WOMEN AND ADULT BASIC
EDUCATION IN CANADA: This survey is CCLOW'S most recent publication in the field of Adult Basic Education. It focuses on the main components of ABE programs, as well as the learning and related needs of women in these programs. Recommendations of the report are listed below in the Executive Summary. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Data from the 1981 census of Canada reveal that 24.1 percent of the out-of-school adult female population has less than grade nine education and that only 2.0 percent of these functionally illiterate women attend formal programs to improve their educational achievement. The data provided in this report indicate that women who attend adult basic education programs are not representative of the population of under-educated women in Canada. This reports contains the findings of a survey of adult basic education programs in Canada. The objective of the survey was to provide information which could be used to answer the question: To what extent do adult basic education programs in Canada address the learning and related needs of women? The survey focused on two areas:
Questionnaires were mailed to 360 adult basic education (ABE) programs across Canada; 106 completed questionnaires were returned. Personal Interviews were conducted with thirty women students in ABE programs in three provinces - British Columbia, Manitoba and Ontario. The major findings are summarized below. LEARNING AND RELATED NEEDS OF WOMEN Both providers and women students identified the major needs of women, in order of importance, as educational, psychological and financial. Although lack of childcare services was perceived as a major barrier to regular attendance, it was not mentioned as a major need of women students, suggesting that neither group perceived childcare as an educational need or an education-related issue. More women students than providers felt that there was a difference between the learning needs of women and men in ABE programs. Women students prefer to learn in a one-to- one student-teacher relationship and in small groups. PROGRAM DELIVERY Most ABE programs are delivered by community colleges and school boards - institutions which are designed to meet the educational needs of young adults and children respectively. These institutions tend to provide most ABE programs within the same kind of time schedule developed for children in school and young adults in colleges, and fail to offer flexible programming geared to the needs of adult women. Many personal and financial responsibilities make it extremely difficult for adult women, especially those with young children, to pursue the upgrading of their education within rigid youth- oriented schedules. Furthermore, these youth-oriented institutions do not provide adequate supplementary services to help women deal with the personal responsibilities which prevent them from regularly attending the programs. The service least likely to be provided is childcare , yet the lack of childcare is a major barrier to women's regular attendance in the programs. The second least provided service is transportation which, like childcare, is necessary to help women to physically get to the ABE programs. Those supplementary services which are provided tend to be available mostly during the day. Consequently, women who work during the day and can only attend programs in the evening are deterred from so doing. |
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