“The BBC World Service, the British Council and the Environment Agency are among the 94 publicly funded bodies whose fate has yet to be decided.”
from Quango Cuts in the Torygraph
It wouldn’t seem to make sense to close all the teaching centres, as most of them make money. Does anyone still think the coalition cuts are really about money, though?
The Council don’t have much of a public service remit anymore, especially since the closing of the libraries that were so useful for people studying Diplomas, but I think the chance of working there is one of the main drivers of people taking the DELTA etc, and so it does have some kind of positive effect on the industry as a whole and so we should all be concerned if it is true. Can it really be true??
I hope if it is cut, that it is privatised. It is a shame so many good semi-government organisations are being cut.
I hope it’s not privatised… that rarely leads to any improvement. The one in Osaka is closing, leaving just the one in Tokyo. There used to be one in Nagoya too…
Too good to be true. Don’t excite me like this.
?
As someone who works for them, this isn’t pleasant news, although I agree that there should always be scrutiny of public organisations like the British Council to ensure they are providing value for money.
Interesting to see the government has decided not to close the BBC (phew!). I wonder how long it took for someone to move that quango from the ‘considered for closing list’ to the ‘safe as adds value to the nation’ list?
It’s also worth noting that the decision to close the libraries and most, if not all the other drastic changes (e.g. closing down teaching centres in Eastern Europe) tends to come directly from the top (i.e. the British government) rather than being a decision taken by people at the Council itself. For that reason some changes don’t seem to make sense to those people at the chalk (IWB?) face…
I would be suprised if the BC closes completely in all contexts but suspect there may be a massive downsizing of activity which in a sense has already been taking place across many European contexts anyway. But with the scissor happy coalition, I imagine anything is up for grabs. I agree with Graham that many of the decisions regarding funding are not made by centres or even at HO, but by governmental personnel with funding objectives to meet. I personally would support BC teachers and other educators around the world under threat of losing their jobs, and hope that Graham and others working there will let us know of developments to that effect. There are many individuals doing great work – and they shouldn’t be confused with the semi-political agenda of the overall aims/objectives, the un-transparency of which have always been a major concern for me and need to be questioned. Having lived through the closure of the teaching centre in Thessaloniki I know how quickly this can happen. But closing all services in all location seems to fly in the face of recent expansion into areas of the globe that are considered “sensitive” in political terms (make of that what you will as there is much to unravel).
Alex keep us posted. And anyone else who works for the BC please ask for support if you need it.
Proof, if any was needed, that it is all ideology and little to do with money:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/oct/13/public-sector-spending-review-plea
British Council – to stay.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2010/oct/14/politics-live-blog-thursday