One example of how they make life difficult for students

A couple of my recent posts have attracted some comments about education which, from the comments, appears to be suffering as much in Australia as it is in the UK. I thought that it might be informative to give a very specific example. I will change some minor details, for example the student's name, but otherwise this is exactly what happened.

Unusually this particular story does have a happy ending.

Last year I taught a beginners' class. There was one student in the class who was especially good. Let's call her Sarah. Sarah was bringing up a daughter on her own but nevertheless never missed a class, never handed in a piece of work late and progressed very quickly. I would have moved her to a higher class but she did have some issues of confidence and wasn't happy about going. She was a willing and helpful student who always tried to support any weaker students she was working with. At the end of the year she passed everything with flying colours.

As is college policy we completed enrolments for all of our progressing students ready for the new start in September.

In September, during enrolment and before the start of term, Sarah came to see me. She was very unhappy and upset. The Job Centre had insisted that she enrol on their course. This was at the same level but with a different exam board to the one I had enrolled her on. It was to last for ten weeks. She couldn't stay on my course because of the clash and wanted to know - such is her commitment to learning - if she could do one of our evening or weekend courses as well as the one they insisted she do. Of course, the answer has to be no. We are not allowed to fund a student twice for the same type of course. There was nothing I could do but I asked her to contact me when the Job Centre course was finishing.

Nine weeks later she called me and I said I would enrol her, as soon as she was free, onto my course. This would have taken me over numbers but I thought it was worth it in this special case.

In the period between me making that promise and carrying it out we had an open evening and before the open evening we were informed that the rules had changed. We could no longer enrol ANY adult students.

When Sarah came in to see us we had to tell her that she couldn't come back to college, even though we had already promised her a place - twice!

She was distraught. She felt the course she had just done was useless and only by coming back to college would she get anywhere.

Someone had an idea. One of my colleagues had been looking at a Government scheme where certain people if they claimed benefit and if they lived within certain postcode areas were considered to be from deprived backgrounds. We checked her postcode and, thank goodness, it was on the list. We were allowed to take her after all under this particular scheme.

She is now back in class and doing very well.

But she was just lucky. Thousands of others aren't so lucky. This is a ridiculous system that turns their education into a bizarre and ultimately unwinable game. I can't see any way at all in which it can be considered fair.

A happy ending this time. But for how long?