The number of schools offering community education classes for adults fell from 212 schools in 2009 to just 40 this year, and many of the remaining programmes are struggling.

In 2009, the government cut funding for adult and community education by 80 percent from $16 million to $3.2 million. The $16 million was less than 0.6 percent of the total tertiary budget.

CLASS, (the Community Learning Association through Schools) has just launched a campaign to encourage politicians to ‘take another look‘ at the 2009 decision to cut funding to adult and community education. CLASS is campaigning to get the government to review the 2009 decision and investigate the effects of the radical funding cuts.

Robyn Hambleton, from the Community Education Centre at Wellington High School says adult and community education is not just “hobby night classes”; programmes have been responding to community needs for over 100 years and those who attend them come for a wide variety of reasons.

“They may be ‘second-chance’ learners looking for an opportunity to move gently back into education. They may be people who want to increase their skills and expertise to move to a new career or return to the workforce. They may want to gain new knowledge to become more confident or independent or be less isolated socially.”

“ACE in Schools is an affordable, cost-effective way to encourage and deliver life-long learning opportunities to the whole of NZ. Every community has a school and making use of this expensive infrastructure after hours makes good use of taxpayer funds.”

Ms Hambleton is one of the guest speakers at TEU’s Speak Up for Education rally on 21 November.