This is not a good time to be a student in college or university. Stories about soaring youth unemployment and scarce opportunities for graduates pepper the news bulletins. People living and working longer inevitably puts a squeeze on opportunities at the other end. Perpetual 'reform' and ministerial meddling shifts the skills and qualifications goalposts before we can even start paying back the loans that fund them. Ours is a generation with less of an idea of how our lives will pan out than any before us. No wonder we feel cheated.
Back in 2010, some 50,000 of our members took to the streets of London to make clear that they would not accept being "bought" for electoral gain and then sidelined in favour of political ambition. The betrayal by the majority of Liberal Democrat MPs - who had made individual pledges and commitments as a party that they would stand up for students - damaged not only themselves, but our own faith in the political process as a whole.
But there is good news. Thousands of the inspiring activists that came to London that day carried on campaigning. They were out trying to halt the removal of the EMA, they've been lobbying for a living wage and they've been trying to stop the introduction of student loans for FE college courses. That march - a major milestone in the tradition of student protest that goes back beyond NUS' formation 90 years ago - mobilised and engaged a new generation of student activists who want a better future. So this autumn, on Wednesday 21 November, we will march again, recruiting the activists that will define the next general election.
We will come together with a clear message - we own the future and we need an education that prepares us for it. We have a right to protest against politicians who seem distant, over-privileged and self-serving. David Cameron and Conservative MPs face an uphill struggle to prove to us they're on our side. We have a right to protest at betrayal at the hands of MPs, and the Liberal Democrats as a party will need to show that they've learned their lesson. And Labour cannot be a party of crude opposition but must instead prove they have the necessary radical solutions to offer our generation. Today's student leaders grew up learning more about a Labour government that introduced fees than opposing them. If Ed Miliband wants our votes he needs to listen to us and be bold in reshaping education and opportunity for a generation that feels abandoned. Tinkering around the tuition fee edges will be nowhere near enough.
We want a radical new vision for education at the heart of society, one that recognises that education after the age of 16 cannot be neatly divided into colleges and universities, into further and higher, or into timelines that end at the age of 21. Such a vision will take us to the next stage beyond primary and secondary: we increasingly need to see tertiary education as a whole. By doing so, we accept that learning is never done and should extend throughout our lives.
Young people know that the world they are growing into is not the same one as their parents did; that they won't earn as much money as those who currently hold power, that they may never own a house or have a retirement in the traditional sense, or be able to rely on a state pension. But they are not content to be told to accept their lot and get on with a less fulfilling life. Of course an education in and of itself is an important part of our future; generating knowledge, analysing history, creating art, developing our individual collective understanding of the world around us enriches us all, but for most education serves a simple purpose - to create opportunity.
We'll be building our vision for tertiary education over the year, and I want to involve students, school pupils, families and politicians of all party colours in that process, but as well as policy, it is protest that will inspire the next generation of activists. That's why on Wednesday 21 November we want to see students, young people, their friends, their families, the tutors, their lecturers, their vice-chancellors, their employers, and their politicians, come together to say: we deserve a stake in the future and we need better. I look forward to seeing you on the streets of London.
Follow Liam Burns on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@nus_liam
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I appreciate that paying for a degree and doing the work, people are angry that they cannot find employment, but to say that: 'Ours is a generation with less of an idea of how our lives will pan out than any before us. No wonder we feel cheated.' is just silly. You've probably had a few parties, a few nice holidays, access to higher education. I have never been in a nightclub in my life, haven't had a holiday in ten years and I don't expect to ever have one again.
Sorry, but you have no idea how lucky you are. When the economy turns round you will still have a chance of winning. I never stood a chance. I never will.
And, yes, it is a sad reflection of a world where few people are brought up to regard themselves as above criminal behaviour. A desire to give their little unique snowflakes everything has led to a world of spoilt adults.
Those at lowest end of attainment who will be seeking unskilled work, should be allowed to work part-time from fourteen only attending school a two or three days a week.
All it does is provide ammunition for the media to paint you as an unruly mob; if you want to be taken seriously then act like grown up responsible members of society and not rentamob on a day trip to the big city.
So what will the new world be like? A world where each country will have to consider its effect on the whole. Likewise, education can no longer be based on competition and the desire to be better than other, but rather on collaboration and the desire for the whole team to be successful.
Essentially, schools must cultivate a new human being. One who is aware of him/her self and the world that he/she is part of. One that is capable of creating healthy interactions with others. And one that is able to live life as part of a system of which we are all members rather than separate individuals focusing on personal survival.
Take these principles as the foundation of the education system, and the knowledge required by the next generation will reveal itself based on the needs of such an interconnected, mutually responsible society.
www.mutualresponsibility.org
As a general rule, I would agree with bigsyRB that we need to take care that the state does not take over in terms of the nurture of basic values from parents lest we fall towards totalitarianism. But what yitwin is discussing is the instructing in a collaborative approach which represents the economic future for children every bit as much -- nay more so -- than classical academic subject matter.
Further, this isn't a matter of "Clarke, play nice with you sister," or "Cynthia, share with your friends when they visit," but rather something that can only be taught by trained professionals in the midst of dynamic teaming of varying groups of students, up to entire class participation exercises which is not something possible in a family setting unless there are 20 or more siblings in the same age group -- a very unlikely scenario!
In short, the state isn't "taking over" for parents here anymore than they already do in providing theory and laboratory instruction in chemistry. Lay parents in normal home circumstances simply don't have the wherewithal for homeschooling in such matters.