Tower Hamlets protest over adult education cut

On Friday 5 June Tower Hamlets College announced that it would be axing 25 full-time posts and reducing student places on its 'Skills for Life' programme by over 50%, as well as getting rid of important outreach centres and support services for students and learners.

Tower Hamlets College works with some of the most underprivileged communities in London and UCU has said that it is deeply concerned about the impact the job losses and cuts to key social programmes will have on the local area. As a result of funding cuts by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) places for students looking to learn key skills in subjects such as English and maths will be slashed from 2,944 to 1,349 in 2009/10.
 
UCU said the planned cuts fly in the face of new government initiatives which call on local authorities to prioritise English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) and fund courses for vulnerable and hard to reach groups.  The union warned that essential courses which allow students to progress to the higher level English classes are precisely those which are being cut.
 
Campaigners are also worried about the reduction in outreach centres. The recent government White Paper on informal adult learning recognised the importance of such centres in encouraging people with negative experiences of learning back into education. Over the last three years over 1.4m adult education places have vanished across the UK, with many non-vocational courses being forced to close.
 
John Budis, a UCU member who teaches ESOL at Tower Hamlets College, said: 'We are well aware of the difficulties the college is facing over LSC funding for English language courses but this a huge overreaction. We have 800 students on waiting lists so to cut provision in half is crazy. The college hasn't consulted the community properly and this is really going to hit the people who most need our help.'
 
UCU head of further education Barry Lovejoy said: 'Tower Hamlets College staff and students are rightly concerned about how the planned redundancies and severe cuts to courses will impact on their education. The cuts would deprive the people of Tower Hamlets and the surrounding boroughs of a vital lifeline. With the onset of recession, thousands of unemployed people will look to local colleges and adult education centres to improve their skills. However, if cuts to adult education, like these at Tower Hamlets, go ahead potential students will find their options severely limited.'

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