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Teachers in Northern Ireland appear to have the worst pay and conditions in the UK while unions and ministers are blaming each other for the situation. Unions believe that Northern Irish teachers lost out after the suspension of the assembly at Stormont Castle in 2002, when control over their pay passed back to Westminster.

British schools gave a vote of confidence in April 2005 to a new science General Certificate of Secondary Education, which seeks to replace traditional topics with discussions about genetically modified food, cloning and mobile telephones. The '21st Century Science', developed by York University and the OCR examination board, would be offered to all schools from 2006.

The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) in the UK announced in April 2005 that teachers would have the right to appeal if their school is found guilty of cheating in national tests. For the first time since the tests were introduced in 1991, the QCA announced it would publish its procedures for investigating malpractice allegations, following complaints from heads that the present system was unfair and secretive.

The British government had serious concerns about allowing Rod Aldridge, chief executive of Capita, to sponsor in personal capacity a 27 million pounds sterling academy in a deprived area of the Northwest, fearing a potential conflict of interest between the academy and Capita's wider responsibility for regeneration in the area. Head of the Government's academies division, Neil Flint's correspondence to Rod was revealed in which he voiced concerns about the outcome of the chief's philanthropy.

Several of Sir Mike TomlinsonEs proposals for changes to secondary education in the UK are likely to be discarded by the Government in February 2005. The Education Secretary, Ruth Kelly, is expected to reject the approach in a White Paper despite the support for Tomlinson's 18-month review from teachers' leaders.

League tables would be changed in 2006 to adjust to pupilsE backgrounds, with secondaries being ranked not only by raw General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) and A-level results but also on the progress pupils make given the deprivation affecting them. The number of pupils on free school meals and those with special needs would be some of the factors in the new contextual value-added measures of pupil progress.

Schools and teachers in Northern Ireland are failing their pupils by denying them the chance to discuss t he t roubles in lessons. Seamus Hegarty, director of the National Foundation for Educational Research, stated he was disturbed at pupilsE reactions to a major study seeking their views on the religious and political divisions in the region.

Proposals for revolutionary improvements in secondary education across London have been presented by ministers and Mike Tomlinson's report. A consultation initiated by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) envisages London to be a trailblazer in promoting high standards in the 14 to 19 phase of education and training, for students to attain their full potential.

Alan Wells, director of Britain's Basic Skills Agency, is known for his ability to grab headlines with his plain-speaking ways. Wells can be scathing when he feels the need to speak out, and the government, parents and businesses often bear the brunt of his criticism.

The Tomlinson report prepared by former chief inspector Mike Tomlinson, Education Secretary Charles Clarke and Prime Minister Tony Blair is discussed. The report recommends absorption of GCSEs and A-level courses into the new four-level diploma system, to be introduced by 2014.

The Tomlinson report in its landmark 14-19 reform inquiry recommends that the pay gap between college lecturers and schoolteachers be closed. The issue of pay parity is included in a list of requirements that need to be addressed if the reportEs main recommendation, namely the introduction of a four-level diploma to replace the General Certificates of Secondary Education (GCSEs) and A-levels, is to work.

Professor Celia Hoyles, one of BritainEs most respected mathematics educators, was appointed by the countryEs government as its new mathematics etsarE in 2004. Hoyles discusses her plan to persuade more young people to persevere with the study of mathematics, which includes the use of television programs that bring to life the magic of mathematics and problem-solving.

A major government inquiry into the future of secondary education in the UK evades the practical problems involved in improving collaboration between schools and colleges. The Tomlinson report, published in October 2004, has only a couple of pages on issues such as differences in funding between schools and colleges, teacher and lecturer pay rates and different qualifications in the two sectors.

A popular General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) examination, in which pupils only need to score half marks to achieve an A grade, will be made easier from 2005. The Edexcel board will make the tests more accessible, as a result of which grade boundaries could rise.

A pilot scheme to introduce more exciting presentation to ICT exams are welcomed by pupils as they will be able to show their work in the best light. Presentations submitted by high-achieving students for the OCR exam as part of information and communications technology coursework illustrate the power of the new format, e-portfolios.

A paper circulated in February 2004 by the UK Department for Education and Skills questioned whether the 60-year-old law requiring daily acts of collective worship in schools should be scrapped. Among mixed opinions on the issue, David Bell, the chief inspector of schools suggested that schools should be required to hold collective acts of worship just once each month with more opportunities for pupils to discuss spiritual and religious issues.

Ministers in the UK are facing requests to ban vending machines selling junk food from schools after a 2004 survey revealed that 78 per cent of parents wanted them removed. However, the Department for Education and Skills revealed that it had no plans to ban vending machines since the department believes that the decision of installing the machines in schools rests with the head teacher and governing body.

The National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth, which runs the two and three-week residential courses for summer schools, has filled up 864 of the 900 places available for 2004 in April itself. There are almost three months left for the courses to start at six universities and there is very little chance for other bright pupils to make it to attend the Government's new summer schools for gifted youngsters.

The GCSE in maths, which gives the students no chance to achieve a grade C, will remain unchanged till 2008 even though many maths teachers agree that it requires some reforms. The Qualification and Curriculum Authority is taking time over changes to the qualifications and does not want to rush in taking this decision as it did in Curriculum 2000 relaunch of A-levels.

The chief executive of WH Smith, Richard Handover, has claimed that many school work experience placements are grim for the majority of pupils who take part in them. Handover, who is also Business in the Community's chair of education, believes that many young people are put off work experience by the primarily menial nature of the tasks they are asked to complete.

