How Should I Proceed?
I recently wrote an article about my teacher being f#cked up and this is sort of a follow up article, even though it's not. This is actually based upon some of the things I wrote in a reply, but it's pretty "fun" nonetheless.
There's no secret that my life has been filled with various ups and downs for a rather long period of time. Especially during the major part of 2018, with just some minor luck at the end of the year... I had a good start of 2019, but it came as no surprise that some things just isn't going my way. This is only School-related.
First off, they made some "minor" changes this semester. They called it "minor" meanwhile I call it MAJOR, because they put all the students in a position where everyone will have to pay back 50% of our student loans. They probably haven't thought about this at all, and I know for a fact that this will happen.
I don't want to repay approximately 600 USD of my student loans, especially not using student loans to pay everything back. It's incredible stupid and contradictory. The fun part is, that everyone is eligible these 600 USD. And we will still need to pay it back due to these "minor" changes... Sounds weird, right?
How come I know this for a fact?
Due to endless phone calls with CSN (the place we get student loans from), I know how they see things. I know their guidelines and I'm aware of their rules and how they grant student loans. You get 100% student aid for 10 weeks. 10 weeks equals 200 points. 5 weeks = 100 points.
This is also why the courses during the education are 10 weeks long. Each course is 10 weeks, but we have 2 courses at the same time to reach 100% student pace. So 1 course during 10 weeks equals to 50% pace. 2 courses, 100%.
That being said, if you read 1 course during 5 weeks instead, you would have a pace of 100%. It's pretty logical. - However, my principal doesn't seem to realize this.
Long story short, we started with 2 new courses this week, so that's 2 courses in 10 weeks. Which equates to a study pace of 100%. Now, with the "minor" changes they've made, we need to finish one of the courses in 5 weeks instead.
So, 1 course during 10 weeks and the other course in 5 week. That equates to a study pace of 100% in one of the courses and 50% pace at the other one, (or 200% and 100%, depending on how you see things).
I know that most of my classmates looks at it from the latter perspective, which I did too at first, but truth to be told, it's more like the first. 100% + 50%.
Anyhow, when I realized this, which I did at the moment they brought this up... I quickly said something like:
"Nope. That won't happen. I'm not okay with these changes."
What I said, had zero weight at the moment. They just told everyone that this is how things are, and we need to finish one of the courses in 5 weeks instead of 10. Like it or not.
I was obviously not okay with this, so I wrote an email to the School principal the moment I got home.
Here's the thing, my principal didn't respond until today, and I sent it Friday last week. Sure, she doesn't work during the weekend, but still. I was kind of expecting an answer, especially as this is extremely important and need to be solved asap.
I probably spent about an hour and a half writing the email, so it's a pretty lengthy email to say the least. It's filled with multiple things that seems to be weird and a bunch of various concerns I've faced since I started this education in March last year.
Also, everything you send to or from my principals email are considered to be public documents, which basically means that anyone, at any point can and are allowed to read it.
I guess the school principal is trying to "dodge the bullet" by setting up a meeting with me instead. She didn't answer any of the things I wanted answers for. She simply wrote:
"I can meet you on Thursday at 09.00. Does that work for you?"
So, here's my question to you...
- What should I do?
I would prefer to get all of the answers in writing. Especially as I could use it as some sort of evidence in case it would be necessary in the future. My guess is, that she's aware of this too, and wants to avoid that.
A personal meeting between me and her would result in talking, which makes it impossible to use that as a form of evidence, as she could just decline everything.
I thought about recording our meeting, but that's against the law if she's unaware of it, and I don't want to tell her, as she could potentially alter her answers.
Also, one important thing is, that she's actually a decent human being. Kind and whatever, but she sucks at her job. So, I don't want to harm her in any way, but I need some leverage for a potential "blackmail" in the near future.
That's basically what this is all about. That's why I wanted answers in writing in the first place. Because I could have used that to "blackmail" her if and when I needed to.
I'm obviously not talking about a real blackmail, but there are things I definitely would want to change, more for my own benefit so to speak, and having written answers from her would provide me with enough evidence to have something to lean on when the time is right...
I'm also not entirely sure, but I don't think these "minor" changes they've made are legal. I think they are trying to leave CSN out of this whole shebang to not complicate things for the students with their student loans...
Well, I know for a fact that they are trying to leave CSN out of this, because one of my teachers said:
"Do not talk to CSN about this, because they have nothing to do with these changes."
And truth to be told, they have everything to do with this, as we would ultimately have to repay student loans for 5 weeks we are entitled to... I'm not sure about these changes being legal or not though.
Why would we have to pay back student loans?
Like I said, 5 weeks = 50% and 10 weeks equals 100% study pace.
If we have 1 course during 5 weeks of 10 and the other course during the entire 10 weeks, we would have a total of 10 weeks and 150 points, instead of 10 weeks and 200 points.
As we get our money in advance each month, we would get money for 100% study pace and 200 points. Also, we would have to study 100% faster, as we cut one of the courses in half...
So, it would basically look like this:
1 course = 10 weeks = 50% study pace = 50% student loans. (100 points.)
1 course = 5 weeks = 25% study pace = 25% student loans. (25 points.)
In total, that would be 75% student funds, we should've been eligible, instead of 100%. So, we will have to pay back 25% of the money just based on that. However, if you study 25%, you get 25% of the money... But you'll also get 25 points instead of 50 (for studying 50%) and instead of 100 points, which we should do.
So, we will miss out on 75 points in total, according to how CSN will see things, based on the numbers of weeks (which is obviously inaccurate). But, the School will give us 100 points for it after 5 weeks... So CSN will take that as 100% studies during 5 weeks, which would've been fine... But, then they see our other course, during 10 weeks.
It's a really messed up situation they put us in... All in all, we would literally be studying 100% + 50%, during 10 weeks in total... But in reality, study 200%, as we need to finish one of our courses in half the time. Which ultimately results in us, the students, having to pay back 50% of the money we got during 5 of the weeks.
