Please see our suggested letter below and copy and paste this into an e-mail to :
Minister of Education and Minister for Tertiary Education Hon Anne Tolley
a.tolley@ministers.govt.nz

Associate Minister for Tertiary Education Hon Dr Wayne Mapp
w.mapp@ministers.govt.nz 

or copy the following into a letter and post to Wellington. Please provide your sender's address and sign the letter.

Minister of Education and Minister for Tertiary Education Hon Anne Tolley
Ministry of Education
PO Box 1666
Thorndon
Wellington 6011 Wellington
Fax: (04) 463 8001

Hon Anne Tolley
FREEPOST Parliament
PO Box 18888
Wellington

Dear Minister,

As a person who has participated in courses offered by my local College or community groups in the area I am appalled to learn that the Government has in some cases slashed funding for Adult and Community Education to zero.

I understand that the Government wishes to focus on literacy and numeracy, as well as on Te Reo Maori and languages. However, I believe that this decision does not take into consideration the importance of community learning to rural people and communities in New Zealand. For those learners who cannot afford to travel to the larger centres or cannot reconcile this with other commitments, adult and community education is a way to maintain the capacity to learn and to uphold and build social networks. I strongly believe that it keeps the door open for many of my fellow learners to consider more formal educational paths.

I am also concerned about the Government’s degradation of “hobby and personal interest courses” as not worthy of public funding. In my view these promote creativity and some courses that help with daily challenges such as sustaining a family on a low budget are especially important during a recession and directly benefit the community.

I consider the Government’s funding decisions with regard to Adult and Community Education a serious breach of an earlier promise to help learners back into education and to encourage lifelong learning. During a recession people such as myself would still like to be able to connect with others while learning new skills whether these be creative or more specifically targeted at obtaining a job. These may also be the skills required to help us through economic hardship. Applying the user-pays-principle to community learning is not going to be viable under these circumstances.

I therefore urge the Government to reconsider its decision to cut funding for Adult and Community Education and look forward to hearing from you regarding this matter.

Yours sincerely

Cc Associate Minister for Tertiary Education Hon Dr Wayne Mapp