Emotions run high over Govt funding cuts for night classes

Adult Learners' Week has been more about commiserating than celebrating as supporters battle the National Government's 80 per cent cuts to night-class funding.

Protesters will march down Queen St tomorrow to show they intend fighting to have the $13 million cuts reinstated.

A public meeting in Mt Roskill on Monday night ended with some fiery questions for National MPs who fronted in place of Education Minister Anne Tolley.

Maryke Fordyce, president of the Community Learning Association through Schools, said the Auckland community was "still very hurt, very unhappy" about the funding cut.

Mrs Fordyce said Anne Tolley's suggestion that night-class learners would have to fund the classes themselves was unrealistic because classes would cost at least three times what they do now.

Moana Papa, who runs the night-class programme at Tangaroa College in Flat Bush, South Auckland, attended by many Maori, Pacific and new-migrant residents, is worried her school's funding application will meet what she calls impossible conditions.

On the list of criteria for schools applying for the $3 million pool is a condition that a school graduate 100 people in literacy and numeracy programmes each term. Tangaroa would be lucky if 25 people would complete a course in that length of time.

"It is wrong to try to formalise informal learning," Ms Papa said.

Pauline Barnes, director of private training establishments and community education at the Tertiary Education Commission (Tec), said all schools now offering schools-based adult community education (ACE) were asked to indicate in July if they would be interested in offering school-based Ace in 2010.

Approximately 180 schools (out of the current 212) indicated they would be interested, whether it was user-pays or funded by the commission.

Schools have been asked to submit a comprehensive expression of interest in offering school-based ACE and this is due today.

In the event that the commission receives more requests for funding than there is money available, it will be allocated to those schools which best meet the criteria.

Ms Barnes said the commission was expecting to provide indicative funding levels to schools in the near future.

Linda Melrose, who runs the Onehunga High School adult community education centre, said her school hoped half its courses could secure funding as they were either business and training, English language or computing. The rest also had literacy and numeracy embedded in the learning.

Mrs Melrose said the loss of funding meant that $19,000 Onehunga High School gave to community organisations would be lost.

Most of the $124 million that will remain in the adult community education budget projected over four years will go towards courses offered by polytechnics and universities, which Mrs Melrose says are largely out of reach for the average night-class student.

She said "people who understand education" realised the value of investing in adult community education and her school would keep fighting for the $13 million.

Tomorrow's march starts at Myers Park at noon.