Grant arrangements should be on such a basis as to enable fees for part-time tutors paid by the WEA to preserve a reasonable relationship with those applicable in the rest of the adult education service. The improved formula for the assessment of direct grant to the WEA which we recommend in paragraphs 209.2 and 237 will go some way towards this.

Training

403. In dealing with staff for adult education we have several times mentioned their training and implicit in all we have said is our belief that appropriate training specifically for work in adult education is essential for all full-time and as many as possible of the part-time staff engaged. We recognise that there has been a commendable development of such training in recent years but that, as yet, it touches only a small proportion of those employed and in many cases is still only at an experimental stage. Present training arrangements require evaluation and validation and their best features need to be incorporated in an expanded and more widely varied pattern of training opportunities, particularly for full-time assistant staff.

404. For full-time staff training is linked with recruitment, status and career development, and must be placed in the context of teaching in general as well as within further education. For teaching in schools there are clearly defined conditions of training and qualification, and whilst at present there is in further education no equivalent qualified teacher status, demanding specified training, the possibility of this in the future must be taken into account when planning for adult education. Because a wide variety of experience and of personal and professional skills is essential to adult education a career in it must be open both to qualified school teachers and to individuals not so qualified. This means that teachers' qualifications must receive due recognition in adult education and that any substantial full-time courses of training for adult education must, in the long run, be given appropriate credit towards qualification for other branches of education. This would apply most particularly to any initial training courses for adult education undertaken, for example, immediately after the completion of a first degree in the same way as existing diplomas in education for school teachers. For the most part, we see great advantage in the majority of full-time adult education staff being recruited after a period of experience in a part-time capacity, but we would not wish to exclude a valuable minority who will wish to start this work on a full-time basis.

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405. In the local education authority sector, we would expect the majority of full-time posts, both as tutors and as heads of centres or principals, to come from suitably qualified part-time adult education staff who would, at the point of taking up full-time service, receive appropriate training for their work.

406. The recommendations which we have made in paragraph 356 will involve a relatively substantial expansion of the number of full-time professionals in local education authority service and relate only to the first phase of development. Needs will have to be kept under review by the Department, the Development Council for Adult Education and other appropriate bodies. It is now necessary to see the scale of this expansion in terms of figures. Our figures are based on an assessment arrived at after an enquiry addressed to all local education authorities. We deal first with full-time heads.

407. In the term "head" we include not only full-time principals of area institutions of adult education but also other full-time staff such as heads of departments of adult education in major further education establishments and full-time tutors-in-charge of adult education in community schools or colleges. In 1968/69 there were 468 such persons (Appendix B, Table 28). By the end of the first phase of expansion, that is by about 1980, we estimate the total required to be 650, an increase of 180, or an annual average increase over five years of thirty-six a year. This will mean providing additional places in training courses for thirty-six new entrants. If a wastage rate of 6 per cent is assumed another thirty or so places will be required, and if allowance is made for inevitable drop-outs about seventy places will be required annually until the end of the decade.

408. Very largely these needs can be met from existing resources. At least six universities in England offer courses leading to a diploma in adult education; four of the courses are full-time and are accepted by the Department as approved courses of advanced training for experienced teachers. All but one of these courses have been established relatively recently. We have not been able to study them at first hand but in general they appear to offer the basis for the kind of training which we would like to see developed by appropriate agencies as the normal preparation for taking up full-time appointments in local education authority adult education. They are conceived in general adult education terms but with the growth of full-time adult education staff to the proportions which we recommend future courses could be constructed to serve more specifically the needs of participants about to take up their first posts as full-time principals, most of whom will have had substantial part-time or even full-time experience in adult education. In particular the courses could concentrate increasingly on the development of organisational skills. At present each year there are about sixty-nine (1) places on full-time courses and fifty-eight places on part-time training courses, figures which are probably capable of some increase. If this is so, present provision would appear to be enough to meet the requirements we envisage.

(1) One university offers fifteen full-time places but two-thirds of the places are usually filled by part-time students. Another university is counted as having ten full-time places each year when, in fact, it offers twenty places every alternate year.

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409. It is appropriate that full-time training should take place in mid-career, at the point where staff may be moving from part-time to full-time engagement in local education authority adult education. In such circumstances we recommend the extension of the present arrangements for staff, on appointment to full-time posts, to be seconded on full pay for advanced courses. We look forward to a situation where it will be a condition of appointment for posts of full-time principal or the equivalent for the first time that those appointed should accept secondment as soon as possible to an advanced course in adult education.

410. The number of additional full-time assistant staff required by the end of the decade is at first sight much more formidable. In 1968/69 there were 336 full-time assistants employed (Appendix B, Table 28). By the end of the decade we estimate the total required as nearly 3,600, if every head is to be supported by five or six assistants. This means an addition of more than 3,200. Some of these will be needed as deputy principals, others as full-time heads of the larger subordinate centres, the majority to take charge of the main subject areas, such as arts and crafts, home economics, languages, physical recreation.

411. The problem is different in scale and kind from that of training professional heads and the requirements are less intimidating than they may at first appear. If the increase of 3,200 were uniform over the five year period this would be at the rate of about 650 newly appointed full-time teachers requiring training each year. We are very doubtful if full-time training is practicable, necessary or even appropriate for the majority of these. They fall into two main groups, the prospective deputy principals or full-time heads of centres and a second, larger group, the subject specialists. Those in the first group are likely to have substantial experience of adult education, whether as part-time principals (of whom there were over 1,700 in 1968/69) or as part-time teachers. It is probable that a high proportion of these will be qualified teachers. Nearly all of those in the second group - the specialists in arts and crafts, home economics, languages and so on - are likely to be qualified school or further education teachers with substantial experience in teaching their subjects. Few in either group will be without considerable experience relevant to their new roles; their training will not be starting from scratch and can take the form of reorientation of staff towards their new functions. The emphasis would be rather on adult motivation and the processes of adult learning than on the organisational skills called for in the training of newly appointed principals. We suggest the training should be the responsibility of the employing local education authorities, who would draw their trainers largely from their own experienced principals and from the staff of other institutions, such as colleges of education and major establishments of further education, concerned with adult learning. The most appropriate mode of course would seem to be a well organised programme of day release - perhaps for two days a week over an initial period of six months - with two or three residential weekend conferences during the period. We suggest that this initial training should be experienced as soon as possible after the first appointment; thereafter the continued development of assistant staff will primarily be the concern of their principals. For a limited number of people full-time courses, not necessarily of long duration, might be offered in colleges of education (technical), polytechnics and colleges of education.

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412. The last paragraph referred to the function of principals in the initial training of full-time assistants and to the need for continued staff development. Both the function and the need apply to the principals now in post, the great majority of whom have received little or no training for their present functions. Many of the best features of current practice have stemmed from the imagination and initiative of the present generation of full-time adult education principals and the content of initial courses for new entrants will depend heavily on these achievements. There is therefore no suggestion that all principals, whatever their record, should be given the same courses of initial training if they have not already received them. What is important however is that the needs of all full-time staff (including those now in post) for professional refreshment should be kept under constant review. The work of the professional adult educator in local education authority service needs indeed the benefit of a consistent policy of staff development such as an enlightened industrial concern offers at all levels of management. The basic responsibility for initiating and maintaining the process is that of the employing local education authorities who are showing themselves increasingly aware of the need for staff development in the various services they provide. Successful development win require thoughtful analysis and evaluation of the responsibilities and functions of the staff at various levels. Patterns will thus vary from authority to authority, involving in one area the wardens and adult tutors and other staff concerned in community colleges, in another the head of department and full-time lecturers of a major establishment of further education. We suggest that programmes should be worked out in close consultation between the authority and representatives of its professional staff. Self-programming may play a considerable part in much the same way as it does in the work of many of the teachers' centres established in recent years; and we see group study and group discussion as essential elements. Local education authorities may wish to cooperate perhaps through the regional advisory councils for further education, and we see a place, at an early stage of the first phase of expansion, for a series of special advanced courses for full-time principals now in post and hitherto untrained.

413. We have dealt so far with full-time staff in the local education authority sector of adult education. The other large body of full-time staff is employed by the university extra-mural departments and the WEA; so far the need for any significant initial or in-service training for such staff, who are mainly tutors, has been recognised only by the WEA, and by them only very recently. We commend to the universities the value of examining carefully their present practices for induction and in-service training of their full-time tutors. We believe that they should consider seriously whether the experience they have gained in training the full-time adult education staff of local education authorities has thrown any light on the training needs of their own full-time adult education tutors. The nature, resources and staffing of the WEA cannot be expected to equip the Association to play a major part in full-time staff training, and it is to be hoped that they will find ways of supplementing their own efforts by cooperating fruitfully with the universities, the local education authorities and other agencies both to contribute to and participate in training arrangements.

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414. So far, we have dealt with the training of full-time staff in adult education and we next turn to training of part-time staff, who are mainly part-time adult education tutors. The value of adult education depends, for the most part, on the quality of the teaching of part-time tutors, less than half of whom are full-time teachers in other branches of education while the rest work mainly outside the education service. Until quite recently, there had been very few attempts to train part-time tutors but in recent years (as a result of the appointment of more full-time adult education principals) there has been an increasing number of conferences and short training courses for part-time tutors, though still few compared with the total need. Existing courses have disposed of the once frequently expressed assumption that men and women whose only contact with adult students is in one, or perhaps two, classes per week wiII be unable or unwilling to give up time to train for such a marginal activity. True, training courses must be as economical as possible in the use of time, but there is widespread experience to show that very many part-time tutors regard their work as a serious responsibility and are conscious of the need for help in discharging it. For many years all that most of them have known is an occasional word with the principal of their institution, and much more rarely, a visit from a local education authority advisor or an HMI, neither of whom can give him much individual time. Many part-time tutors are at first surprised to find that their terms of reference are so sketchy and that they are left from the outset to find their own way, in company with the class; indeed, many students suffer in consequence and classes dwindle and close down. When part-time tutors are offered training opportunities they usually respond readily and give their time generously to attend training sessions for which they are even asked by some local education authorities to pay their own out-of-pocket expenses.

