post-compulsory education, Return-to-Study (RTS) and Access courses are under financial and ideological attack from the Tories. DEE VOLIN, explains what this means in practice particularly for women who make up the majority of RTS/Access students. ACCESS courses enable mature students, without academic qualifications, to gain the skills, confidence and understanding to embark on a degree course. In the late 1980s they were hailed as the 'ultimate in equal opportunities'. The reality of such claims has melted quickly in the heat of the Tory onsiaught.
Centralisation of all adult courses is now underway. The London Open College Federation (LOCF), part of the National Open College Network, has been set up to certify courses ranging from basic literacy and numeracy to A-level equivalents.
This process of centralisation has parallels with the National Curriculum in schools. It operates to control and restrict subject matter. It also occupies teachers with administrative paper work, and so leaves little time to develop course content and teaching methods that can challenge traditional assumptions on race, gender and class.
Transferable credits from the LOCF mean that students can move from one college to another in the region. With the abolition of the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) many hundreds of courses have applied for certification with the LOCF. Administrators and course directors realise that money follows students.
To be uncertified by the LOCF will soon mean certain course closure. Authorities (LEAs) are not legally mandated to provide post-compulsory education, this sector has already been subjected to devastating cuts. Nursery and creche provision has also been cut massively. As many of the women who attend RTS/Access courses also have children, this only serves to further restrict their 'access'. Many women with young children are now forced to postpone their Access/degree places until the children are in school.
Further restrictions are made through the rising cost of such courses. Since 1989 costs have risen from £2 to £20 (1000 per cent) for unwaged people. Changes in DSS regulations regarding what constitutes 'actively seeking work' have also restricted the number of people able to study. An increasing number of students struggle to find part-time work to get them through courses. Many now have to postpone their degree courses, hoping that after a period of full-time work they will have enough money to study. With rising unemployment many will be disappointed.
The hypocrisy of 'equal opportunity Access courses is stark. It masks the exploitation of part-time women staff, the closure of outreach, education and advice centres, and falling enrolment figures. It hides the slashing of childcare provision, escalating fees, and the centralisation of adult education that results in a myriad of direct and indirect cuts.
The left has to move beyond the rhetoric of 'widening access to education'. What is needed is a coherent national campaigning policy. This has to take up the issue of student financial support. But fundamentally it has to recognise that students, teaching staff and their communities need effective control over course funding and curriculum, and not centralised elites.