Continuous Enrolment: Heresies, Headaches and Heartaches

In this paper I report on a research project designed to address the question of how the policy of continuous enrolment has been working in practice in the AMEP (Adult Migrant English Program), the national English language program offered to newly-arrived migrants to Australia. Managers, teachers and learners from around Australia were interviewed individually or in focus groups to ascertain their views on the policy and its management. The literature on continuous enrolment has focused almost exclusively on adult education in North America, and has generally found little positive support for the policy among teachers. The results of this study indicate that the potential benefits to students in the context of the AMEP may outweigh the considerable disruption to classes it causes. In two of the three participating centres, the students were overall very positive about starting class immediately, and many teachers also appreciated these benefits for students and were developing strategies to minimize the negative effects. Similarly, while the managers generally recognized the organizational and pedagogical headaches that the policy caused, they appreciated the flexibility it gave them to open and manage classes according to local conditions. I argue that these more sympathetic views are a product of the unique context and history of the AMEP as a nationally-supported on-arrivals program, but that positive measures are nevertheless necessary in order to address the issues caused by continuous enrolment.