We will fight to prevent tuition fees

RECENT DAYS saw school pupils in Banffshire and Buchan Coast and across Scotland receive their exam results and find out how their hard work in preparing for them had paid off. This year saw record high pass rates in almost all exam categories, which is something that Scottish pupils, and the teachers, should be immensely proud of.

Of course, it is also the case that not everyone received the results they were hoping for, and this can throw plans into disarray and be an extremely stressful time for pupils and parents.

Skills Development Scotland runs a hugely useful exam results advice line which can be contacted on 0808 100 8000 and is a source of advice and information I would thoroughly recommend. There are always options out there, and good advice can be immensely helpful in weighing up what they are.

Whatever the results received by pupils, the coming days and weeks are a time when important decisions must be made which have the potential to shape the course of a young person’s life. Those still at school will use the results to choose which areas to specialise in, which will in turn determine their next steps further down the line.

Those coming to the end of the school career, however, will be using their exam results to choose the best option for them, whether it is entering the working world, attending college or going to university.

Whether university is the option a young person chooses to take or not, it is essential that the ability to attend higher education institutions is maintained regardless of the personal means of a family. Access to education should be solely based on the ability to learn, not the ability to pay which is why the SNP is firmly committed to preventing the introduction of any kind of tuition fee.

In the last parliamentary term, one of our earliest actions was the abolition of the Graduate Endowment, the back door tuition fee brought in by the previous administration.

Our record of restoring Scotland’s proud tradition of free education stood in stark contrast to the tuition fees that were introduced south of the border and, even more starkly, when compared to the current moves which will see universities in England charge their students £9,000 a year.

At the same time, the Coalition Government is also removing public funding for universities, effectively privatising them and shifting their costs onto the shoulders of students. A generation of young people will graduate with a crippling mountain of debt to pay, which will hinder their opportunities later in life.

It is inevitably the case that these costs will deter young people south of the border from gaining a university education, particularly those from poorer backgrounds, and will make universities there the preserve of the select few.

If student numbers go down as a result, surely the financial strength and quality of education will swiftly follow. It is scarcely any wonder that young people south of the border feel particularly betrayed by the actions of the Coalition Government.

It is an approach which is utterly wrong and misguided and is something that the SNP will never support for Scotland. School pupils in England will receive their exam results later this month. How many of them will then view the prospect of university with dread of the financial impact rather than as the incredible opportunity to learn that it should be?