The Government is to spend more than £1 billion on a Back to Education Initiative aimed at the one million adults who have not completed their Leaving Certificate.
Third-level fees for most adults taking part-time courses will remain, after the Government refused to abolish them at cost of £30 million to the Exchequer. Fees will be abolished for medical card holders and other welfare recipients pursuing part-time third-level courses. Women in the home and others who are not earning will get a 30 per cent reduction.
The Back to Education Initiative forms a central plank of the first White Paper on Adult Education which was announced by the Minister for State for Education, Mr Willie O'Dea, yesterday.
More than 1.1 million people between 15 and 64 have not completed their Leaving Certificate. The £1 billion promised by the Minister - much of which has already been announced as part of the National Development Plan - will be provided over six years through the expansion of the Youthreach, Traveller, Post-Leaving Certificate Courses (PLCs) and Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme (VTOS) options on a part-time basis. During the span of the National Development Plan more than 320,000 people will benefit from the initiative, the Minister said.
The Government's decision to retain fees for non-welfare recipients pursuing third-level part-time courses was criticised by IBEC's social policy director, Mr Brendan Butler, who said fees were a real disincentive to many in the workforce who wanted to upgrade their skills.
Ms Bernie Brady of Aontas, the National Association of Adult Education, was disappointed that fees for part-time, modular and distance education had not been abolished. Mr O'Dea said yesterday the abolition of fees was not realistic. "The number of adults in the population with less than the Leaving Certificate is simply too large to have a general free approach. It would risk displacing existing investment in the 167,000 students who already participate in self-funded night-time adult education classes each year," he said.
The White Paper envisages a new structure for adult education with a National Adult Learning Council as an executive agency of the Department of Education. This will develop policy and promote a co-ordinated strategy among the various providers. The council will also liase with local adult education boards to identify local needs.
All asylum-seekers will be entitled to free English language and adult literary classes under the White Paper's proposals.
Asylum-seekers who have the right to work will be able to take part in labour market training programmes without fees, but will not get maintenance grants for full-time courses.