Seanad Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 1 Mar 2000

Vol. 162 No. 11

Adjournment Matters. - Adult Education Boards.

Mr. Chambers

I propose to share my time with Senator Mooney. I thank you, Sir, for allowing me to raise this matter and I welcome the Minister of State to the House.

I raise this matter to clarify the role of vocational education committees in the future of adult education and learning in the light of recent press statements relating to proposed drafts of the White Paper and in the context of the new national wage agreement. The VEC adult education boards have been established since 1984. The composition of these boards reflects the statutory and voluntary sector. The boards include two nominees from the VEC, one from Teagasc, one from FÁS and one from the local statutory library authority. A further seven come from voluntary organisations, trade unions, employers and other educational institutions. Each board's function is to establish adult education provisions for the administrative area of its VEC.

Unfortunately, while the Kenny commission of 1984 proposed that these boards be set up on a statutory basis, the Department of Education, in its circular letter, suggested that they be set up on an ad hoc basis as section 21 committees of the vocational education committees. In counties where the circular letter was adhered to and the boards set up as proposed, they have functioned quite satisfactorily and have met the needs of adult education in their counties with the resources that have been provided. County Mayo VEC and a number of other vocational education committees are of the view that adult education boards could form the basis of new learning councils and that there is no need to set up new structures at local level. There is a view that separate structures may be set up to organise and administer adult education and that the valuable work of vocational education committees could be undermined.

Adult education has been an integral part of the vocational education committees' work for more than 60 years and we have gained a great deal of experience providing programmes and courses for all sections of the community, at times with very few resources. Another source of concern are the new education centres which have been established throughout the counties, supposedly as teacher training centres but now regarded as educational centres. What their long-term function will be is not clear.

There have been many positive developments in adult education in recent years, particularly the setting up of the further education section in the Department and the appointment of a Minister of State. Funding for adult education has improved and support for the disadvantaged is now at a significant level. The missing link is the absence of a proper policy framework for adult education in order to allow it to be delivered in the most effective and efficient manner.

The role of the vocational education committees is critical to the future development of adult education. There are two possibilities. One is that the vocational education committees continue to play a central role as locally elected bodies and that their adult education boards, with a proper statutory basis, continue to provide a service, as they have done for the past 20 years. The other is that the vocational education committees become one of the players in adult education, merely playing a subsidiary role in the new structure.

Mr. Mooney

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I thank Senator Chambers for allowing me to share his time and I applaud him for bringing this matter before the House. I am sure the House will agree the Minister of State has been one of the most proactive in this regard. I compliment him and wish to put on record the appreciation of those involved in education at local level, in an administrative sense, and at elective level, at the marvellous initiatives he has brought to the fore and is currently putting into the public domain for debate and, hopefully, for eventual legislation. My main purpose in requesting the opportunity to make this contri bution is to support all that Senator Chambers has said. He, like myself, has been a member of the VEC for some time. As chairman of Mayo VEC he brings a special insight into this aspect of the debate.

My main concern centres around the latter part of his contribution as to the future roles of the VEC. I wish to impress upon the Minister, who I know has an open mind on this and other matters in respect of adult education, that the structures are in place nationwide. The vocational education committees, as Senator Chambers has accurately pointed out, have a proud and distinct record in the provision of adult education within their administrative boundaries. In principle, I have a difficulty about any proposals emanating from Government and, indeed, from any administration that there should be yet another layer of administration placed on top of that which is already there. If it is inefficient, if its mandate is not being addressed, if there are shortfalls or if there are inherent flaws in the existing systems by all means they should be addressed but, on the basis of the proposals so far, the suggestion of setting up new countywide adult education boards is a case of throwing the baby out with the bath water and another layer of bureaucracy being put in place.

Perhaps I am talking from the perspective of a small administrative unit such as County Leitrim, but I am sure the same is true – and Senator Chambers has articulated that view – of vocational education committees throughout the country. I impress on the Minister the importance of giving a boost of confidence to the vocational education committees which, in many cases over past decades, have been struggling with meagre resources, yet have provided advances in adult literacy with the provision of adult education through evening classes. In clarifying his position in this regard, I hope the Minister will send out a message that the vocational education committees are not bit players in any future developing framework for advancement of adult education.

