The stated rationale for these cuts is the reduction of financial cost; but has the social cost of these changes also been considered?
Given the current rise in unemployment, courses such as these would assist upskilling for employment - surely also a target of the Government - and provide resources for the reorientation of one's life following redundancy or retirement.
As the average life expectancy increases - and possibly the age of eligibility for superannuation is raised - the need of these programmes will surely grow.
As a retired couple, both doing courses at Kaikorai Valley College, we have experienced the benefits of these programmes at first hand.
These courses often act as the component parts of a network which enlarges the mental and social horizons of many of the participants.
Courses such as these also increase the range of employable skills and hence of employment opportunities.
Since these courses operate over a period of time, and often lead from one level of the subject to another, cancellation of the programme both prevents the student from completing their study and imposes financial loss in respect of the fees already paid for a course that they are not able to complete.
To remove funding for these programmes is not simply to close the door of opportunity for those in the courses; it is also to destroy a subculture of adult learning that has enriched the lives of its participants.
The fiscal savings achieved by cancelling the funding of these programmes would be outweighed by the social and mental impoverishment that will result from these cuts.
In this respect, we do not live by bread alone.
Brett and Adrienne Knowles
Wakari
- In recognition of the importance of readers' contribution to the letters page, the newspaper each week selects a Letter of the Week, with a book prize courtesy of Dunedin publisher Longacre Press.
This week's winners, Brett and Adrienne Knowles, of Wakari, receive a copy of Susan Bell's A Touch of Sleeve, Longacre Press, $39.99.
