Union cartoon attacks night class cuts

BY NATHAN BEAUMONT

Last updated 05:00 23/02/2010

SUPPLIED

NIGHTY NIGHT: Cartoon versions of Steven Joyce and Anne Tolley dim the lights for adult and community education in a PPTA video made to protest the Government's funding cuts.

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An education union has spent thousands of dollars on a cartoon video that mocks the Government for cutting adult night classes.

The Post Primary Teachers Association hopes the clip, the first in a series of issues it plans to tackle with cartoons, will "ruffle a few feathers".

The two-minute video features Education Minister Anne Tolley, who was relieved of her tertiary portfolio after a minor Cabinet reshuffle last month, and Steven Joyce, who took over the role.

It shows the pair "dimming the lights on adult education".

PPTA president Kate Gainsford said though the clip was supposed to be humorous, it did have a serious message. "The Government has failed to listen to the hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders who have had their lives enriched by night classes."

The video, produced by Wellington communications company Fresco, cost "well under $20,000" to produce, she said.

The PPTA would work on similar videos to highlight class sizes, privatisation and national standards.

The Government's $13.1 million funding cut for Adult and Community Education, announced in last year's Budget, has seen the number of community-based courses plummet. More than 100 of 212 schools offering continuing education last year have pulled out and just 24 are still receiving government funding, with another 24 in "partnerships" with funded schools.

Mrs Tolley declined to comment.

Mr Joyce said: "There is no doubting that adult education courses can deliver benefits to people who take them. The question is, what contribution should taxpayers make to those courses?"