Census follow-up will probe needs

- A census follow-up will “assist in the planning of places at teacher training colleges”. This voluntary survey of teachers who are not teaching is another example of the close watch the Scottish Education Department intends keeping on college of education intakes, even after two of the current 10 colleges are closed. Iain Taylor, director of the Gaelic College in Skye, has refused to fill in his form because answers must be in English.

Fight to save rural schools

- The Government has attempted to reassure its supporters in the shires over rural school closures. Regulations implementing the Education Bill generally remove the need for local authorities to secure the Secretary of State’s permission to close schools. But in the case of rural schools, the Secretary of State’s consent will be required where primary pupils have to travel more than five miles, and secondary pupils more than 10.

Nationalists loan pressure goes on

- The Federation of Student Nationalists has weighed in against the prospect of Government loans instead of grants for students, which, it says, would make education a “class privilege”. To the charge that students should pay for their own education, grants convener Selyf Morgan said that, while some may get better jobs, they also learned skills that benefited all.

Education Bill set for third reading

- Labour MPs made clear during debate on the Scottish Education Bill that they intended to abolish the assisted places scheme. Spokesman Martin O’Neill, referring to the possible interruption of children’s education, said: “If parents wish to gamble on the continuity of their children’s education in this way, it is up to them to do so.”

Lessons in grenade throwing

- Secondary teachers in the Soviet Union have received a strong reminder that all students must be prepared to join the armed forces and defend their country and socialism. An article in educational journal Sovetskaya Pedagogika looks at new measures to foster such attitudes: soldier- instructors are to spend more time in schools helping children “to acquire the habits of marksmanship, throwing grenades and military field work”.