This volume is the fifth and last in a series that gives a comphehensive view on the present status and future prospects of adult education in Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries. The series attempts to show what kind of national policies and strategies are required to increase public participation in adult education and to improve its overall efficiency in order to meet high priority societal, group, and individual learning needs. Chapter 1 of this volume considers the implications of treating the education of disadvantaged as part of comprehensive national policy for adult education. While stressing that the rhetoric about the importance of serving the educational needs of disadvantaged adults has not been matched by polices, it points to the progress that has been made. The main conclusion of the chapter is that a proper set of polices implies the adoption of special measures to identify and satisfy the unmet educational needs of the disadvantaged. The next four chapters consist of country case studies from Australia, Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Chapter 6 deals with the major problem of how to induce disadvantaged adults to participate in adult education. It is argued that those administering adult education programs have paid far too little attention to the decisive influence of the way information is processed and disseminated. None of the emerging systems of recurrent education designed to encourage adult learning will improve in efficiency and do justice to the disadvantaged unless stimulating information is comprehensively presented. The last chapter is devoted to the financial implications of widening the access of the disadvantaged to education. A key section of the chapter states five propositions about program planning, each having implications for public expenditures. (KC)