The TESS Archive - 12 March, 1971

The month British postal workers’ strike ended after seven weeks and Charles Manson was sentenced to death along with three members of his hippy cult
11th March 2011, 12:00am

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The TESS Archive - 12 March, 1971

https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/tess-archive-12-march-1971

Insufficient provision to raise leaving age

- Society would suffer severely for years if the school-leaving age were raised to 16, said EIS vice-president John M Young. Opponents argued that many pupils did not have the capacity to go beyond a certain point and that insufficient provision had been made, ensuring that implementation in 1972 would reduce standards.

Scottish students galled by more English BEds

- Staff are being attracted in ever-increasing numbers from smaller colleges to those awarding degrees, creating a division of first and second-class institutions, found the GTCS’s visitation committee. Scottish students find it galling that 97 per cent of English colleges of education are mounting BEd courses, while they are restricted to four colleges. There are difficulties everywhere in recruiting staff to education and psychology departments and the lack of women candidates in most subjects is disturbing.

Traditional nursery teaching hard to uproot

- Nursery education may need a more formal structure - possibly including teaching reading - to be of use to deprived children, suggests Tessa Blackstone’s book, A Fair Start. She said there had been “a sloppy sentimental approach to the teaching of very young children”. Those who hope for miraculous results are probably over-ambitious. Traditional approaches, emphasising play, are hard to uproot.

Chain of command for a milk crisis

- A course for 21 Lanarkshire primary headteachers concentrated on the mechanics of administration. Departmental heads pointed out who should be contacted in the case of a burglary or a consignment of sour milk. It was the sort of briefing which would be taken for granted in any industrial set-up. Unfortunately, the briefing was not kept brief enough to allow for questions.

SUS calls for standards inquiry

- The Scottish Union of Students has called for an inquiry into teacher training. Inferior conditions in the 10 Scots colleges affected more than 11,000 of its membership. The SUS also raised finance of student representative councils with the Secretary of State, stating that pound;3 of the pound;4 fee levied on all students went to SRCs. The remaining pound;1 was retained by principals under some such headings as “student welfare fund”.

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