Celebrating Adult Learners Week despite the threat of cuts
The imminent demise of funding after a century of Government support for Adult and Community Education didn’t stop Golden Bay co-ordinators celebrating another Adult Learners Week in the high school staff room last Sunday evening.
Part-time tutors made up most of the 30 people who attended, and the three local ACE co-ordinators used the opportunity to debrief them about what $13m cut from the overall national budget of $16m will mean for Golden Bay.
Night classes have traditionally been offered here in everything from cake decorating to picture framing, mosaic to harakeke weaving, carpentry to photoshop and computer skills. These have not only run at the two secondary schools, but often lately through Seniornet, the Community Centre, community gardens and marae.
Collingwood Area School ACE co-ordinator Wendy Drummond reported that the cuts would cost her school at least $18,000 in funding, while Golden Bay High School’s loss was expected to be up around $23,000. It may not seem quite as dramatic as at big city schools like Wellington High, which will get their whole night class department canned, but it’s proportionally just as significant.
Commented Wendy: “Nearly all of that money went to modestly pay co-ordinators and tutors. Worse though, many adults will miss out on learning valuable skills. There’s a lot been bandied around about canning ‘hobby courses’, but that’s not the case in reality; these adult courses have been shown to spark up all sorts of private enterprise ventures in a community. It’s money well spent and shouldn’t be axed.”
The evidence certainly points that way. Sarah Adams attended several different classes both in Invercargill and here in Golden Bay, but it was creative sewing that stood out for her. With Tracey Davies, she has formed Imagine Designs from a curtain business they purchased from Jean Wedderburn. Said Sarah: “Those Community Education classes gave me the confidence to pursue this as a career. If it hadn’t been for those classes, I’d still be facing life ‘same old, same old’.”
One Michael Ayling-run jewellery course at the Golden Bay Workcentre nearly two decades ago encouraged four jewellers to start up in the Bay, all of whom still operate successfully today.
Boatmaster teacher Allan Kilgour commented at the social night that while funding realities were upon them, it might not be all doom and gloom.
“The answer might be to look at a leaner model, and that may not sometimes involve schools.”
While community comment has been high, West Coast-Tasman MP Chris Auchinvole has not been forthcoming with comments about ACE cuts in his electorate. However, List MP Damien O’Connor commented about the situation while in Golden Bay last week.
“The Government said it was non-negotiable, but I reckon they may well do a backtrack on this one. They just didn’t realise the level of opposition these cuts would bring out in people right across the nation.”
Around 200,000 Kiwis currently attend community education courses annually, so it’s not surprising a nationally circulating petition opposing the cuts is already running to several thousand signatures, with ongoing protest action planned. Infuriating to many is the fact that the $13 million saved from these cuts will be spent on shoring up “elitist” private schools around New Zealand. Perhaps more revealing of National’s master plan for education was Education Minister Anne Tolley’s recent business-class trip out of the fray to the United States, where she went to look at corporate models of “voucher education and results-based funding”.
The petition (at the library) can still be signed until the end of the month. A protest was held on the Village Green last Wednesday, with another on Saturday 12 September at 10am.
Gerard Hindmarsh
