A quarter of all places in third-level institutions should be reserved for mature students by 2015, according to a report by a body representing leaders of more than 200 religious congregations.
The bulk of these mature students should either be from disadvantaged backgrounds or have been unable to enter third-level education after leaving school, the document by CORI, the Conference of Religious of Ireland, says.
The report, Social Transformation and Lifelong Learning, says adult and community education in the Republic has had an "inferior status" in the past. It makes 69 recommendations, with a central theme that adult education should be an entitlement for those who have been failed by the formal system.
The document contributes to the debate on the Government's Green Paper on adult education published last November. It also comes in advance of the National Forum on Adult Education to be held in Dublin Castle on September 22nd. A White Paper on the development of the sector is expected shortly after the forum.
About a third of the adult population participates in adult education in the State - much less than in the other 28 countries which are members of the OECD, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Some 40 per cent of the adult population left school before the age of 15, and the Department of Education and Science spends less than 0.25 per cent of educational expenditure on adults. CORI's 75-page document recommends the phased introduction of a lifelong learning entitlement scheme, aimed initially at adults who are at "risk of poverty".
This includes people under the age of 25 who left school before completing senior cycle, people aged between 25 and 40 who did not complete junior cycle, and any other adults who, irrespective of age or education, are having difficulty with literacy. The scheme's emphasis on an individual's learning needs would, CORI argues, make a "major contribution to a national assessment of adult education needs". CORI also calls for a substantial increase in funding for community education. The report says there should be a phased increase in the proportion of places in all faculties in third-level institutions reserved for mature students, up to a target of 25 per cent by 2015.
The Green Paper, while recommending that third-level institutions work towards fixing mature student quotas, does not propose an overall target.
CORI urges "unprecedented radical change". It says a commitment to lifelong learning is "incompatible with a subject-based curriculum and with a system of assessment dominated by terminal written examinations."