415. The content and duration of courses for local education authority part-time tutors, their validation and certification, and the responsibility for their organisation and staffing are all complicated matters which require careful exploration and attention by local education authorities individually and collectively through regional advisory councils and in conjunction with universities and other institutions and bodies. We consider that it is the responsibility of the adult education area organisation to provide induction courses for its part-time tutors, and that these should be an important part of the area head's role, supported by his professional staff. As a body of full-time staff, the head and his assistants, including subject specialists where appropriate, should be competent to deal with induction training and to extend it into the continuing supervision of newly appointed staff. Induction courses, of which considerable experience is already available, will be very largely concerned with introducing new part-time staff to the aims, purposes and work of the adult education institution and to provide some basic assistance, including some elementary points of teaching method, in dealing, perhaps for the first time, with a group of adult students. When part-time tutors have become settled into their work more advanced courses should be available to them and these should strike a proper balance between special subject interests and more general matters common to adult learning situations. Large local education authorities may be able to develop a range of such

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courses from their own resources but otherwise cooperation through regional advisory council arrangements will be necessary. The provision of more advanced courses for part-time tutors who take adult classes for many years and who wish to improve their proficiency and qualification should also be more widely developed. For example the City and Guilds of London Institute has for many years offered certificates to part-time teachers in further education and currently these are under review.

416. A few university extra-mural departments have held, for many years, short, often weekend courses for part-time tutors, and there are some courses at summer schools. The number of university or WEA part-time tutors who receive any training at all is very small and it should be increased. Some teaching in the university and WEA tradition is of extremely high quality and its extension must not be left solely to chance or to the inspiration of a small minority of particularly gifted tutors. We should like to see a training programme, progressing from induction to the more advanced and specialised, available to all university and WEA part-time adult tutors and active encouragement being given to tutors to take advantage of it in this as well as in the local education authority sector.

417. Training requirements should be kept under review by the Department, the Development Council for Adult Education, regional advisory councils for further education, by local development councils and all providing bodies.

418. At many stages of our study we have felt the need for full and accurate statistics. The natural source for these is Volume 3 of the Department's annual Statistics of Education. Of the information published there on adult education the most substantial and helpful for our purposes has been the statistics of the work of the universities, the WEA and the long-term residential colleges, for all of which detailed submissions are needed for the calculation of the Department's grant. We have felt safe in relying on these figures and suggest only some widening of the field of information for which statistics will be required in the future and one minor modification (paragraph 423). On the other hand the Department's figures for local education authority provision have proved inadequate, so much so that we had to include in our special inquiries to local education authorities (see Appendix B Part 1) questions whose answers should have been available in the Department's statistics. We recognise the Department's difficulties in obtaining reliable statistics for a field of education in which categories of institutions, of students and classes and of staff overlap in so many ways. We are aware too that fuller statistics of local education authority provision were available before 1958 since when the statistics have been drastically simplified; and that the simplification was carried out after careful discussions between the then Ministry of Education and the local authority associations, with the admirable object of saving clerical labour. We feel that simplification has gone too far for accuracy and in the following paragraphs we suggest the fields for which information should be collected in future and the points at which present practice needs re-examination.

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419. The fields indicated in the next paragraph represent the minimum for which information should be required annually. In setting them out we have made the following assumptions:

419.1. Information should be required annually only when it is readily available as a matter of record, without undue labour or cost;

419.2. As adult education statistics are published as part of the statistics for the whole of further education, returns should be made by local education authority organisations of adult education for the same date in the year (1st November) as those for major establishments of further education;

419.3. Returns will be made for each of the local education authorities' area organisations of adult education (major establishment, area institute, village or community college, or other organisations);

419.4. Summaries of the returns will be published in the Department's annual Statistics of Education;

419.5. Statistics should be made available to the Development Council for Adult Education as soon as possible and in advance of publication;

419.6. Local development councils will need statistics for their own areas from the providing bodies represented on them who will make their own arrangements for their collection.

420. We regard information in the following three fields as the essential minimum:

420.1. The total numbers of students in classes provided respectively by the local education authorities, the universities and the WEA;

420.2. The total numbers of academic staff employed by these bodies, in different categories;

420.3. Types of courses offered by these bodies within fairly wide categories.

421. Because of the problems of categorisation, particularly in the local education authority sector, the collection of reliable statistics is much more difficult than appears on the surface. The Department's official statistics do not give even a reasonably accurate figure for the total numbers of students in non-vocational classes of adult education provided by the local education authorities; the Department's figures lump together provision in evening institutes, community centres and youth centres but omit classes of the same kind held in major establishments of further education; the figures for the last are obliterated in a miscellaneous sub-heading of statistics for major establishments. And yet in 1968/69 it would appear that there were nearly 370,000 such students in major establishments according to the replies from local education authorities to our special enquiry (see Appendix B, Table 3). Many major establishments make significant provision of non-vocational courses and several local education authorities provide the whole of their adult education through such institutions.

422. In the second of these three fields, the number of academic staff employed, a peculiar difficulty arises over "joint appointments". By this term we mean the posts of head of department or adult tutor in a major establishment or of adult tutor in a village or community college which require an apportionment of at least 50 per cent of working time to adult

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education. The difficulty lies not in identifying the persons holding such posts but in preventing them from appearing twice over in statistics. The numbers of clerical and technical administrative staff are of interest but we do not suggest that they should be recorded annually; the Department is already provided with figures for the total cost of clerical, administrative and technical staff for the various phases of education and figures for adult education should therefore be obtainable.

423. Information on the third of these fields, the types of courses offered within broad categories, is now published for university and WEA work; it was published also for local education authority provision up to 1958 but is published no longer. We recommend that such information for local education authority classes should again be recorded, summarised and published annually and we suggest the following categories:

Academic, literary and scientific studies
Languages and studies of foreign cultures
Crafts relating to the home and family
Art and skilled crafts
Music
Drama, movement and speech
Remedial and basic education
Physical education and pursuits
Other classes.

424. We suggest that the Department should consider these problems, consulting as necessary with the Development Council for Adult Education, the local authority associations, the Universities Council for Adult Education and the WEA. The importance of reliable statistics has been brought home to us by the inadequacy of so many of the existing figures for our enquiry. Once the forthcoming local government reorganisation has been carried through we should be able to expect a consistent flow of information from year to year, on which conclusions about trends could be formed.

425. Other important information cannot be expected to be provided annually by all participants. Some of it will need to be gathered nationally from the providing bodies at longer intervals. One example is the nature of the accommodation used; the Department already collects information about buildings used in other types of education through occasional surveys. Another example would be the cost particularly in the local education authority sector where accurate computation cannot be obtained from global figures and requires from local education authorities some laborious apportionment of cost of shared buildings, equipment and staff between the various users. Other information can be obtained only from occasional sample surveys, for example, of the socio-economic composition of adult education students, their ages, educational background and duration of participation in adult education or similar information about part-time teachers. Such information can be obtained only from the people themselves

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and, valuable as it is, should be collected sparingly. It would be inimical to the total impression of adult education that we wish to establish in the public mind if participation always involved the completion of a lengthy personal inventory; we must be chary of filching people's time in this way. Standard dimensions of measurement would have to be used in such surveys and we refer below to the contribution which the National Institute of Adult Education might make in this direction.

426. Since its formation by amalgamation in 1949 the National Institute of Adult Education has been a major non-governmental force in the development of the adult education service. It has promoted understanding, nationally and internationally, between bodies engaged in adult education by the convening of conferences and meetings and by its publications. It has undertaken a number of important enquiries into adult education and its library has served as a centre of information upon all aspects of adult education. The Institute has also been of value in enabling the consensus of its members to be represented to government and to commissions and committees of enquiry; in providing regular opportunities for personal contact between those engaged in adult education at all levels and in various countries; and by acting as adviser and consultant it has been able to direct individuals and organisations to the facilities of its member organisations.

427. For this work the National Institute of Adult Education has had to rely heavily on the contributions of its corporate members, of whom the local education authorities are financially much the most important. Support from central government has been relatively small. Comparable average annual figures for the four quinquennial periods since 1951 are:

Grants and contributions together provided 67 per cent of the Institute's gross income in the first quinquennial period but only 54 per cent of a larger total in the most recent period. The difference has been made good by a progressive increase in earnings from publications and by occasional sums for enquiries or special services from private foundations or the Department.

428. We believe that the Institute could further develop its functions to take on a role of great value in a comprehensive service of adult education. For example:

428.1. The Institute's library could be developed as a national resource centre of documentary and other material. The existing collection of books, journals and other printed materials would need to be strengthened by

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systematic purchase to include publications from Europe, America and developing countries as well as the United Kingdom. In addition the Institute could act as a depository for archives and for copies of unpublished theses, dissertations, reports and monographs. It could put on display indicative examples of teaching materials designed for adult use, with information about their provenance and some evaluation of their utility drawn from working experience.

428.2. The work of the Institute as an organiser of conferences and seminars could be expanded.

428.3. Regular sample surveys of the characteristics of participants in adult education, both students and teachers, to which we have referred in paragraph 425 above, could well be undertaken by the Institute, using the format of its 1970 survey as a model. This would entail the formation of a small survey unit within the Institute, which could also take up other special enquiries from time to time on behalf of its constituent bodies or the Department.

