' Covid vaccination to access education ' are words that I never thought would be uttered in this country.
Words that send a shiver down my spine at the terrifying prospect of being denied an education simply because I've not had a vaccine.
For us students, the last two years have been a monumental challenge for our education. Those of us who started their A-level course in 2019 have spent a quarter of their course learning at home.
We've had to battle through months of online learning with limited ability to communicate with teachers, not to mention exam cancellations and all the chaos that caused.
Do you agree with Sophie, or should university students be encouraged to prove their Covid vaccine status in order to attend in-person lectures? Have your say in the comments below
University students, meanwhile, have paid more than £9,000 a year for a sub-par education with limited physical support from universities, paying rent for places in which they haven't lived, and now many prospective students looking to go to uni in September face being denied higher education all together because of the tyrannical measures this government is longing to bring in.
I'm 19 and have had to battle through three years of hard work, getting caught up in the A-level fiasco, months of online learning and two years of exam cancellations just to secure my university place. The thought of being denied access to it because of what I choose to put - or not put - in my body is terrifying.
And what’s even more terrifying is that this is being pushed by a government that claims to value liberty and freedom, a government that I have previously supported.
Boris Johnson has today refused to rule out vaccine passports for students to prove they've been double-vaccinated against coronavirus.
But whether it be for education or nightclubs, vaccine certificates are a disgraceful measure.
They are designed to separate people in society and punish those who don't want to take a vaccination they are not confident in, which denies us the fundamental right of education.
We don’t deny people an education if they don’t take the flu vaccine; we don’t deny people an education if they refuse the HPV vaccine - so why are we now going to deny thousands an education based on their Covid-19 vaccination status?
It is beyond wrong. Vaccine certificates are a method of blackmail; people’s ability to partake in society as a free citizen should never rest on vaccination status. Vaccine passports go against everything we should stand for as a free country and are frankly unBritish.
It is a national embarrassment that we are even having this conversation.
Young people like me have given up our freedoms, our education, our proms and graduations. We've lost out on our first jobs and have taken a huge step back in starting our careers.
We've given up what are supposed to be some of the best years of our lives to protect others from a virus that has little impact on most of us.
That this government now want to target us and threaten to deprive us of our education is an absolute disgrace.
Vaccine passports are a direct attack on young people. The only ‘papers’ that universities should be checking are our exam certificates.
The only requirements us young adults should have to meet in order to go to university are the grade requirements. We will not stand for this tyranny.
