11 December 2009 Media Statement

Cuts to disabled training at NMIT a tragedy in the making

Cuts to the Supported Learning Programme at the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology will be a terrible blow to the 95 students and their families who will not be able to access education opportunities at the polytech next year, if planned decisions go ahead, says Labour list MP, Maryan Street.

“This would be an unkind cut for these families,” said Maryan Street, who is also the Opposition Spokesperson on Tertiary Education.

“If the government is requiring the polytech to provide only those courses which see migration into employment as the sole criterion for success, then New Zealand as a society is the poorer.

“Families throughout the Nelson area have benefitted hugely from the 120 places previously available to students with intellectual disabilities at NMIT. Cutting these places to 25 next year betrays an impoverished view of the place of education in our society. Parents have seen their disabled children flourish as human beings under the careful tutelage of skilled teachers at NMIT. Why should their access to education opportunities diminish because the government requires completion and movement into employment as the only yardsticks of success?” said Maryan Street.

“When did we become a society which doesn’t care any more about equality for all? Is the recession going to be the excuse for unkindness and inequity?

“I urge the NMIT decision makers not to proceed with this cut but encourage them to push back against Anne Tolley’s narrow and mean requirements,” she said.

ENDS

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