ABSTRACT

Phrases like Education for Uncertainty, which seemed paradoxical in the early 1970s, are built into the deliberations of educators today – especially in all that concerns the transition from compulsory schooling to adult life of whatever type. Most educational and political discussion referred to "young people" or "youth" or – in Britain especially – "children". As late as 1983 we still hear of "Youth Opportunity Programmes" and the like, referring to young men and women, who in important respects are legally adults and who are much more so socially. Microprocessors, the computerisation of information services, worldwide and immediate access to the exchange of ideas and experience – these things are a familiar part of every young adult's life at home, increasingly so at work and indeed often at school. In most countries of the world it is assumed that a Ministry or Department of Education provides and regulates a clearly demarcated system of formal education throughout the country.