As a whole generation of A-level students - tired and damaged from the Covid lag - await their golden tickets through to the next educational turnstile, today Clare Marchant, CEO of UCAS, is headline news in suggesting that university clearing will be the usual game of musical chairs, just on speed - sped up to 160 BPMs.
Like Hard House. All pump, bump and grind.
Understanding so many will fail to meet their required grades, the news story invites students to have a 'Plan B'.
As the BBC reported:
'Where else might they like to study?
What else might they like to study as a degree?'
Let's be clear, this news story is really only aimed at managing the expectations of all us Tiger Parents, way ahead of our cubs.
We are really being asked to prepare our kids to jostle for 'Plan B'.
So what is 'Plan B'?
A bloodied nose of realism about capability vs requirement?
Accepting a 'lesser' choice?
Modifying and dampening aspirations?
That parental 'get out' I hear so often?
"Ultimately, it doesn't really matter what you study nowadays, just find a seat and sit on it."
Let alone, a sense of blind, bare-knuckled competition from increasing numbers of higher-fee-paying, foreign students. Those cubs whose parents may just be bigger Tigers, with sharper claws.
Sadly, I suspect the notion of a 'Plan B' will prove to be a flawed and confused concept for so many students in the weeks ahead.
And despite its very best intentions and efforts, the education sector will once again be left bruised and battered for apparently failing so many students.
So, whose responsibility is it to path-find Plan C, D, and maybe E. To provide exciting new pathways, which take the pressure off the scrum at the university gate.
You guessed it.
I will continue to be a stuck record until we start.
Then I might change my tune.
Yes, we have a plan.
We know 50% of it may need adjusting as we execute.
But we have a plan, that we are going to pilot, come what may.
Someone has to.
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