Demand up for university places

30 January 2013 Last updated at 01:47 GMT By Seonag MacKinnon BBC Scotland education correspondent Applications from students from elsewhere in the UK to study at Scottish universities are up Figures seen by the BBC suggest applications from the rest of the UK for places at Scottish universities are markedly up, despite fees of up to £9,000 a year.

Glasgow University said demand rose by almost 37% - to 6,339 applications.

It was a similar picture at other universities which traditionally attract students from England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Edinburgh said applications increased by 24% - to 15,077.

With 2,665 applications, demand at Aberdeen was up by 26%.

St Andrews University reported an 11% rise.

It is believed demand was also up at Glasgow School of Art and at Strathclyde University.

The complete figures on applications for places at all UK institutions are due to be released by the admissions body UCAS later.

The upturn is all the more remarkable at Edinburgh and St Andrews which charge £9,000 each year - a total of £36,000 for the four year degree.

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£9,000 for university education seems like a lot of money but comparatively is quite cheap”

End Quote Alexander McNab Aberdeen University student In England, where degrees are generally over three years, graduates usually pay no more than £27,000 and also have one year less of living expenses such as rent and food.

Prof Ian Diamond, Principal of Aberdeen University, which charges a total of £27,000, said demand has gone up, not down, partly because of a strong marketing drive.

He confessed that when fees were launched this year he was not sure that demand would hold up.

He said: "I think we have all worried because we were taking a step into the unknown with no data on which to make predictions.

"We simply had to remain confident that the offer that we had at the University of Aberdeen was at least the equal of that of anywhere else."

Healthy demand

Alexander McNab, from Suffolk, who is now a first year student at Aberdeen University suggested fees were not necessarily a barrier.

He said: "In many ways it is bargain because school fees are £16,000 - £26,000 in day and boarding schools. £9,000 for university education seems like a lot of money but comparatively is quite cheap."

The enviable international reputation of Scottish universities is another reason given for the healthy demand.

It is believed the provision of new bursaries to compensate for fees is also a factor - but there remains concern that students from less well-off homes may still be deterred from applying.

Early figures also seem to indicate more Scots are applying for university places. At Edinburgh demand was up 4.3%, at St Andrews it has risen by 4.5% and Glasgow saw a 10.2% increase.

And there are also signs of rising demand from EU students, who pay no fees in Scotland.

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Hungarian Roma win school case

29 January 2013 Last updated at 17:03 GMT It is alleged that Hungary's school tests fail to give Roma children equal chances Two ethnic Roma (Gypsy) men have won a discrimination case against Hungary at the European Court of Human Rights over their education at a remedial school.

Education in a school for the mentally disabled meant the pair were isolated from mainstream society - a bar to their integration, the judges found.

The Strasbourg court said their schooling amounted to discrimination.

For years many Roma children have been wrongly placed in remedial schools in Hungary and some of its neighbours.

Many Roma communities in Hungary and the neighbouring Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and Serbia are blighted by poverty and a high degree of social segregation.

Istvan Horvath and Andras Kiss, from the town of Nyiregyhaza, were born in 1994 and 1992, respectively.

Ruling on their case, the court said the Hungarian school system had failed to provide the necessary safeguards for a disadvantaged minority.

The judgment said Hungarian courts had also acknowledged deficiencies in the way mental abilities were tested.

Hungary was ordered to pay the pair's legal costs of 4,500 euros (£3,848; $6,065). The applicants did not request damages from Hungary on grounds of discrimination.

Segregation problem

The BBC's Nick Thorpe in Budapest says the conservative Fidesz government is putting money into teaching Roma culture and history - though some NGOs argue that integrating Roma is more important than building their cultural identity, which can be divisive.

Fidesz argues that it has developed a Roma strategy, aimed at improving Roma rights - something that the EU has long been urging.

Fidesz says Roma-majority schools in some villages are a fact of life, whereas the previous Socialist-led government favoured bussing Roma children to schools where they would have to mix with ethnic Magyars, our correspondent reports.

Hungary's Minister for Human Resources, Zoltan Balog, has said the country "cannot prosper without its Roma population - if the Roma lose, we lose too".

He said the "negative trend" of the majority against the Roma must be changed, at the same time as Roma themselves must shed their "victim mentality". Most Roma are unemployed and poor, he pointed out.

A Council of Europe report in 2009 criticised the over-representation of Roma children in Hungarian remedial schools, while acknowledging that Hungary had made efforts to address the problem.

The report said "the vast majority of children assessed as having a 'mild disability' could, in the view of many NGOs, be integrated relatively easily in the ordinary school system: many children are misdiagnosed due to a failure to take due account of cultural differences or of the impact of socio-economic disadvantage on the child's development".

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Schools enjoy league table success

24 January 2013 Last updated at 13:44 GMT By Judith Burns BBC News education reporter Colyton is determined not to be an 'exam factory' Every one of the 117 pupils entered for GCSEs at Colyton Grammar School in Devon got at least five good grades including English and maths, achieving the best results for GCSEs in England.

This is a particularly strong result as pupils at Colyton do all their exams a year early, at the end of Year 10.

"We are very pleased", said head teacher, Paul Evans, adding that it had been "a challenging year for schools".

Mr Evans said that Colyton's overall results were actually slightly down on last year's when it came fourth in the GCSE table - but he said this just showed that this year results had been "depressed across the board".

In particular he said that there had been fewer A* grades. He commented that the school had experienced "an increasing discomfort with the quality of assessment" and had been forced to challenge the exam boards and ask for remarks, particularly in modern languages.

Mr Evans was keen to emphasise that Colyton, whilst being a selective school, does not have the most challenging entrance exam. It takes around a third of the candidates who apply to start in Year 7.

"If I'm honest the most able children in any school will do well. The real challenge is to make the next tier down do well too, and that's what I am particularly proud of here.

"I have staff prepared to go the extra mile and make sure the pupils do well without over pressurising them."

The advantage of taking GCSEs in Y10 is that pupils at Colyton spend three years in the sixth form. Most come out with four A-levels, plus general studies and critical thinking. He said the three year sixth form enabled them to deliver a "very much broader curriculum, we are not just delivering the specification".

"We are very conscious about not being an exam factory. By the time they leave the sixth form we have encouraged them to become very individual learners. They are encouraged to read around their subjects and very much to go off at tangents".

'Most improved'

Three hours drive away, another school was celebrating a different kind of league table success.

Bad weather meant morning assembly was cancelled at Trinity High School and Sixth Form Centre in Redditch. Pupils went straight into lessons or, in the case of the current Year 11s, a science exam.

So head teacher Marian Barton, had not yet had a chance to tell pupils of their success in achieving the most improved GCSE results in England.

"We are absolutely thrilled, very excited - and I am sure the pupils will be really proud and delighted when they find out", Ms Barton told BBC News.

Some 80% of pupils who took GCSEs in 2012 achieved the benchmark five A* to C grades, including English and maths, up from 32% in 2009.

Ms Barton said she was particularly pleased with last year's results because of when they first arrived in the school, only 55% that year group had been predicted to achieve good GCSE grades.

The school prides itself on being very open and not at all selective. Some 20% of the intake are on free school meals, an indicator of poverty often linked with poor academic performance, and 20% do not speak English at home.

Last year almost two thirds of free school meals children at Trinity High achieved five good grades at GCSE, outperforming the national average for all children.

Ms Barton puts the improvement in grades down to "hard work" and an improvement in teaching.

Trinity was formed in 2001 after a reorganisation of local schools. Ms Barton describes the first few years as "rocky". In 2008 the school was included in the then Labour government's national challenge programme for poorly performing schools, which delivered extra funding but also threatened with closure if they failed to improve.

It became an academy in 2011. Since then Ms Barton says she has focussed funding on hiring highly qualified teachers and on extra support for pupils who struggle with English and maths, including one to one tuition for those in danger of falling behind.

Ms Barton says she is confident that next year's GCSE candidates will do as well: "We know we can maintain this improvement".

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Nursery changes 'to raise quality'

29 January 2013 Last updated at 18:20 GMT The government says mandatory staff ratios are tighter in England than in much of Europe Nurseries and childminders in England are to be allowed to look after more children, in a package ministers say will improve quality and cut costs.

The ratio of children to carers can be raised, but only if carers' qualifications meet new standards.

Children's Minister Liz Truss said the proposals would make more childcare places available and reduce costs for parents in the "long term".

Critics warn the change in ratios could actually compromise quality of care.

They also predict the changes - which are due to come into force in the autumn - will be unpopular with parents and are unlikely to reduce the overall costs of childcare.

Continue reading the main story CURRENTUnder one and one-year-olds - 1:3Two-year-olds - 1:4Three-year-olds and above - 1:8 or 1:13 (teacher-led)PROPOSEDUnder one and one-year-olds 1:4Two-year-olds - 1:6Three-year-olds and above - 1:8 or 1:13 (teacher-led)Statutory ratios for carers per child vary depending on age and setting. Ratios for two-year-olds are set to rise from four children per adult to six children per adult, and for ones-and-under to rise from three children per adult to four children per adult.

Ratios for three-year-olds and over would remain at eight or 13 children per adult, depending on whether a qualified graduate was present.

Ms Truss says the changes will bring the UK in line with countries such as France and Sweden. England's higher ratios lead to higher costs for parents and lower pay for staff, she says.

Ms Truss told the BBC the proposals were about raising standards and only those nurseries that hired staff with higher qualifications would be able to take on more children.

"It will make it higher quality, more available and more affordable. It will take time to recruit new people and expand nurseries. In the long term it will be more affordable," she said.

Liz Truss: "We're raising the standards so that parents will be able to get more available nursery places."

Britain has some of the highest childcare costs in the world, with many mothers with two or more children saying it does not make financial sense to work.

An earlier report by Ms Truss suggested the average family spends 27% of their income on childcare.

Ms Truss said childcare professionals should be better qualified in the UK.

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Research also overwhelmingly indicates that introducing young children to quasi-formal academic learning too young has lifelong negative consequences”

End Quote Richard House Early Childhood Action Campaign founder "When parents hand their child over to the care of a childminder or nursery, they are not just entrusting them with their child's physical safety, they are also entrusting their child's brain," she said

"With this in mind, it is no longer acceptable that childcare professionals are not required to have a GCSE grade C or above in English and maths."

This will apply to new nursery staff only, however.

'Very difficult'

Shadow education secretary Stephen Twigg said the plans to increase the ratios would undermine the quality of childcare in the UK.

Stephen Twigg: "Saying that more children will be in each setting risks undermining quality and even risks undermining safety."

"I think this is one area where we've actually got something to teach other countries.

"If you look at France, there's actually quite a big public debate about whether they've got this right. I don't think you can compare the situation with Sweden where they have very, very generous parental leave so very few young babies are in these sorts of settings."

Kent-based nursery manager Josie Lait is sceptical about the plans, saying fewer adults would jeopardise the quality of care and the safety of children.

"I feel it isn't realistic to change the ratios because the quality will go down dramatically.

"And if you have people who are better qualified, costs will go up, so how will parents benefit?

"I wouldn't want to enforce it [new ratios] myself, I wouldn't want my setting to change."

Anand Shukla, from national childcare charity Daycare Trust, said: "No matter how well qualified the members of staff, there are practical considerations when you increase the number of children that they have to look after," he said.

"For one person to look after six two-year-olds, for one person to talk to six two-year-olds, to help their language development, we think is going to be very difficult."

National Day Nurseries Association chief executive Purnima Tanuku welcomed the commitment made by the government to improve childcare but said the "quality of childcare and early education must not be sacrificed".

She said: "Many parents do not want an increase in the number of children nursery staff are allowed look after. They are worried it will have a negative impact on the individual attention and care their child receives."

Anne Longfield, chief executive of children's charity and nursery provider 4Children, said: "The welfare of the child must be our first concern throughout, but with highly qualified early-years teachers and a better inspection regime, there is an opportunity to review current arrangements and provide simpler information for parents and better incentives for providers to concentrate on what matters - children."

In Wales, the maximum number of children a child minder can care is six children under eight years of age. Of those six children, no more than three may be under five years of and of those three children, normally no more than two may be under 18 months of age.

In Welsh nurseries, there should be one adult to three children under two years, one adult to four children aged two years and one adult to eight children aged three to seven years.

Ratios of children to childcare professionals

Source: OECD * Allows teams of carers to look after extra children as part of a group

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VIDEO: Nursery staff a 'two-tier system'

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Councils could lose adoption powers

24 January 2013 Last updated at 10:13 GMT The government believes adoption waits in some cases are unacceptable Councils in England could lose their powers over adoption services if they take too long to find adoptive parents, ministers have announced.

The government said it was a last chance for local authorities to show they could recruit the adopters needed.

Otherwise, new laws would require them to outsource adoption services.

Ministers say they are "determined to address a situation where adopters are coming forward to adopt and are being told they are not wanted".

'Futures in balance'

"Currently there are significant weaknesses in the way local authorities bring in more adopters. The government is not prepared to see these children miss out because the adoption recruitment system is failing," they added.

According to official figures, there were 4,600 children waiting to be adopted in England in March 2012.

Some 600 extra adopters a year were needed to cope with demand, as well as another 3,000 to deal with a backlog.

The move over adoption powers is being unveiled by Children and Families Minister Edward Timpson.

He said: "There are over 4,000 children waiting to be adopted nationally, but year on year local authorities are not recruiting enough people to give them stable and loving homes. We cannot stand by whilst children's futures hang in the balance.

"Some local authorities are already doing a good job to recruit the adopters they need in their area - but not enough is being done to address the national shortage."

'Up to challenge'

He added: "We have set out our vision of how we expect local authorities, together with voluntary adoption agencies, to respond to the needs of all children waiting for adoption.

"Local authorities must now demonstrate that they are up to the challenge, or we won't hesitate to intervene."

Chairman of the Local Government Association's children and young people board, David Simmonds, said figures show councils had twice the rate of success of independent adoption agencies and removing them from the process should only be considered as a very last resort.

"We are already looking introduce a series of measures to increase the number of adopters in the system, including looking at how councils can improve the way they work together to more widely match potential adopters with children in different parts of the country, specifically in areas where there is an acute shortage of adopters," he said.

"Councils are getting on with their part of the job by approving more children for adoption, with 12% more children adopted in 2012 than 2011, the highest figure since 2007. Government now needs to play its part by finally reducing the heavy legal burden of care proceedings and ridiculous bureaucracy which causes huge delays that can put some people off adopting altogether."

The Department for Education said long-term structural reforms would take time and so it would return £150m to councils to help tackle pressing needs in adoption services.

It will also award the Consortium of Voluntary Adoption Agencies a grant of £1 million to enable Voluntary Adoption Agencies to recruit more adopters.

Latest figures show children are left in care for an average of 21 months before being adopted.

In some areas, they have to wait up to three years before the process is completed.

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Wales and England divide on exams

29 January 2013 Last updated at 17:31 GMT By Sean Coughlan BBC News education correspondent Changes in England's exam system could see a deepening divide with Wales and Northern Ireland The UK's exam system faces greater fragmentation - with the Welsh government rejecting changes planned for GCSEs in England.

Jeff Cuthbert, deputy minister for skills, pledged the "best for students" in Wales, even if it meant "diverging from England and the rest of the UK".

GCSEs will be retained in Wales while there are plans for them to be replaced in key subjects in England.

Northern Ireland is carrying out its own review of GCSEs and A-levels.

The decision marks a significant split between the qualifications systems in England and Wales, which have so far shared a common system of A-levels and GCSEs.

Scotland has its own exam system and Northern Ireland is carrying out its own review, raising the prospect of qualifications across the UK following separate paths.

'Untenable'

The announcement on Tuesday will see teenagers in Wales continuing with GCSEs, while pupils in England are set to move to English Baccalaureate Certificates in key subjects such as English and maths.

In Wales there will also be new GCSEs in English Language, Welsh First Language and maths.

This will be part of a Welsh Baccalaureate which will be taught from September 2015. At the same time, the English Baccalaureate Certificates will be introduced for core subjects.

"We will retain GCSEs and A-levels. Where necessary we will strengthen and amend these, but ultimately we have confidence in these well-established qualifications, which are recognised around the world," said Mr Cuthbert.

Changes have also been announced for A-levels in England by Education Secretary Michael Gove - but the Welsh government did not suggest that it would follow.

"We will consider the implications for Wales of Michael Gove's recent unilateral announcement on A and AS levels, which was not shared with us in advance, as we would have hoped under our concordat with DfE. On the face of it, the proposal for England has little appeal," said Mr Cuthbert.

Head teachers in Wales welcomed the decision to reject the changes proposed for England.

"There is no reason why Welsh students should be disadvantaged, as long as the qualifications are implemented properly and are of a high quality. English universities have been taking Scottish and overseas students for years and they manage the transition well," said ASCL Cymru's Gareth Jones.

For university admissions, GCSEs and A-levels in England and Wales are currently seen as the same, but they now seem set to become different qualifications.

Speaking earlier this month in the National Assembly, the education minister Leighton Andrews said he recognised the importance of the "portability" of shared qualifications, but warned the "current arrangements and structures are becoming untenable".

"Unilateral announcements from Westminster about our shared qualifications undermine the three-country arrangements," said Mr Andrews.

There are already changes approved for education in Wales, such as the creation of Qualification Wales, which will become a separate exams watchdog.

Northern Ireland faces a similar decision on whether to follow the changes announced in England or to maintain the existing system or to develop another.

Education Minister John O'Dowd announced a "fundamental review" of A-levels and GCSEs, which is expected to be completed by June 2013.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: "The Welsh education system is a matter for them.

"We are solely concerned with doing what is best for English students. That is why we are transforming the education system to raise standards in this country to prepare pupils to compete in a global jobs market."

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'Teach computing' primaries urged

29 January 2013 Last updated at 20:41 GMT All primary pupils should have computing lessons, says Microsoft All children should learn computer science at primary school, a major software corporation has urged.

A lack of computing in schools put the UK's position as a world leader in computer gaming at risk, said Microsoft UK's director of education.

Steve Beswick was speaking on the eve of the BETT show for educational technology in London.

The Department of Education welcomed the teaching of computer coding, which it said was educationally "vital".

In England the government has scrapped information technology lessons, with a new computing curriculum due next year.

Mr Beswick said that the computer gaming sector currently generated £3bn a year for the British economy, adding that games and software developers required skilled individuals to ensure their businesses thrived.

'Talent pool'

"It's a world leader in its sector and we desperately need to ensure that our talent pool of computer scientists is as healthy as it can be in order to sustain valuable industries like that," he said.

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These changes and exciting developments, like Raspberry Pi and Computing for Schools, are spreading the teaching of computer coding which is so educationally and economically vital”

End Quote Department of Education Mr Beswick pointed out that there were currently about 100,000 job vacancies in the UK that required computer science qualifications, but last year only about a third of that number had graduated in computer science.

"Computer science is something that we have been calling the 'fourth science' for some time," said Mr Beswick.

"We believe that it is every bit as important as physics, chemistry and biology."

Mr Beswick believes that formally introducing children to the basics of the subject at primary school, will help inspire more pupils to take it to degree level and ultimately the world of work.

In a statement, the Department for Education said it agreed with Microsoft and that was why the "out-dated ICT curriculum" was scrapped last year, with computer science now being taught in schools.

It said: "We're involving experts like Microsoft, Google and Cambridge University in the development of Computer Science teaching to properly equip pupils for the 21st Century.

"These changes and exciting developments, like Raspberry Pi and Computing for Schools, are spreading the teaching of computer coding which is so educationally and economically vital."

Education Secretary Michael Gove chose last year's BETT show to announce a radical revamp of the information and communications technology (ICT) curriculum in schools, calling it "demotivating and dull".

He scrapped the ICT curriculum from last September and called on schools to use online resources to teach computing so that even 11-year-olds would be capable of writing simple 2D computer animations.

The announcement was widely welcomed by the computing industry though concerns have been expressed about a lack of specialist computer science teachers.

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