Gerry Carroll has condemned plans by Further Education colleges to cut almost 8,000 student enrolments next year, warning that working-class communities, women returning to work and newcomer communities will pay the price for the Executive's failure to agree a budget.
Speaking after college leaders gave evidence to Stormont's Economy Committee, Gerry Carroll MLA said:
"Almost 8,000 people across the North are about to have the door to further education slammed in their face.
"Belfast Met alone is losing £6.8 million and cutting more than 2,600 places. These cuts are landing hardest on the courses that give people a second chance: ESOL classes for newcomers, Essential Skills in English and Maths, evening A-levels for adults and community education. Further education colleges take in people the traditional education system failed, including parents juggling caring responsibilities and workers trying to retrain. Cutting these courses means cutting routes out of low pay and poverty. The consequences stretch much further too, with part-time FE staff losing hours and apprenticeship numbers falling.”
"The Executive parties spend a lot of time talking about skills, growth and economic vision. Meanwhile, their failure to agree a budget has left colleges to run on emergency contingency funding and forced them to cut provision. These cuts also come after years of underfunding, following more than a decade of Westminster austerity. The Executive parties have gone along with that austerity instead of fighting it.”
"The Executive must stop managing cuts and start standing up to them. It should demand the funding our public services need and look at raising revenue from those who can afford to pay - not from students and low-paid workers.
"Education shouldn’t be a luxury. I'll be pressing for answers on how this was allowed to happen and for immediate emergency funding to restore these places. More importantly, we need a fighting student and trade union movement, with students, lecturers and support staff organising together on every campus, to take on these cuts and win.”