Cosla welcomes budget safety net
- Local authorities are set to comply with the government’s final guidelines on devolving 80 per cent of budgets to schools, after expressing relief that Scotland is to be allowed to go its own way yet again on a major plank of educational policy. Any thoughts about a political rebellion appear to have receded with the government concessions.
Parents ‘had enough’ of tests
- Parents across England and Wales are preparing to withdraw their children from this summer’s national curriculum tests in a rebellion that resembles the successful build-up of resistance last year to primary tests in Scotland. Margaret Morrissey, of the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Organisations, said: “Parents are saying our children are being used as guinea pigs ... and we have had enough.”
An ‘educational machine’ works
- The Western Isles have a “ruthlessly efficient educational machine”, a conference in Stornoway was told by Professor Andrew McPherson, of the Centre for Educational Sociology at the University of Edinburgh. Commenting on the survey of school leavers in the Western Isles, he said that the system managed to keep ahead of the game in terms of results and this led to young qualified people leaving the islands.
Ghost of ILEA summoned
- If Strathclyde is dismantled under local government reorganisation in the same way as the Inner London Education Authority in 1990, the region will face an “educational disaster”, councillors warned at the launch of a special report drafted by director of education Frank Pignatelli. Des McNulty, chairman of the sub-committee on reorganisation, predicted that children would “suffer grievously” once Strathclyde was broken into smaller units.
Work if you want to graduate
- The State of New York is toying with the idea of forcing high-school graduates to get themselves paid jobs as part of their graduation requirements. The “all students must work” plan is the brainchild of New York’s commissioner of education, Thomas Sobol, who claims it would be the answer to business leaders’ complaints that the schools are not providing students with basic job skills.
