The TESS Archive - 11 December 1992

The month the first text message was sent, and lawyer Martin Almada discovered the “Archives of Terror” that contained details of 50,000 people killed by security services in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay

14th December 2012, 12:00am

Tes Editorial

#163;40m kick-start for colleges

- The Scottish Office is offering FE colleges a sweetener by virtually doubling capital spending on college buildings when it assumes control over their funding next April. Details emerged in the Secretary of State’s 1993-96 spending plans, announced in Parliament last week. FE is widely acknowledged to be underfunded.

Bid for external exam at S6

- External exams at Standard grade and Higher would be scrapped under far-reaching plans by the Scottish Consultative Council on the Curriculum. After savaging the Howie committee’s reforms, the government’s curriculum advisers say that the only external exam would be at a new “matriculation” level in S6, conforming to the present Sixth Year Studies, which would be used for entry to higher education.

Royal blocks school sales

- The difficulties faced by the Western Isles Council following its disastrous involvement with the Bank of Credit and Commerce International are as nothing, it seems, compared with the problems it is having with the North Uist Estate over empty school buildings. The council is to make one more bid to reach agreement with the estate, which is owned by the Queen’s cousin, the Earl of Granville.

Grampian logs on

- A blow was struck for educational institutions outwith the central belt when the National Primary Centre was opened in Aberdeen by Eric Hendrie, chairman of Grampian’s education committee. The new centre at Summerhill is part of a network of five British centres whose HQ is at Westminster College, Oxford. It is funded by Grampian and managed by Betty McGill, a former primary head, and aims to be a catalyst for others in Scotland.

Minister backs condoms

- The first condom machine to be installed in a secondary school was inaugurated by education minister Jack Lang in Paris, as part of a campaign to promote the use of contraceptives among youngsters. Paris has between 8,000 and 9,000 people with Aids - just below the number in New York. In a survey of Parisian youths, 42 per cent said they had used a condom. Most claimed not to have had sex.