ABSTRACT

After the declaration of lifelong learning as the Sustainable Development Goal 4 in 2015, lifelong learning has become a new policy bandwagon. However, whether investment of time and resources needed for it should be the responsibility of marginalised adults or any other macrolevel institutions has remained elusive. Nested in the larger theoretical and scholarly debate on meritocracy, this paper analyses the World Bank’s policy documents and interviews conducted among Nepali educational policymakers. The key findings of this study suggest that under the neocolonial contract foisted by the World Bank’s policy discourses, marginalised adults are expected to take responsibility for lifelong learning and remain competitive in the global job market. They are blamed for their inability to be competitive because lifelong learning policies are guided by a fallacious discourse of meritocracy. The vision shared by Nepali policymakers shows that lifelong learning can be embedded in the sociocultural contexts of the learners rather than merely guided by meritocratic ideals.

摘要

自2015年将终身学习列为可持续发展目标4后，终身学习已成为新的政策潮流。然而，为此投入的时间和资源是否应该由边缘化成年人或任何其他宏观机构负责，仍然是一个难以捉摸的问题。本文立足于关于精英管理的更广泛的理论和学术辩论，分析了世界银行的政策文件和对尼泊尔教育政策制定者进行的访谈。这项研究的主要发现表明，在世界银行政策话语强加的新殖民契约下，边缘化成年人应该承担终身学习的责任，并在全球就业市场上保持竞争力。他们因缺乏竞争力而受到指责，因为终身学习政策是由错误的精英主义话语指导的。尼泊尔政策制定者的共同愿景表明，终身学习可以融入学习者的社会文化背景，而不仅仅是受精英理想的指导。