Education Minister Misses Opportunity To Provide For Adult Learners
22 Feb 2007 03:51 PM
Berni Brady, Director of AONTAS, said: "Minister Hanafin announced today that an additional €20m has been allocated to her Department's capital programme to give further impetus to the building and modernisation agenda for schools and third level institutions.
"The adult education sector has never had a capital expenditure budget. This means that adult education organisations throughout the country have a precarious existence, not knowing from year to year whether they will have funding in place to provide basic premises for their adult learners.
"As part of our pre-election campaign, AONTAS is demanding that a capital expenditure budget for adult education should be put in place, with an initial spend of €12m, allocated through the VECs.
"Mary Hanafin had a chance today to make a move towards meeting this demand by allocating some of the extra funding provided for education in the Revised Estimates to adult education. Unfortunately, she has once again ignored our sector."
