Further education in crisis

For many decades, F.E. has been providing education and training opportunities for students who have either failed or been failed by the school system, giving them an opportunity to enter Higher Education and employment.

A high proportion of the students are from working class communities, a wide range of ethnic backgrounds, with English as their second language. Women, many being single parents, struggling on benefits, gaining a chance for returning to work with qualifications and employment opportunities, which had been previously denied to them.

Young people of all backgrounds, who would be either facing long term unemployment prospects or worse, see that through F.E. their life chances increasing. Adults gaining additional or new skills in a variety of areas could enhance their present employability by attending college courses. Senior citizens were able to get away from an isolated loneliness and enhance their quality of life through various short courses.

Colleges up and down the country served well their local communities, engaging with meeting local needs in a manner schools could not do. Even the employers understood the range of courses on offer and recognised the advantages of combining academic, vocational and community courses in one institution.

Asylum seekers and new immigrants escaping from the ravages of global wide poverty, civil wars and oppression in all its forms, made colleges an especially welcoming place to enter, with a multi-cultural, multi-religious and multi-racial environment. Clear anti-racist, anti-sexist and anti-homophobic messages strengthened the culture of many colleges.

In 1992 however, F.E. status was changed under the Tories, with “ Incorporation”. Instead of coming under the control of local authorities, they then became self-governing trusts. Many Principles at the time informed staff that this would be a “liberating experience”! The Silver book agreement protecting lecturers’ rights was torn up and new conditions were imposed on lecturers. From then on we have seen work place conditions worsening, with longer hours in the class, less time for preparing lessons or marking and pay levels being eroded. Yet staff were even more criticised if they failed to raise standards, outcomes or results. Taylor’s Scientific Management , using unachievable targets, found a new home with this new order. Thatcherite policies meant one rule for the rich attending Public schools and another rule for those in the State sector..

NATFHE at the time fought back and tried to resist but it was very much a limited and defensive, that failed inspite of days of action, 1 day strikes and pockets of resistance. The result was a set back for the union, which is now just about recovering and regaining members under the name of UCU.

Government initiatives in education, training and employment came and went. New courses emerged but really appeared to have re-invented the wheel in most cases by inventing new names, BTEC, GNVQ, AVCE back to BTEC and now BTEC mark 3 , or is it mark 4? Then we have YTS, ETS, NEATS and Fresh Start, not to mention the various NVQ and Apprenticeship schemes.

Then came the expected liberation in 1997, with the Blair mantra of “ Education, education and education”. Student loans, vocational training plans and emphasis on running colleges as a business had a further impact on colleges, which never recovered from the Tory years. Under funding, budget cuts and pay constraints continued, whilst private contractors, consultants and bonuses bled the system dry.

The complex funding formulas have further constrained the sector. If colleges enrol more 19+ adult learners than the targets set by the new quango that replaced the failed Further Education Funding Council, they then will not gain additional funds. However, if they under recruit on the16-18 age group, then there will be a claw back of funding. This makes planning almost impossible and there is no protection from the knock on affects of competition in the schools sector, with the academies and free school initiatives undermining borough wide planning.

Additionally, many colleges are still reeling from the impact of the failed capital building programme, where they invested heavily in new plans for new 21st century buildings to deliver modern education. The FEFC encouraged this, at the behest of the New Labour Gov’t, yet pulled the plug with no explanation and left many colleges with substandard buildings, classrooms, cuts and debt. Note that in the private sector the Fraud Squad may carry out investigations and refer it to the Crown Prosecution Service. As to whether jurors would understand the deliberate complexities of the various funding arrangements for F.E. is another thing. Whilst refusing to bail out the colleges and ensure the building programme went ahead, they bailed out the banks and spending £72 billion on nuclear submarines.

When Alan Johnson argued, in reference to the future of the Labour Party that “You don’t want a return of the finger jabbers, the shouting and screaming vitriol. There is a place for marches, but really what matters is unions as the persuaders able to argue a rational case and genuinely form an alliance with the public”,
(Guardian – 25/10/09), he totally ignored the fact that many UCU branches up and down the country, along with other unions , having been busy forming alliances against both the cuts imposed under New Labour and now those of the CON DEM coalition. UCU members, along with UNISON, NUT, NUS and many others have been actively campaigning to defend public services whilst the Labour front bench remained silent.

Let us not forget the budget cuts imposed on FE by Alistair Darling. There are still branches in dispute over the non awarding of the cost of living allowance. Ed Balls as Education cutter Minister was in office during the college building fiasco. It was under New Labour that the Adult learning funding was cut and course fees increased.

According to the latest report out in the Times Educational Supplement, (24/9/10), F.E.Colleges face the prospect of 80,00 job losses and 800,000 places cut for students. The Association of Colleges is suggesting that Principles plan for 25-40% cuts in real terms for Adult Skills budget over the next 4 years, along with 10-25% cuts in the 16-18 budget. Julian Gravatt, assistant chief executive of the AoC, said under these circumstances the funding for colleges would fall by £300 million to £400 million each year until 2014, equivalent to 15,000 to 20,000 jobs. Just over half of colleges’ 263,000 staff are teachers and lecturers. At the same time the cost of updating and buying the US Joint Strike aircraft amounts to £100 million each!

Mr Gravatt said: “It’s going to be bad. Colleges were already financially weakened by the capital problems last year. Ministers have made it clear that they are not averse to universities or colleges going bust, but it’s not clear how far they will push it.”
“We’ll be left with provision for apprenticeships, basic skills, students with learning difficulties and some token community learning.”
Even core programmes such as apprenticeships are likely to suffer, as expensive engineering and construction courses become less viable, he said. “All you’ll get will be apprenticeships in customer service,” he said.
UNISON is consulting members over planned cuts to admin and support staff in schools, the NUS is campaigning against the increase in fees and cuts in student places and the NUT is faced with a battle against the academies. Surely this is a recipe for an educational winter of discontent.

There is an alternative option, which may not be the one Alan Johnson prefers and that is the one of resistance and refusing to accept that the crises can only be solved at the expense of working people. If F.E. is allowed to be reduced down to a basic and minimal service then it is the weak, the vulnerable, local communities, the unemployed youth, women and migrant workers who will suffer as a result of less access to educational opportunities.

An alternative strategy is for teaching unions to fight back collectively and not just sectorally against the cuts.
By linking up with other public sector unions, local trades councils, local and national anti-cuts initiatives and community groups, then the campaign to reverse this mess can be strengthened. Refusing to co-operate with competition between members in different institutions, building solidarity instead, is the best way to establish the basis for joint action to defeat these attacks on all our futures.