Education and schools work update

Headlines from the world of education and schools work:

• New university gathers top academics to teach £18,000-a-year degrees: New College of the Humanities promises more direct teaching by likes of AC Grayling and Richard Dawkins.  A new private university in London staffed by some of the world’s most famous academics is to offer degrees in the humanities, economics and law from 2012 at a cost of £18,000 a year, double the normal rate.
• Exams system risks ‘damaging teenagers’ reading ability’: A-levels often fail to provide teenagers with the tools and hunger to read beyond the narrow confines of an exam specification, says John Newton, headmaster of Taunton School.
• Teachers ‘expect less’ from black, middle-class pupils – study: Teachers expect black middle-class pupils and their parents to be far less interested in education than their white middle-class counterparts, a study has found.
• Government ‘underestimated’ university tuition fee hike: Ministers “significantly” underestimated the number of universities charging £9,000 tuition fees, MPs warned, raising fears of a huge funding black hole.
• Ofsted warning over ‘weak’ vocational qualifications: Pupils are being awarded top grades on “weak” vocational courses that leave them with a poor grasp of business, Government inspectors warned.
• Exam boards told to raise game after rogue question in AS-level biology: Exam boards have been told to raise their game after another rogue question appeared on an AS-level exam paper – the third this summer.
• Thousands of children ‘fail to make progress in three-Rs’: Up to a third of children are effectively going backwards in reading, writing and arithmetic at secondary school, new figures suggest.
• Primary schoolteacher filmed himself abusing pupils: A primary school teacher filmed himself sexually assaulting pupils as young as six in his classroom, sometimes when other children were present, a court has been told.
• Fees will put teens off, say 42% of vice chancellors: A poll of university vice-chancellors shows that nearly half believe that it will become more difficult to convince young people of the benefits of a degree once higher tuition fees have been introduced.
• Soaring school meal prices threaten to wreck ‘Jamie effect’: The price of a school dinner has jumped 10 per cent this year, an Independent on Sunday investigation has found, sparking fears that the financial crisis and rampant food inflation could jeopardise the “Jamie Oliver effect” of healthy eating for pupils.