I AM an A-level student at Blackburn College and I spent my lessons on March 4 attempting to work through screaming, shouting, banging of tambourines, whistling and honking of horns - and why? Well, the people causing the noise didn't seem to know.

For anybody unaware, that day there was a National Union of Students strike to protest against the introduction of tuition fees.

Unfortunately, the students on strike could not justify why they were picketing outside the college. They claim that "nobody knows anything about it." That is simply untrue.

I very much doubt that any of the protesters attempted to look at the government White Paper, sent off for the BBC information packs or bothered to attend the special talks organised by the college that were intended to make the whole situation clear.

One of the extremely generalised claims is that only the "upper classes" will be able to afford to go to university if the fees are implemented. Anybody who cares to look up the facts can find out that - like the present grants system - the tuition fees will be means tested. Anybody who would be in receipt of a full maintenance grant will receive a full allowance for tuition fees and anyone who would have had to pay £1,500 towards the grant under the present system would pay £1,000 tuition fees and £500 towards the grant - you don't have to do A-level maths to see that the amount is the same.

This is not the only example of ignorance on the part of the protesters. Tutors at the college have had to write to one of the examination boards to say that geography and biology candidates had their modular exams on that day so badly disrupted by the noise that they were unlikely to have performed to their full potential.

Examination candidates were not the only ones to suffer - a girl was hit by a car on Feilden Street as a direct result of the protesters' actions.

I believe in the principle of properly-funded higher education as much as any student - after all, I am going to rely on it. But if we are going to argue for it to continue we need to get our facts right.

GERRI PARKER, Sudell Road, Darwen.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.