STRUCTURING LIFELONG EDUCATION

The thesis of this article is that all forms of education are increasingly becoming parts of a process of lifelong education, a constant which continues to manifest itself even as education is increasingly diversified and internationalized through processes which are both complementary and oppositional. The author proposes a means of classifying types of education which emphasizes the continuity of education as a whole ‐ each type and level being subsumed under twin rubrics of basic education and supplementary education. Each level of education as delimited by various standard classification systems, particularly those of Coombs and the Unesco ISCED system, can be made to fit at least partially under either one of the author's rubrics. Viewing all forms of educational classification in terras of basic education and supplementary education, from grade school to PhD levels, gives a more realistic appreciation of the continuing need of the individual for education in harmony with the information explosion and the continuously changing requirements of the workplace.