高齡教育政策發展之跨國研究──以臺灣、日本及韓國為例

A Study on Elder Educational Policies among Taiwan, Japan and Korea

臺灣將於2025年成為超高齡社會，如何迎接高齡人口比例的新高峰，使國家持續前行是社會共同努力方向。高齡教育是除醫療照護外，促進高齡者健康自主的重要途徑，透過前端的教育促進健康將有效降低後端的照護成本，故擬定創新有效的高齡教育政策乃為必要。然臺灣高齡化時程過快，無法如歐美有較長時間探索及規劃適合本國之高齡教育政策，參究與臺灣地理人文相近的國家發展情形為可行之道。本研究以臺灣、日本及韓國為研究對象，透過深度訪談、比較研究及焦點團體座談等方法，對其高齡教育政策進行探究，以瞭解各國高齡教育環境、推行體系、現行法規及當前政策發展方向等。結論包括：一、各國高齡化時程不同，但均認知教育為因應社會高齡化重要的發展策略；二、各國皆將高齡教育融入終身教育體系，以營造良好的終身學習環境；三、中央至地方政府教育行政部門原則上主責推動高齡教育，惟實際上廣涵衛生福利與社政等部門；四、各國高齡教育政策均朝終身教育方向推進，以整合正規與非正規教育體系；五、各國高齡教育經費不足，民間組織支援力道弱；六、各國高齡教育相關法律位階不同，政策實施力道有所差異；七、世代共融的代間教育漸成為高齡教育發展主要方向；八、未來發展方向聚焦於塑造無年齡歧視的高齡教育情境，培育高齡人力回流，營造世代共融的社會。

Taiwan would head into an aged society in 2018 and by 2025 enter into a super-aged society. How to Taiwan deals effectively with population aging, and make active efforts to pursue country to develop, is the direction of the joint efforts of people. In addition to passive medical care, elder education is the most important way to enhance older adults’ health and independence and effectively reduce health care costs. Because the speed of population aging process in Taiwan would be unprecedented, our government doesn’t have enough time to explore and format elder educational policy slowly as western countries, which is suitable for Taiwan’s situation. Therefore, it’s more timely and effective method to take reference of the elder education policies of other representative Asian countries like Japan and Korea. The purposes of the study reported here are to explore elder educational environment, units in charged with elder education, laws and regulations, policies development and strategic planning of Taiwan, Japan and Korea through in-depth interview, comparative method and expertise conference method. The conclusions include: 1. Different countries have different ageing schedules, but all recognize that education is an important strategy to cope with population ageing; 2. All countries integrate elder education into lifelong education system to create a better learning environment; 3. The central department of education and the network of local authorities are in charge of senior education in principle, but the actually covers health and social welfare administrations; 4. The policies of elder education in all countries are developing in the direction of lifelong education to integrate the formal and informal education systems; 5. Inadequate funding for elder education and weak support from civil organizations restrict the development of elder education; 6. Legal norms which are located in different ranks have different implementation forces; 7. Intergenerational learning becomes a main direction for elder educational development; 8. The future development direction is to shape a positive educational environment free of age discrimination, cultivate the return of senior manpower, and bring the generations together. According to the research result, the suggestions will be proposed for improving policies making and programs planning.