"Poorer students to be given 2 grade head start"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8192234.stm

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Campaigners have welcomed an idea to give poorer students a two grade "head start" to help them get places at the leading universities.
Business Secretary Lord Mandelson is looking at the idea, and a variety of others, to increase social mobility.
Les Ebdon, of university think tank Million+, said it was important to widen the social mix in universities.
However critics said the onus should be on schools to produce better candidates and added that the idea was unfair.
One consequence of the "head start" idea would see middle class students from successful universities being "bumped off" places on popular courses.
In a speech delivered in July, Lord Mandelson said that limited progress had been made in widening access to higher education.
He said there was a strong case for using more contextual benchmarks for talent spotting which look at the way candidates have exploited the opportunities open to them.
Mr Ebdon said: "I think what all universities are in the business of looking for is potential among the students rather than achievement."
Fairer system
However he added that because students from better background achieved more did not mean that they had a higher potential.
Mr Ebdon said the idea to give poorer students a grade boost was "a way of attempting to level the playing field".
He added: "We have a real problem in this country. Our medical schools are full of very earnest young people from middle class backgrounds and then we find it very difficult to find , for example, GPs to go and work in working class areas.
"Therefore we have got to do something to widen the social mix and traditionally medical schools have been seen as the preserve of middle classes rather than appealing across the whole spectrum of people."
Unfair
Katie Ivens, of the Campaign for Real Education, said the plan was positive discrimination.
She said: "It is not fair on those who study hard , it is not fair on the schools that actually produce a good quality education.
"You cannot just push people into university because they come from a certain background and hope that will solve the problem."
Ms Ivens said the standard of teaching in secondary schools and primary schools also needed to be examined.
She said the plan would create the possibility of a good grammar school student missing out on a university place to a student with worse results who may not make the grade.

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Always about equality :rolleyes:

Yet another loony idea from the loony left.

seems like a quick fix solution to solve the fact that universities are becoming an increasingly middle class destination to go to.

all id say is that for students from poorer backgrounds that many incentives are in place that make it an awful lot cheaper for them to go but at the same time grades cant mean more for certain people. If theres a problem with results schools with poor results need to be addressed, not individual students.

see where they're coming from but pretty crap idea. i know loads of people from working class backgrounds who get good grades. giving them head starts will make things worse if anything o.O

Please say this is a joke, its an insult to intellence at the very least. If people want to become doctors they'll do the work needed to get the grades. That applys to working class and middle class people.
Making more stupid people doctors simply becuse of there social background aint gonna be doing anyone any favours - and insults the people from then same backgrounds who actually worked hard enough and were smart enough to gain the places fairly.

New labour is basiclly everything bad about the conservative party with none of the good. Its idiotic and hypocritical, i miss old Labour :(

Wow unfair much and it's only going to make them more stupid losing out on 2 years.

You know.. the reason we have clever, well spoken doctors and lawyers in this country is because it is the clever, well spoken people who generally get a private education meaning they get good grades.

If we start letting anybody become a doctor soon we will have those more suited to fixing pipes trying to fix people.

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Originally Posted by Mentor

Please say this is a joke, its an insult to intellence at the very least. If people want to become doctors they'll do the work needed to get the grades. That applys to working class and middle class people.
Making more stupid people doctors simply becuse of there social background aint gonna be doing anyone any favours - and insults the people from then same backgrounds who actually worked hard enough and were smart enough to gain the places fairly.

New labour is basiclly everything bad about the conservative party with none of the good. Its idiotic and hypocritical, i miss old Labour :(

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Theres nothing Conservative (right-wing) about this at all; this is a left wing, politically correct and i'd even so as far as saying its socialist/communist policy. We only have to look at countrys schemes like this were put into place and are now the countrys suffering the brain drai;, Zimbabwe and South Africa. I'm talking about when they threw the educated white people out of work and replced them with black people who were uneducated and had no idea how to do the job - both countrys are now falling apart and everyone is worse off.

This scheme actually rewards those who didn't try as hard as their counterparts, but then again its Labour afterall.

woohoo I'm skint so now I'd only have to gain a C instead of an A. yayayaya :eusa_danc

Nah oj, as soon as the government starts realising that there is no such thing as equality, the better.

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Originally Posted by -:Undertaker:-

This scheme actually rewards those who didn't try as hard as their counterparts, but then again its Labour afterall.

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That's exactly what it's doing. How could this ever be a good idea?!
Just because you're poor, that doesn't mean you don't have an education, normal primary and high schools can be just as good as any school, you still have to go to school, everyone is given an education until at least 16, and that is no-one's fault but the individuals if their grades are too low or they don't try hard enough, it's about having ambition, and if someone doesn't have enough of that to do what they want to do, then why should a lazy person be given such a huge responsibility of university and becoming a doctor or lawyer?
It makes no sense to say that poorer people have a worse start in life in terms of education. I went to a normal primary school, and just because my parents aren't completely poor shouldn't make a difference, since neither of them ever really played a part in my education, and that could be one of their arguments that poorer families have parents who don't care or help with education, it's completely up to an individual to what they achieve in life, and so if they slack off and don't try hard, they can get into a university to be a DOCTOR, the idea is just ridiculous. Especially when there are people out there who try incredibly hard - rich or poor - and get their grades. Imagine losing out on a place at university, because someone was poorer than you! I'm so flamin' angry!

Wow.

That's the worst idea I've ever heard.

and what about people like me in the middle?

I'm not exactly well off, so if I fall into the category of "poorer students", where does that put me if I'm already getting As and A*s?

Stupid idea.

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Originally Posted by Kardan

I'm not exactly well off, so if I fall into the category of "poorer students", where does that put me if I'm already getting As and A*s?

Stupid idea.

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You get a PhD. lol oj :D
yeah it's a silly idea.

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Originally Posted by JackBuddy

and what about people like me in the middle?

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Well that is my problem with Labour. They class anyone earning over £30,000 as rich, so the upper working and lower middle classes are left behind, so to speak. And for whatever reason politicians are firmly against grammar schools being reopened. The preconception seems to be that the working class is unambitious and stupid so needs to literally be cheated through education to get anywhere.