Every organisation is facing its challenges as it makes its way through completely uncharted territory. City Lit is no different. The difficulty, it seems, for every organisation is that we don’t have all the information we need to make the best decisions. Often, I feel we are flying blind.

I do believe that the UK government is trying its best to work in a coordinated and structured way, ensuring a vital flow of information and taking the necessary steps, where it can, to give assurances that we all need to hear. 

However, it’s a mammoth task and obviously there are going to be gaps and questions. 

Delays in answers being given in certain areas has meant that, as a college, we have had to make some decisions by ourselves and without precedent in the hope that we’re doing the right thing. 

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Closing doors contrary to guidance

The first of these difficult decisions came mid-March when it was clear anxiety provoked within our student community by the prospect of face-to-face teaching had risen dramatically as concerns around transmissions grew. The government’s decision to hold their line of keeping education establishments open put us in a difficult position, when balancing the health concerns of our community of adults from 19 to 90 with the operational concerns of deciding to close our doors contrary to official guidance.

In the end, we decided to suspend face-to-face teaching - one of the most challenging decisions for any college leader to take. Given that City Lit didn’t even close during the Second World War, it was particularly difficult. We all know how important colleges are as a hub for the communities we serve and taking away that physical place for people to lose themselves in learning weighed heavily on all of us.

In a Herculean effort, our tutors and staff mobilised during the week we closed to deliver an incredible 84 per cent of the remaining classes for term two online. While it was by no means a perfect transition, we couldn’t have asked more of our dedicated and diligent staff. 

One of our writing tutors posted on Twitter: “By internet or pigeon we shall try to make things happen. We shall write our way through this,” and it has really felt like that at times. Our students clearly appreciated it as we’ve had some wonderful feedback: “City Lit has closed for the #coronavirus so we’re having our weekly poetry workshop online and it’s really working. Readings are submitted to the group as voice memos then we discuss in comments. Texts are emailed. Ace.”

Thinking holistically about our students, we’ve striven to maintain contact with our learners - incorporating important public health messages, offering online content where possible, and training our tutors in online teaching to enable courses to be delivered remotely where we can. This has enabled us to maintain a service - now over 1,000 individual term three courses - for our community. 

We know how important City Lit is to our various communities and individuals, including the deaf community and those with learning disabilities. Some of the feedback we’ve had has been really moving. One of the parents of a student with learning disabilities said: “Stephen* really misses City Lit. Hands down, it is the best thing he has ever experienced from the education system. We are very grateful to you all.”  

It’s students like Stephen and others for whom City Lit and other institutes of adult learning are such a lifeline. 

Sustainable funding

Like my peers across the UK, we have been working to seek answers on surviving through this period so that we can be there for our students who need us when this is over. However, maintaining support for students is, of course, reliant on sustainable funding.

We have received assurances from the government on continuation of current funding arrangements - which is incredibly welcome. The issue that we have is the unique nature of our organisation. It comes in many forms: the age range of our students; the variety and nature of the courses we provide; our pan-London catchment area; and our blend of revenue streams, including significant fee income, which accounts for over half of our turnover.

Governments past and present have seen this as a huge strength, and our ability to deliver beyond our grant funding has meant that we can reach many more students than would have been possible otherwise. That historic strength has now left us vulnerable in a world turned upside down, as fee income drops off substantially.

There is a lot of talk about education by politicians and commentators, understandably much is being said about schools and support for children, especially those most in need and vulnerable. We couldn’t agree more, but my plea to the government is please do not forget about the adults and the adult education sector.

Adult education has a crucial contribution to make in stimulating environments in which communities can once more come together to determine how to rebuild after the crisis, whether that’s rebuilding confidence about being outside of their home again, helping to regain a wellbeing equilibrium or upskilling them to increase employability.

As MP David Lammy, fellow of City Lit, said recently in a tweet helping to showcase our courses online: “Now, more than ever, is a great time to support adult education colleges, built on the boundless ambition of working people.” 

Mark Malcomson is the chief executive and principal of City Lit.
*Names have been changed