education

Linus Pauling - 1922
There is much wrong with the UK education sector. So, is the National Union of Students an indicator of further trouble in the world of education? We are told that the NUS could be bankrupt and forced to close. So the pantomime begins, there have been 'anti-austerity' demonstrations by students and altogether it looks rather ridiculous. Recently a vote at Plymouth University showed around 52% of the students opted to leave the NUS, oddly there has been no accusation, 'they did not know what they were voting for', neither a demand for a 'student People's Vote to prevent an 'injustice'.

So what of the NUS and is it just part of a higher education problem? It was formed in 1922 from several groups with similar interests. The original purpose was to lobby for students and to give them, in modern parlance, a voice. Even in those far-off days politics was not far below the surface many students eyed the rise of radical politics in other parts of the world, pronounced this was good and so the love of communism took off in the student world. From the start this created tension within the movement. Individual universities have on occasions voted to leave the NUS on this score, only to rejoin later when another group of hopefuls took over the reins of student power within the university.

Denis MacShane
"I wouldn't start out from here" is, so we are told, a typical Irishism. The term may have been heard once a long time ago deep in rural Ireland spoken by a native to a lost visitor, or might not and instead be wholly fabricated. So it is a matter of speculation what destination Denis MacShane had in mind when he set out on his journey, the one in an article in the New Statesman, see HERE.

Peace wall, separating peace schools. West Belfast There should be no more faith schools, there should be a separation between church and school. Just under 30% of our schools are faith schools, at present these are mostly Christian and Catholic. In Northern Ireland, Angela Smith, the NI Office education minister turned down Rowellane Integrated College for funding. She allegedly did so in order to placate politicians opposed to integration. The school is being built using private funding and is, at present, using mobile classrooms. Rowellane is massively oversubscribed as are Northern Ireland's other 58 integrated schools. The IEF Integrated Education Fund was established in 1992 and aims to fund more integrated schools.