Education & tuition fees

Watching the events over the tuition fees proved one thing and that is that generally speaking people don't understand politics. Leaving the rights and wrongs of tuition fees aside let's remember that the idea of scrapping them was and still is a Lib Dem policy which they promised to implement if they succeeded with a Lib Dem government. We don't have a Lib Dem or Conservative government; we have a coalition government so any pre-election manifestos go out of the window. No-one is breaking a promise because neither is in a position to carry out those promises without the agreement of the other.

Now why all these students having been peeing up against statues of Winston Churchill and trying to ram the police with their home made riot shields you would think that young people of that standard of education would have looked at the detail of the proposal and focused the public's attention to two very important issues about tuition fees that have gone relatively unreported. They are:

1. Even though they do not have to pay anything back until they earn £21,000 PA, the interest on that loan is still compounding at I believe 3% + the base rate. Therefore the longer they go on not paying it, the more they will eventually have to pay back. Now consider that with the following point.

2. There is no facility in the student loan to pay it back early. As with any other loan or mortgage it is an entitlement to redeem the loan early and avoid interest. A student loan can only be repaid through the tax system thus committing the student to 30 years of repayments whether they are in a position to repay in full or not.

I don't actually have a problem with giving students a free university education but there is only so much money in the kitty and while we are paying out £13 billion to foreign countries to educate their children we cannot afford to do it to ours as well. It is a question of priorities, our children or somebody else’s?

A free university education must come at a price of some sort as I believe you get out what you put in. A commitment to work in this country for a number of years would be a start and a period of voluntary community service would result in credits being awarded to go towards university or apprenticeship.

More importantly our whole education system needs looking at from the age of 14 up. We are asking young people to choose and discard subjects at too earlier age due to the focus being on GCSE's, A levels and degrees when in reality a young person hasn't got a clue which career path they want until they reach their early 20's.

Too many people regard the degree as the be all and end all of qualifications when chances are they will end up in a career that their degree wasn't required for. For some it is merely social status with it already being decided for them that they will go to university before they are even born.

I suggest a more rounded education up to 18 where all academic subjects are taught with the option to opt in to non academic studies such as art or drama. There must be then just one exam at 18 on all subjects, the results of which determine the students’ need for further education or training. The 16 – 18 period is when they would carry out voluntary work in the community.

Finally a couple of snaps from last Sunday, when South West Freedom members met up for a Christmas celebration meal in Cornwall.