Free education for Consett

Apart from the Chilean miners, the big news story for me this week was the proposed increase in university tuition fees.
 
I just don’t get the whole ideal of making people pay for education. In my ideal world, all education would be paid for by the tax payer so that anyone could go to university regardless of how much their family earn.
 
And in the past it was almost like that.
 
I spent 4 years in higher education before starting work as a teacher and it didn’t cost me a penny. And that will be true of many current teachers, doctors, social workers, civil servants etc. etc. If I’d been faced with the prospect of having to pay back over £20, 000 at the end of my training, I would have thought twice about going to college as would many of my school mates. So what impact would that have had on public services?
 
And by allowing a free for all for universities to charge what they like for tuition fees, what messages will be sent to young people? There are 8 highly intelligent young men in my year 11 mentoring group. All of them are on course for university and all of them have the potential to make very valuable contributions to society. It would be tragic if they decided not to gain the high qualifications of which they’re capable because of a fear of debt in later life.
 
So what can be done?
 
Well, it seems that the decision has been made and tuition fees will rise significantly.
 
But maybe something could be done in Consett.
 
The lead sponsor in the consortium behind the Consett Academy is the University of Durham. Perhaps they could guarantee that all Consett Academy sixth formers who gain a place at the University of Durham would pay no tuition fees.
 
This would be massive gesture of commitment to the Consett community and I am sure would immediately boost everyone’s confidence in the academy project.