'Lifeline' cut off as classes scrapped

11:24am Thursday 21st June 2007

Comments (5)   Have your say »

Students learning lip-reading are furious with Barnet College after the course was axed owing to funding cuts.

Members and teachers of the class only discovered their lessons had ended on reading the new college prospectus and finding the course was not listed for the next academic year.

The college said it had discontinued the programme - which has been running for 20 years - for 'financial reasons'.

Students, many of whom are deaf, say they are losing a lifeline which enables them to participate in society, and are looking for funding to continue the course independently. Rochelle Shapiro, 71, from Kenton, said: "Unlike sign language, lip-reading allows us to speak to ordinary people. It allows us to keep our place in the community.

"The classes help us to regain the confidence we lost when we lost our hearing. They do not just teach us how to lip-read, but how to cope with day-to-day living."

The course enables participants to meet others with similar disabilities and share information. Conrad Graham, 78, of Hampstead Garden Suburb, diagnosed with a benign brain tumour which profoundly affected his hearing, said: "I find these classes very useful not only in the didactic sense but for advice on using telephones, hearing the television and various aids that make life tolerable. It is a mutual support group."

Tutor Janet Zysblat, one of three running the courses, was furious not to be consulted on the changes, after working at the college for 16 years. She said: "We couldn't believe that the college would just cut the course without warning. Some of the students have been coming for years. They have got so much more confidence now."

Fellow tutor Jean Wells, profoundly deaf herself, added: "I am disgusted at the way the college has gone about this. We have been given no notice and my students are very angry.

"Having a hearing loss is very isolating and the classes help students to come to terms with their disability and find ways to cope."

Barnet College is one of the last centres in north London still offering lip-reading and sign language. A statement from the college said: "The college has recently suffered significant cuts in funding for adult and community learning courses and for financial reasons has had to respond to these changes.

"Government policy is increasingly focused on collaboration with employers. The drive is also to cut funding which is not geared towards what the Government defines as its priority areas of learning.

"The college does recognise the importance of these courses to the hearing impaired community and is currently exploring possible sources of alternative funding."

Students going into the second year of their British Sign Language course in September will be able to complete their studies at the college.