Bitterness as youth survey heads south
The Scottish Office Education Department has announced that the contract for the revised Scottish Young People’s Survey, which has been mined for 20 years to provide key information on pupils’ attainment and schooling, has been awarded to a London-based organisation. The tender is one of the most sensitive the SOED has ever handled.
Terminal sexists hog the screens
Computer commands such as “abort”, “kill” and “execute” are male inventions and should be eliminated, according to a scathing report on sex discrimination by four Edinburgh-based specialists. Teachers should be aware of the “destructive imagery and problematic connotations” of computer language and substitute more appropriate words: “stop” instead of “abort”; “remove” or “delete” instead of “kill”, and “invoke” or “run” instead of “execute”.
DMR crosses Highland line
A one-year Highland pilot scheme involving three secondaries - Lochaber High, Nairn Academy and Gairloch High - is to be launched, significantly extending the trend set by Strathclyde, Dumfries and Galloway and Central in devolving school budget powers. It will give headteachers control of capitation, furniture buying, telephones and postage, school travel, janitorial supplies, equipment purchase and maintenance, and minor property repairs.
Fears for history chair
The potently symbolic row around the non-filling of the chair of Scottish history at Edinburgh University has obscured the fact that the faculty of arts is committed to making an appointment by October 1994. Nonetheless, fears remain that if it is not filled when Professor Geoffrey Barrow retires, lack of continuity could harm the department.
Shock of the new
Uncertainty is in charge of education in eastern Germany. One western teacher on an exchange was quoted as saying: “The conditions in which eastern German teachers are now working are simply inhuman.” Discipline has collapsed. The pervasive pressure of the Communist party, which could be brought to bear on children through the Young Pioneer organisation, disappeared with the GDR regime.
