Article in video form

Introduction

Schools across the country have seen cuts of 2.8bn pounds since 2015. With the average cuts per secondary school amounting to a staggering 185 thousand pounds on average. This has meant schools dropping GCSE topics, teachers having to buy their own critical supplies (whilst scarcely getting by themselves) and even job losses. With a quarter of schools having experienced redundancies in the last year , we are even seeing burnt out teachers considering other career paths.

The education cuts don’t just stop at a primary and secondary level. They crash into further and higher education as well, leaving no part of the education system safe from the far reaching hands of austerity and public service cuts.

Further education cuts

Teachers working in adult further education experienced a devastating slash of 24% to funding over 2015/2016 alone. This is one of many cuts to FE funding. We have seen a loss of around 1 million adult learners since 2010; with those numbers set to increase. The effects of these devastating cuts are widespread and affect many adults trying to return to education.

There’s one area of FE cuts that I feel has been under reported; that is adult GCSE courses. We have seen many colleges across the country remove several GCSE topics from their available courses. This commonly leaves a majority of colleges with just: English, math & biology GCSEs. The loss of extra GCSEs for adults is a huge blow for some prospective students returning to education later in life.

Unfortunately, cuts don’t just stop at GCSE courses either… We have also seen a drop in available A Level courses as well. Making the variety available to prospective students lacking at best.

There are many reasons why a student under achieves in school (or even 6th form). Ranging from sickness to mental illness and even bad family circumstances. The door should always be open for people that have slipped through the cracks of the education system to achieve their fullest potential. No one should ever be shut out from improving their prospects both educationally and ultimately, financially.

Access course argument

While access courses are available for students in this situation, they shouldn’t be the only option. There’s a place for them and they certainly have their benefits. However, they don’t come without their fair share of issues either. Access courses limit the student to their career of choice when they start that course. So if they decide to change their mind by the end of the course, they would be limited to the diplomas that the course provides them access to.

Furthermore: not all colleges have access courses for more niche professions such as medicine, for example. It’s also worth noting that not all universities accept access courses for some diplomas, further limiting a students options of where they can study. This may end up being especially problematic for those with extra needs who may need to study as close to their home as possible.

Access courses are also notoriously intense. You are squeezing a level 3 qualification into 1 year, so it will be a highly intensive course. For some students, that probably works very well if time isn’t on their side… On the other hand, some students would work better under a longer time frame and more standardized revision resources.

Providing more GCSE and A level courses for adults is a crucial step towards giving equality and opportunity to those who have ended up with either poor grades or (in some rare cases) no qualifications at all.

But as mentioned above, this doesn’t just stop at GCSEs… This issue extends into A level courses as well. It is vital that we provide at least some core A level courses for adult learners, while also assuring that we aren’t seeing a drop in courses available for pre 19 learners too.

Providing A level courses for adult learners would greatly increase their opportunities and prospects. By giving adult learners the option to take A levels, it will allow them to take on a wider range of degrees while also allowing them to study at a much wider range of universities.

Action

It is imperative that we rise together and make our voices heard about education cuts. The effects of further cuts don’t bare thinking about. We will be loosing out on doctors, engineers, architects and many other crucial professionals for building the future of our society. It’s time to stand up and say enough is enough.

Spread the word about this! Talk to your teachers about it, support them, advocate them! Bring up the issue of further education cuts to your friends, councilor and your local political parties meetings too.

Send this article (and the video!) to as many people as you can and get the conversation rolling on social media. If we work together, we can build a brighter future for not just primary and secondary education, but further education and higher education too.