When is our Future Determined?

A false picture is given when people say that your future is determined by your GCSE and A level results. I think it is determined when you sit your entrance exams for secondary school. It starts this young because there’s a fight to get into the best secondary schools whether it be a grammar or private one. This is because they provide the best education, quite unfairly, to enable a child to get into a red brick university from which employers tend to recruit.

I am worried about the path ahead of me and what it brings. Firstly, I am worried because of the shortage of University places even for students with A’s or A*’s.

Education has two purposes:

1. To give you qualifications that will help get you a job so you can earn a reasonable living.

2. To help you understand the world around you E.G Politics and Art.

Secondly, even though I am already achieving the benefits of point two I am worried about point one because of the shortage of jobs and houses. The London Evening Standard has carried a report on youngsters sleeping in tents, caravans and mobile homes in traveller sites because it is the lowest cost housing they can afford. Is this the future for young people? I do believe that the Lib Dems have a real commitment to providing for children but I worry that the cuts will set back this agenda.