Semi-reunion

Hopefully soon, I'm going to meet up with some of the guys and girls from Taunton School
. I'm not sure why, but I was really apprehensive about this for a bit. Seems really silly but I was kinda quiet and unsocialible at ts, and
I dunno, it just will be wierd to see all those people again. Ah well I've put together a webpage of info about it here Here.

XML is just so god damn cool!

Why is it that people sometimes treat me like a child? I'm 6ft 2 and 21, surely I deserve at least a little respect from shop assitants, but
oh no because I looked a little scruffy I don't get service. A complete joke.

Sometimes I do wish I was back school but only when I'm really down. I don't why but I suppose everyone has such varied memories of their
education that school represents to a lot of people, a real epoch in their lives. They say your school days are your best, but don't believe that. I hope
mine are still to come. Here's hoping.

Night.

Top-up's are no answer

Currently I'm researching a documentary about Student funding in Britain. I've
read the Cubbie report, the Rees report and the government response to each of them. It sucks. Full-stop. The entire system assumes that students receive support from their parents to help pay their expenses. In reality parents are
having to support them, sometimes at great finacial struggle to themselves.
In the end it comes down to money; the Government doesn't want to pay for better
Highier education when it has bigger fish to fry, like schools, hospitals and
the Police service. It reckons that people can pay without cutting down upon
access levels, to these ends using the new Access Agency to police this and dole out money accordingly. It also wants 50% of young people to go to University.
I think it is wrong to put a target on the level University education in this country. It should be a lower bound, a target to be smashed. Yet I also believe that people should not feel pressed into going to Uni, as it is not for everyone.

So the government wants the students that it reckons can afford it, to pay fees
of up to £3000. Debt will increase exponetially. Student counseiling services are
already at breaking point with large numbers of students seeking help after debt
problems or other such issues related with increased presure. We're looking
at a generation of young professionals burdened with debt before they even start
thinking about trying to get on an already expensive property ladder.
Again it sucks. Big time.

Students are according to recent surveys working more and more above their 15 hours
supposed maximum allowance. Less time is now availible for extra-activities such as
sports or clubs, with many people opting out of any such thing completely as more
departments scheledule lectures in the traditional free Wednesday afternoon slot.
Everyone understands that HE is underfunded at the moment and desperately needs more
funding to compete in a new global market for research and academics as the brain drain
to rich American institutions continues. Yet to place the burden upon students and their families,
is to disregard the ideals of free education for all. The equality of opportunity and the resulting
advances in such a system are far beyond the the short term quick fix being proposed.
By putting in place such restrictions, a very real psyhcological ceiling is placed upon children
already thinking about their future. Imagine a child sitting in a classroom, wondering about the stars.
Having just been amazed by a lesson about the Universe, the child sits eating lunch, thinking.
Then up pipes another child who's brother is at University and came home due to debts. Instantly
a barrier is placed in the mind of the child; how can I go, if my family can't afford a holiday?

That may seem a little far-fetched to some but I don't think so. What if it is true?
What if in schools across this country, kids of low-paid parentsare already lowering their
dreams to a level that they believe they can afford? Recsearch has already shown that fear of
debt is a major issue for children from low-paid backgrounds. We can't allow this to happen.
Not now. Not ever.

Yet how do you fund HE?
A good question....