Quality Adult Education Benchmarks for Indigeneous Education

In November 2010, in Indonesia, Asia South Pacific Association for Basic and Adult Education(ASPBAE) brought together a number of educators from across its region to discuss benchmarking quality adult education for indigenous peoples. Educators came from across the ASPBAE region including the Philippines, India, Nepal, New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, Indonesia and Uzbekistan to share experiences and to build a collective understanding of what constitutes a good quality adult education program for indigenous peoples. Discussions were informed by a broader ASPBAE Quality Adult Education Framework, which had its origins in discussions held in 2009. The Core of the Framework is grounded on ASPBAE’s commitment to education as a right, adult education for transformation, and adult and basic education as integral and inter‐connected components of the vision of lifelong learning (Guevara, 2010). Other frameworks promoted by ASPBAE for education to be empowering, pro‐poor, gender just and sustainable were also important considerations. The 2010 gathering served as a nodal point to discuss the ASPBAE framework more deeply and to reaffirm or create a set of benchmarks for indigenous education which can be validated through a subsequent national and regional consultation process.