DISGRUNTLED adult education students are demanding answers about whether their course will be swallowed up in £2m budget cuts.

They reacted after news their English Improvers Course tutor at Gravesend Adult Education Centre, Darnley Road, Gravesend, has been made redundant.

The students are in the dark as to whether the course will continue after the current term finishes but believe their programme will be cut as part of Kent County Council's (KCC) move to reduce courses.

Government cash for adult education has been slashed nationally to prioritise funding for 16 to 19-year-olds.

KCC has to plug a £1.81m funding gap.

In North Kent, 10 per cent of courses will be cut. KCC has not yet announced which will go.

Course assistant Tina Somorin says students are upset and angry nobody has told them what is going on.

She says they cannot understand why KCC would cut a class teaching an essential skill.

Mrs Somorin, 43, says the 10 students believe the course should continue because taking part has improved their confidence and self-esteem.

She added finishing the course in July might mean some students are unable to complete their studies and waste their hard work.

The mother-of-one has written to Gravesham MP Adam Holloway to ask him to help get answers from KCC.

Student Karen Gardiner says she would waste a year-and-a-half's work if the course ended.

The 45-year-old said: "We're all completely in the dark. It's like you are just a number.

"If I don't do this I can't help my children learn."

A spokesman for KCC said: "Changes will have to be made to ensure the service continues to a high standard in Kent.

"The changes will affect some courses in IT, health and fitness, art and higher level languages."