ABSTRACT
Adult education in the East European countries is viewed very broadly. It includes not only the usual formal school-type provision at elementary, secondary and post-secondary levels, and the considerable training operations carried out by industrial enterprises, but also a widespread network of non-formal facilities and programs such as libraries, houses of culture, trade union and village level clubs, people’s and workers’ universities, societies for the popularization of science, political party organizations, amateur art, music, theatre and folklore groups, mass organizations for culture, education and physical culture and others. Adult educators are often referred to as cultural or cultural-educational workers. Consistent with the post-war ideological, political and economic system in East Europe, all forms of adult education and cultural work have to fit into the prevailing social system and into the planned economy, as well as being subject to Communist Party and state control.
