Class cuts leave migrants out in cold

Reza Sarkheil says he is worried about the future of migrants if training organisations are forced to close. Photo / Richard Robinson

Concerns are mounting for Mt Roskill's new migrants as a popular English class is forced to close under Government funding cuts.

Mal Ouston, a teacher at the not-for-profit organisation Trainsmart, said the classes were "absolutely critical to social security" in Mt Roskill, which is one of the most ethnically diverse areas of Auckland.

Private training establishments (PTEs) were made aware of the cuts shortly after adult community education (Ace) night classes found out they would lose 80 per cent of their funding in this year's Budget.

Hundreds of PTEs are funded by the Tertiary Education Commission and may be affected by a fall in baseline funding of some literacy and numeracy grants and the demise of other funds.

The education strategy is now focused on investment in what is deemed to be "higher-value provision".

But Trainsmart manager Peter Roselt said it did not make sense to shut down a class that was in such high demand and had such a strong history of delivery.

Trainsmart began in 1993 and provides the only English for speakers of other languages (Esol) classes in the Mt Roskill-Three Kings area.

It receives at least four calls a week from Work and Income staff looking to place migrants in classes.

The closure would be a "burden on the state", Mr Roselt said.

All 27 students in the English class are New Zealand citizens and aim to secure employment.

Class spokesman Reza Sarkheil, who arrived from Iran three years ago, said learning English was critical to feeling part of New Zealand society.

He said the classes helped with daily tasks such as filling out forms, understanding terms and conditions, booking appointments with the doctor and going to job interviews.

Awad Alawad from Sudan said he had been referred to the class after he could not get a job packing groceries at Foodtown because of his English level.

Agha-Gul Darwish from Afghanistan said the English class would help him to complete a mechanic's course at Unitec next year. It offered him his first chance to learn to read and write in any language - he had not had the opportunity to study in Afghanistan.

"If I didn't have this class where else could I go? I would have to stay home ... I would take a student allowance for nothing because I would not have passed [the mechanic's course]."

Mr Sarkheil said he was worried about the future. "We are not thinking about just us here but about others who won't be able to come and learn.

"We are all New Zealand residents, we plan to stay here for a while."

Trainsmart also has a Henderson office which runs courses for youth who have been expelled from school and this will be forced to cut places from 25 to 14.

Mr Roselt said it was difficult to understand such a decision during a recession - these people found it difficult enough to find jobs when there was an abundance of employment, he said.

Labour leader Phil Goff has jumped in to bat for the Trainsmart Esol class, which is located opposite his electoral office in Three Kings.

In a letter sent last week to Education Minister Anne Tolley and the Minister of Social Development and Employment, Paula Bennett, he called the closure of the school "counter-productive" to a cost-saving measure as the students would continue to "languish on Income Support".

He had not received a response yesterday.