British Education may be the envy of the world - but also, to large parts of the world, also unreachable - at least at England's most elite universities. According to the Guardian today, at Cambridge, "of more than 1,500 academic and lab staff none are black." Italics mine. Yes, that's right. And then you wonder why American has Obama, and we have Clegg and Cameron. Then turn to the student access statistics, and some Oxford colleges haven't accepted a single black student in: 5 years. This is why raising tuition fees to £9,000 a year will not benefit the many, but only the few - even now the system benefits the few. It can only get worse...
A poem for my mother, July 15 When she was dying And I was in a different country I dreamt I was there with her Flying over the ocean very quickly, And arriving in the room like a dream And I was a dream, but the meaning was more Than a dream has – it was a moving over time And land, over water, to get love across Fast enough, to be there, before she died, To lean over the small, huddled figure, In the dark, and without bothering her Even with apologies, and be a kiss in the air, A dream of a kiss, or even less, the thought of one, And when I woke, none of this had happened, She was still far distant, and we had not spoken.
Comments
When I was at Oxford in the 1970s there were quite a few black students around. Things seem to have deteriorated since then.
Best wishes from Simon