428.4. The comprehensive service of adult education that we envisage would throw up demands for a wider range of publications than those at present issued. There may be need for one or more additional journals, devoted to specific aspects of adult education that we hope to see expanding rapidly, for training pamphlets, and for series of monographs derived from research, from experiments and from experience in the field. The sharing of such experience, the diffusion of ideas and the promulgation of knowledge we regard as of central importance in enabling the service to develop effectively over the whole country and to achieve common ideals and objectives. The Institute, because of its experience as a source of such publications and its widespread contacts with all the providing bodies, could most appropriately perform this publishing service. Although income from sales of publications would be an important factor in the Institute's policy, it would not be competing with commercial publishers and could, in our view, properly apply some of its resources to sustaining this work.

428.5. There is a need for an abstracting service covering the literature of adult education on a world basis, for practitioners in this country find difficulty in keeping abreast of the thinking and developments elsewhere. The Institute, through its existing association with international bodies and its library and documentation resources, could well do this, perhaps through an exchange service with corresponding bodies abroad.

429. A large part of the Institute's usefulness derives from its status as an independent consultative and advisory body, whose objects are not competitive with the operating functions of any of its constituents. If it is to achieve an extended role in the future, in the ways we have indicated, it will clearly need increased resources of qualified staff and supporting services. Moreover its financial arrangements will need to be such as to allow confident planning over a longer term than the present annual budgeting makes possible. These qualities of independence, expansion of role and flexibility are best ensured if the Institute continues to receive its finance from a variety of sources. The main contributors will be the Department, the local education authorities, the universities and the Institute's own earning

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capacity, mainly sales of publications. Contributions by voluntary bodies and individual members are important as tokens of support but cannot be expected to be more than that.

430. We appreciate the efforts the Institute has made to increase its financial self-sufficiency but we are clear that the restrictions on development imposed by lack of finance are not in the interest of adult education generally. We advocate that the Institute be invited to consider the functions we have outlined above and inform the Department how far it feels able to undertake them; that it be invited then to submit a development plan with an estimate of gross expenditure over a five-year period of expansion, together with an estimate of the appropriations-in-aid it would hope to secure from publications and other earnings; and that the Department should provide a grant sufficient to enable the Institute to embark on a first phase of expansion on the lines agreed.

431. In addition to the gaps in statistical information there are many aspects of adult education needing systematic research and we have already (paragraph 218) invited the universities' attention to it. Much of this will be fundamental research, in the sense of establishing methodologies and conceptual frameworks, which could benefit from close association with the general educational research in universities and elsewhere.

432. It has been put to us that a way of stimulating research in university departments of adult education would be to allow the use of the Department's direct grant to support it; but we cannot accept this use of teaching funds for unspecified research. Central government funds as a general subvention towards research are made available through the University Grants Committee. For more closely defined purposes funds are provided through the research councils (in education through the Social Science Research Council), while departments of state sometimes sponsor projects. It is through these various channels that we see the necessary research in adult education developing and we are pleased to be able to record that the Social Science Research Council has indicated its awareness of the need and its willingness to consider applications for research grant. In paragraph 218 we have also invited the University Grants Committee to consider this field and make their views known to universities.

433. We would however also emphasise that research into adult education in isolation will not be the only way of increasing knowledge about it. If adult education is seen as part of the total educational system, much of the research already in progress in many other fields of education and training will have a bearing on it. We have in mind here the work of the National Foundation for Educational Research, and such activities as certain of the curriculum studies of the Schools Council, the research into methodologies of teaching and learning in the Open University, the exploration of educational technology of the National Council for Educational Technology (or its successor), as well as the separate studies in the sociology and psychology of education that are going forward in university departments of education.

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The abstracting service that we have suggested the National Institute for Adult Education should be invited to establish (paragraph 428.5 above) will be of great value in making known to the adult education world the results of these cognate researches. In the light of them it will be possible for the Development Council for Adult Education to identify areas in adult education in which specific research is required and to draw the broad outlines of a research strategy for adult education. The Council should be enabled to invite the Department's sponsorship for specific researches it has thus identified.

Everywhere we visited, both at home and abroad, we received great help from our numerous hosts, who were representative of both statutory and voluntary bodies. We received much assistance on these visits, at home from HM Inspectors and abroad from officers of the British Council. We are also indebted to the United States cultural affairs attache in London for providing valuable material on developments in adult education in his country. For all this help and friendship we wish to express our warmest thanks.

Nor would we like to close our Report without recording our gratitude to our assessors, Mr F A Harper, Mr S P Whitley (who replaced Mr Harper on 1 January 1970), Mr J A Lefroy, HMI, Mr J A Simpson, HMI and Mr R W Evans, HMI, for their willing help and advice at all times, to a considerable number of administrative officers serving in several different branches of this Department and in several other Departments for expert help and guidance on a wide variety of matters, and to our successive secretaries Mr C W Rowland, HMI, and Mr E E H Jenkins. When Mr Rowland was promoted to be one of HM Staff Inspectors, he most fortunately remained with us as an assessor, and we are most grateful to him in both of his capacities. Mr Jenkins joined us when we had been at work for about eighteen months. He thus found himself suddenly faced with a heavy burden. However he has handled a mass of documentation with great skill, and he has given us much assistance by submitting to us papers on a wide variety of aspects of our subject which we wished to study further. We also wish to thank very warmly the Secretary's two assistants, Miss T Gale and Miss M R Brady for their cheerful and unfailing support at all times.

E L RUSSELL
CLIFFORD BARCLAY
JIM CONWAY
R D SALTER DAVIES
TOM ELLIS
BRIAN GROOMBRIDGE
DAVID HEAP
JOHN HENRY
H D HUGHES
H A JONES
ELLEN W MITCHELL
ELIZABETH MONKHOUSE

(i) "Matters Peculiar to Wales" has been prepared by Mr Ellis and we are grateful to him for his work. It is a supplement dealing with the special problems of a minority of the Welsh people as they strive to preserve and nourish their cultural heritage and extend its influence among their compatriots. Because we have not been able to endorse the views that Mr Ellis develops in his "Note of Extension" we would not wish it to be assumed that we are unaware of, or unsympathetic to, many of the conditions that he describes - indeed we accept much of what he says. However, on the three points concerned our views are different: the payment of grant to the WEA centrally rather than separately to each WEA district; the student mix at Coleg Harlech; and the establishment of separate development councils for England and Wales rather than one council for both countries. Our views on the first are at paragraph 238 of our Report while the second we feel to be a matter exclusively for the Council of Management and the Warden of Coleg Harlech. Below we make observations about one development council rather than two: paragraphs 160 to 169 of the Report are also relevant.

(ii) Although in certain very important respects some facets of adult education in Wales are unique it is not possible to ignore the fact that in as far as the bulk of adult education is concerned England and Wales face the same kinds of problems, and the people have the same kinds of needs which require the same conditions for their satisfaction. In both countries the local education authorities are the centre of adult education provision and development. In Wales they provide 86 per cent of the courses and cater for three quarters of the students. Not only do they deploy the greatest resources but they provide money and accommodation which help to support other providing bodies and stimulate the activities of a very large number of voluntary associations, societies and groups. This supplement virtually ignores them. When it refers to adult education it is speaking only of a small segment of the work and one which is, for the most part, in the hands of the universities and the WEA acting as responsible bodies and which impinges on less than 25 per cent of adult students. A great deal of this work is not uniquely Welsh in content, method or flavour, much of it is identical with that done by the universities and the WEA in England. This is not to undervalue the work of the responsible bodies in Wales; but it is important to realise that this supplement is concerned only with the work of the minority providers and only with a part of their activities.

(iii) In Wales as in England there are too few full-time staff employed for adult education; accommodation is inadequate; the disadvantaged exist, and are not properly provided for; towns have their socially and culturally deprived communities and the rural areas their isolated villages. Sociological and economic changes have the same, often bewildering and sometimes catastrophic, effects on people who need educational help to understand what is going on and to adjust to the strains placed on them. Our terms of reference specifically relate to England and Wales and it would, in our view, be unfortunate if the extensive problems which jointly concern the people

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of England and Wales could not be approached by a single development council. Each country would be the poorer by isolation from the other, We would, however, emphasise that we do accept that there are problems unique to Wales and of special concern to many of her people, that these include the Welsh language, the Welsh cultural heritage and the provision of classes in which Welsh is the medium of instruction. We recognise these problems and are grateful to Mr Ellis for exploring them so thoroughly but we believe that they should be tackled within a comprehensive structure which offers opportunities and encouragement for the development of the whole of adult education and which yet through our recommendations in paragraphs 169 and 173 to 175 provides distinctive machinery for the special consideration and nourishment of those aspects which are peculiarly Welsh.

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Introduction

1. The differences between England and Wales which affect provision for adult education are substantial. The most obvious is that of the Welsh language. That there are areas of Wales where a majority of people are genuinely bi-lingual, where men and women discourse together in Welsh out of choice and not out of perversity, naturally and without pretentiousness or embarrassment, is readily demonstrable but, perhaps, hard for mono-lingual people to grasp. Other less obtrusive characteristics also play their part in shaping the Welsh adult education scene and call for a knowledge of at least the outlines of some Welsh history in order fully to appreciate them.

2. Although Henry VII of England was an ardent Welshman who captured the English throne, the dynasty he founded displayed subsequently a detached pragmatism in its dealings with Wales. Henry VIII for example was so anxious to achieve a Union between England and Wales completely at one in custom, tradition and language that the 1536 Act of Union of the two countries sought "utterly to extirpe" the "divers sinister usages" which characterised Welsh national identity, and contained a formal statement of hostility to the Welsh language. The Act of course was itself an acknowledgement that Wales was a nation with its own distinguishing national characteristics but Henry's fears about the disruptive influence of those characteristics on the Union were not realised. Throughout the following centuries traffic between the two countries was limited, and Wales remained a small, sparsely populated and isolated mountainous land. During the early years of this period of continuing isolation however, the Welsh "bonedd", the "gentle blood", took advantage of the Tudor court and there developed a conspicuous drain of Welsh nobility and gentry to London and its opportunities. In this way Welsh life and culture were slowly deprived of traditional native patronage, and the country, to English eyes, gradually assumed an overwhelmingly peasant character with, here and there, a few rich islands of anglicised life standing high and dry in a formless sea of untutored Welshness.

