The research study on what pupils thought of FE colleges left nobody in any doubt (page five). The received wisdom that colleges should dispatch their staff to give pupils an insight into college life might not be all that wise.
One pupil said: “Three people came, but they didn’t exactly tell you much.
They just droned.”
Another commented: “This guy tried to show us a slide show thing. He didn’t have anything interesting in it.”
Needless to say, those two were described as “non-attenders”.
“Schoolteachers take stupid situations too far,” one youngster volunteered before adding: “The college lecturers are just more normal.”
This was echoed by a fellow pupil: “It’s like talking to normal people instead of teachers.”
It’s perhaps small wonder that lecturers appear more relaxed. “College teachers have only got like one period a day or whatever, and it can always wait until tomorrow,” one student said.
But some lecturers manage to get the message across, although whether it’s the right one is another question. “My teacher (at college) has a Mercedes and left school when he was 15,” said one.
