So I haven't been here a while, I had a ton of homework and then some trouble going on. But I'm back now, pack up the party.
I'll get as quickly to the point as I can. University fees and political correctness, I can't stand either. And when they go hand in hand incenses me more.
So Tony Blair plans to introduce top-up fees. Why? 'Educaion, education, education,' he says. Bollocks! £3000 extra a year at university after he got rid of grants that enabled the less well-off to actually get an education. He's making it for the privelidged again, which is a horrendous after his boasting about equal opportunities.
The man talks out of his arse. It is a disgrace. He says that everyone should be able to get an education, go far in life and fulfill their potential. How are us mere mortals supposed to go far with over £12,000 of debt? He never had it hard, he has no right to make it hard for the rest of us.
In the top 13 universities, 39% of pupils come from 7% of schools, those 7% being the private ones. It isn't fair, and it shouldn't be allowed to happen. But it is, and it does.
Little me, in my comprehensive school 6th form, with my 7 A*'s and 4 A's, am predicted high grades at A-levels and am being encouraged to apply for Cambridge. I'd love to go, I'd love to learn and I'd love to do well, but that will be impossible if I can't afford it. It would have been difficult enough without top-up fees, so I was going to take a year out to save up. But now, due to top-up fees, I would be even more in debt if I saved up.
Go straight in, be in debt for the rest of my life or wait, pay top-up fees and be in debt for the rest of my life.
And then there's another thing. On our provisional UCAS forms it asked if both or either of my parents/guardians had been to university. What right do they have to ask that? So they can gauge if they think we're suitable to go to as well? Neither of my parents went, but I'm not telling them that. In fact, I ticked all three boxes and wrote next to it
'THIS QUESTION IS UNFAIR AND OF NO RELEVENCE'. Bloody social status.
So I told people not to tick this question on their forms, but for most it was too late. Never mind, maybe there would be another opportunity.
"You won't have second lesson today because you're doing Alis tests."
Alis tests, like Yellis tests for GCSE students, predict what grades you'll get. For GCSE there was a literacy and numerousy test. I was all prepared to give the meanings to silly words, but no, you just had to fill in the personal details and future plans.
I stroke my imaginary beard ponderously.
So they want to know my post code, my ethnicity, my parents' occupations, when they left school and what job I aspire to have. They then want to know where I see myself in the future and whether I will go to uni.
I so wanted to write 'BOLLOCKS' in big letters across it, it was unbearable.
But I restrained myself. These things annoy me, so I try not to play up to them. It said that the part about my parents was optional, so I opted out. On the 'where I see myself in 10 years' multiple choice part, it had a line for you to write your own prediction, I wrote 'In debt because of university fees - Most Likely'. For all others I gave the answers 'Unsure', 'Unlikely' or 'Definitely not'. On the section about what careers I would be interested in, I again answered vaguely for all except the one I could write; 'See how it all works out - Most Likely'.
This politically correct, social analysing, working class-persecuting crap really does annoy me. Maybe it's the socialist values I harbour, or maybe it's just that the reality of the situation is seriously flawed. They spout so much about equality, where's the equality in stopping those with less money from achieving what they're capable of?
Stick your top-up fees where the sun don't shine, Mr Blair.