3. The bonedd however still had an important if residual role in continuing the long tradition of Welsh learning and many of its members were aware of their responsibility. There existed in Wales an extraordinary oral tradition extending from the sixth century and earlier well into the fifteenth century. The inheritance included the stories of the Mabinogion, the cycle of the Arthurian legend, the laws of Hywel Dda, the Bruts, the lives of the Saints and all the translations like Imago Mundi, the Athanasian creed and the translations of the Apocrypha. Some of this rich heritage, set down during the twelfth century and afterwards by the monks of the great abbeys, found its way into the homes of the bonedd. The White Book of Hergest for example during the second half of the fourteenth century formed part of the library of Rhydderoh ab Ieuan Llwyd of Glyn Aeron in Cardigan and the Red Book of Hergest was once in the possession of the Vaughans of the manor of Hergest in Hereford. These and other collections would not have survived or been possible without the patronage and deep interest of the Welsh nobility. By the end of the fifteenth century paper had replaced

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parchment and the official poets attached to the houses of the bonedd in turn began to make collections of their own poems and those of contemporaries. The Welsh humanists of the Reformation were deeply interested in this literary tradition and sought to develop it and make it more widely known. They were the people who eventually undertook the translation of the scriptures which resulted in the Welsh Bible of 1588. The interest was extended after the Act of Union by people like Edward Llwyd, Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, Goronwy Owen and the Morris's of Anglesey, the antiquarians of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and by the great Welsh societies in London so that as a consequence the nineteenth century in Wales despite 300 years of union with England saw the survival of a rich cultural tradition reaching back for over 1,300 years.

4. For over two centuries after the Act of Union however Wales lay fallow until that movement started, in England initially, which together with the long literary tradition more than anything shaped the course of modern Welsh history and moulded the Welsh character. "At the beginning of the eighteenth century" says Sir John Edward Lloyd:

"the stage was set for the movement which beyond any other has made the Welsh people what it is today. In its ultimate effects, the Methodist revival was far more than a religious upheaval; through its agency the political and cultural life of Wales was raised to a new level - a new language and a new literature were evolved, new habits altered the routine of daily life, new organisations came into being and a new social atmosphere was created. The Wales of Victoria differed as widely from that of Anne as did the latter from the Britain of Boadicea" (1).

"A movement within the Church, but in the end rending that Church. At first without a trace of Nonconformity one of its most evident consequences was to create a new Nonconformist denomination and to upset completely the balance between the Anglican Church and Nonconformity. There was nothing especially Welsh in its nature - to accept that is to believe a myth as everyone knows who has studied the history of English Methodism or has read Arnold Bennet's portraits or those of Sinclair Lewis of the less attractive aspects of similar movements outside Wales. And yet with Wales a much smaller country than England and deprived of more than one of the counterbalancing influences which to some extent constrained Methodism there, the Revival reacted more completely and all-embracingly on Wales, and so the old platitudinous rigmaroles about Wales as "the land of revivals" and "the land of great privileges" and so on were for better or for worse not entirely incorrect. Never was there a movement with a narrower interest in the things of the mind, and more negligent of general education: yet in the end it was the chief cause of the difference today between the farm labourer in Welsh Wales and the farm labourer in England. Its leaders were Tories, Tories mostly its

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followers; forbearance was its political creed. Yet without it the Old Nonconformists would hardly have been able to turn the Tory Wales of 1700 into the Radical Wales of 1900" (1).

6. The vehicle which initially carried the burden of teaching was the circulating school and its driver was Griffith Jones, Rector of Llandowror. From 1737 onwards he organised a system of circulating schools with peripatetic teachers who, fired by a crusading zeal, travelled the countryside teaching the local inhabitants. Within a couple of generations a degree of literacy had been attained amongst the people, particularly the children; in 25 years over a quarter of the population attended school to be taught to read the Bible in Welsh, and a whole peasantry had started to become literate.

7. If Griffith Jones of Llandowror initiated the educational process, Thomas Charles of Bala consolidated it. He established the Sunday School, an institution which in Wales was to have the greatest influence on affairs for over a century and a half. From the educational pioneering of these two men stemmed the origins of modern Welsh adult education which Professor D W T Jenkins has described with some insight in the following way:

"From the beginning too its predominant concern was cultural and spiritual rather than political, economic and social as in England, for both Griffith Jones and Thomas Charles were evangelical in the literal sense, concerned with the 'saving of souls', and equally significantly it was more democratic in outlook and spirit. In England Defoe's 'great law of subordination' dominated popular education and even when Adult Education came there was more than a suggestion of 'sublimated slumming' about it. But here we were a community of craftsmen, labourers and small farmers with no gulf to bridge, and no conscious need for 'compensation'; predominantly, our ethos was rural and communal, reflecting the democracy of the Sunday School and finding a natural expression in its technique of discussion and group leadership" (2).

(1) "History of Wales in the 18th Century" R T Jenkins. University of Wales Press Board 1931.

(2) "Adult Education in Wales" by D W Trevor Jenkins, Cardiff. University of Wales Press 1960

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"the cumulative effect of such a development was that between 1800 and 1850 the inhabitants of Wales had at their disposal facilities for adult education which in many respects would satisfy the official requirements of the present day" (1).

10. By 1850 the process of industrialisation was well advanced but its effect on Wales differed materially from its effect on England, mainly through a failure to bring about the urbanisation of the country. Topography played an important part, so too did the non-conforming chapel communities of the historically sparsely populated countryside who could not be persuaded to share the pleasures and vicissitudes of town life. Even in the coal producing areas of Glamorgan and Monmouth, where by the end of the century half the population of Wales was concentrated, the valley communities were composed of straggling rows of terraced houses whose inhabitants lived a non-rural village life. Despite the massive introduction of industry, the chapel and the minister remained the focus of the community and concern with spiritual salvation remained at the front of the nation's consciousness.

11. Dissent also remained an outstanding feature of the community. The democratic and egalitarian approach to government, the absence of authoritarianism, the need for and indeed dependence on the chapel, all contributed to the steady growth of radicalism. But as the century moved on this radicalism began to embrace political and economic attitudes as well as the traditional religious and cultural ones.

12. The Llyfrau Gleision (Blue Books) of 1847 had themselves aroused a national anger against the wholesale and indiscriminate condemnation of the literature, language and religion of the people, and had fired a campaign for national identity. Henry Richard addressing the newly enfranchised electors of Merthyr Tydfil in the campaign during the great 1868 election said,

"The people who speak this language [ie Welsh] who read this literature, who own this history, who inherit these traditions, who venerate these names, who created and sustain these marvellous religious organisations, the

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people forming three fourths of the people of Wales-have they not a right to say to this small propertied class ... We are the Welsh people and not you? This country is ours and not yours, and therefore we claim to have our principles and sentiments and feelings represented in the Commons' House of Parliament" (1).

14. Throughout the whole of this period up to the last quarter of the nineteenth century and beyond, the Welsh culture had been "gwerinol", deriving its dynamic from the "gwerin", the native peasant stock. However from about 1890 onwards the English influence began to appear on an increasing scale. The Education Act of 1870 had introduced an English-orientated system of state education into Wales and by 1890 the experience of twenty years of mass schooling through the medium of English with a tacit and sometimes explicit rebuttal of Welsh began to tell. Pupils entering schools in 1870 had been overwhelmingly Welsh - by 1890 a generation of young people had started to lose touch with their culture and the anglicising process had begun. The English language itself with its rich, varied literature, science and the new socialism both appealing to the radical, disputatious temperament of the Welshman, the worldliness of a great imperial power, the sophistication of a rich urban society all now began to erode, as some would have it, the distinctive Welsh life and culture.

15. Together with the impact of anglicisation came the associated anti-individualist pressures of modern industrial society and these changing social patterns bred a more uniform development henceforth in modern adult education in Wales and England. The university extension movement was started in Wales about ten years after its origin in England (Cambridge 1873). It coincided with the increasing secularisation of Welsh life and provided a basis for the establishment in Wales of the Workers' Educational Association movement.

16. The university movement at first had only a limited appeal and it was not until 1919 with the formation of the Extension Board of the University of Wales that the modern university contribution to Welsh adult education began. Important developments took place in the voluntary sphere however. The WEA attached much importance to the voluntary aspect of its organisation and upon the need to consult participating adults about their educational requirements. This principle of democratic participation was readily appreciated in non-conformist Wales where in chapel life it had long been widely accepted. Interest was ebbing from the traditional religious and biblical studies and flowing towards politics, economics and history, and Mansbridge's three-fold achievement of giving a new dynamic to adult education, of emphasising its liberal character and of ensuring its institutional democracy married happily into the Welsh tradition.

(1) Aberdare Times 14 November 1868 quoted by K O Morgan in "Wales and British Politics 1868-1922". University of Wales Press Board 1963.

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17. Until the first world war adult education in Wales still retained its distinctive individual character. Developments after the war however have had much in common with developments in England. The university extra-mural departments made a fresh start during the early 1920s although the foundations had been laid before 1918 - the number of classes organised by the university colleges had in fact reached a total of twenty eight in 1914/15. The momentum increased after the war and the responsibilities of the two branches of adult education - the universities and the voluntary associations - became in practice more clearly defined, the universities tending to take responsibility for the more advanced three-year tutorial classes and the voluntary bodies undertaking the more elementary work. Further events during this period reflected the characteristic Welsh attitude to adult education as well as the harsh social and economic situation in industrial Wales. In 1927 Coleg Harlech was founded:

"to enlarge the vision of its students ... to stimulate their mental and spiritual growth",

18. By the mid-thirties there was reason to feel that the articulate demand for adult education had been fulfilled, and that the providing bodies had:

"entered upon a new period in their history during which they [would] have to become increasingly responsible for the creation of a demand for adult education as well as for the organisation of the supply of classes".

