Belt case may breach human rights
The anti-belt lobby, following success in the Campbell and Cosans cases, will try to persuade the European Court of Human Rights to agree that corporal punishment is degrading and a breach of the Convention on Human Rights. Mr Norman MacEwan, Scottish Council of Civil Liberties vice- chairman, is awaiting a decision on the admissibility of two cases involving Crieff High pupils.
Secondary BEd to be scrapped
The four-year Bachelor of Education degree for Scottish secondary teachers is to be scrapped after 17 years. Mr George Younger, Secretary of State, said the decline in secondary school rolls and the drop in numbers taking the secondary BEd made his decision unavoidable. Last year 77 graduates obtained the degree, compared with 288 in 1975.
Bill could make industrial action illegal
Industrial action by teachers in defence of jobs could be interpreted as political and therefore illegal under the Government’s Employment Bill, according to the EIS. Mr John Pollock, general secretary, went further than before in publicly urging teachers to get involved directly in political action.
End of Erica
Erica Easy has not gone down at all well with some readers. Miss Easy, discerning subscribers will recall, was the naughtily-clad (in fact not clad) Copenhagen call-girl who adorned an advertisement in The TESS. Her somewhat improbable purpose was to lure readers to the film wares of the Scottish Health Education Group, on such subjects as menstruation, alcoholism, sexual stereotyping, and life after school. Dr David Payer, SHEG director, admitted “an error of judgement”.
Viewpoint - Liz Lochhead, poet and former art teacher
One of the things I hated most about being a teacher was being asked to uphold and reinforce the standards of dress the school had decided pupils should conform to. “I like seeing girls in a neat collar and tie,” said an ex-colleague. Yes, so do a lot of people in Soho and sleazy cinemas, but does one have the right to impose this fetish on a school, which after all is only a neighbourhood institution they are forced by law to attend until 16?
