McColl’s college opening delayed
The Herald
- Tycoon Jim McColl has shelved plans to open a skills college for disaffected teenagers this summer. The billionaire chairman of Clyde Blowers has admitted that the facility - in one of his former factories in Cathcart - won’t be up and running until at least August 2014. Under the plans, 30 S3 students would be selected from 10 secondary schools in the south side of Glasgow.
Music fees scrapped
Scotland on Sunday
- A Scottish council has scrapped instrumental music fees in schools, Scotland on Sunday’s Let the Children Play campaign can reveal. Dumfries and Galloway, which previously charged #163;130 a year for instrumental lessons, will scrap all tuition charges from August. Meanwhile, Aberdeenshire has performed a U-turn on charging pupils to sit SQA music exams.
University access plan boosts private school pupils
Sunday Herald
- A leading Scottish university has recruited students from private schools under a scheme set up to widen access to pupils from deprived communities. Glasgow University said two pupils offered places came from the independent sector. For data-protection reasons, the university cannot say whether the pupils were given financial support to attend a private school.
Staff Twitter rules ‘breach human rights’
The Scotsman
- A social media code of conduct imposed by City of Edinburgh Council on employees is in breach of human rights legislation, Unison has claimed. The employee code of conduct, adopted by the council last August, restricts what 18,000 employees can say on sites such as Facebook and Twitter about council issues such as school closures and the controversial trams project.
Scores of academics earn more than first minister
The Herald
- Scottish universities employ dozens of senior staff who earn the same as the first minister’s salary of #163;140,000 or more. Statistics collated by the National Union of students show that 88 university employees are now paid between #163;140,000 and the top salary of #163;303,000, earned by the University of Aberdeen’s principal Sir Ian Diamond.
