Rural students' transport woes disrupt education
Rural sixth form students have complained a lack of public transport is threatening their education because getting to college is difficult.The concerns have been raised after Julia Buckley, MP for Shrewsbury, discussed the issue in parliament and called for changes in funding rules to allow more rural colleges to offer travel bursaries.Abby, a 17-year-old student from Welshpool, is one of 10,000 taking courses with the Shrewsbury Colleges Group and said she had considered dropping out because of unreliable trains.Another student, George,17, from Craven Arms, said he was worried his grades would suffer because of difficulties getting to Shrewsbury.
James Staniforth, Shrewsbury College Group principal, said he was seeing the number of students grow.However, because his college offers both A-level and Further Education courses, it misses out on some government money available to colleges that offer one or the other.Buckley said this "anomaly" was especially a problem for rural institutions, which combined the two types of courses.She said that was because "smaller schools have closed down their sixth forms, leading to a centralisation in the county".
Shrewsbury Colleges Group takes students from all over Shropshire, as well as Wales, Herefordshire and Birmingham.Abby said trains from her home in Welshpool were often delayed or cancelled and as a result she had missed out on "quite a bit of learning"."I've considered dropping out of college because it's so hard to get in sometimes," she said.Many others in Welshpool she knows "have just given up on college" because of rural transport issues."I came to college to learn and it's hard not to be able to get in, to get higher education just because of transport," she added.George said his trains from Craven Arms were also "quite unreliable" and he found he could not arrive to lessons on time.The only alternative, he said, was "to arrive two or three hours early for an hour-and-a-half lesson".
'Poverty of opportunity'
Buckley said there were "geographical barriers" for rural students aged 16 to 18, who face limited railway access while the number of bus services is in decline.As a result, she said there was "poverty of opportunity, where young people reduce their aspirations to match their transport options".Education minister Stephen Morgan, responded to questions raised during the parliamentary debate on rural education.He promised the government would "ensure that everyone can access education and training opportunities".But he said local authorities had the statutory responsibility for providing transport to education and training establishments.
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