I am conscious the Minister has had difficulties with a recent industrial dispute which, thankfully, is resolved. It is worth reflecting on what has happened in part-time courses in the past few months in a more serious way than breathing a sigh of relief over an industrial dispute which is over. There has been chaos in the past few weeks. Courses have been abandoned without notice to students. The worst example was in Tallaght where courses in information technology and computing were abandoned and students had to go elsewhere. This occurred at a time when the Minister and the Government had invested £80 million in the longer term development of IT resources in education. On the one hand the Minister and the Government are willing to invest this money while, on the other, courses are closing. This indicates serious defects in policy-making within the Department which cannot overcome them in a coherent manner.
The Minister and his Department have stated that we are in an era of lifelong learning in which people cannot expect their earlier educational qualifications to suffice for the rest of their lives. This means that we must be more open to facilitating part-time courses. The root cause of the recent difficulties goes back to the Department's approach to the funding of part-time courses. Perhaps the Minister will assure us things will change radically but my understanding is that colleges are expected to run part-time courses on a shoestring. This was confirmed by a recent report on the regional technical college sector by the HEA. The Department does not assign any core staff to part-time course development and delivery in the regional technical colleges. It expects these courses to be developed and delivered by people snatching an hour here and there from other activities.
The rate offered by colleges for part-time teachers is £25 per hour. This is in sharp contrast to the equivalent rate for a core staff member which is more than £60 per hour. With the colleges starved of resources by official funding mechanisms we have seen them resort to unacceptable practices, namely, taking on parttimers but confining them to seven hours per week to avoid contractual commitments. We are trying to develop something on the basis of casualisation which will be an increasingly core aspect of the education system. There is concern among trade unions and the public that the flexible provision of education, which can be made available through part-time courses, has not been taken on board by the Department.
This report confirms the Department's approach to funding the regional technical college sector is inferior to that of the university sector. It is ironic that the university sector has one part-time course place to every five full-time places whereas the regional technical college sector has one for every two full-time places. regional technical colleges are making a greater effort to develop options yet they are penalised by a less sympathetic system. This needs to be addressed.
Part-time education and the development of flexible course options has always been overlooked in the education system. This report talks about the need for full-time places. All of the projections of the Higher Education Authority and the colleges concern the number of full-time places we will need in the years 2000, 2005 and 2010. The reality is that we need to be more flexible than just thinking about full-time courses. Information technology is making distance learning possible. If we wish to utilise the expensive assets the Minister is putting in place in the colleges we should use them to the maximum efficiency. In the process we should facilitate the consumers of education.
The Minister should seriously rethink this policy. We need better funding mechanisms, more modulisation so that courses can be taken on a part-time basis and built up over time with credits, easier movement between colleges on the basis of what has been achieved on credits and more financial support for part-time students. The Minister has committed himself to the last measure.
These steps are demanded as a proper response to the challenge of lifelong learning, the utilisation of assets and equity. The report makes clear that a high proportion of those who participate in part-time courses come from groups which traditionally do not do well in full-time education; the children of semi-skilled and intermediate skilled workers. This is a vehicle for fairness in education as well as meeting our future needs and using our assets wisely. The Minister should look at the deeper causes behind the problems in this sector and the industrial dispute which could resurface if this is not addressed.