19. The third great partner in adult education, the local education authority, in Wales as in England, began slowly to play an increasingly influential role as the century moved on, and many other voluntary bodies like the Women's Institutes, the YMCA, the National Council of Social Service, also introduced educational activities into their programmes.

20. The second world war and the Education Act, 1944 together marked a watershed in British educational policy. For the first time a comprehensive national scheme of education was defined on the basis of the needs of the community,

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"proclaiming as its great purpose nothing less than the physical, mental, moral and spiritual development of the community" (1).

The Present Character of Adult Education in Wales

21. One has tried to show that an assessment of modern Welsh adult education must take into account the peculiarly Welsh characteristics derived from a blending of two traditions, the one indigenous and the other intrusive. The intrusive influence is steadily becoming more dominant, not only in adult education but on a much broader front in Welsh life, and many of the problems facing Wales arise from this fact. That the problems are often of serious public concern is evidence however, that the native tradition still counts for much and the strength of this influence is reflected in adult education as in other fields. The committee received evidence that developments during this century

"... together with the fact that it is politically and administratively an extension of England, [have] endowed Wales with an adult education system which is broadly indistinguishable from that of England. But whereas the form is English the content owes a great deal, both quantitatively and qualitatively to the distinct history and culture of the Welsh people" (2).

23. The claim that a distinctive attitude to education exists in Wales emerges unanimously from the evidence given by Welsh bodies. The origin and growth of this attitude can be traced in the interplay of two interdependent historical phenomena, the one cultural and the other linguistic, and in the impact of Welsh geography on social and economic patterns, and it is these three factors in relation to adult education one now wishes to consider in turn.

Cultural Influences

24. The historical introduction has tried to show that the educational movement generally in Wales has its roots deep in the rural peasant character of the nation and in the strength of its long literary tradition, reinforced

(1) "Adult Education in Wales" by D. W. Trevor Jenkins, Cardiff, University of Wales Press, 1960.

(2) Evidence received from the Co-ordinating Committee for Adult Education in Wales.

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by the non-conformist revival of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The association of religious enthusiasm and radical politics in the nineteenth century has dominated Welsh culture ever since engendering about it a uniquely Welsh feeling for dissent. This non-conformity and the passionate desire for literacy and education associated with it have been expressed primarily through the medium of the Welsh language, and it does not overstate the case to say that as a consequence contemporary Welsh writing is incomparably richer and more prolific than might be expected from the comparatively small number of Welsh-speaking people, and can be proudly compared with modern European writing.

25. Today this heritage survives to a far greater degree in the relative isolation of rural North and West Wales than it does in the more cosmopolitan industrialised South, and in the field of liberal adult education it forms the basis of a further contrast with England:

"Whereas adult education in England is most developed in urban areas, the reverse has been broadly true of Wales" (1).

Table 1 Class Units per 100,000 people (1955/56)

Table 2 Class Units per 100,000 people for courses provided by extra-mural departments, WEA and Welsh Council of YMCA

(1) Evidence received from the Co-ordinating Committee for Adult Education in Wales.

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27. Table 2 is shown pictorially in map 1. The map shows on a county basis how the intensity of responsible body activity varies across Wales and they clearly illustrate the more developed service in the North and West. Map 2 shows also on a county basis, the distribution of Welsh speaking proportions of the population for the years 1951 and 1961. The correlation between the two sets of maps is striking.

28. It is interesting to note that within the rural areas themselves there appears to be a close connection between responsible body activity and the proportion of Welsh-speaking inhabitants. For example, the anglicised rural areas of the East, or of the English part of Pembrokeshire, and especially of the southern coastal plain can hardly be differentiated from the industrial areas in respect of the intensity of provision of liberal adult education. A feature of Table 2 which is worth noting is the recent development in the municipal boroughs of Cardiff and Swansea, a reflection of the increased extra-mural provision at collegiate centres. Generally however there appears to be a causal relationship between the survival of the traditional culture as represented by the Welsh-speaking proportion of the population and a greater popular interest in liberal learning.

29. This relationship however shows signs of weakening. For example, during the past decade there has been a decline in the proportion of extra-mural courses conducted in Welsh. In 1959 it was 26.0 per cent in 1969 it had fallen to 17.4 per cent although the total number of courses conducted in Welsh had risen during the period from 109 to 122. During the same period the number of students attending courses in responsible body work (in both languages) rose from 12,253 to 19,548.

30. There has of course been a steady decline in the proportion of Welsh-speaking people during this century as map 2 shows and it appears that the trend persists; the following table gives figures taken from the 1931 and 1961 censuses for each of the extra-mural areas of the four constituent colleges of the university.

Proportion of Population of College Areas able to speak Welsh

31. Despite this decline the number of classes conducted through the medium of Welsh has doubled since 1939 but at the same time the number of classes in English has quadrupled. One can say that the development of responsible body work since the war has been largely through the medium of English, although it is noteworthy that the Co-ordinating Committee for Adult Education in Wales suggested in its evidence that the proportion of Welsh-speaking students in responsible body classes conducted in English was higher than the

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Central Administration

1. (1) It shall be lawful for His Majesty to appoint a Minister (hereinafter referred to as "the Minister"), whose duty it shall be to promote the education of the people of England and Wales and the progressive development of institutions devoted to that purpose, and to secure the effective execution by local authorities, under his control and direction, of the national policy for providing a varied and comprehensive educational service in every area.

The Three Stages of the System

7. The statutory system of public education shall be organised in three progressive stages to be known as primary education, secondary education, and further education; and it shall be the duty of the local education authority for every area, so far as their powers extend, to contribute towards the spiritual, moral, mental, and physical development of the community by securing that efficient education throughout those stages shall be available to meet the needs of the population of their area.

Further Education

41. Subject as hereinafter provided, it shall be the duty of every local education authority to secure the provision for their area of adequate facilities for further education, that is to say:-

(a) full-time and part-time education for persons over compulsory school age; and

(b) leisure-time occupation, in such organised cultural training and recreative activities as are suited to their requirements, for any

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persons over compulsory school age who are able and willing to profit by the facilities provided for that purpose:

42. (1) Every local education authority shall, at such times and in such form as the Minister may direct, prepare and submit to the Minister schemes of further education for their area, giving particulars of the provision which the authority propose to make for fulfilling such of their duties with respect to further education, other than duties with respect to county colleges, as may be specified in the direction.

(2) Where a scheme of further education has been submitted to the Minister by a local education authority, the Minister may, after making in the scheme such modifications if any as after consultation with the authority he thinks expedient, approve the scheme, and thereupon it shall be the duty of the local education authority to take such measures as the Minister may from time to time, after consultation with the authority, direct for the purpose of giving effect to the scheme.

(3) A scheme of further education approved by the Minister in accordance with the provisions of this section may be modified supplemented or replaced by a further scheme prepared, submitted and approved in accordance with those provisions, and the Minister may give directions revoking any scheme of further education, or any provision contained in such a scheme, as from such dates as may be specified in the directions, but without prejudice to the preparation, submission and approval of further schemes.

(4) A local education authority shall, when preparing any scheme of further education have regard to any facilities for further education provided for their area by universities, educational associations, and other bodies, and shall consult any such bodies as aforesaid and the local education authorities for adjacent areas; and the scheme, as approved by the Minister, may include such provisions as to the cooperation of any such bodies or authorities as may have been agreed between them and the authority by whom the scheme was submitted.

Ancillary Services

53. (1) It shall be the duty of every local education authority to secure that the facilities for primary, secondary and further education provided for their area include adequate facilities for recreation and social and physical training, and for that purpose a local education authority, with the approval of the Minister, may establish, maintain and manage, or assist the establishment, maintenance and management of camps, holiday classes, playing fields, play centres, and other places (including playgrounds, gymnasiums, and swimming baths not appropriated to any school or college), at which facilities for recreation and for such training as aforesaid are available for persons for whom primary, secondary or further education is provided by the authority, and may organise games, expeditions and other activities for such persons, and may defray or contribute towards the expenses thereof.

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(2) A local education authority, in making arrangements for the provision of facilities or the organisation of activities under the powers conferred on them by the last foregoing subsection shall, in particular, have regard to the expediency of cooperating with any voluntary societies or bodies whose objects include the provision of facilities or the organisation of activities of a similar character.

(4) Sections one and two of the Physical Training and Recreation Act, 1937 (which relate to National Advisory Councils and local committees and sub-committees for the promotion of physical training), and so much of section three of that Act as relates to the grants committee, to recommendations of that committee, and to consultation with such Councils as aforesaid, shall cease to have effect.

Grants to responsible bodies

25. (1) Subject to the provisions of this regulation, the Secretary of State may pay a grant to a responsible body towards the cost of providing tuition in any course of liberal adult education included in a programme approved by him for the purposes of these regulations.

(2) The amount of any such grant shall be determined by reference to the general standard of the courses included in the programme (having regard to the syllabuses, the quality of teaching, the length of courses and the arrangements for written work, reading under guidance and other forms of private study to be carried out between meetings), the needs of the area, the activities of other bodies providing further education in the area and the fees paid by students.

(3) It shall be a condition of grant under this regulation that the appointment of full-time lecturers and tutor organisers for any such programme, shall be subject to the approval of the Secretary of State; and regulation 20 (1) shall apply in respect of any course included in the programme as it applies in respect of courses provided by voluntary establishments.

