Letter to the Editor: Right to be concerned about adult education proposals

Shas Sheehan is right to be worried about Merton’s proposals for adult education - too often the Cinderella of the education portfolio, with users who have fallen between the cracks and been forgotten.

Five of the six options could lead to their further distancing from the attention of council officials.

Two recent decisions have shown that the law of unintended consequences plays an active role in education.

In 2002 compulsory language learning was removed from the post-14 curriculum, and in 2008 ELQ - the Equal and Lower Qualifications provision - came into force for higher education.

The first led to the inadvertent apparent downgrading of the importance of modern language provision, while the second caused major problems for Birkbeck and the Open University, both of which cater for students who, through no fault of their own, may not have followed a traditional learning trajectory.

The consequences of the changes that Merton proposes are unforeseeable, and should therefore be avoided.