David Gibson, chairman of the Association of Colleges, this week fired a broadside at ministers for “doing down” FE and treating colleges as second-class citizens compared with universities and schools.

“Until recently,” he told the AOC governors’ conference yesterday, “we thought we had detected a most attractive change of tone, coming in our direction.”

He said the Government has since failed to live up to a post-16 learning revolution, which is at risk of being lost in a “spasm of small-mindedness”, while the sector continues to limp along with inadequate funding.

He mentioned the “heavily-manipulated stories about fraud investigations in our sector which, I suspect deliberately, give the dual impression that the college sector either does not care about or is actively responsible for misdirection of funds.

“Why is there so much negative propaganda? Surely it is time for the political dumbing-down to stop and for a coherent, spin-free debate about future strategy to recommence,” he said.

He went on: “Why did she not speak about the massive discrepancies in the resourcing of A-levels? Why should colleges teaching A-level students receive 20 per cent less per student than schools?

“Why not speak about the chronic under-funding of the whole sector? In real terms, the resourcing of FE learners is at the same level as in 1996.

“Colleges look to ministers for leadership, not lectures. It is not for them to turn public goodwill away from a sector that has taken great strides towards modernisation and performance improvement.”

Ms Hodge was also due to speak at the conference - and announce an extra pound;5 million for the teachers’ pay initiative in colleges.

There are twice as many FE as HE students, Mr Gibson said, yet they get a fraction of the funding, and college lecturers’ pay has fallen by 20 per cent against private-sector levels in the past 10 years.

Comment, www.tesfefocus.co.uk.