Part-Time students to receive £500 covid Payment
Part-Time students to receive £500 covid Payment
On Thursday the 4th of February the Department of the Economy announced it would be handing out a £500 covid payment to all Full-Time students in Northern Ireland .This £500 is to help with extra books possibly needed or to buy a laptop to help with studies as we may not have access to our own, but let me ask one thing Why are part time students not included in this fund? I want to know what makes me any less of a student because I study one less module a semester? It is extremely frustrating in the first place that we get no loan like my fellow students as I am part time, I get a grant of around £200 at the start of the year for the WHOLE YEAR to cover the cost of my studies. Why are part-time students being treated like second class citizen because we have a ‘part’ instead of a ‘full’ title in-front of my student status? Why am I being treated different to my peers and fellow students? Why am I not receiving the same amount of support and care offered to those who I sit beside in a lecture hall? It has been damming enough how much students have been forgotten throughout this whole pandemic and just when you think you have received help, there has been a boundary set on who can receive this generous payment. I have fellow peers who have to pay for childcare costs while they attend university or study, who get no support for that. I know fellow students who are Carers trying to achieve a degree whilst also taking up most of their life to look after a loved one. I know people who didn’t achieve the best grades at A-Level who are again trying to make the best out of their life and every single one of them who are in a part time degree are receiving absolutely NO support due to these factors. I understand everyone’s situation is different and this won’t apply to most people but I am begging for your support to help those recently forgotten about.