MP presses ministers over further education funding

3.44.43pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 12th May 2003

MP Vincent Cable visited the Tertiary College and Richmond Adult college this week prior to launching a full parliamentary debate on Wednesday on the issue of funding post-16 further education.

"There is a lot of media excitement around the issue of school funding - the failure of promised government money to reach the 'front line' and improve services; yet exactly the same problem is happening in post-16 further education. "

"Colleges have been starved of cash for years and were "

"promised, last year, a big increase which in practice will, at best, stabilise an unsatisfactory situation".

Vincent Cable said that: "we have exceptionally good FE provision in this area with Tertiary College results at A level which are actually better than those of the private sector for pupils with comparable GCSEs. "

"But the buildings are crumbling, there are very serious staff recruitment problems and there is a lot of understandable frustration amongst the lecturers who can be paid 30% less than teachers, teaching the same subject, at the same level in a school".

"The government is parking this subject in the place marked 'problem solved'; but it hasn't solved the problems of chronic under funding for decades. I have called this debate partly to reinforce the excellent work of local educators in FE at the Tertiary College (and increasingly the Adult College which runs some parallel courses for post-16's); partly to sound a warning to ministers not to be complacent".