Tuesday 26 May 2015

Adult Education on Royal Hill under threat

By imogene russell on 26 May 2015 02:54 pm


Lucy Stubbs, an ATA gardener (the one in the pink hat), writes, “Greenwich Council has maintained the same grant as last year to GCC to provide adult education in Greenwich. However, although funding levels are the same, Lindsey Noble and Barry Langfield, external consultants, are making almost all permanent full-time adult education teaching staff and many support staff redundant. They claim that 35% – 40% of the adult education grant must be kept by GCC for ‘management services’. At the same time as making many staff redundant they are being paid very large consultancy fees. Greenwich adult education received a glowing Ofsted report, ‘good’ across all departments. How can Greenwich adult education maintain those standards if almost all its permanent teaching staff are made redundant and most of its support staff are gone? GCC in Plumstead where more vocational courses are taught, was rated as poor by its Ofsted. What institution(s) will benefit from the 35-40% management costs being taken out of the adult education budget by GCC?”
Here is the link for anyone who’d like to sign the petition:
The petition website states, “Adult and community education centres in Greenwich provide high quality courses for people in the borough and across the whole of London in a wide range of subjects ranging from upholstery, woodwork, computing, painting, photography, sculpture, and cookery.  Adult education offers specialist opportunities for people with learning difficulties, helps unemployed people build confidence to find a new job, and people in work to gain new skills.  It enables people of all ages and backgrounds to come together to learn and make new friends. Greenwich has stronger communities because of it.  Sacking experienced teaching staff and paying external consultants huge amounts of money to do it and ‘manage’ is a tragedy.”

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