Cuts take ACE champion

BY KRIS DANDO - KAPI-MANA NEWS

One of the loudest voices of the campaign to keep night classes alive admitted defeat last week, walking away from the job she has loved for more than 20 years.

Pam Ringrose has been Mana College's Adult and Community Education (ACE) co-ordinator since 1988. She started working in the school's office in 1984 and has held a variety of roles within its walls.

Pam said she had thought New Zealand's tradition of community education was so entrenched her job would never be in doubt. But the National government announced this year to cut ACE funding from $16 million to $3m, with more of a focus on literacy and numeracy. Soon after, Pam's position was "disestablished".

"It was a bolt from the blue and I'm still trying to get my head around it. Out of 212 schools [across the country] that ran ACE before, less than 50 are now. It's the end of an era."

Before Mana College, Pam was a teacher aide and librarian at Titahi Bay North School. In 1984, she began at the college, overseeing a pilot programme called Transition from School to Work, helping students find work experience.

When that fell over in 1988, the ACE position came up and that is what Pam has been doing since, with the position full-time since the early 2000s.

"This job started very small but just became bigger and bigger as ACE expanded. In the 1990s the classes were huge. We had so many people and they'd come from Wellington, the Hutt and Kapiti to attend. People were loyal, they kept coming back, and I really think we were serving a need in the community."

The alarm bells rang when there were whispers before the Budget in May. After the announcement, Pam mobilised a resistance to try to get National to reverse its decision. She got the backing of Mana MP Winnie Laban, organised an emotional public meeting in Porirua, attended by Labour leader Phil Goff, and helped organise a 53,000-signature petition presented on Parliament's steps.

"It was so brilliant to get the public's support and I'm pleased for what we achieved. It was quite draining, it took a lot of my time and energy, but I was glad I was involved. There is a lot of sadness but people should be proud of the way in which we fought."

Pam does not blame Mana College, saying they held meetings to discuss ways of keeping the classes going and their support for ACE over the years has been incredible. But in the end the school simply could not afford to foot the bill to keep them running.

She is confident night classes will come back to Mana one day and is pleased to see them still at Tawa College, Wellington High School and Onslow College.

Pam finished up on December 14, packing up her tiny office and leaving the school for the last time. While it was sad saying goodbye to staff and boxing up years worth of files, she is looking forward to starting a new chapter in her life.

This is still to be decided but she is optimistic her skills will find good use somewhere. At the moment, her thoughts are more towards Christmas holidays with children and grand-children.

Not taking that turn on to Awarua St every day will be hard.

"I'm so used to coming here, my car will probably automatically turn around that roundabout and come towards Mana College. It's going to be strange."