SIR - Re So much for affordable classes' (T&A, August 10) the writer is correct in her assessment of the cost of courses being too high for many of the traditional' adult learners, however, the situation is even worse than that.

The courses that are priced (after early bird discount') at £96 are almost all 30-week courses covering 60 hours of tuition and having accreditation'. That works out at a cost of just over £1.50 per hour.

Courses without accreditation'have been downgraded' to a category called learning for leisure' and those courses last for 12 weeks, 24 hours tuition, and cost, after discount, £72. That's £3 per hour!

Last year I took a course lasting 30 weeks that cost me £60 and the impression, at the end of the year, was that the course would be offered again and developed into year two'. Now I find that the course has been designated learning for leisure' which means an increase of 20 per cent cost for a reduction of 60 per cent in tuition time.

J Turner, Temperance Field, Wyke