Exeter University is running a sex education course, which has been criticised by many as being unnecessarily explicit. The course, which includes role-playing, deals with, amongst other things, sexually transmitted diseases, the mechanics of gay sex, and oral sex.

The UK government's social exclusion unit is backing a sex education course which has been criticised as morally irresponsible by a teacher who has taken part in it. According to Lynda Brine, an advanced skills teacher, the course, which is run by Exeter University, in effect backed illegal under-age sex.

A project being carried out in the West Midlands of the UK is seeking to establish that vocational education and modern languages are not mutually exclusive. The project, which covers over 80 secondary schools and 7 colleges in Wolverhampton, Walsall, Sandwell, and Dudley, will have 14-26-year-old pupils using languages while carrying out work placements.

UK business is divided over whether it should have an active role in vocational education and assessment. According to the chief executive of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority employers in Germany, France and Austria are deeply involved in setting standards for vocational education, as well as in assessing coursework.

UK Education Ministers, of which there are 6 reporting to Education Secretarty Charles Clarke, will be assigned a specific school subject. The move is part of the government's drive to make the national curriculum more interesting by encouraging innovative ideas from teachers.

UK mathematicians are claiming that one year is not long enough for a study into the future of maths as a school subject. According to Professor Tony Gardiner, the 1-year government investigation might do more harm than good.

The UK School Teachers' Review Body, which makes recommendations on pay, has been told by Education Secretary Charles Clarke that it is essential that only inflation-only pay rises be given to teachers. Forecasts are that the pay rises will be limited to 2.5% per year, fixed until 2006.

The UK government has committed itself to cutting teachers' working hours within four years. However, teaching unions are against the plan, and there are doubts over whether the planned funding will be sufficient.

Accordiong to s survey of 1,000 head teachers carried out by Exeter University, only 28.6% of head teachers support the government's performance related pay scheme. Many head teachers doubt that the government has sufficient money to support the scheme.

The UK government is due to set up a taskforce to look at how the UK A-level and GCSE system can be converted into a baccalaureate-type system. The taskforce, which may be headed up by Mike Tomlinson, head of the the A-level standards inquiry, will include a significant oresence from employers and universities.

In his first interview since being appointed UK Education Secretary, Charles Clarke claims that he wants to become friends with teachers as well as getting in touch with his feminist side. Clarke is seen by many as being one of the Labour Party's hard men.

According to a survey by the Times Educational Supplement, thousands of 11-year-old school children are already revising for English, maths and science exams to be taken in summer 2003. According to teachers this early revision is a direct result of the government's unreasonable targets.

UK Education Secretary Charles Clarke has questioned the UK government's plans for a five-tier hierarchy of schools in his first speech. The speech has caused controversy as the plans were officially supported by prime Minister Tony Blair.

The new UK Education Act will give the Employment Secretary additional powers. The changes include giving the Secretary the final say on which schools can opt out of an education law to support innovative projects for raising standards.

The National Employers Organisation for School Teachers and the Secondary Heads Association have supported the view that schools should hire more support staff in order to take over administrative tasks from overloaded teachers. The move is seen as a support for the government's attempts to reduce teachers' workloads.

According to research, teachers from countries where there is respect for the profession find it difficult to deal with school children in the UK because of cultural differences. Recruitment of staff for UK schools from the West Indies, Africa, and India may therefore cause more problems than it solves.

According to John Beattie, the new chairman of England's General Teaching Council, has voiced his disapproval of the government's plans to introduce performance-related pay throughout the teaching profession. According to Beattie, who joins many others in his criticism, the issue is that teachers are not motivated purely or mainly by money.

UK headteachers are threatening to oppose the government if it tries to impose a performance-based pay structure on the teaching profession as a whole. According to the National Association of Head Teachers, it would be unable to support the expansion of merit pay to another 200,000 staff if the new scheme did not allow most teachers to pass the top of the earnings scale, which is currently set at GBP32,250.

Just keeping up with the reforms now being outlined in the United Kingdom, and in England in particular, is a full-time job. At the time of writing, details were still [...]

The funding of England's schools, like so much of our education system at the moment under a new government, is a matter of hot debate. And the rural dimension is [...]

How innovative are English schools? This is, it turns out, a tough question to answer. One might expect that those at the forefront of developing new thinking about how we [...]

Many debates in education are echoes of past arguments. This is true of teacher education in England. Michael Gove, our new education secretary, inspired an outpouring of anguish after setting [...]

Like so many aspects of education policy in England over the past 20 years, performance-related pay has been an area of high-profile, frequently changing development. But has it been effective [...]

To policy makers, it must have been a vivid, head-in-hands, 'I can't believe what I'm seeing' moment. Infuriated by a high school's policy of banning the cooking of unhealthy meals [...]

The contradictory opinions of college heads about the merits of the diplomas introduced as vocational training qualifications for 14- to 19-year olds are discussed. The inadequacies in provision of practical knowledge in the 'work-related' courses need to be eliminated before the diplomas can be touted as the academic qualification of choice of the target group of students.

The introduction of the new 14-19 diplomas to bring about a significant reform and extraordinary change in England's education system is discussed. Promoters of these diplomas suggest that they offer a bold approach to education and will change the way subjects are taught and the manner in which schools interact with each other.

Former education secretary Lord Kenneth Baker, who clashed with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on the need for a broad, balanced curriculum in 1988, believes the same principles apply in 2008. However, some schools' emphasis on league table scores in literacy and numeracy has taken the focus away from non-core subjects.