FE squeeze puts Lang’s showpiece centre at risk
An pound;8 million showpiece further education centre in Livingston, hailed as an essential asset for industry by Ian Lang when he approved the project as education minister two years ago, now appears under threat because of a cash wrangle between Lothian Region and the government. “We won’t go down without a fight,” declared Bill Gold, vice-chairman of West Lothian College, which was to be the lead college.
Campaigners warn of lost battle on smoking
The director of ASH, the anti-smoking organisation, has accused the government of “tokenism” in its efforts to cut the number of young smokers. Director Alison Hillhouse told The TES Scotland that the government was not prepared to take on the tobacco industry: “The government’s attitude is personal responsibility. But when you look at 12 and 13-year-olds’ choice, it makes you quite sick.”
PE squeezed out at Standard grade
Many pupils are unable to take Standard grade physical education because of a clash over course options, a New Zealand exchange teacher has observed. Paul Hoffman found that core PE was suffering because of the concentration on Standard grade. In one school core PE consisted of one hour per week for half of the year and for the rest of the year many pupils had no PE at all.
Urge to teach gathers strength
Reports of poor morale, low salaries and scarcity of teaching jobs do not appear to be affecting the enthusiasm of those aiming to join the profession. A Scottish Office statistical bulletin shows there were 6,134 applications for 2,770 teacher-training places in 1991-92. Demand for primary places was particularly buoyant.
Schools duck Aids implications
The official view that the help being offered schools to handle Aids education seems to be “working well” is not borne out in practice, according to research by a final-year BEd student at Jordanhill. Lesley Fisher wrote to all education authorities and to a number of schools in Strathclyde Region, which she thought to have the most comprehensive policy. The results were “most depressing” and revealed a lack of priority to Aids education in primary schools.
