to think the tories are making education elitist?

[ThatVikRinA22]

just watching the news, they are making the A levels harder, saying they are too easy

my boy did maths and physics and trust me - they were not too bloody easy!

my dd is doing GCSEs now, (at 14!! too bloody young imo!) and was doing one science syllabus, the government changed it recently and now, where she would have been awarded a C, she ended up with a D. The science teacher had a rant about the tories at parents evening....

so, now A levels are going to get harder, getting into uni is going to be harder plus more expensive, does this spell and end for opportunities for all to go to uni?

is it going to be the reserve of the very bright and the very rich?

My DP's cousin did that degree, PostBellum. Are you saying....that Surf Science possibly.... is not perhaps equal to an Oxford degree in mathematics?

(though to be fair, it included quite a bit of oceanography)

No I agree there Usualsuspects - there are no where near enough and the quality of many is shakey to say the least

But there are still some decent ones out there - Arrup, Landrover, Network Rail etc all offer good opportunities

I think the big difference is that many require decent GCSE's which means they are less of an options for the less academic young people

When I left (Grammar) school - 20 years ago - everyone only did 3 A'Levels. the brightest went to Uni, another group (like me) went to Poly to do vocational courses, many others did "graduate" schemes eg in banking, retail management etc There might not be much industry anymore, but you don't need a degree to work in a bank, or a shop for example. I would have thought that work placed training in many industries would still be preferable to having a degree in eg English.

And starting at the bottom up, learning all the roles, on the job training etc - would surely mean that you are already useful at a management level at much the same time as your cohort is leaving Uni saddled with debt.

to be fair, my husband o levels results were pretty mediocre by todays standards (but they were o levels) he had a couple of a's, a b and then c's, But he did really well at college, then placed after 1 year with a good engineering firm for apprenticeship, then did hnc, hnd and then his ba whilst working for very much below average pay i suppose. But he got a 2:1 and then went on to do an Msc and is now, in his 40s I know, being encouraged to do a Phd. Just because he did an apprenticeship, or anyone else for that matter, doesn't mean you have potential to achieve academically, even if it isn't immediately after school. I am very proud of him anyway and I am quite cross at his family claiming his nephew is the 'first person to go to univeristy' just because it's through the traditional, school, a levels, uni route.

my dh did his ba at wolvo which is a poly btw

well was

God yes. I hate the language of the NC. If I had only little children, I'd probably make the effort to master the language. But as my primary children have older brothers (one at university, the other in Yr 11), I really can't be bothered. Because it's such nonsense.