Guest blog by 'Enda Mess'
It's good to have the opportunity to raise awareness of the severe
cuts that are affecting Adult Education and, very recently, ESOL (English for
Speakers of Other Languages) courses in particular. These cuts often go
unnoticed as those who take up these services are often those whose voices are
least likely to be heard. However, the classes are highly valued and often
vital to those who use them.
At Brent Start (formerly Brent Adult and Community Education Service -
BACES) the recent central government cuts mean that 40% of ESOL provision will
be cut - with job losses to match! The cut has been very sudden - the
government announced the withdrawal of all funding for classes for those on Job
Seekers Allowance with immediate effect at the end of July - just when everyone
was finishing for the year and all timetables and staffing was planned.
Despite the fact that services in other areas seem to be managing to
hold off from making immediate redundancies, here in Brent the decision has
been made act very swiftly in implementing the cuts and staff are returning to
work to find they may not have a job by mid October.
What were known as the JCP (Job Centre Plus) classes were problematic
for most adult educators and
trade unionists in that they were 'mandated' - the new euphemism for
compulsory. Students were referred from the Job Centre and there could be
sanctions for non attendance. However, their withdrawal removes an opportunity
for free classes and 40% of any provision is a huge loss.
This of course comes at a time when the plight of refugees and
migrants is very topical. The cut was announced the day after Cameron said: 'At
the moment we have parts of the country where opportunities remain limited ...
where language remains a real barrier, where too many women from minority
communities remain trapped outside the workforce, and where educational
attainment is low'. Such decisions show the hypocrisy of the current government’s
stated aim to help individuals develop
skills in order to gain jobs and communicate with others and ‘lift the horizons of some of our most
isolated and deprived communities’. (David Cameron’s extremism speech
20/07/2015)
Since then however, many thousands of people have connected with the
humanitarian aspect of the refugee situation and have clearly shown that they
do not support the government's hostile stand towards people who are driven to
leave what they know behind and take enormous risks to start a new life for
their families.
For me, the huge but often unrecognised value of adult and community
learning (everything from computer classes to pottery to sign language to
childcare courses – as well as ESOL) lies
not just in the structured learning of the courses provided. It provides spaces
and opportunities for a wealth of informal learning to take place. There is a
real diversity of backgrounds amongst those who attend - people's lives overlap
here in a way they seldom do elsewhere and these interactions can create really
positive opportunities for the exchange and building of knowledge, skills and
experience amongst students, that can be empowering way beyond the scope of the
actual course.
We have a very long history in Brent of providing ESOL classes and it
will be a terrible loss to dismantle nearly half of what has been a strong,
committed and thriving department providing a quality service to the community
for many years. ESOL classes provide a way in for people to access crucial
services, participate in education and find work. They help parents support
their children at school. They enable people who, when they arrive here bring
valuable skills and experience of all kinds, to practise those skills and share
that experience for the benefit of us all.
The University and College Union (UCU) which represents staff teaching
in Adult Education as well as FE and HE, is campaigning against these cuts both
locally and nationally and the ‘Action for ESOL’ campaign is also very
active
A demonstration has
been organised to protest against the
cuts in ESOL classes on
Wednesday 16th September at 5.30, outside the Department of Business
Innovation and Skills (this is where
the cuts come from!)
Here is a link to the Facebook page for this event LINK
Please share, support,
come along!
UCU and 'Action for ESOL' will also be attending the ‘Refugees are Welcome
Here’ event on Saturday 12th September.
