Combating Poverty through Adult Education

Abstract

Combating Poverty through Adult Education Silver Jubilee Celebration Institute of Distance and Continuing Education University of Guyana Inauguration of the Dennis Irvine Lecture Series First Lecture by Professor Gajaraj Dhanarajan President and Chief Executive Officer, The Commonwealth of Learning, 5 March 2001 // May I first congratulate and compliment the University, its Institute of Distance and Continuing Education, the Vice-Chancellor, and Mr. Samuel Small on the Silver Jubilee of the Institute and in celebrating and recognising a great regional academic leader, scholar, administrator, international public servant, Dr. Dennis H. Irvine, through a Lecture Series in his honour. Secondly, please accept my sincere gratitude for giving me the honour of delivering this inaugural lecture in the Series. I am humbled by your invitation, flattered at the thought of addressing such a distinguished gathering, enormously pleased to pay homage to a great friend of The Commonwealth of Learning (COL), and at the same time to also have the opportunity to publicly place on record the gratitude of COL for the unstinting service and support Dr. Irvine rendered to COL while he was in Canada and when he returned to his native land, Jamaica. All those who have come to know him, hold Dennis, in great awe. We are constantly amazed at the erudition, energy and passion he brings to the things he does and through his powers of argument, persuasion and clever diplomacy, the contributions he has made to education, not only here in Guyana but to the greater Commonwealth also. When he invited me, Mr. Small suggested that I speak of adult education and poverty alleviation. The first I know a little about through professional experience and the second, a little bit more through personal experience. This lecture is therefore based less on scholarship of the subject and more arising out of a sense of despondency witnessing the indignities and inequalities suffered by those who have been denied greater opportunities for learning for one reason or another.