Trabalhador-estudante

My heart went down as I read this in the Publico today:

"O sindicato criou um grupo de trabalho que vai ser fazer um levantamento do número de trabalhadores-estudantes e iniciar contactos com as associações académicas e reitores das universidades no sentido de os sensibilizar para os problemas desta classe estudantil." (The Trade Union created a working party that is going to raise the question of the number of working students and begin contacts with academic association and university rectors to raise the problems these students face).

One thing is the passion I feel (and work I do) for increasing learning opportunities in distributed communities. Another is the queue of students outside my door who say they deserve a higher mark (nota) because they are "a working student" (trabalhador-estudante). Somewhere something is wrong when students think they can pass with a lower performance in English - for the reason that they are already working in companies. My heart sinks further as the Institutions I have worked for declare (privately) that disciplines like English are the ones that should be making allowances for weak students.