My Account
Once upon a time, the lights were on in the evening at local colleges, and adult students were there, learning a wide range of skills and following their interests and dreams.
For an affordable price, anyone could learn a language, self-defence, creative writing, bookkeeping or bee keeping– there was something on offer for everyone.
The courses, known as Adult Community Education (ACE) were subsidised by the government through the Tertiary Education Commission and in 2009, the National government of the time cut that funding. Its view was that some of the classes, the so-called “hobby courses” would best be funded by user-pays.
As a result the number of colleges providing night classes plummeted – from 283 then, to 13 now (none of them on the Coast).
Community Learning Association through Schools (CLASS) is the organisation tasked with representing those remaining 13 schools to the wider ACE sector and addressing governmental authorities. Its president, Nigel Sutton, says the downward spiral was caused by multiple factors – there were immediate closures, then within the next few years many more programmes finished, because people thought night classes were over and so stopped going. Also schools found that without funding for ACE coordinators, their programme reduced and so often had to close – where programmes survived for longer, it was because people worked as volunteers.
“Most programmes failed to move quickly from a funded to a user-pays business model,” Sutton says. “Those that did were in more affluent areas. Other areas could not sustain their courses increasing by about eight times in price, overnight.”
More than just education, Sutton says the classes, whatever the subject, were valuable for meeting people and connecting.
“Every night class is a mental health course, because it provides community, connection and company,” he says. “Negatively focusing on the subject that brings people together, because it is not seen as leading to income earning, is a very narrow view.
Sutton says affordability was also key to the large numbers of people from all walks of life who took night classes. He says that accessibility is being reduced even more due to surging costs and ever-increasing compliance requirements.
“Before the cuts, as an example, you could do an 8-week Spanish language course for $20. In 2010 this increased to $165 as it had to be totally funded by students, and today we offer it for $185.”
“The infrastructure and knowledge needed to run ACE in Schools programmes is now at its lowest ever level and the decline in the number of schools operating night classes continues, even with a government who supports ACE in Schools.”
Since Covid-19, the government has widened the range of courses providers can use government funding for, Sutton says.
According to the Tertiary Education Commission website, from January last year the priorities for ACE funding are programmes that: focus on employability, promote social and cultural inclusion, raise foundation skills such as literacy, numeracy and digital literacy, or improve health and wellbeing.
Courses outside those priority areas have to be fully user-pays.
“This means providers remain predominantly in large centres and much of NZ is without these adult learning opportunities,” Sutton says.
These days there are quite a lot of ‘night classes’ on offer locally – from dancing and painting to cooking, computers, art, pottery and Te Reo. However they are mostly on a user-pays basis and prices reflect the need for those providing the courses to charge a fee that makes it worthwhile.
