JUST because I’m two years below the voting age shouldn’t deny me a voice, or the decency of an email response from my own MP.
Two weeks ago I sent Michelle Donelan an email written in response to the announcement that due to a serious error of incompetence, mine and 70,000 other students’ computer science non-examined assessments, consisting in our case of six months of work, would no longer count towards our final GCSE grade.
This was the latest in a long line of problems and issues that have arisen with the current GCSE system, and, enough being enough, I decided to write to Michelle to explain my grievances and ask for her help.
I have been denied even the common courtesy of a non-automated reply.
My email was admittedly lengthy, but that does not excuse the way that it has just been cast aside as though the two and a half hours I spent composing it was wasted.
In it, I also reiterated the importance of listening to the youth, as not only are we the future, and thus wish to be as best-prepared as possible to inherit the planet, but it is this kind of thing that we will not forget when it comes to an election. And for an MP who so desperately wishes to become Minister for Education, this is one particular problem that I would ask her not to ignore.
To demonstrate I am not the only one who feels this way about the education system, I also asked many of my friends, and their friends, to send their own emails, which I can happily state has been done already as I type this one.
This is the problem that our current generation faces: our current GCSEs, the 9-1 system, is inadequate, poorly-thought-out and is being executed poorly. The youth are still constituents. We cannot vote yet, but we still matter. You should care about anyone in your constituency regardless of age, because if there is a problem, then it needs to be dealt with.
BEN TEDDS
A concerned student
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