The iconic Tasmanian institution

Lynn Jarvis Address to Adult Ed Public Forum 16 April 2009
ADULT Ed is often referred to as an ‘iconic’ Tasmanian institution.

I think it is called this because for two reasons. One is that it has survived!

It has survived 60 years, 60 often tumultuous years of departmental changes and bureaucratic restructures. Anyone who knows anything about the public service knows this is an achievement of note.

The second is that it has formed a part of so many people’s lives in Tasmania. Most of the people here this evening will have done one or more Adult Ed course during their lives.

Speaking personally I have done so many I have lost count. I have done language classes, art classes, fitness classes, woodwork class, parent-child classes, tennis classes, canoeing classes and many, many more. It has without a doubt enriched my life as an individual, helped substantially with both my physical and mental wellbeing as well as given me many useful skills for the workplace and for being part of the community in which I live. Adult Ed taught me how to create a web page, which if you have checked out our web site at www.friendsofae.org has come in quite handy of late.

I am but one of many.

Adult Ed has now taught several generations of Tasmanians how to use computers from basic word processing to the internet and beyond.

It has taught club and group committee members the skills to run meetings, do the books and write newsletters to enable these groups to continue to exist and grow.

It has provided older learners with the chance to stay in touch with real people and keep their bodies and brains active.

It has taught many, many people that learning is, after all, quite good fun and not half as bad as they remember it from high school.

It has helped many of us get back into exercise after childbirth, to take up new interests when we retire or just find ourselves in a rut, or to get fit when we’ve spent far too many nights sitting on the couch eating potato chips.

It has given many a second chance, an opportunity to discover the real ‘them’. To explore a new direction that has opened both their eyes and often pathways to new lives.

It has given people job finding skills and new career direction.

It has taught men to cook.

Women to build cabinets.

Nervous adults to swim.

Young and old to take risks in rock climbing, abseiling or canoeing courses.

It has taught many, many of us how to use new fangled devices from microwave ovens to mobile phones and ipods. It has allowed us stay connected in this rapidly changing and increasingly technological world

It has given thousands of Tasmanian’s language skills in French, German, Japanese, Spanish, Russian, Italian and countless other languages.

It has taught thousands more how to read and write at a basic level.

What makes Adult Ed really so special, however, is that it is so much more than just a place to learn things.

It has also been a catalyst for countless friendships, partnerships, informal support networks, community connections and new beginnings.

It has provided work and starting points for countless tutors, including artists, artisans and those wanting to establish businesses.

It has provided depressed and lonely people with some way of helping themselves, of getting back into life and connecting with others.

And, as beautiful Elva of Hobart said in the Mercury yesterday, it has even helped some people live longer.

Adult Ed was there when the need for adult literacy and numeracy provision was first muted in the 1970’s. It established a grass-root and efficient volunteer literacy scheme which unfortunately only met its demise when Adult Ed was under the wing of the current Dep. Sec. of Education, John Smyth.

Adult Ed was there when migrants needed to learn English.

It has been there from the very beginning giving Tasmanian’s basic computer skills. Adult Ed had mobile computer labs out in regional Tasmania long before Online Access Centres popped up. But when they did, Adult Ed saw the need was being met and went and did something else.

Adult Ed has been quietly promoting and catering for the learning needs of older learners for many years. It established the remarkably successful School for Seniors in Launceston and also aided the U3A in Hobart. It has put on countless courses specifically designed for groups such as the over 55’s or the over 75’s.

Adult Ed has done all those things and so much more not just because there were a few people beavering away putting on classes somewhere. Adult Ed has always had a ‘heart’, a special energy generated by what I believe is a true love of and dedication to adult learning.

In addition it has always been a separate organisation, unencumbered by too many layers of bureaucracy. It has typically attracted creative and dedicated staff who went way and beyond the call of duty to do their job. It has had the freedom to respond and react, to notice a new need or trends and to go with it – sometimes successfully, sometimes not.

I am here tonight because I do not want to see that proud tradition of Adult Ed go down without at least a decent fight. I believe the achievements of Adult Ed are tired directly to they type of organisation that it was and that if Adult Ed is merged into the Community Knowledge Network structure as is proposed, much of what made it special will be lost.

