We are celebrating the 10-year anniversary of Debats d’Educació by giving the educational community the opportunity to air its views
In our society, learning plays such an important role in economic and social activity as a whole, that not only would it be inappropriate to try and restrict people’s need for learning to a particular stage of their lives, but it would also be presumptuous to believe that this process, one that is necessarily sustained throughout the life cycle, can be restricted to the formal education system. New settings for learning are gaining importance in people’s day-to-day lives. The current configuration of this ecology of learning demands co-responsibility and commitment on the part of the different educational players involved therein. In this purpose, educational policies are called for that view learning as a process that takes place throughout the length, but also the breadth of one’s life (lifewide and lifelong learning), and which go beyond the traditional concept of retraining in the professional sphere to consider development in the other dimensions that make up people's life trajectory.
At all events, in Catalonia the signs are that this remains a considerable challenge: less than 10% of the population involve themselves in this type of learning, and most of those who do are graduates. Therefore, in its current form, this model of learning does not tend to redress educational inequalities and, on the other hand, it offers more opportunities to people who already have more educational capital.