A-levels 2011: Students' futures have been stolen from them {great britain}

[xchrom]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/aug/15/a-level-students-face-debt

Twenty-five years ago I collected my A-level results. In 1986, only a handful of us traipsed into school to get them. Most children had left by the age of 16. Of those staying on, even of those taking A-levels, only a tiny number would go on to university; a majority of those would be boys. Today, half of all girls now gain a place at university.

When I went to university, there were no fees. This was because people had fought for decades to open up the universities, not because there were so few of us coming from ordinary schools. Angry reports were written in the 1930s on how unfair university access was then. Fifty years later, we had never been as equal, but the tide was turning again.

In 1986, the richest 1% of the population held 18% of all marketable wealth (the kind you can lend). For the rich, it was a low point. In that same year, the poorest half of all Britons held 10% of marketable wealth between them, an all-time high. The latest figures reveal that the richest 1% of Britons now hold 53% of all marketable wealth and the poorest half hold just 6%.

Most successful A-level students today face a life of debt if they choose to attend university. Student loans will ultimately be underwritten by the richest 1% as they hold the majority of what money can be lent, that 53% of marketable wealth. For decades to come, the debt interest that students will have to pay will mostly find its way into the bank balances of this richest 1%. This is not in the interest of 99% of the population.




***that debt is the point. an indebted people = an enslaved & passive people.