Overcoming the Language Barrier in Cardiff
As the number of migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in Cardiff has risen in recent years, so the demand for English classes. The possibility for linguistic minorities to be included in the social and economic life of the city is challenged by the cuts in public funding to further education colleges and other organisations that offer these courses.
Men and women escaping war-torn and poor areas have found a refuge in South West Cardiff, which is near the city centre and for many decades has seen a stable presence of several minorities. These factors have contributed in the creation of a space where it’s possible for migrants to easily mix and speak their own native language.
In order to tackle poverty and improve the lives of new and old migrants, the South Riverside Community Development Centre (SRCDC) has offered them free English classes. However, the huge demand has shown the limit of the current funding scheme and the necessity to review the way resources are allocated.
Allan Herbert manages the Welsh antipoverty program at the Centre. He says that the degree of investment required to respond to the current demand is huge, adding that, “there are constant waiting lists within the city of Cardiff. Anything between 1800 and 2000 people are on a waiting list. They can’t event get to do a course and that’s year on year, and has been for many years now.”
SRCDC works with other organisations in Cardiff to address the backlog, but the solution is still out of reach. “I think we can probably do with at least double the resource you’ve got in order to really progress people at a timely rate,” says Herbert.
However, the manager believes that some of these people don’t aim at progressing through the college-type system, wanting only to learn the basic English that will allow them to have an ordinary conversation. Because of that, he argues, “there is still a huge amount of English language learning that is still needed in the community as a whole.”
Providing English classes to people with different skills and educational background is a challenge according to Yasmine Hasmi, who teaches English to entry-level adult students at the South Riverside Community Development Centre.
“You have to think of each and every individual. How much that person can do, in order that she or he is not bored in the class, and they all are participating and discuss, whatever lessons they have, whatever topic it is. They have to feel happy to participate,” says the teacher.
Mrs. Hamid believes it’s never too late to learn. “I would rather have adult learners because they want to learn. They are really lucky in this center. The classes are provided free for them, at the time which is suitable for them. Especially for the mothers: they can go and pick up their kids. However, the more they come, they more they get used to listening to English and meeting people.”
In order to provide these classes, SRCDC has built partnerships with course providers funded by the Welsh Government, such as the Cardiff and the Vale College, a Cardiff-based further education college, and the Workers Education Association, a third sector organisation that delivers further education learning via community partners.
According to Alan Herbert, the shortage in English courses is a problem that affects the entire city, even if Cardiff uses more than 90 per cent of the resources provided for English as Second Language (ESOL) classes, and these resources accounts for 67 per cent of all the resources destined to community adult learning in Wales.
In recent years these funds have been significantly cut due to the reductions in the budget received by the Welsh Government from the UK Government. According to a Welsh Government official, “where possible we have protected the funding for ESOL and Basic Skills, but the reductions in funding will inevitably have had an effect on provision”.
The official also added that “this year we have been able to protect the funding, and there were no further reductions. However, we do not yet know what the funding will be for next year — there is always a danger that we will face more reductions. We will have to wait and see.”
Gavin Thomas is a former Estyn inspector and now a consultant at CollegesWales, the body that represents further education colleges in Wales. He argues that “significantly more funding will be needed to meet the demand, which considerably exceeds supply by a margin probably of about fifty percent.”
He thinks the problem has increased in scale and “at the hearth of that is the shortage of money: there is not enough funding to enable provider like Cardiff and Vale College to put on the necessary courses, and to appoint the necessary teachers, to deliver the courses. So, funding is at the root of the problem without a shadow of doubt. Much more could be done, more provision could be made if there was more money available.”
In order to tackle the issue, some charities have tried to provide English classes or conversation drop-ins to help people who are trying to enter formal English education.
Jenny McDowell is a part-time English teacher at the Cardiff and Vale College and a leading volunteer at Space4U, a charity responsible to offer support to asylum seekers and refugees in Cardiff. Along with four other professional teachers, she holds free classes at Trinity Centre, in South East Cardiff, twice a week.
“What we do here is quite informal in some senses, because what we aim to do is to provide something for people who have recently arrived in the country and are on a waiting list for formal classes at the College”, says McDowell. “Now, because of they pressure on places they may wait up until a year, and sometime in excess of a year, to find a formal class in the college. So, while they are waiting for that, we can provide English.”
However McDowell believes that ESOL classes don’t provide with the opportunity to mix or socialise with native English speakers, while the classes and the activities they offer at Space4U are also aimed at it. She says that very often the asylum seekers and the refugees tend to live with people that speak their own language, “that’s why the conversation club on the Wednesday evening at Space4U is particularly important.”
Learning English was crucial for Anila Abdul Ghafoor, a teaching assistant at Severn Primary School in Canton, west of Cardiff City Centre. She came from Pakistan with her husband fifteen years ago, but due to marriage issues she was left alone with a young daughter and with bills and a rent to pay.
“When he left me I have no English at all, and no money, no food in the house,” she remembers, “police came to find out and they looked at me and I didn’t speak any single word of English.” Social services found her an accommodation and offered English, maths and computer classes. She eventually managed to take a teaching assistant course, which led to her current job.
“On the last day of my course, the head teacher called me in his room. He was a lovely person, an amazing person, like a father who looks after you. It was new for me. So, he said: ‘oh, nothing to cry, nothing to cry. I’m just asking you: would you like to do the work with us?’ I was shocked,” she recalls.
With the support of the community services, the school where she currently works, and her daughter Ansa, Anila didn’t only manage to progress her career, passing this May the exam to become a third level teaching assistant. She also managed to take the UK citizenship and a driving licence. “If they didn’t supported me I wouldn’t be here,” acknowledges Anila.
Originally published on Cardiff News Plus on May 27, 2016
