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<h1 class="entry-title">Education leaders call for co-ordinated national ESOL strategy</h1>
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<div class="gmail-post-footer-author"><a href="http://feweek.co.uk/author/alix-robertson/"><span class="gmail-vcard gmail-author"><span class="gmail-fn">Alix Robertson</span></span></a> </div>
<div class="gmail-post-footer-date gmail-date gmail-updated"> | 15:00, Feb 3, 2017</div>
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<img src="http://feweek.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/DFE-Logo-design-800px-5.jpg" class="gmail-attachment-large gmail-size-large gmail-wp-post-image" alt="Education leaders call for co-ordinated national ESOL strategy" title="Education leaders call for co-ordinated national ESOL strategy">
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<p>Two of the country’s most senior educators have
called on the government to produce a coherent national strategy for
teaching English to immigrants, and put a stop to wasteful competition
between different ministries and departments.</p>
<p>At present, responsibility for English as a second language is split
between the Department for Education and the Department for Communities
and Local Government.</p>
<p>Jenny Roden, the co-chair of the National Association of Teaching
English and Community Languages, and Sue Pember, director of policy at
adult learning provider membership body Holex and former senior civil
servant responsible for FE funding, have said that the situation is
failing tens of thousands of learners who desperately want to learn the
language.</p>
<p>The DCLG provides funds for a selection of short-term English
language projects for non-native speakers, and the DfE provides separate
funding for ESOL classes in FE – which has been heavily cut alongside
the adult education budget.</p>
<p>Between the 2012/13 academic year and 2015/16, the DCLG handed out
almost £8.5 million for projects designed to “engage isolated adults”,
according to the apprenticeships and skills minister Robert Halfon in an
answer to a written parliamentary question submitted in January.</p>
<p>A DCLG spokesperson told <em>FE Week</em> these projects are
generally delivered by unpaid “small voluntary and community groups” –
as the department fears learners may otherwise “be deterred from
attending classes delivered by local colleges in larger, more formal
settings”.</p>
<p>Around 39,800 adults have received teaching so far, and the focus is
on people with “the lowest levels of English” rather than those “seeking
work”.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, funding for the DfE’s ESOL classes, which the FE sector
has been delivering for decades, has significantly declined since 2009.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>DCLG-funded projects, which are short-term and targeted at certain
groups, do not provide the sustainable funding which ESOL badly needs</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Ms Roden warned that the six projects, funded to the tune of £8.45
million over four years by the DCLG, were unlikely to reach enough of
the people who need them, particularly while college programmes continue
to suffer.</p>
<p>“Unfortunately, DCLG-funded projects, which are short-term and
targeted at certain groups, do not provide the sustainable funding which
ESOL badly needs,” she said.</p>
<p>“The systematic reduction in ESOL funding from the Skills Funding
Agency since 2009 has left providers struggling to provide even a basic
service, with some closing down their provision completely.</p>
<p>“We believe that ESOL learners deserve better than this; what is
needed is a strategy for ESOL, as exists in Wales and Scotland.”</p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_47841" class="gmail-wp-caption gmail-alignright"><a href="http://feweek.co.uk/?p=55329"><img class="gmail-wp-image-47841 gmail-size-full" src="http://feweek.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Paul-Offord-expert.jpg"></a><p class="gmail-wp-caption-text">Read more: What FE Week’s deputy editor had to say</p></div>
<p>Dr Pember, who was formerly the top skills civil servant, told <em>FE Week</em> that she too believes there is an urgent need to establish a coherent strategy for English language teaching.</p>
<p>“If we are to meet the government’s stated aims on integration, we
really need an English language policy for England,” she said. Recent
announcements about new funds for refugees are welcomed but these seem
to be done in isolation from the main body of activity.”</p>
<p>In December 2016, a report on social integration authored by Dame
Louise Casey found that English skills are “fundamental” to improving
community cohesion and opportunities for immigrants, but identified “a
significant gap in funding for pre-entry and entry-level English
language courses”.</p>
<p>This isn’t the first time senior figures in the sector have called
for better ESOL provision. Martin Doel, the former boss of the AoC,
pointed out in January last year that there had been a 50 per cent drop
in funding available for ESOL courses between 2008 and 2015 – a massive
fall of £160 million.</p>
<p>He made the observation in the wake of a controversial decision by
the-then prime minister David Cameron to provide £20 million for English
language tuition geared towards helping Muslim women integrate into
British society.</p>
<p>Meanwhile in October, hundreds of college staff and students
expressed their frustration over ESOL cuts at the Houses of Parliament.</p>
<p>NATECLA will carry out a survey with the charity Refugee Action to
assess the effect of cuts to ESOL funding nationally, with results
expected in September.</p>
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