AONTAS Welcomes Budget Estimates for Adult Education
16 Nov 2006 11:42 AM
Berni Brady, Director, of AONTAS welcomed the increased funding for adult education and said it is long overdue. "Funding for our sector has remained almost static for the last three years, so it makes a pleasant change to get some good news from the Department of Education," she said. "We particularly welcome the provision of €120,000 for research into adult and community education. This is something which we have identified as a pressing need and we look forward to being involved in research projects in 2007."
Ms. Brady also praised the provision of €0.5m to assist with childcare for participants in the Back To Education Initiative (BTEI). "We have persistently called on the Government to integrate childcare and transport funding into the BTEI," she said. "Today's announcement is a start. Hopefully, this will be built on to eventually give BTEI participants all of the supports they need."
"AONTAS was instrumental in piloting the Quality Assurance Framework for Women's Community Education, so we obviously welcome the €110,000 being made available to consolidate women's participation in community education," she added. "However, we estimate that €300,000 is needed to mainstream this project, so while we welcome today's funding announcement, we hope the Department will increase this figure in the future to a more realistic level."
AONTAS also welcomed the announcement that an additional €1m is being made available to expand the Adult Education Guidance Initiative (AEGI). "We have called on the Government to allocate at least €44.5m to the AEGI in the next NDP to mainstream the service, address staffing issues and develop technical resources," Ms. Brady said. "Today's announcement of an additional €1m for guidance will be welcomed by the adult education sector but, again, it is only a start and must be built upon in the new NDP to ensure adult learners get a completely effective guidance service."
