Education
Adult Education
Adult education is the practice of teaching and educating adults. This often happens in the workplace, through ‘extension’ or ‘continuing education’ courses at secondary schools, at a college or university. Other learning places include folk high schools, community colleges, and lifelong learning centers. The practice is also often referred to as ‘Training and Development’. It has also been referred to as andragogy (to distinguish it from pedagogy). A difference is made between vocational education, mostly undertaken in workplaces and frequently related to up skilling, and non-formal adult education including learning skills or learning for personal development.
The Adult Continuing Education and Extension Department was established in 1983 in order to extend the academic facilities and expertise of Jadavpur University to the educationally underprivileged sections of society, as delineated in the UGC guidelines of 1982. After the Eighth Plan was over, the Centre reoriented its activities according to the priorities set in the new guideline. Adult Education is aware that some students with a disability may need assistance to participate fully. Please contact the organizing office of the particular class/es you’re interested in so that we can try to assist. Please contact us for your local centre details.
Post-Independence India inherited a system of education which was characterized by large scale inter and intra-regional imbalances. The system educated a select few, leaving a wide gap between the educated and the illiterate. The country’s literacy rate in 1947 was only 14 per cent and female literacy rate was abysmally low at 8 per cent. Only one child out of three had an opportunity for enrollment in primary schools. Educational equality was aggravated by economic inequality, gender disparity and rigid social stratification.
