Degree of disruption

Scotland on Sunday

- More students will be encouraged to ditch the first year of a four-year degree course in a cost-cutting exercise being proposed by all three Scottish parties who opposed the introduction of tuition fees. The SNP, Labour and Scottish Lib Dems are examining plans to push students into the second year of a degree if they are deemed capable.

Child porn risk

Daily Record

- Schoolgirls are being coaxed by boyfriends into posing for revealing photos - and the snaps end up as child pornography, police have warned. The problem was revealed at an internet security conference in Stirling on Monday. Detective chief inspector Gordon Dawson, who headed Central Scotland Police’s Operation Defender, which identified more than 200 online paedophiles, described the web as a “huge risk” for children.

Heads’ manifesto

The Scotsman

- Secondary heads have demanded more autonomy, less bureaucracy and better pay to encourage people to take up the posts. The call came in a manifesto published ahead of the Scottish Parliamentary elections, by the secondary heads’ union, School Leaders Scotland.

Rally against HE cuts

The Herald

- Hundreds of students and lecturers held a rally at Glasgow Caledonian University on Monday to protest against plans to axe up to 95 jobs as part of a cost-cutting exercise. MSPs Bill Kidd and Elaine Smith joined protesters at the event to voice their opposition to the proposals, which would see the university’s existing six schools merge into three.

Called to account

The Times

- Scotland’s Education Secretary has provoked the wrath of university leaders by suggesting that their staff could be given the power to appoint and dismiss them. Michael Russell claimed principals were not properly held to account for the vast amount of taxpayers’ cash that they spent.