Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Students thrown off English course at Manchester College

MULE | 18.11.2009 16:51 | Education | Migration

Up to 300 students have been thrown off the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) course at Manchester College. The college says this is because of “an unforeseen error in ESOL enrolment” and changes in government funding.

The students were only told five days before their classes were closed in a letter sent out by the college. Richard Goulding from Refugees and Asylum Seekers Participatory Research (RAPAR) says that they are deeply concerned about this incident since the closing of the course will put the welfare of the students, many of whom are among the most vulnerable and isolated in society, in jeopardy.

The loss of ESOL classes is likely to have disastrous consequences for the students. English language skills are a pre-requisite for citizenship and without them it is almost impossible to find a job.

Questions as to why these 300 students were enrolled in the first place remain unanswered. At a meeting with Manchester Refugee and Migrant Network, Marina Parha, the head of the department, refused to answer questions regarding this issue.

Earlier this year the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) announced a shake up of the ESOL system with large funding cuts that would result in the loss of places on the courses. It is rumoured that the college enrolled 400 students to the ESOL course, wrongly thinking that all of the teaching would be funded by the LSC. They were later told that the LSC would not meet the full requirement and so chose to cut the places.

Manchester Adult Educational Services (MAES) are currently attempting to reassign places to the students with the help of £450,000 from the City Council’s Working Neighbourhoods fund. However, many of the MAES courses are already over-subscribed and RAPAR say that it is unlikely that MAES will be able to take on all 300 of the students.

Currently 20 per cent of the students, mainly those based on the college’s Nicholls campus, are still waiting to hear if they will have a replacement course provided.

If they are found a place on a new course some of the students will have to travel long distances to their classes. Many are displaced persons and as such they are not legally entitled to work or receive cash benefits. This will mean they will have to choose between giving up their education or walking an extra ten miles a day to their classes.

RAPAR says the matter is not closed and it is working with the students and is continuing to seek answers from the college in order to help the students continue their education with as little interruption as possible.

 http://themule.info/article/students-thrown-off-english-course-at-manchester-college

MULE
- e-mail: editor@themule.info
- Homepage: http://www.themule.info

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech