In the current economic uncertainty caused by the Coronavirus crisis, education was never going to be the main focus of yesterday’s Budget. I was pleased to see the funding initiatives that were in there – from investment in FE colleges to scrapping the reading tax – but I’m hoping to see more radical reform over…
Last week I highlighted my fears that Scotland’s progressive curriculum was leaving its education system in crisis. Now a Scottish education think-tank, Upstart Scotland, is calling for the country to follow the lead of some Scandinavian countries and raise the age children start school to seven. In my view, they’re focusing on the wrong issue.…
Once upon a time, the Scottish education system was the envy of the world but its reputation came crashing down when the OECD PISA ratings came out late last year. They showed that in 2018 Scotland’s attainment in maths and science had taken another dive – following on from the falls also seen in 2015…
Last week a survey of parents revealed that a large majority measure a school’s success on how happy the children are. Meanwhile, a very small percentage said they took SATs results into consideration when judging where to send their child to school and 73% said they thought their children were under too much pressure from…
A study last week has claimed that social background has more bearing on whether you go to an elite university than which school you go to – especially when comparing state schools. The research from the 1970 British Cohort Study found that when you compare pupils from similar social backgrounds grammar schools offered no advantage…