Bailout of polytechs expected

By HELEN TUNNAH deputy political reporter

A rescue package to prevent a financial crisis at polytechnics that secured millions of taxpayer dollars offering courses such as Maori sing-along lessons and twilight golf will be announced within days.

The Government is negotiating with polytechnics and technology institutions about how it should crack down on $110 million of community education funding without crippling their budgets.

An announcement is expected to be made by Tertiary Education Minister Steve Maharey "very soon", but National Party education spokesman Bill English is warning some kind of financial bailout may be needed.

He released figures to the Herald which show an explosion in both the number of adult students institutions claim they have enrolled, and the amount of money they have been paid for them.

Gisborne's Tairawhiti Polytechnic has received the most funding, based on a massive increase in students. It says it enrolled 2785 students in 2002, but 47,410 just one year later.

It was paid just over $2 million to run community education courses in 2002, and more than $21.6 million last year. Some $16 million was spent in 2003 on "language and literature" courses, thought to mainly be te reo. Other courses it offers include hobby woodwork and twilight golf.

Tairawhiti had been losing money for several years until reporting a $1.8 million surplus in 2002.

Christchurch Polytechnic said it had 18,573 community education students in 2002, and a staggering 96,610 last year.

Last month it was revealed two New Zealand First MPs, Ron Mark and Edwin Perry, were among students claimed by the Hastings-based Eastern Institute of Technology, after being signed up for their Maori sing-along lessons while they were at a Rotorua burger bar.

The Herald understands Mr Maharey is aware of the precarious financial position of some polytechnics and institutions, and that will affect how he introduces a crackdown on the community education scheme.

Details are expected within days, but may see some institutions treated less severely than others because of their social importance in remote provinces.

Mr English said he simply could not believe the figures when he first saw them.

He has accused some institutions of using the scheme, which funds adult education in generally part-time courses, as a cash-cow to prop themselves up.

He also claimed bureaucrats told polytechnics to "make hay while the sun shone".

"Some of them are going to end up back in financial trouble."

Tairawhiti is already having its enrolments and courses audited because of the funding row.

Chief executive Mark Chapman said yesterday he was not sure how much money the polytechnic received through the community education programme last year, even though the figures released by Mr Maharey to Mr English show it was $21.6 million.

He said the polytechnic was expecting a significant reduction in funding but "we're quite comfortable with that".

"We believe as an organisation we're robust. I'm confident we'll be able to cope with it."

Mr Maharey is negotiating with the Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics Association on how to implement increased scrutiny of courses offered.

The crackdown was announced after the Government admitting the funding blowout and said the scheme may not be funding quality courses.

ITPA chief executive Jim Doyle told the Herald polytechnics and institutions would not collapse because of the changed policy.

"No Government will allow it to happen," he said.

He said the change would cost institutions like Tairawhiti money, but it would not see them fail.