The further education sector is used to being ignored and passed over. Despite continued budget cuts, an all-out assault on alternative qualifications and a global pandemic, we have not only survived but have also continued to educate, support and sustain students from some of the most deprived backgrounds, as well as those with mental, physical and learning difficulties.
Now, I wish to make this absolutely and abundantly clear; we do not ask for awards.ÌýWe do not want retired war heroes doing laps around their gardens to raise money. We do not even want Boris Johnson to stand on the doorstep of Number 10 and clap for us. All we want is for further education to be given the means to continue to change lives and support our students into employment or higher education. Yet, sadly, the announcement of this year’s adult education budget (AEB) clawback threshold has, yet again, put further education on the backfoot.
It has been widely recognised that colleges have faced considerable disruption and, as a result, lost an entire term of face-to-face delivery, in addition to vital contact with learning support workers, mentors and peers. Yet, inexplicably, the Treasury and the Department for Education have decided to ignore the disruption of the current academic year that has dramatically affected adult education enrolment. The result is that many colleges now find themselves in the impossible position of repaying the AEB allocation.
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Over 80 per centÌýof the allocation from the AEB each year goes towards the funding of essential programmes such as ESOL, skills for life and re-engagement. I cannot stress enoughÌýhow vital these programmes are in our communities. For many, these courses offer an essential lifeline, connecting them to the outside world and opening doors to myriadÌýopportunities and choices that otherwise never would have been possible.
The adult education budget clawback: Teachers struggling to make ends meet
But it is not just the students who will suffer from this discriminatory decision. It is teachers who have worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic, who rewrote entire curricula in mere weeks, who relearned their profession in a matter of days, transforming the education dynamic on to remote platforms, doing in months what experts said would take five years. Despite all their tireless efforts, teachers will also feel the impact of the ConservativeÌýgovernment’s latest blow.
As Steven Ball points out in his workÌýGlobal Education Inc, continued budget cuts to the FE and HE sector haveÌýmeant that no other industry, with the sole exception of retail and hospitality, has more part-time/sessional hour staff than education. Take that in for a moment. Teachers, who graduate with university degrees, undertake PGCE postgraduate qualifications, pass rigorous skills assessments and work placements to secure a teaching positions, are then denied job security. The recent government announcement has meant that many such teachers’ hours will be either cut back or lost to make up the deficit. The question must be asked; how we can possibly say that we are a country that cares about our children, our communitiesÌýand our education when our teachers are forced to take a second or third job to make ends meet?
Make no mistake, this decision effects every single person in Britain and we must ask ourselves why the government is so oblivious to the realities of struggling communicates, students and teachers in Britain? If the government aims to destabilise further education colleges and actively and disproportionately bar the most socioeconomically deprived students from education, it is succeeding.
So, to you, my readers, I ask you to join the national effort to reverse the AEBÌýdecision. Write to your MP, share this post on social media and appeal to those with the power to do the right thing, because the time for action is now.
Jennifer Wilkinson is a functional skills English lecturer atÌýa college in England
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