Grants to national associations

26. The Secretary of State may pay to any national association grants towards expenditure incurred by them in providing educational services otherwise than in or in connection with the provision of courses to which regulation 25(1) applies.

Grants to other organisations

29. The Secretary of State may pay grants to any other voluntary organisation, and in particular to any youth organisation, in respect of expenditure incurred by them, whether as part of wider activities or not, in providing, or in connection with the provision of, facilities for further education within the meaning of section 41(b) of the Education Act 1944.

(1) Refers only to the conduct of voluntary establishments under the Education Act, 1944.

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1. Comprehensive statistics relating to non-vocational courses provided in further education establishments are not collected annually by the Department. To supplement the Department's statistics a questionnaire was sent to all local education authorities in England and Wales. The questionnaire referred to education not specifically designed to meet vocational requirements provided or grant-aided by local education authorities for the population aged eighteen or over. Information was requested for 1968/69 (i.e. the latest complete year at the time when the questionnaire was circulated) and for 1963/64 in order to assess changes over the previous five years. A copy of the questionnaire is given in Annex I, and the main statistical summaries derived from the replies are tabulated in Annex II.

Response

2. Of the 163 local education authorities asked to provide information only thirteen (representing 7 per cent of the estimated population aged eighteen and over in June 1969) did not reply. Although most authorities cooperated in the enquiry, not all of the questionnaires received were complete. Various reasons were given for the submission of incomplete questionnaires. Two difficulties were most frequently encountered by authorities; firstly, boundary changes, the creation of new local education authorities, and the non-availability of records enabled fewer authorities to give replies for 1963/64 than for 1968/69; secondly, local authorities experienced difficulty in extracting details of non-vocational adult education as defined for the questionnaire (vide Annex I, Notes for Guidance, paragraph 4) as it is not normally classified as a separate category for the statistical and financial returns used by central and local government. For example, courses of preparation for examinations which were allegedly non-vocational often could not be readily distinguished from those with a vocational aim. A small pilot survey did enable some improvements to be made to the draft questionnaire, but did not reveal several major difficulties which were encountered when the questionnaire was circulated to all local education authorities.

3. The Committee is extremely grateful to local education authorities who cooperated with the pilot and main enquiries. Notwithstanding the reservations which have to be made in the following summary of the results of the questionnaire, the enquiry has provided much valuable information and enabled a more comprehensive assessment to be made of non-vocational adult education than would have been possible from available resources.

Presentation of results

4. The difficulties encountered by local education authorities in answering the questionnaire have meant that most replies contained an element of estimation. In some cases estimates have been added for those authorities who did not respond or gave incomplete answers. No details have been included in Annex II in respect of 1963/64: the response to some questions was so low (e.g. financial information for 1963/64 was received for authorities

[page 185]

representing only about one-third of the population aged eighteen and over) that comparisons with 1968/69 would have been tentative, and not reliable. In addition, county and county borough analyses are not given for each region as it was considered that they could be misleading because of substantial inter-authority student movement.

Sub-committee responsible for adult education (Question 3)

5. Of the 137 local education authorities who answered the question, 112 (82 per cent) indicated that adult education was the responsibility of their sub-committee for further education. Of the 112 local education authorities, 69 per cent specified up to three major responsibilities other than adult education, 24 per cent four or five other major responsibilities, and 6 per cent six or more. Technical education was stated by 74 per cent of the local education authorities, major awards by 65 per cent and youth service by 51 per cent. Teacher training and youth employment were each stated by about 20 per cent. Other major responsibilities stated included community services, libraries, schools (secondary, ancillary services, or special education), general financial matters, site acquisitions and grants to universities. Statistical details of the local education authority sub-committee responsible for adult education are given in Table 1 of Annex II.

Administrative Officers responsible for adult education (Question 4)

6. One hundred and thirty seven local education authorities provided details of the administrative officers responsible to the chief education officer for adult education. The information requested referred to the rank, number and percentage of time given to adult education by the officers concerned. Of the 137 responding authorities there were thirty three for whom the most senior officer responsible for adult education was a deputy or senior assistant chief education officer. The average percentage of time allocated to adult education was 8 per cent. In a further eighty five authorities the most senior officer was an assistant education officer, and the average percentage of time was 15 per cent. For the remaining nineteen authorities a wide variety of ranks and descriptions of officers were stated.

Arrangements with responsible bodies and other voluntary organisations (Question 5)

7. Information was requested about the arrangements at sub-committee and/or officer level for co-ordination with responsible bodies and other voluntary organisations concerned with adult education; the results are indicated on Table 2 of Annex II. Ninety five local education authorities (58 per cent) provided information about formal arrangements of whom fifty named one type of arrangement, and forty-five named at least two arrangements. Fifty-four authorities had mainly informal arrangements although thirty-three of these had additional formal arrangements. Responsible bodies are more inclined to invite local education authority representatives to sit on their managing committees than are local education authorities to invite responsible body representatives.

[page 186]

Numbers of students enrolled on courses of adult education (Questions 6 and 7)

8. Tables 3(i) and 3(ii) of Annex II give summary totals of the numbers of students aged eighteen years and over enrolled on courses of non-vocational adult education on 1 November 1968. Details were received in respect of local education authority provision from authorities representing 93 per cent of the estimated population aged eighteen years and over. Estimates, derived from the Department's annual statistics, have been added to account for the non-responding authorities representing the remaining 7 per cent of the adult population. Statistics relating to students enrolled on courses provided by responsible bodies have been derived from the Department's annual returns and included with other details shown at Tables 3(i) and 3 (ii). The numbers enrolled on responsible body courses relate to the full year 1968/69.

9. It was evident from the comments appended to the completed questionnaires that many local education authorities had had to make estimates of the numbers of students enrolled on non-vocational courses in their further and adult education establishments. An independent estimate of the national total of enrolments was made from the Department's annual statistics of students aged eighteen and over in evening institutes, community centres, youth clubs and "evening only" courses in major further education establishments. The Department's estimate, which was based on returns submitted annually by local education authorities, differed only slightly from the total given in Table 3(i) of Annex II.

10. The proportion of the population in England and Wales enrolled on non-vocational adult education courses in 1968/69 was 47.8 per thousand of the adult population aged eighteen and over for local education authority provision only, and 54.6 per thousand when responsible body courses were added. Local education authority provision in Wales (47.8 per thousand) was equal to the proportion in England and Wales, but was higher (63.2 per thousand) than the national total (54.6 per thousand) when responsible body provision was added.

11. In England, the South East region had the highest proportion (64.6 per thousand) whereas the regions of the north had the lowest proportions: Yorkshire and Humberside being the lowest with 42.2 per thousand. The pattern which emerges for England is that the proportion of enrolments to population decreases as the distance from the South East region increases. The pattern applies to both the male and female populations, but it is more pronounced for the male population. Details are summarised in the following table, where it can be seen that for local education authority provision only the proportions of enrolments to population are in the ratio of 1.8 women students to 1 man for the South East region, but 3.5 women to 1 man in the North region. To some extent responsible body provision tends to redress the regional differences between the proportions of enrolments of men and women. Proportionately more men participate in responsible body courses in the North region than in the South East, but the tendency is not consistent throughout all regions. The following table is a summary of Table 3 in Annex II.

[page 187]

12. The proportions of adult education students attending day as compared with evening classes, or classes provided by local education authorities as compared with those by responsible bodies (Table 3 of Annex II) show noticeable differences amongst the regions. The regional differences do not, however, appear to follow the regional gradient of proportions of students to the adult population discussed in paragraph 11 above. For example, the two areas with the highest proportions of students to the adult population are Wales and the South East region of England. The proportions of students provided for by the responsible bodies is the lowest in the South East region (7 per cent) but the highest in Wales (24 per cent). On the other hand, students at day classes are highest in the South East region (16 per cent), but almost the lowest in Wales (6 per cent).

13. Details of student enrolments for November 1963 were provided by local education authorities representing only 60.3 per cent of the adult population. For those authorities who responded the student numbers increased by 60 per cent between 1963 and 1968. An increase of this order is probably an over-statement of the increase for England and Wales.

Long-term Residential Colleges: Student Awards (Question 8)

14. The replies to this question were inadequate and a supplementary enquiry was undertaken (see Part 3 of this Appendix).

[page 188]

Courses provided for Special Groups (Question 9)

15. A summary of the enrolments in 1968/69 of courses provided for special groups is given in Annex II, Table 4. Local education authorities representing 86 per cent of the adult population provided information, and the numbers shown in the Table have been grossed up to represent the total population. Townswomen's Guilds and Women's Institutes together account for 29 per cent of the total enrolments, and prisons, borstals and detention centres account for a further 22 per cent. The Greater London authorities account for 17 per cent of the adult population, but 24 per cent of the enrolments. About a half of the total enrolments for the handicapped and for immigrants in England and Wales occur in the Greater London area.

16. The comments in paragraphs 2 and 13, regarding the unreliability of information for 1963/64 apply, also, to the enrolments for special groups. Accordingly, no comments are offered regarding changes between 1963/64 and 1968/69.

Staff in post in 1968/69 (Question 10)

17. The numbers of staff in post engaged in adult education are summarised in Annex II, Table 5. Information was received from local education authorities representing almost 90 per cent of the adult population, and the summary figures shown in the Table have been grossed up to represent all authorities. The largest group of staff is part-time teachers, but it is not possible to validate this figure as the Department does not collect statistics about part-time teachers in further education.

Courses and conferences for staff (Questions 11 and 12)

18. Local education authorities were requested to give information about the number of courses and conferences they provided specifically for adult education principals and teachers (Question 11), and the numbers of full-time staff who attended other courses in adult education (Question 12). In both cases the information requested related to 1968/69, and is summarised in Table 6 of Annex II.

