The Skills Funding Agency has confirmed that full funding is available for ESOL and other adult courses formerly subject to the restrictive eligibility criteria that would have excluded up to 75% of adults on so called ‘inactive’ benefits. This represented a huge attack on adult education, and would have affected students from some of the poorest inner city communities. Action for ESOL was particularly concerned with the impact on non-native speakers of English who need English to support their children, find work, access education and play a full role in their communities.
250,000 adult places that were risk this year can be now be saved! Campaigners at Action for ESOL have hailed this as a major victory.
Action for ESOL brought together teachers, students and others, from up and down the country, in an effective and visible campaign which included letter writing, lobbying, a national petition, rallies, demonstrations, teach-ins and the London ESOL festival. The campaign was effectively supported by a number of MPs.
Important changes which have occurred as a result of the U-turn includ:
Full funding is available for ESOL and other adult courses regardless of active/inactive benefit status. Students simply need to be unemployed and declare they are seeking work.
There is no financial barrier to colleges enrolling the same volume of ESOL students as last year. Indeed, recruiting students on inactive benefits will now help colleges to achieve funding allocations which means no clawback and less risk of a reduced allocation in 12/13. In brief, colleges will benefit from providing ESOL classes.
Colleges around the country have been reacting to the new announcements by:
- asking students on inactive benefits to sign a waiver to say they are ‘seeking employment in the future’ and not charging fees
- reimbursing students who have already paid
- re-instating ESOL teachers who had been made redundant
Action for ESOL urges all colleges providing ESOL to adopt similar approaches, and where redundancies had been threatened to withdraw such threats with immediate effect.
The U-turn is a tremendous success for the campaign and those who have supported it. It shows how working together as teachers and students, in alliance with other educational, trade union and social organisations, can make a difference. Its success should be a welcome boost to everyone concerned with educational opportunity – including those seeking to defend community learning, Access, and adult education, as well the campaign to restore the EMA.
Although this reversal is a significant victory, campaigners do not assume that the changes are permanent. The government has set out its position on ESOL very clearly and ESOL remains vulnerable.
Actionfor ESOL remains committed to free ESOL provision, and a right to language education for all those who need it.
For more details of the ongoing campaing check out the Action for ESOL website.
