West End Letters: Adult Education Centre

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West End Extra - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 10 July 2009

Adult education fight goes on

• THE Learning and Skills Council last week announced that it would not be providing the funding promised towards a new adult education centre in the heart of Westminster.
This decision is hugely disappointing and risks severely limiting the educational opportunities of thousands of adult learners in central London.
Despite this setback, I have written to Kevin Brennan MP, minister of state in the Department for Business Innovation and Skills, and will be looking to have further negotiations to discuss whether we can have the funding we were promised in phases.
Westminster has one of the most successful adult education services in the capital and is the largest local authority provider of education and training for adults in central London.
A new education centre replacing the current buildings which are not fit for purpose would serve not only Westminster residents, but also learners from across the capital and we will continue to lobby the government on this vital issue.
CLLR ED ARGAR
Cabinet Member Adults and Community Services

Dilemma

• IT was interesting to read withdrawal of funding from Westminster Adult Education Service (Cash crisis for adult learning, July 2).
The City of Westminster was also in danger of losing adult education back in the 1990s, when City Hall adopted a policy of substantially reducing its financial support.
WAES survived and thrived owing largely to initiatives by a team led by Carol Woodhatch. The art department that led the way by validating its first course through the Business & Technical Education Council in 1993, so that local funding reduced by City Hall could be offset by central grants from the Further Education Funding Council.
After four years WAES had over 40 BTEC courses up and running, in addition to doing its best to maintain existing City & Guilds and non-certificated adult courses.
We might remember that, two years after the ideological abolition of the Greater London Council (1986), Kenneth Clarke confirmed his intention to dissolve the Inner London Education Authority. At that time London had perhaps the most integrated education system of any capital city, serving five-year-olds to 95-year-olds. The ILEA ended on April 1 1990, and adult education was thrown on the mercy of 32 individual boroughs.
The 1992 Education Act, fragmented further and higher education, and turned universities into businesses, now appropriately administered by supreme leader Lord Mandelson.
ROY OSBORNE
Hepplestone Close, SW15

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, West End Extra, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@westendextra.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Wednesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld.
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