Students of Education v Educational Students!
Today more people than ever desire a university education.
Formerly, the domain of the predominantly academic elite not all could secure the A-level grades required for uni-entrance.
I speak as one not blessed with early access to an 'academic' education.
An underprivileged start in life ensured that the prospect of a 'good' education was for me at best remote. But education arrives in as many forms as it does vehicles. Not all learning is considered 'valuable'; but all learning has a value, even if only in the negative of what not to repeat!
Barely aged 15, despite my unheard protestations, I was unable to remain at school. Still unable to spell my name nor even to distinguish between a full stop and a decimal point, I entered the work force incapable of completing a time sheet.
My non-academic job was beneath graduate aspirations.
A quarter of my meagre remuneration was deducted from my pay packet by my employer at the behest of the government and used paradoxically to pay for inter-alia, funding education .
I was denied access to: a degree, A-levels, O-levels, it seemed I was ranked below ground level. I could... console myself that my taxes funded those able, to get a degree.
Soon these graduates, supported by grants, funded by my taxes, would supervise my career - and sometimes they would, “lord it over me”. Their attitude was not their fault, they simply lacked my lack of education. They had been erroneously conditioned to sincerely believe that money and status were more valuable than people - irrespective of how far below the social stratum such individuals might be submerged.
However, a solution dawned. What I lacked in academia I made up for, with blistering physical hard graft. Working twice as hard for half as much, I attempted to redress any social imbalance by becoming financially, if not academically, successful. It was a 'poor' trade off. After all, who would seriously swap their education for mere money?! Being ignorant is the more demeaning when cognisant of a learning adventure beyond reach.
My continued success and self-worth was curtailed only by my lack of education.
‘Wising-up’, I attended evening classes, and after some years a university education beckoned.
Ironically, by this time, the government had necessarily introduced loans to replace the grants formerly afforded my forbears. With some empathy, I could not in good conscience have wished to repeat history and expect my poor peers to fund my education. This highly controversial retrospective governmental redress, did not cause me to baulk, as it did the majority of my fellow students; they had simply arrived by a different route, with an unsustainable fuel tank full of what had become unrealistic expectations.
Parliament, belatedly recognising 'my' former inequity, no longer demanded that the underprivileged should fund the education of the elite. Government now reclaimes postponed Student Loans [and subsequently Student Tuition Fees too], payable upon realising an income exceeding a threshold otherwise unlikely achievable by non-graduates. This 'foreign concept', as voiced by opposition MPs and students alike, left me unperturbed coming from my penurious improbable past.
Happiness is today sought by many via fast-track hedonism. One buys retail therapy when bored. This fictional joy makes me truely happy that my journey was a meandering B-road. Along the route I witnessed some unforgettable scenes fundamental to whatever I have become and otherwise unavailable via the faster concrete uni-motorway. I received a holistic education, causing me to evolve into a more appreciative person. Now I more eagerly empathise with the struggles of often unrecognised non-graduates - who are no less valuable to society. Retrospectively, nothing could induce me to part with my belated and limited education - I would no longer be who I am; which is why I do not mind paying for it. It is like buying wisdom and understanding without having to contribute until receiving remuneration commensurate with that which I could not otherwise achieve. Inverted by many as a mere by-product and secondary to an academic career; an education, is as much who I am as my DNA. The means-to-an-end became the meaningful main theme.
I realise there are counter-arguments centred around what other western countries provide free of charge. But is it truly free if an education comes at the expense of non-graduates? Will we ever learn!? One could argue I never did! Despite studying Law I dropped out before the end of the second year. In the meantime I learned sufficient during my studies to know that there is life both before and after education. Indeed Life is an education. Some argue that students have an easy life. This was not true for this former student. It was both the hardest and best thing I ever endured. Fortunately for me, altruistic graduate friends were kind enough to help fund me during my vital if limited uni-education.
Geoff Hulme the Education Secretary stated on 31 January 2012: Children's lives are blighted without adequate education. To say to a child: "Don't imagine that if you are poor you can expect an education...is wrong ." It is wrong to... "write off children before their lives have even begun." I have equal sympathy for the government's stance, as I have for aspiring students. However, my moral balance leans towards the government.
Bob Leydon.