COMMENT
How culture and society could be affected
by the public spending cutbacks A few months ago it looked as if the only cultural importance of October 20th 2010 was that it would be the thirty ninth birthdays of Danni Minogue and Snoop Dogg. Now it seems to be assuming an apocalyptic quality as the date when George Osborne will announce the outcomes of the government’s comprehensive spending review, says Alastair Thomson
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Alastair Thomson is principal policy and advocacy officer at the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education
n the union movement, the normally conciliatory TUC general secretary, Brendan Barber, has warned that big cuts would make Britain a “dark, brutish and more frightening place” and claimed “these are not temporary cuts, but a permanent rollback of public services and the welfare state. Not so much an economic necessity as a political project driven by an ideological clamour for a minimal state”.
Elsewhere, opinion polls suggest that while many voters accept the need for deficit reduction, there is growing disquiet about the speed and depth of cutbacks. Certainly news that Whitehall departments were being asked to model how they would implement reductions of between 25% and 40% over a four year period suggested a ferocity and scale of change that was breathtaking in severity even though it is anticipated that cuts in educational budgets may be limited in the range of 10 to 20%.
Earlier in the summer there was talk that the pain would be shared and that “we’re all in this together” but more recently, press stories about the remuneration of top bankers (felt by many to have triggered the financial crisis) have led to increasing concern about fairness and whether selective tax increases should play a bigger part in bringing down the deficit.
Either way, it looks increasingly likely that there will be a bitter political battle ahead, the results of which could transform UK society.
As an independent, member- owned, non-governmental organisation, the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education cannot be culled like a quango but as a body that relies on winning public sector contracts, our trustees will shortly be making some tough decisions about how best NIACE’s charitable mission, “to promote the study and advancement of adult continuing education”, can best be delivered with a smaller income.
Their choices will be informed by a membership base that includes colleges, local authorities and universities as well as broadcasters, faith groups, unions, the Women’s Institute and the army. The diversity is interesting as it is a reminder that while adult education and training is certainly a public service, it is also a cultural force in civil society.
Long before the state got involved, voluntary and mutual bodies were engaged in the education of adults and today a vibrant and expanding part of the sector is the University of the Third Age – a self-help organisation of more than 700 local groups providing learning opportunities for older people. Similarly, but with public funding, the Workers’ Education Association continues to be a voluntary association.
The educator Raymond Williams argued that, in uncertain times, adults turn to education to understand change, to adapt to change and to shape change.
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There is however, a battle to be fought during the spending review against those who only see the value of public investment in post-initial education in the most narrowly utilitarian terms of preparing workers for the labour force.
Fortunately, the business secretary, Vince Cable, does not have such a view – observing that “Philistinism is bad economics”.
Whether Dr Cable is able to carry the day in debates with the Treasury remains to be seen but what may strengthen his hand is how speedily the government can articulate how the idea of a big society, as an alternative to big government, will work.
While this will not be a central concern for public servants worried about the security of their jobs and the impact of the loss of services for the most vulnerable, there is at least a possibility that a more empowering culture in post- school education could emerge if Mr Osborne listens to the prime minister who has said: “Adult learning has a really important part to play in encouraging active citizenship. I’m not just talking about what people learn about specifically, but how that learning makes them feel. Going along to college means meeting people, discussing what’s going on in the world, boosting your belief in what you can do. It’s that self- belief that leads people to get involved with their communities and become more active citizens.”
Sep/Oct 10
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