19. Of the 150 local education authorities who returned questionnaires, thirty-two (21 per cent) provided courses specifically for adult education principals, and these authorities employed 51 per cent of the principals. The number of authorities who provided courses for teachers was fifty-three (35 per cent) and they employed 67 per cent of the full-time and part-time adult education teachers. Most of the courses for principals were provided by county and Greater London authorities, whereas the courses for teachers were more evenly spread amongst all authorities.

20. In addition to courses provided by local education authorities, sixteen authorities of the 150 who responded stated that a total of twenty-three full-time staff had attended courses of one term or longer. All but one of the sixteen authorities had also provided courses specifically for adult education staff. In addition, forty-eight authorities stated that a total of

[page 189]

180 full-time staff had attended courses of less than one month. Of the forty-eight authorities, thirty-seven had also provided courses specifically for adult education staff, and accounted for 162 (90 per cent) of the total 180 attending courses. No authorities reported that staff attended courses of more than one month but less than one term.

21. The evidence of the replies suggests that the provision of courses and conferences for adult education staff tends to be concentrated in the larger authorities. Authorities, particularly the larger ones with more facilities and expertise, doubtless invited adult education staff from other local education authorities to attend their courses. Whilst the county boroughs provided proportionately fewer courses on average than either the counties or Greater London authorities, they had higher than average proportions of full-time staff attending other courses and conferences. However, the replies referred only to one year (1968/69), and it is possible that smaller authorities may provide facilities at intervals less frequently than one year. One authority, for example, did not offer information to question 11 because it was considered misleading to give information in respect of a single year.

Expenditure and Income (Question 13)

22. From the comments appended to the questionnaire, most local education authorities had difficulty in providing details of the expenditure and income for non-vocational adult education. Where information was provided the figures tended to be estimated apportionments. Details for 1968/69 were provided by authorities representing 65 per cent of the population aged eighteen and over, but as several of the larger authorities were unable to provide details, regional comparisons have not been given as they might be misleading. For 1963/64, responding authorities represented only about a third of the population, and, hence, it was concluded that no reliable comparisons could be made between 1963/64 and 1968/69.

23. The totals in Tables 7 and 8 for 1968/69 exclude contributions between local education authorities, and in view of the unreliability of answers to question 8 (vide paragraph 14) estimates were made of the expenditure on student awards in adult education based upon the numbers obtained from a special enquiry. The figures given in Table 7 have been grossed up to the total population.

24. The estimated expenditure on adult education represents about 1.1 per cent overall of the total expenditure by local education authorities on all services. For Greater London the proportion is about double that for the remainder of England and Wales.

Building projects (Questions 14 and 15)

25. Ninety-two of the 150 local education authorities who replied to the questionnaire gave details of building projects, including contributions to capital expenditure of projects undertaken by other bodies, in the period 1964/65 to 1968/69. The replies are summarised in Tables 9(i) and 9(ii) of Annex II.

[page 190]

26. Of the total 668 projects costing £4.13 million, 374 projects (56 per cent) were for community centres and village halls and accounted for 38 per cent of the total expenditure. Expressed in terms of the cost per 1,000 of the adult population the national average was £162.3 per 1,000. The county borough cost (£243.7 per thousand) was considerably higher than the national average due to two exceptionally large projects in the North West region costing a total of £750,000 (1). It is interesting to note that of the 184 local education authority projects to provide wings or suites of rooms in premises other than community centres or village halls, 179 were in schools.

27. Table 9(ii) shows the geographical distribution of projects. It would appear that in areas of England where the uptake of adult education tends to be lower than the national average (e.g. in the northern areas) the total expenditure (i.e. community centres and village halls plus other projects) expressed as a ratio of the adult population tends to be higher than the national average. In the North region, for example, this has been achieved by a higher proportionate expenditure on community centres and village halls, whereas in the North West region the high expenditure is due to the two exceptionally large projects referred to in paragraph 26. The expenditure for Wales tends to be higher than the national average for all types of project.

(1) The two projects were one in Manchester of £500,000 and another in Rochdale of £250,000

[page 191]

Department of Education and Science,
Elizabeth House, 39 York Road, London S.E.1.

To the Local Education Authority.
14th May, 1970.

Dear Chief Education Officer,

COMMITTEE ON ADULT EDUCATION.

This committee, under the chairmanship of Sir Lionel Russell, has been established by the Secretary of State with the following terms of reference.

"To assess the need for and to review the provision of non-vocational adult education in England and Wales; to consider the appropriateness of existing educational, administrative and financial policies; and to make recommendations with a view to obtaining the most effective and economical deployment of available resources to enable adult education to make its proper contribution to the national system of education conceived of as a process continuing through life."

We realise that the enquiry will cause additional work both in your office and in the establishments from which certain information will be required, but hope that the results may be of value locally as well as to this committee.

The questionnaire and notes are intended to be self-explanatory. Any enquiries should be addressed to Miss T. Gale at this office. Her telephone number is 01-928 9222. It will be appreciated if you will return the completed questionnaire to Miss Gale as soon as possible and, in any case, not later than 15th July, 1970. A spare copy is enclosed for you to retain.

Yours faithfully,    
C W Rowland.

[page 192]

Notes for guidance

1. This request for information is made, solely for the purposes of the above Enquiry, to fill gaps in the factual material at present available to the Committee. The questions, and their arrangement and headings, do not reflect any conclusions or lines of thought which have been adopted by the Committee.

2. The Enquiry is concerned with that part of adult education which is provided or grant-aided by LEAs, which is not specifically designed to meet vocational requirements and which is for those who have left school.

3. Adults are regarded as those aged 18 or over.

4. Courses of Adult Education.

Courses provided by institutes and establishments of FE, for example evening institutes, colleges of FE, technical etc. colleges, colleges of art etc., attended by adults and not designed to prepare students for a particular examination, fall clearly within this category. Other courses of general education should not be excluded solely because some of the students will make use of them for examination purposes or as a preparation for a stage in their career, such as entry, as mature students, into a College of Education. Any courses of general education provided for special groups, for example, immigrants, old people, trades union groups etc., should be included, although it is realised that some of these may be organised in specialist departments of colleges.

5. Institutes other than Major Establishments of Further Education.

These institutions include evening institutes, adult education centres, village or community colleges, community centres, etc. and all other courses provided by the LEA (other than those provided by major establishments).

6. Numbers of Students.

Where numbers of students are requested it is appreciated that students enrolled in more than one course will be counted more than once and that students attending more than one course during the week will be counted more than once.

7. Please note that in Section V information is required about financial aid to Responsible Bodies, voluntary educational organisations and to students.

8. In Section II relating to adult students, figures for courses provided by Responsible Bodies are not required, but courses provided by the LEA for voluntary organisations should be included.

[page 193]

[page 194]

[page 195]

References are to paragraph numbers in the Report Part I - Assessment of Need - paragraphs 1 to 75
Part II - Review of Existing Provision - paragraphs 76 to 146
Part III - Future of Adult Education - paragraphs 147 to 433

Numbers in italics refer to paragraphs in the Supplement on Matters Peculiar to Wales

ACCOMMODATION

adapted buildings, 320.
commercial buildings, 339.
educational premises, 89, 315-339.
multi-purpose use, 196, 317, 318, 337, 338,382-384.
residential accommodation, 340-341.

national policy, 77, 78.
No 6 of 1963, 80, 94, 155, 221.
No 15 of 1967, 308.
No 9 of 1969, 78, 127, 337. No 13 of 1972, 80.

a comprehensive service of, 9, 59-75.
definition, 8.
general structure, 148-154.
government lead, 155-160.
specification of needs for, 57, 58.

AREA HEADS, 358, 359, 361.

AREA ORGANISATION OF ADULT EDUCATION

accommodation, 315-331.
characteristics, 175, 188, 192-200.
disadvantaged, attention to, 285, 291.
management, 197-200, 313.
staff, 195, 285, 356-358.

ASHBY REPORT, 78.

AWARDS see STUDENT SUPPORT.

BRITISH THEATRE ASSOCIATION, 124.

BROADCASTING, 5,25, 128, 129, 145, 256-262, 280, 298.

BUILDING PROGRAMME, 73, 80, 332-339.

BURNHAM FURTHER EDUCATION COMMITTEE, 359-360, 368, 369, 373, 377, 398. (see also FURTHER EDUCATION SALARIES DOCUMENT).

CARETAKING, 318, 385.

[page 306]

CIRCULARS

national policy, 77.
No 15 of 1967, 78.
No 2 of 1970, 337.
No 7 of 1970, 200.
No 4 of 1971, 78, 308.

CLERICAL STAFF, 381.

COLEG HARLECH long-term residential college, 135, 38, 39.
proportion of Welsh students - SUPPLEMENT ON MATTERS PECULIAR TO WALES
  Statement by Committee.
  Matters Peculiar to Wales by Mr R T Ellis, 38, 39, 81.
  Note of Extension by Mr R T Ellis.

COLLEGES OF ART, 89, 201.

COLLEGES OF EDUCATION, 252, 253, 411.

COLLEGES OF FURTHER EDUCATION, 89, 183, 193, 197, 201, 291, 292, 325, 373, 407.

COMMITTEE OF DIRECTORS OF POLYTECHNICS, 297.

COMMlTTEE OF VICE-CHANCELLORS AND PRINCIPALS, 297.

COMMUNITY CENTRES, 89, 121, 127, 186, 327, 328.

COMMUNITY COLLEGE/SCHOOL, 89, 144, 193, 197, 291, 322, 325, 326, 334, 372, 375, 407,422.

COMMUNITY WORKSHOPS, 185, 338.

CO-OPERATIVE COLLEGE, LOUGHBOROUGH, 135.

CO-OPERATIVE PLANNING, 93, 95, 96

CORRESPONDENCE EDUCATION, 132, 145, 307.

