Teachers say government rules mean fewer immigrants will be able to afford ESOL classes they have been told to take
Jessica Shepherd
Teachers have reacted with anger to the prime minister’s call for immigrants to take English lessons, arguing that the coalition has cut funds for these classes.
At a speech on immigration in Hampshire on Thursday, David Cameron will warn that immigrants unable to speak English or unwilling to integrate have created a “kind of discomfort and disjointedness”, which has disrupted communities across Britain.
But teachers of English said new rules, devised by the coalition government, would mean far fewer immigrants could afford to learn basic English.
From autumn this year, the government will only fund classes in basic English to immigrants on jobseeker’s allowance and employability skills allowance. Those claiming income support and other benefits will no longer be able to attend classes for free.
Newcomers to this country who lack basic English skills will have to pay half the cost of their lessons and employers will have to foot the bill for English lessons that take place in the workplace.
Teachers of basic English classes – known as English for speakers of other languages or ESOL – said the vast majority of their students were housewives whose husbands would not be able to afford for them to study part-time at £400 or £500 a year.
“We think that this change could mean that about half of all ESOL students in some cities will be shut out from attending lessons,” said Judith Kirsh from the National Association for Teaching English and Community Languages to Adults, the professional association for ESOL teachers.
Just over 180,000 students take ESOL classes in England. The lessons are the first step to learning English for most immigrants and take place in further education colleges and community centres.
Kirsh said hundreds of ESOL teachers faced redundancy as a result of the changes.
Perdy Patterson, an ESOL teacher at Tower Hamlets College in east London, said immigrants wanted to learn and speak English. “There are waiting lists often in the hundreds for these classes. It is disingenuous of Cameron to use this line of argument and then to also be cutting these classes.”
She said the most vulnerable women in society were being hit. “These are women who are dependent on their husbands’ income. The changes will mean we don’t even know whether there will be an ESOL sector next year.”
Indi Bains, an ESOL teacher at Hackney Community College in east London, said the changes to the funding of the classes would make it much more difficult for immigrants to integrate into British society.
The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education said that changes over the last four years had meant the number of ESOL students had dropped from 219,000 to 183,000.
“Current proposals put up to half of the remaining places at risk,” said Chris Taylor, the institute’s programme manager for ESOL.
“What the reduction in ESOL places means is fewer chances for a reviving British economy to make use of the skills of migrants. It means that the children of families with poor English have an extra hurdle to overcome in doing well at school and it means that it will take longer for people to share their experiences with others in the ways the prime minister describes.
“In order to achieve real integration, we ask the government to look again at the evidence and assess what could be done to ensure those individuals most disadvantaged get the English language courses they need.”
www.guardian.co.uk, 14 April 2011