9. DAVID SHEARER (Labour—Mt Albert) Link to this
to the Minister for Tertiary Education
How many schools received government funding for Adult and Community Education classes in 2009, and how many schools are receiving government funding for Adult and Community Education programmes in 2011?
Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister for Tertiary Education) Link to this
Forty-nine schools currently receive taxpayer-funded ACE—adult and community education. They are made up of 23 schools funded directly, and a further 26 that partner with those directly funded schools. Of course, many other schools continue to offer hobby courses on a user-pays basis. Before the Government’s reprioritising of taxpayer-funded adult and community education to target foundation schools including literacy, numeracy, English language, te reo Māori, and sign language, there were 212 funded schools.
Does he think people in Northland, with some of the country’s highest unemployment, are being afforded an adequate opportunity to upskill, given that there is now just one school providing adult and community education where there used to be 12?
I should point out to the member that there is a range of ways in which people can access foundation education in New Zealand, and, yes, schools’ adult and community education is one. We also have adult and community education in 27 tertiary education institutions, 24 community groups, seven OTEPS—other tertiary education providers—and two REAPs, or Rural Education Activities Programmes. We also have foundation education, where we have increased embedded literacy and numeracy from 15,000 places to 70,000 places; we have Youth Guarantee, where there are 2,500 places, which will go to 7,500 next year; and we also have trades academies and service academies—to name just a few opportunities.
Will he consider restoring the $13 million pulled out of adult and community education funding, to enable the 165,000 New Zealanders who, according to Adult and Community Education Aotearoa, were forced to leave school and community classes to return to classes?
No, the Government does not have plans to restore that funding, because, as we know, there are many challenges for Government finances at this time. Of course, the Labour Opposition can add it to their long list of restarting funding things they are going to do by borrowing more money. But I point out that a number of schools are offering adult and community education without any funding whatsoever. For example, Western Springs College is offering, amongst other things, the fabled Moroccan cooking class and Spanish tapas; Rangiora High School is teaching patchwork and botanical drawing, and all these—
Mr SPEAKERDoes the Minister think that Mandarin courses provided by Mana College or sign language courses provided by Tikipunga High School, Rutherford College, Kelston Boys High School, Tauranga Boys College, and Tauranga Girls College before funding cuts were introduced are hobby classes and poor value for money?
The Government has prioritised its funding, as the member knows, to languages, literacy, numeracy, and ESOL—English for speakers of other languages—and then those funds are allocated by the Tertiary Education Commission based on funding applications. I do not believe taxpayers should be funding woodwork courses and beginners guitar courses, and that is what we have stopped funding.
I invite David Shearer to repeat his question. I have been concerned about a couple of the answers. The Minister may not have the particular information that was being sought, but the questions were pretty straight questions relating to some sign language programmes in certain schools, and nothing to do with woodwork.
The point I was trying to make was to outline for the member the Government’s funding approach, which is to fund certain types of courses—
I have heard sufficient. That is all very well, but actually this is question time, where certain questions are asked and answers to them are expected. While there may be points the Minister wishes to make, if they do not relate to the question asked, then they are not relevant to that question. I would have no problem with the Minister going on to include more information if the question had been answered, but I am not sure the question was. I accept I could be wrong here, and to avoid any further problem from my being wrong, I will invite the member to repeat the question. If this was an isolated question I would not be doing this, but there was an earlier supplementary question about specific programmes at schools in Northland; it may well be that the Minister did not have information on them, but the answer did not relate a great deal to schools in Northland. That is why I am inviting the member to repeat his question at this stage.
Does the Minister think that Mandarin courses provided by Mana College or sign language courses provided by Tikipunga High School, Rutherford College, Kelston Boys High School, Tauranga Boys College, and Tauranga Girls College before funding cuts were introduced are hobby classes and poor value for money?
The point, as I was saying to the member before, is that I do not have an opinion, obviously, on those individual courses, because I am not privy to them in particular, but the Government’s role is to set policy in relation to what it is prepared to fund, and it is prepared to fund language courses, English for speakers of other languages courses, and also literacy and numeracy courses. It is then for the Tertiary Education Commission to take a decision as to which courses it funds, and those schools apply for them. I think that is an entirely correct approach. I went on to say that the Government does not believe that it should fund hobby courses, and I listed some examples of what it does not believe it should fund.
What does the Minister believe is better value for money: $116 to fund someone’s enrolment in an adult and community education course at a school or community organisation, or $116 to buy 3 millimetres of tarmac on his “Holiday Highway”?
That is hardly worth a response to the member, except I would point out again the following: the Government spends massive amounts, as it should do, on improving literacy and numeracy in this country, including foundation courses, trade academies, service academies, Youth Guarantee, and 16,600 more core places in universities and polytechnics, and I back this Government’s record in improving adult literacy and numeracy in this country well ahead of the previous Government’s.