30 Year Old Gcse Student?

[mushroom25]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-46070239

you can't blame anyone for wanting to better themselves with a UK education.

is hiding your age ethical? I mean, would have been allowed to study if he'd owned up to his real age, and/or would he have had to pay?

[woofgang]

He would not have been allowed to join the school for free I don't think.

[AuntLydia]

There is no age limit on taking GCSE's You can do them at night school and I can't understand why he went to the school because in his situation he would probably have got his course free. Those of us who have worked all our lives and paid taxes, of course, have to pay. A course I wanted to go on at the local college was going to cost me £2,000. Free if you were on benefits.....

[SparklyKid]

Lots of things are free if you are lucky enough to be on benefits. Having worked all my life I am still paying tax and get stuff all.

[naomi24]

How did he just 'join the school'? Did he just turn up one day? No previous meeting with staff?

[Tilly2]

Perhaps he looks very young? Sixteen perhaps?

[EDDIE51]

You can take GCSE at any age. I have heard of a 90 year old taking them.(and passing) If you enroll through an Adult College and qualify for free tuition (due to low income or age) the exam fees are paid as well. This person had no reason to hide their age (apart from ignorance) My next door neighbor took GCE's at over 40. She worked in a care home and the qualification was necessary to gain promotion to a supervisor role.

[naomi24]

We know Eddie, but unless you're of school age you can't sit them in a school.

[ummmm]

It's not about taking GCSE it's the fact he managed to enrol in a school.

[naomi24]

^Quite right.

[Tilly2]

It's the Home Office at fault.

[AuntLydia]

Surely an adult would have had to enroll him?

[maggiebee]

There was certainly a scheme in Scotland where adults could join in school classes. Friend of mine did this when she was in her 30s and gained her higher English and Modern Studies. Not sure if it's still on the go though.

[Prudie]

I read this as nothing to do with allowing adults to take GCSE classes within school classes rather that the Home Office told the school he was of normal age for the class.

[sanmac]

I think that the elephant in the room as they say is the fact that "He is thought he is an asylum seeker".

[sanmac]

"It is thought he is an asylum seeker..."

[bednobs]

i had to shw my daughter's birth certificate to enrol her in school. Although, nothing actually links her personally to that BC.
Asylu seekers often dont have documents.

[TonyV]

If he's really older than 18, IMO he shouldn't be educated at a secondary school

[TonyV]

It's a thing that has been neigeling for a while, is there not anyway you can genetically tell someone's age?

[fiction-factory]

Maybe we need some better way of checking ages. I know that analyses of teeth are not sufficiently reliable but I'd have thought that some sort of system could be developed which includes physical measurrs such as teeth, facial hair, stage of puberty; and this could be coupled with assessments/estimates made by teachers/youth workers and be by other children. As a teacher I can usually make a pretty good estimate of ages which are normally right to within a year- the only exception being bearded students, usually of Pakistani or North African heritage, who sometime seem to be significanly older than their Home Office age and I do sometimes find myself checking whether at 14 they drive a car or are have children. Maybe a panel could be set up and an average be calculated. From my involvement in junior football i was also aware of some under 13s with dubious documentation who could easily have passed for 17

[Gromit]

// if you are lucky enough to be on benefits //

There’s someone without any concept of the modern world. No one on benefits considers themselves to be lucky, because the reality is they are very poor, and with not a great deal of options.