Glasgow parents throw opt-out rules into chaos
- The Government has run into parental misuse of its opting-out legislation as parents at Queen’s Park Secondary joined those of St Gerard’s Secondary in balloting to leave local authority control, putting on ice Strathclyde’s rationalisation programme for Glasgow’s entire south side. A petition of 76 signatures of Queen’s Park parents was handed in at Strathclyde House, two days before the council was due to rubber-stamp the education committee’s closure of the school.
Teacher trainees cut back
- The Education Minister has recognised the difficulty new primary teachers have in finding jobs, but says this is a “temporary phenomenon”. Lord James Douglas-Hamilton is again reducing intakes. Entrants to the primary BEd course will fall from 750 to 700 and there will be fewer one-year secondary students: 1,252 instead of 1,275.
Dunfermline bids for education service
- In the battle for power under local government reform, Dunfermline’s Labour-controlled district council has led the way in seeking to become an education authority. With 130,000 people, it says it is “an ideal geographic unit” and has almost as many inhabitants as Dumfries and Galloway. But Fife Region, also Labour-controlled, says dividing Fife “could seriously damage children’s education”.
Tories seek to axe S grade
- Government advisers on Scottish education have mounted an attack on Standard grade and called for testing for all pupils at the end of S2, in a last-minute response to the Howie report’s proposals which is warmer than most. The report requires modification rather than rejection, say the Tories.
So much to live up to
- George Bush claimed he was the Education President, but did nothing about it. Bill Clinton made no such claims, yet many educators are pressing the crown on his head, even before he sets foot in the White House. “For the first time in years, we will have a president who does not view public education as the enemy, something to be destroyed,” says Albert Shanker, president of the American Federation of Teachers.
