[Anonymouse]

Originally Posted by nomadking

I remember being at school in the late 1970's under a Labour Government. We had to bring our own paper.

I've got that beat.

South Bolton 6th Form College, 1982-1984.

Doing A-Level Physics and Chemistry.

With no lab equipment.

Not so much as a bloody test tube.

We didn't get anything until partway through the second year - and most of it was crap, some of it older than the students. Where did the first-class equipment from Deane Grammar's 6th form go, that's what I want to know. In addition the "labs" (hastily refitted from having been shower facilities) were badly laid-out, with electrical outlets way too close to water outlets. The fire extinguisher (that's the fire extinguisher) in the physics "lab" was fixed to the wall - "fixed" in the sense that you couldn't use the damn thing.

Worse, in Chemistry we still had to do the 1st year practicals - because the 2nd year practicals were structured on the (anywhere else, perfectly reasonable) assumption that various reagents required had been prepared by the students in their 1st year. The result of this was that some students spent entire weeks doing little else but chemistry practicals. By the time we escaped that gulag, our lab coats looked very authentic. One lad's coat was a collection of holes, burned in various colours, held together by scraps of material.

I was so demoralised I abandoned all thought of going to uni, and I wasn't the only one, because I knew I wasn't going to get anywhere near acceptable grades; this was frustrating and humiliating because I got an A in both subjects at O-Level. There should have been some sort of inquiry as to why students who got As and Bs at O-Level were getting Cs or worse.

No, I am not making any of this up. I wish I were; I'm still trying to forget those two years and the irreparable mental harm they did me. Cost-cutting? Tell me about it. Those penny-pinching dolts ruined my life.