COUNCIL FOR NATIONAL ACADEMIC AWARDS, 297.

COUNSELLING.

COURSES, 20, 85, 86, 101, 103, 108, 111, 117, 123, 126, 139, 140, 141.

DEFENCE, MINISTRY OF, 142.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE.

and existing provision, 20, 77-80, 99, 100, 124.
and government lead, 155-160, 208.
and responsible bodies, 97-100.
(see also DIRECT GRANT and SECRETARY OF STATE).

DEVELOPMENT COUNCILS - LOCAL, 173-175, 212, 216, 233, 263, 419.

DISADVANTAGED, 58, 71, 114, 116, 187, 188, 277-285.

[page 307]

DIRECT GRANT

National Institute of Adult Education, 426-430.
"other" direct grant bodies, 124, 242-246, 394.
principle, 97, 204-207.
universities, 98, 99, 211-223, 389.
voluntary sector, 224-225.
WEA, 99, 111, 226-241, 392, 393.

appointments, salaries, 372-375.
premises, 196, 317, 318, 334.
resources, 335, 342-344.

for occupational change, 276.
for retirement, 39, 276.
second chance, 47, 58, 136, 145, 183, 286-299.
trends in, 44-56.
and trade unions, 267-269.

EDUCATION ACT, 1962; 301.

EDUCATION (No. 2) ACT, 1968; 199.

EDUCATIONAL CENTRES ASSOCIATION, 23, 120, 124, 198.

EDUCATIONAL LEAVE, 270-272.

EDUCATIONAL PREMISES, 315-331.

EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY, 75, 186, 256-257, 265, 298, 345.

EQUIPMENT, 342-354.

EVENING INSTITUTES, 80, 84, 89, 92, 322, 323.

FEES see STUDENTS CONTRIBUTIONS.

FINANCE (see also DIRECT GRANT, LOCAL EDUCATION AUTHORITIES, STAFF, UNIVERSITIES, VOLUNTARY SOCIETIES, WEA.)

cost of proposals for initial period, page iii of the General Statement

"FREE TRADE", 167, 313.

FURTHER EDUCATION REGULATIONS, 1969; 103, 104, 108, 208, 209.

FURTHER EDUCATION SALARIES DOCUMENT, 362-364, 397.

HM INSPECTORS, 79, 113, 160, 163.

HILLCROFT COLLEGE, SURBITON, 135, 136.

HOME OFFICE

community development project, 144.
education in penal establishments, 143.
urban programme, 116, 144.

[page 308]

INDUSTRY

adult education in relation to, 115, 213, 265-276.
contribution, 130, 339.

LEGISLATION need for, 158, 200, 201.

LEISURE, CHANGING PATTERNS, 34-40.

LIBRARIES, 66, 125, 126, 222, 327, 330, 346-354.

LOCAL EDUCATION AUTHORITIES accommodation, 315-327, 332-338.
direct provision, 176-203.
existing provision, 13-15, 81-96.
"free trade ", 167, 313.
identification of special groups, 184.
initiative in local cooperative planning, 170-172.
proposals for the development of adult education, 160.
sole or main providers, 151-154.
staff, 355-384, 395-401.
support for promoting and providing bodies, 100, 123, 124, 170, 184, 185, 208, 242.
support for the universities, 221, 315, 328.
support for the WEA, 239, 315, 328.
Wales: SUPPLEMENT ON MATTERS PECULIAR TO WALES
Matters Peculiar to Wales by Mr. R. T. Ellis, 52, 62, 64, 80, 82.

LONG TERM RESIDENTIAL COLLEGES see RESIDENTIAL COLLEGES.

MANAGEMENT COMMITTEES, 197-200, 313.

MEDIA - PARTNERS AND SUPPORTERS, 42, 72, 128-129, 256-262, 280, 298.

MINOR WORKS, 333.

MUSEUMS, 125, 126.

NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY, 162, 262, 433.

NATIONAL FEDERATION OF COMMUNITY ASSOCIATIONS (see also COMMUNITY CENTRES).

fostering of community centres, 121.

NATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH, 433.

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ADULT EDUCATION, 114, 124, 162, 163, 262, 425, 426-430, 433.

NEED(S)

future, 28-56.
present demand, evidence of, 13-25.
social change, and, 41-43.
specification of, for adult education, 57-58.
unmet, 26, 27.

PERMANENT EDUCATION, 49, 271.

[page 309]

PHASES OF DEVELOPMENT, 69-74.

PLATER COLLEGE, OXFORD, 135, 136.

POLYTECHNICS, 202, 411.

POPULATION, SIZE AND STRUCTURE, 29-33, App. B.

PROMOTIONAL BODIES, 208, 209, 243, 244.

PUBLICITY, 189, 190.

QUALIFICATIONS

adult access to/second chance, 47, 58, 136, 145, 183, 286-299.
universities and, 294-297.

REGIONAL COOPERATION, 165-169.

REGULATIONS, FURTHER EDUCATION, 1969,

regulations, 103, 104, 108, 208, 209, App. A.
need for revision, 213.

RESEARCH, 218, 219, 431-433.

RESIDENTIAL ACCOMMODATION, 340-341.

RESIDENTIAL COLLEGES,

long term, 133-137, 209, 247-255, 302-306, 340, 385.
short term, 133, 134, 138-140, 203, 341, 377.

RESPONSIBLE BODIES

existing provision, 97-101.
concept discarded, 208, 209, 217, 246.

RURAL AREAS, 94, 184, 194, 307.

RURAL MUSIC SCHOOLS ASSOCIATION, 124.

RUSKIN COLLEGE, OXFORD, 135, 136, 267.

SECRETARY OF STATE FOR EDUCATION AND SCIENCE, 77, 80, 97, 158, 159, 160, 164, 200, 210, 332-333.

SERVICE CENTRE FOR SOCIAL STUDIES, 99, 115, 124, 238, 241, 269, 345.

SERVICING BODIES, 125-132.

SOCIAL CHANGE, needs deriving from, 41-45.

SPORTS CENTRES, 66, 185.

SPORTS COUNCIL, 124.

STAFF

administrative and advisory, 379, 380.
ancillary, 196, 381-384.
full-time at present employed, 13, 90, 91.
local education authority full-time, 355-358, 406.
part-time, 13, 91, 395-402.

[page 310]

promotional bodies, 394.
salaries for full-time, 359-378.
training (see TRAINING).
university, 104-106, 214, 385-389.
WEA, 118, 236, 237, 385, 390, 393, 402, 416.
working with the disadvantaged, 285, 356.

STATISTICS, 418-425, App B.

STUDENT SUPPORT, 300-306.

STUDENTS, 13, 18, 20, 83, 84, 101, 111, 114, 131, 141.

STUDENTS' CONTRIBUTIONS, 220, 239, 284, 308-314, App C.

TECHNICAL COLLEGES, 201.

TOWNSWOMEN'S GUILDS, NATIONAL UNION, 119, 124.

TRADE UNIONS

broader education of workers, 274, 275.
education of members, 265-269.
industrial relations, 267, 268.
Ruskin College, association with, 136.
WEA, relations with, 115.

UNIVERSITIES access to qualifications, 294-297.
accommodation, 100, 107, 329, 330.
direct grant, 99, 209, 213, 214, 217, 389.
existing provision, 16--19, 102-109.
grants from local education authorities, 100, 221.
research and training, 218, 219, 406-417.
staff, 105, 106, 385-389, 401, 416.
work to be grant aided, 211-213.
Wales: SuPPLEMENT ON MATTERS PECULIAR TO WALES.
Matters Peculiar to Wales by Mr R T Ellis, 16-18, 33-37, 45, 57, 74-76.

UNIVERSITY COUNCIL FOR ADULT EDUCATION, 164, 424.

UNIVERSITY GRANTS COMMITTEE, 100, 206, 208, 213, 218, 222, 223, 297, 329, 432.

VOLUNTARY SOCIETIES.

direct grant, 209, 242-246, 394.
existing provision, 23, 119-124.
role in adult education, 5, 74, 153, 154, 184, 224, 225.

SUPPLEMENT ON MATTERS PECULIAR TO WALES.
Statement by Committee.
Matters Peculiar to Wales by Mr R T Ellis.
  history of adult education in Wales, 1-20.
  present character of adult education in Wales, 21-23.
  cultural influences, 24-41.
    language, 42-53.

[page 311]

  environmental influences, 54-64.
  an assessment, 65-83.
Note of Extension by Mr R T Ellis.

WELSH NATIONAL COUNCIL OF YMCAs, 208, 245, 246, 26.

WOMEN'S INSTITUTES, NATIONAL FEDERATION, 119, 124.

WORK, CHANGING PATTERNS, 34-40.

WORKERS, BROADER EDUCATION OF, 274-275.

WORKERS EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION.

accommodation, 100, 328, 329.
association with universities, 16, 19, 98, 111, 227, 234.
direct grant, 99, 119, 124, 205, 209, 237, 238, 240, 392, 393.
existing provision, 20-22, 110-118, 226-227.
expansion, areas of, 232.
grant from local education authorities, 82, 100, 239.
promoting and providing body, 228, 230.
Service Centre for Social Studies (see SERVICE CENTRE FOR SOCIAL STUDIES).
staff, 118, 236, 237, 385, 390-393, 402, 416.
Wales: SUPPLEMENT ON MATTERS PECULIAR TO WALES.
  Statement by Committee.
  Matters Peculiar to Wales by Mr R T Ellis, 34, 35, 37, 60, 78, 79,80, 81.
  Note of Extension by Mr R T Ellis.
work to be grant aided, 232-236.

National Council of, 124.
Welsh Council of, 208, 245, 246.

YOUTH WORK, 80, 193, 375.