8 June 2009

Dear principal

Drastic cuts to Adult and Community Education funding for schools

This letter contains information about the recent Budget cuts to ACE funding for schools, alerts you to a national campaign opposing this and provides advice about employment matters for ACE employees in schools:

Here is the budget announcement:

In 2010 all school ACE funding will be replaced with a new approach that reinvests approximately 20% of current school-based ACE funding towards refocused priority areas, such as literacy and numeracy. It is likely that there will be only a small number of schools receiving ACE funding for 2010 and beyond.  The Government no longer intends to subsidise hobby and personal interest courses (e.g. arts and crafts courses, home maintenance ACE, etc).

There is no information yet on how that re-allocation of 20% will work but it is clear that the government intends to end its subsidisation of evening classes as we have known them for decades.  It would appear that only a few schools will receive funding for specific types of courses and none for the vast majority of courses that are currently run.  While this will mean that all schools will have to reconsider how to and whether to continue with ACE programmes, schools have contractual obligations to fulfil for the year 2009 as agreed in their investment plans.  In the interim it is advisable that schools make no hasty changes until further information is available.

A national campaign:

As many communities and schools have already reacted strongly to this drastic and sudden move by the government CLASS Executive and a number of very concerned secondary principals have called an urgent special meeting in Wellington on Tuesday 9 June to plan and run a national campaign with the intent of getting this decision reversed.  The total allocation of $16 million per year to schools for ACE is hardly a big budget item and involves over ¼ million adults in learning each year.

Please watch for further information about this campaign as it is developed on www.24thousand.co.nz/class and www.aceaotearoa.org.nz  and www.ppta.org.nz.    To be put on an email group for a direct update can you please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  There will certainly be a need for political of all local MPs and a major effect in collecting signatures for a national petition.

Employment matters:

PPTA has prepared a document about surplus staffing provisions for these employees based on those terms and conditions.  (see www.ppta.org.nz ) Basically permanently employed co-ordinators, whether teaching or non-teaching, do have surplus staffing (redundancy) provisions and no-one else does ie the employment of tutors, professional supervisors and liaison assistants finishes when a fixed term contract is concluded. 

Where there is doubt about whether an appointment is permanent or fixed term the provisions of section 66 of the Employment Relations Act apply.  This requires a written letter for a fixed term appointment to be legitimate, stating how / when / why employment is fixed term and when it will finish.  Therefore if there isn't such a letter then an appointment must be permanent.  Where an appointment was originally fixed term for a year but another couple of years have passed with the co-ordinator continuing in the job with no further written letter of appointment then that appointment also should be regarded as permanent.

PPTA has already approached Minister Tolley about who pays for the redundancy costs and initially she has said that the boards are the employers and will have to carry those costs!  PPTA is pursuing this matter as previously costs incurred through central decisions have been paid centrally as in school re-organisations - not so now!   

We hope that you will join the national campaign and do whatever you can locally in order to have this political decision reversed.

Yours sincerely

Marion Norton

Advisory officer (industrial)

NZPPTA

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