FRIENDS OF BILSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Bulletin No.6 Summer
2000
THE CANKER AT THE HEART OF
WOLVERHAMPTON COLLEGE.
The campaign of the Friends for an independent enquiry into the closure
of Bilston Community College (BCC) continues to grow. In July 7 issue
of the Times Educational Supplement an article by Ngaio Crequer
outlined some of the complexities and contradictions of the closure of
BCC and the former finance director of BCC wrote on the inefficiencies
of the Further Education Funding Council (FEFC). July 14 issue of TES
brings further letters of support.
The position of the Friends is that BCC was wantonly and vindictively
closed by the FEFC by bringing false charges against the College. One
charge was fatuous, namely that the way BCC presented itself to the
public offended the FEFC; the second reason was false, namely that BCC
had debts of up to £10m; the third was trumped up, the College
being declared inefficient by a team of FEFC inspectors (not
independent inspectors) after the whole management spine and a quarter
of the staff had been induced in various ways to leave.
RUMOURS OF FRAUD.
The most serious charge is that of improper spending. Over a year ago
the local newspaper, Express and Star reported that a former college
manager had challenged the FEFC to 'put up or shut up' over the
persistent implications of fraud at Bilston Community College. The
strong suspicion was that this fog of implications was being used to
intimidate and slur former members of Bilston's staff. A year on the
innuendo from the FEFC is continuing. There is still no evidence,
despite the expenditure of, perhaps, £2 million of taxpayers'
money and five enquiries, of any fraud or illegal spending. Indeed,
none of the main suspects has even been seen by the police. Surely
natural justice demands that the FEFC put up or shut up. If, as seems
certain, there is not even a hint of any criminal action, then a
statement must be made by the Funding Council to clear the names of
those slurred by this disgraceful campaign of innuendo.
FAILED TAKE-OFF OF WOLVERHAMPTON COLLEGE.
The new Wolverhampton College has been sold to the people of
Wolverhampton on the basis that it will be bigger and better than what
has gone before. Given the vast resources poured into the College it
certainly ought to be. The College is receiving over £30 million
above the general level of funding and £15 million buildings
funding on top. And what do we get for our money? One of the questions
asked at the recent College Strategic Plan consultation meeting gives
us some idea. At the meeting College bosses were asked to confirm that
the college had shrunk to about one third the size it was prior to the
Wulfrun College take over of the remains of Bilston Community College.
In answering the college management all but admitted that this was true.
So the FEFC has spent millions of pounds of taxpayers' money, brought
about nearly 500 experienced and committed staff redundancies - in
order to reduce the college to a third of the size that they funded it
for last year. Now that must take the biscuit for mismanagement.
THE REAL ISSUES AT BILSTON - DISADVANTAGE & RACISM.
Bilston Community College was set up in 1984 by Wolverhampton Borough
Council to serve the needs of the most educationally disadvantaged
population of a town with one of the highest rates of unemployment in
the country. This it did by asserting the almost revolutionary theory
at the time that those with least education should have the greatest
call on educational funds. The college met with sustained and virulent
criticism from the beginning from what must be called a white
establishment. This was in the days when 'old Labour' battled it out
with 'old Conservatism' and right-wing Chambers of Commerce. Much of
existing criticism held by the local newspapers and others will be of
this 'primitive' nature, grossly under estimating the cost, time and
very different tactics necessary to bring basic literacy to the most
disadvantaged.
In 1993 the college passed from the democratic control of the local
council to that of what has been proved to be an almost totally
uncontrollable body called the Further Education Funding Council. BCC
was then created a public corporation with a brief to compete against
other colleges with funding guaranteed for any scheme deemed
educational by the governors. Unexpectedly, Bilston Community College
flourished under this regime and eventually had 50,000 students, mostly
from partnerships with organisations beyond Bilston, popularly known as
franchising, on its books. This was then encouraged by the Conservative
government and the FEFC and still is, today, both legal and once again
fashionable.
Within this expansion Bilston Community College developed a unique
system of multicultural education. On a base of 30% ethnic minority
staff (the highest in the country?) black and Asian students were
enabled to control their own educational needs including where and at
what times these needs were met. This meant that there was a racist
issue to the closing of BCC and it is this that David Blunkett, the
FEFC , and its collaborators in setting up Wolverhampton College have
refused to recognise.
INSTITUTIONAL RACISM.
Following the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, the Home Secretary has insisted
that institutional racism in high places will be as difficult to root
out as direct racism. Most local authorities, including Wolverhampton,
have programmes to combat institutional racism, but the fact that the
closure of BCC is the most important example of such racism is only
slowly being accepted.
The Bilston Model of allowing ethnic minority people to control their
own education within the wider structure of the organisation they work
for will have to be applied in all FE colleges and perhaps universities
where there are large numbers of ethnic minority students.
The Bilston Model is even more important today when the FEFC is being
replaced by Learning and Skills Councils which will control not only
our Colleges, but also sixth forms, Adult Education and Universities in
a similarly undemocratic system driven not by education needs, but by
business interests and Payment by Results methods.
Friends of Bilston Community
College consist of people victimised from that College, those who face
victimisation within the new college and others interested in Community
Education. Their spokesperson is Dr.G.Barnsby at 141 Henwood Rd.
Wolverhampton WV6 8PJ. Telephone and fax 01902 751888