MPs question appropriateness of course funding

By STUART DYE education reporter

Two MPs standing at a burger bar late at night were asked to sign up for a course which would see them learn Maori by listening to their radio.

New Zealand First MP Ron Mark told Parliament yesterday that he and a colleague were "accosted" while waiting in a Rotorua takeaway around 11pm.

Recruiting officers from the Eastern Institute of Technology arranged for them to fill in forms, but they never heard back from the institute.

"I have subsequently found that the course is costing around $2.5 million, and that some 7115 students are involved at a cost of $5500 each," said Mr Mark.

"My concern is that I am now party to the improper funding of an inappropriate course that does not seem to have the right amount of accountability."

The opportunity for questions in Parliament yesterday was used to grill Steve Maharey, Associate Education Minister (Tertiary), on a number of community education courses around the country paid for with taxpayer cash.

The courses included Twilight Golf and He Waiata Ma Te Whanau - learning Maori while listening to the radio. Most of the courses had no formal qualification.

Ministry of Education projections suggest more than 20,000 have enrolled on community education courses this year at an expected cost of $115 million.

National's education spokesman, Bill English, asked Mr Maharey if such courses met objectives of the tertiary education strategy.

"I have acted to limit spending available for this classification, as volumes increased dramatically over the last year, and we want to focus our resources on higher-priority areas," said Mr Maharey.

It is likely courses will be halted, student numbers cut and funding slashed.

But yesterday Mr Maharey was forced to admit he had no record of pass rates and whether people had actually completed the course or just filled in the forms to draw in cash to the institutions.

An investigation into how such a big budget blowout had happened was underway, he said.

In addition, specific courses would be scrutinised.

"I ask the Tertiary Education Commission and the Qualifications Authority to look at all these kinds of courses, when I hear these kinds of reports ...

"We are continuing to dig deeper," Mr Maharey said.

"We have capped this funding, and I repeat that, unlike the previous Government, we have dealt with this issue as it never could. It ran a bums-on-seats policy."