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Save adult education at the Bethnal Green Centre - Lobby, 25th June |
Tower Hamlets council is planning to close the Bethnal Green Centre, one of the oldest adult education centres in the country. Campaigners have organised a lobby of the council on 25th June, following the recent demonstration and march attended by 200 campaigners along with local MP George Galloway.
Adult education courses are under threat nationwide as a result of government policy aimed at making learners pay, regardless of their ability to do so. This is being felt also at Bethnal Green Centre, 229 Bethnal Green Road, London E2 6AB, where adult learning is under threat following a statement made by the director of children’s services at the Borough of Tower Hamlets, which would confirm that there were plans for the building to be “disposed of” after a two-year interim period.
Students, staff and the wider local public became suspicious back in March when preparations were being made to move some courses to other centres and terminate other courses altogether. At a public meeting at the centre on 20 March, Cllr. Clair Hawkins confirmed that the centre had been earmarked to accommodate local school pupils from Bethnal Green Technology College during a two-year refurbishment programme, displacing adult day classes in the process.
The council plans thus sprung upon students, staff and local residents was duly met with vociferous criticism, marking the beginning of what has become a veritable campaign to save Bethnal Green Centre. After a number of activists’ meetings, a petition and letters were drafted and circulated, and a public march to bring the issue to the attention of the wider public was organised.
Local MP George Galloway and a crowd of about 200 people gathered in Bethnal Green Gardens and marched down Bethnal Green Road to the centre on Saturday, 26 April, attracting media coverage in the East London Advertiser, Evening Standard, LBC Radio and BBC London Radio.
Although the Council is now back-tracking in the face of public opposition, denying that there are any plans to sell Bethnal Green Centre in two years’ time, the Campaign is continuing to press Tower Hamlets Council for cast-iron guarantees that the centre will remain devoted to adult education beyond 2011, thus ensuring adequate provision for both, school pupils and adult learners in the area, an objective well within the financial means of the Borough.
To this effect, representations will be made to the full council meeting at 7:30pm on 25 June at the Council Chamber, 1st Floor, Town Hall, Mulberry Place, 5 Clove Crescent, London, E14 2BG - Click here for a map of the area.
Support from other adult education centres, local unions, community organisations and the wider public will be welcome.
Bethnal Green Centre has been an adult education centre since after the First World War. Its contribution to community cohesion and individual self-improvement is much appreciated by people in the area. This applies in particular to courses such as woodwork, jewellery, ceramics and mechanics, for which irreplaceable facilities exist at the centre, and in whose defence the “Association of Dirty Classes” formed by students has been particularly active.
For more information, visit www.bethnalgreencentre.blogspot.com, or contact Roberto Foth, UCU representative and campaign member, at
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