Action for ESOL (through the summer)

It's time for me to have a break. I'm going to spend the summer away from work, physically at least. But I'm going to be trying to design a new and improved course while I do so. But before I go I have to focus on one of the great unanswered questions of the new academic year as it is still ongoing and undecided even as we break up - funding for ESOL courses has been cut.

What does that mean? 
Well, ESOL students are often the most vulnerable in society: new immigrants; refugees and asylum seekers fleeing wars and persecution; women who have come to join their husbands and often remain within their community without ever learning English. These people are usually on benefits such as income support, or Home Office benefits which are not classified as 'active' jobseeking benefits. This is because they are prevented from working either by the Home Office or because they have kids to care for. These are the people who can't access cheap ESOL classes anymore.

Why does it affect us?
The Conservatives and right-wing press often have a lot to say about lack of integration of new immigrants to the UK. Indeed, they often use this as the reason for extremist behaviour. What better way to integrate people into the UK than to teach them the language? Cutting funding does exactly the opposite. We alienate those who desperately want to integrate; we make them feel an outsider in our land. That only breeds dissatisfaction and segregation. And if we don't teach them English? The people who need English won't simply disappear - they are here and if we don't teach them to speak for themselves we will have to pay for interpreters anyway. It's a false economy to cut English classes. We gain nothing.

What can be done?
Help me to support some of the most vulnerable people in our society by listening to their stories and reading the facts here on a great website put together by Mike Harrison; sign the petition to ask the government to reconsider the funding constriction; or, if you're not the action type, just do me a favour and read about the atrocities committed in Congo, the disappearances in Iran, or just the day-to-day fear of living in Afghanistan and please, try to remember, these are the people I teach. This is the level of suffering I encounter in my students and quite frankly, they deserve more than this awful struggle to learn how to speak English in the country which they believed would give them sanctuary.

I want to come back to work able to admit all-comers to my course, not just the privileged few that can still afford it. Back in 2005 the government had the same bright idea about reducing funding for asylum seekers and it was my job to tell people that they couldn't have classes, despite the fact that I knew they had nothing else in their life and for some these classes were a lifeline. I don't want to have to do that again. It was unnecessarily cruel and, I believe, inhumane. Back in 2005 we fought, we protested and we made ourselves heard and the government capitulated. Let's do it again!