These are some of the education stories we found interesting between the 26th April and 3rd May 2013.
Universities veto adverts over unpaid internships (The Times)
Some of the UK’s leading educational institutions are refusing to advertise unpaid internships for its students and graduates. They say it’s unfair graduates are expected to work for up to a year for free and that only those from wealthy backgrounds can afford to take up an unpaid internship. The list of universities who have decided to ban advertising the unpaid internships include York, Leeds, Nottingham, Oxford and Sussex.
Ofqual: teachers ‘losing confidence’ in GCSE exams (The Telegraph)
Research published by Ofqual has found that 8 in 10 headteachers and almost two-thirds of teachers had less confidence in the outcome of GCSE exams this year than at the same point in 2012. The report which was based on a survey of 600 teachers, 200 headteachers and more than 3000 members of the public found distrust towards examinations in the current academic year. Participants said that many people did not trust Ofqual’s ability to safeguard standards after thousands of pupils are believed to have missed out on good GCSE grades when exam boards suddenly changed grade boundaries between exams taken in January and those sat in June.
Adopt a child and jump the school admissions queue, Government tells parents The Telegraph
Families who adopt children will be given new benefits under government guidelines issued this week. The new ‘passport’ available from the Department for Education’s ‘First4Adoption’ service includes the benefits available for adoptive parents such as priority admission for school places which include academies and free schools.
New partnership provides free eReaders for schools most in need The Independent
Primary school pupils who are struggling to read will be helped by a new partnership bringing free eReaders into almost 300 schools across London. The Evening Standard and Barnes & Noble, one of America’s biggest bookshop chains will provide over 1,000 eReaders to help improve children’s literacy skills. The campaign has so far helped over 2,000 children.
Number of Chinese language assistants in schools on the rise Herald Scotland
The number of Chinese language assistants in Scottish schools is on the rise. The British Council Scotland (BCS) said that they had received more requests from schools for staff who can teach Mandarin and Cantonese.
Energy secretary urges Michael Gove to reinstate climate change on curriculum The Guardian
The Energy secretary Ed Davey has written to the Education Secretary Michael Gove asking him to rethink plans to remove climate change from the geography curriculum.So far more than 65,000 people have signed petitions urging the government to keep the topic of climate change in the national curriculum for England. The Energy secretary argues that inclusion of climate change in the curriculum would safeguard the important role teachers have in teaching children about the topic.
Use cash ‘bribes’ to boost pupils’ grades, schools told The Telegraph
Professor of education at Birmingham University Stephen Gorard has suggested that schools should put aside up to £130-a-year to each poor pupil to boost pupils’ grades . Teachers could hand out money in return for attendance, completion of homework and reading books. The research published in the Times Educational Supplement found that bribes had an impact on pupils and an improvement was seen in attendance, pupil behaviour, completing homework and wearing uniform. There are already similar schemes in British schools who run reward programmes such as Vivo Miles which allows pupils to collect points for good work and behaviour in return for rewards such as iPods, mobile phones, jewellery and digital cameras.