I am here tonight to press for the retention of Adult Ed in the form we have known it to work and known it to work well. Of course I will be labelled as ‘resistant to change’ as this is the most effective way to dismiss someone in today’s modern bureaucracies, but this is not the case.

Adult Ed has the runs on the board. If it had been failing, sure change it. If it had not responded to emerging trends and learning opportunities, sure get rid of it. If nobody enrolled because its courses were useless, fine chop it up and throw it away

But these things had not been happening. Adult Ed remains immensely popular with the general population, providing approximately 30,000 learning opportunities per year to adults.

So, what then, one might ask is the point of changing its way of operating.

The idea is to create a more seamless service, where Adult Ed, libraries, online access centres and the archives are integrated. This sounds wonderful, but unfortunately the reality is I DO NOT TRUST those currently in charge of Adult Ed to do this properly AND TO PROTECT WHAT WAS GOOD ABOUT ADULT ED ALONG THE WAY.

It is simply that. I do not believe that from the Minister down, those now in charge of Adult Education actually understand what role it plays in the Tasmanian community.

I do not believe that the type of learning that is provided by Adult Education is either understood or valued. David Bartlett has himself said so, he feels Adult Ed is a luxury, and thinks we should be grateful for the small $1.8 million dollars it receives in government funding, simply because no other state funds Adult Ed in this way. How clever is that?

I personally would be interested to know how many times senior bureaucrats now in charge of Adult Ed, none of whom could apparently make it here tonight, have actually done an Adult Ed course, or indeed spoken to an Adult Ed student or tutor. I suspect the number is going to be very low.

In addition I do not trust that these changes have been made with proper and thorough consultation with the Tasmanian public, who after all, are the owners of it. Someone has come up with a grand plan and that’s it. We have to have it. Where is the research supporting this new model of delivery? Where has been the call for alternative views, for learned papers, for submissions?? There have been none.

The rightful owners of Adult Ed, us the Tasmanian public have been totally left out and are now expected to sit back whilst Adult Ed fades ingloriously away to become no more than a few community learning officers stuck down the back of library buildings throughout the state, and the name Adult Ed bandied around so politicians can say, look its still here.

I also do not trust those currently in charge because so far the decisions that have been made are not in the interest of the end users of Adult Ed or any other form of community learning. They have now been at this change process for two and a half years, yet not one new and unique learning opportunity for a single Tasmanian has been created. What we have to show for this two and half years is instead hundreds of expensive meetings, countless new managers, plans for expensive buildings and organisation charts that would confound Houdini.

We have learnt whilst organising this forum of a number of decisions which have already been made that prove to us that the best interests of the Adult Ed student have not and are not being considered.

New prices have recently been imposed on classes, not cost-of-living rises as David Bartlett claims but new charges to cover venues. In some good news, I heard last night, that staff have now been told to undo all these price increase. This, however, seems little more than a political reaction, not a true desire to keep courses affordable.

I know the way concessions are being calculated is changing, meaning costs for more than 50% of Adult Ed students may rise.

There is a new up-front-payment system being introduced next term that benefits no-one except administrators and makes enrolling in Adult Ed now inequitable and for many people, just plain difficult.

Two centres in Hobart are being closed. Staff in Launceston will eventually be moved to the library leaving little doubt about the future of Adult Ed facilities in the north of the state.

The North West program has been decimated and it is predicted it will simply not exist at all within 2 -3 years.

Half the staff of Adult Ed has gone since the new management came on board. Surely that tells us something?

There is, in summary, nothing about this process which gives me any hope that those in charge have community educator hearts or minds, or that they can be trusted to undertake these changes for the ultimate benefit of the Tasmanian public.

Reactions to news of these changes has been wide spread and I hope this tells David Bartlett that the Tasmanian public does not want Adult Ed messed with and that they do not trust him or his bureaucrats to get this change right.

He has so far treated us all with contempt, and I quite frankly am here to say, David Bartlett, leave Adult Ed alone! As an educator I urge him to take stock, listen and learn and to act accordingly. I feel he will not be forgiven by the Tasmanian public if under his leadership, Adult Ed fades away to nothing.