Tax pays for polytech courses on golf, coffee studies

By STUART DYE, education reporter

Government ministers have been paying out tens of millions of dollars to fund polytechnic courses including coffee-making, twilight golf and singing along with the radio.

One course is understood to have had as many as 8000 students, who did little more than listen to CDs or the radio while reading lyrics from a Maori-language songbook.

An estimated $11 million has been plunged into the programme nationwide, although education officials have refused to confirm the figures.

Many of the courses, run part-time under the banner of community education, are without a qualification or external regulation.

Others likely to be targeted by a Government keen to rein in spending include massage, figure drawing, sewing and personal grooming.

Most are free or subsidised.

Tairawhiti Polytechnic in Gisborne has one course that provides students with Maori-language CDs or tapes to listen to. There is no qualification at the end.

About 5000 equivalent-fulltime students (EFTS) are understood to have taken a community education course at Tairawhiti, attracting $28 million in funding.

Other courses at Tairawhiti likely to feel the Government clampdown include Twilight Golf. For $40 students are given six weeks of lessons to "realise your TIGERISH dreams, learn to use your WOODS".

Personal Grooming - learn the skills of make-up application - is also available at a cost of $55.

At the Eastern Institute of Technology students can study He Waiata Ma Te Whanau, which involves singing along to Maori-language songs on the radio. The Hawkes Bay polytechnic has received about $4 million for this course.

At Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology, taxpayer cash goes towards an Introduction to Espresso course. The polytechnic also runs a sing-along programme.

Tertiary Education Minister Steve Maharey says funding will be slashed, student numbers cut and some courses dropped.

But National Party education spokesman Bill English said the horse had already bolted.

"What we have is a scandalous waste of money." He also criticised some polytechnics as "corrupt".

Mark Chapman, chief executive at Tairawhiti, said the courses were not cash cows.

The audio courses were part of a wider Maori language learning programme that was driven by community demand and had attracted 6000 students last year.

EIT chief executive Bruce Martin said such courses were "a means of enhancing learning of the language and I make no apologies for it".

In the 2000 academic year $16 million was spent on fewer than 3000 EFTS. Ministry of Education projections suggest more than 20,000 have enrolled this year at an expected cost of $115 million, meaning the Government must now prioritise funding.

A spokesman for Mr Maharey said the problem had arisen from an uncapped system, and announcements about cuts would be issued near Budget time.