OPENING CEREMONY

10th Adult Learners’ Week was opened by a festive event in the Russian Theatre inTallinn with 326 participants. Special ALW buses took people to the venue from all 15 counties.

Minister of Education and Research, Tõnis Lukas, sent a video greeting. The week was officially opened by Deputy Secretary General of Ministry of Education and Research, Katri Raik. The team of AEAE Andras gave a brief overview of the past nine years outlining the remarkable development of ALW.

Main speech was this time delivered by Secretary-General of UNESCO Estonian National Committee and a well-known Estonian poetess, Doris Kareva, whose speech was titled „Learning – a hidden treasure”.

The opening ceremony had a foreign guest – Mr Simon Beer, a senior specialist of adult education from National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE), London, whose presentation was about „Culture and Learning: some experience from London“.

In his speech he acknowledged the developing cooperation between NIACE and AEAE Andras that got a start in May 2007, when Estonian ALW coordinators participated in ALW in the UK.