ABSTRACT
General education about ageing and formative schooling designed to fit the realities of an ageing society are important aspects of gerontological education. If these are properly arranged, a large part of the re-orientation of attitudes and understandings necessary in professional gerontological training programmes will be taken care of. The leading edge of gerontological education is certainly research into all aspects of ageing, not only biological and psychological, but also social, economic, political and philosophical. The time has come when an administration, when it is setting up a new programme to provide services for the elderly, should be able, and indeed should be expected, to recruit staff with gerontological qualifications, particularly for key positions in the design and planning of services and programmes. Gerontological education must give full recognition to the ethos and demonstrations of educational gerontology that the ability of older persons to learn, and to acquire new qualifications is not diminished.