Statistics published in newspapers in recent days indicate a low level of participation in adult education which is a problem. Of course, the Minister has a serious responsibility in that regard and he is perfectly placed with his expertise and commitment to ensure we are in the forefront of participation in adult education. It seems that the existing structures at local level need to be strengthened rather than diminished or, I hate to suggest, abolished. Like Senator Chambers, I speak on behalf of many of our colleagues in the VEC sector. The VEC sector should be strengthened and, at the end of the day, there will be a value for money administrative framework.

Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science (Mr. O'Dea)

I thank Senator Chambers for giving me the opportunity to address this important matter and Senator Mooney for his kind remarks.

The vocational education committees have played a critical role in the development of adult and second chance education to date and I intend that this role will be continued and further strengthened in the future. More than 90% of PLC courses are provided in the VEC sector, along with the Youthreach and senior traveller training centre programmes for early school leavers, the vocational training opportunity scheme for unemployed adults and the adult literacy service. In addition, the vocational education committees support community education provision and cater for almost 90,000 part-time participants on self-funded adult education part-time programmes. Overall, 135,000 further education students annually are catered for within the VEC system. The sector has proved its success in catering for a spectrum of needs ranging from those with minimal or no qualifications to those who need advanced vocational training for specific niche occupations.

The Green Paper on Adult Education clearly shows that, relative to other European countries, provision of education and training for adults on a lifelong basis has been limited and has attracted low levels of State investment until recently. This is beginning to change and the national development plan provides for a very substantial increase in investment in this area in the years ahead.

Across Europe, countries are investing substantially in lifelong learning and see the promotion of ongoing access to education, training and professional development as being critical to competitiveness and social cohesion in a knowledge society. This process also manifests itself in the widening of provision to new learning sites outside the traditional education domain by a host of organisations and groups and European research indicates that an increasing "pluralism of sites" is likely to be a common feature of lifelong learning systems in the years ahead.

In that context, the Green Paper proposed the provision of national and local structures – a national adult learning council and local adult learning boards – to ensure that such diversity could be accommodated within a co-ordinated and strategic framework for the development of the sector where the full range of interests could agree an over-arching policy and priorities and provide their services in the context of an integrated framework. This would provide for an area based approach to assessing priority needs at local level, support a cross fertilisation of expertise within a common quality framework and enable the range of providers to work effectively together to ensure a relevant response to area needs.

The question of where local adult learning boards should be located was one of the areas on which views were sought during the extensive consultation process which followed the Green Paper and this question will be addressed in the forthcoming White Paper on Adult Education. I note what has been said about the recent leak of some proposals in the White Paper but I wish to make it clear to the House that the leaked document was an initial draft, several months old. The final White Paper could take a very different shape. I hope the final White Paper will be published in the next three to four weeks.

In advance of publication of the White Paper I do not consider it appropriate to make any definitive statement on this matter. A guaranteed framework for the participation of all providers, training and community and voluntary interests will form part of the new approach, and the local adult learning boards would have autonomy to operate within the overall constraints of their budgets and in the context of an agreed national policy framework. I do not see this as diminishing the role of any of the participating parties, including the vocational education committees, in the delivery of a range of services but rather as forging a co-ordinated and integrated approach. Existing VEC programmes will continue to be supported as heretofore but there will also be significant expansion of provision within the context of the new back to education initiative, allied with the development of supporting services. Vocational education committees and other providers will continue to operate in schools and centres, but will do so within the context of the framework agreed by the local adult learning boards based on nationally agreed criteria and quality standards. This, of course, will take investment, including capital investment, where the need arises for expanded infrastructure, the development of guidance and child care supports and increased emphasis on staff development and this issue will be progressed further in the context of the national development plan.

Education centres, known in the past as teacher centres, have an expanded role as resource and in-career development centres for primary, secondary and further level education, including both schools and out of school centres. Centres are in a period of major development, having expanded from a focus which was mainly on the primary sector in the past. In addition, their role now covers the community and parent representatives on boards of management as well as the teaching profession. Given the stage of the network in its development, I envisage that it will be only one of a range of players active in staff development in the sphere of adult and further education. The other providers will include vocational education committees, the national co-ordinators of the various programmes, the National Adult Literacy Agency, third level colleges and the various provider associations who have undoubted expertise in this area. The national adult learning council will play a key role in ensuring a co-ordinated approach in this area.

The Seanad adjourned at 8.30 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Thursday, 2 March 2000.