National pay deals could be axed, Chancellor warns

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/8924415/National-pay-deals-could-be-axed-Chancellor-warns.html

More cash needed for state boarding schools, warns head

Raymond McGovern, chairman of the State Boarding Schools Association, called for a greater investment in the sector to allow them to expand.?

Raymond McGovern, chairman of the State Boarding Schools' Association, said schools would struggle to meet the requirements of a tough new inspection regime without more money.

He also called on ministers to put more capital into schools to enable them to expand to take in additional pupils.

In recent months ministers have praised plans to allow growing numbers of “vulnerable” children to be given a boarding education. A number of the Government’s flagship academies have built – or are planning to build – boarding houses for pupils.

But speaking on Sunday, Mr McGovern, headmaster of Sexey’s School in Somerset, said new inspections introduced for the first time this summer to regulate pupils’ health and welfare provided significant challenges.

“Lack of central funding places state boarding schools at a significant risk, especially as – quite rightly – they must comply with the new National Minimum Standards,” he said.

There are currently 38 state schools in the UK with boarding accommodation.

Almost 5,000 pupils board at these schools, up from 3,674 in 1998 and from 4,695 last year. Education is free although boarding costs between ￡7,500 and ￡12,000 per year.

In recent years, a series of the Government’s semi-independent academy schools have opened boarding facilities, including the new Wellington Academy in Wiltshire and Harefield Academy in Middlesex.

Another school, Durand Academy in Lambeth, south London, is planning to open a satellite boarding school in West Sussex for children aged 13 upwards.

Mr McGovern said: “The Secretary of State for Education expressed his support for boarding when visiting Durand Academy… This is a significant departure for the state sector as families have traditionally had to fund boarding from their own incomes, or via the Armed Forces’ Continuity of Education allowance or an external charitable trust such as the Royal National Children’s Foundation.

“If the Government truly believes that ‘boarding which is free of charge is a good thing for the young people of Lambeth’ then surely the same is true for any young person in every local authority, particularly for those young people who are vulnerable or otherwise disadvantaged?”

Students 'could be put off university' by confusion over fees, warns Martin Lewis

Confusion over the system of tuition fees in 2012 could be putting students off university, warns Martin Lewis.?Photo: REX FEATURES

Martin Lewis, the consumer expert, said students were “ill-equipped and uneducated” about how the new system would work next year.

From 2012, English universities will be able to charge up to ￡9,000 a year – almost three times the current amount.

Graduates will pay back loans when they earn ￡21,000 and make smaller monthly repayments than at present. Debts will also take much longer to clear but will be written off after 30 years.

Mr Lewis, who has been named the new head of the Independent Taskforce on Student Finance Information, said he was “no fan of the changes”.

But he insisted that the myths surrounding the practical finances of the system “may well end up more damaging to prospective students’ aspirations than the new fees themselves”.

It came as a poll of almost 2,000 adults, published by the taskforce today, found almost six-in-10 had little or no understanding of how the new fees system would work.

More than a quarter – 26 per cent – wrongly thought that students would have to pay their fees upfront and more than half said the system would make going to university less attractive.

The disclosure comes despite the fact that applications have already closed for some courses – including those to Oxbridge – and most students are expected to apply by January.

It also comes amid continuing uncertainty over fee levels at some universities.

Some 27 un-named institutions are yet to confirm their final average fees after submitting revised plans to the Government’s Office for Fair Access, it was confirmed this week.

Mr Lewis, head of Money Saving Expert, said: "The communication of tuition fees by all parties over the last few years is a national scandal.

"They've left us as a nation ill-equipped and uneducated about how this crucial and very different form of finance works.

"We need to start a war on this ignorance. After all, if students don't understand the true cost, how can they decide if it's worth it."

Students 'could be put off university' by confusion over fees, warns Martin Lewis

Confusion over the system of tuition fees in 2012 could be putting students off university, warns Martin Lewis.?Photo: REX FEATURES

Martin Lewis, the consumer expert, said students were “ill-equipped and uneducated” about how the new system would work next year.

From 2012, English universities will be able to charge up to ￡9,000 a year – almost three times the current amount.

Graduates will pay back loans when they earn ￡21,000 and make smaller monthly repayments than at present. Debts will also take much longer to clear but will be written off after 30 years.

Mr Lewis, who has been named the new head of the Independent Taskforce on Student Finance Information, said he was “no fan of the changes”.

But he insisted that the myths surrounding the practical finances of the system “may well end up more damaging to prospective students’ aspirations than the new fees themselves”.

It came as a poll of almost 2,000 adults, published by the taskforce today, found almost six-in-10 had little or no understanding of how the new fees system would work.

More than a quarter – 26 per cent – wrongly thought that students would have to pay their fees upfront and more than half said the system would make going to university less attractive.

The disclosure comes despite the fact that applications have already closed for some courses – including those to Oxbridge – and most students are expected to apply by January.

It also comes amid continuing uncertainty over fee levels at some universities.

Some 27 un-named institutions are yet to confirm their final average fees after submitting revised plans to the Government’s Office for Fair Access, it was confirmed this week.

Mr Lewis, head of Money Saving Expert, said: "The communication of tuition fees by all parties over the last few years is a national scandal.

"They've left us as a nation ill-equipped and uneducated about how this crucial and very different form of finance works.

"We need to start a war on this ignorance. After all, if students don't understand the true cost, how can they decide if it's worth it."

Children failed by 'flawed' maths lessons, warns examiner

Mark Dawe, head of the OCR exam board, has criticised the standards of maths lessons.?Photo: ALAMY

Mark Dawe, chief executive of OCR, one of Britain's biggest exam boards, said growing numbers of young people struggled to function in further education or the world of work after failing to “acquire the maths skills that society demands” at school.

He suggested that the existing curriculum was unable to cater for children with different needs, including the very brightest at one end and those that struggle with the basics at the other.

Currently, almost half of 16-year-olds fail to achieve grade C at GCSE, with just 15 per cent studying maths beyond that level.

It is also feared that as many as a quarter of economically active adults are "functionally innumerate".

Speaking ahead of a conference on maths education today, Mr Dawe said lessons "will always be flawed until schools, universities and employers agree on what maths skills they really want from young people".

“Maths means different things to different people," he said. "Some say it’s all about numeracy – the facility to add, subtract, multiply and divide whole numbers, with perhaps, a little bit of percentages thrown in – whereas others equate maths with arithmetic – the art of calculation.

“Some believe ‘real maths’ helps unpick the secrets of the universe. Whichever it is, the system clearly isn’t delivering.”

Speaking before a conference at the Royal Institution in London, he said: “Too many students do not acquire the maths skills that society demands which means they can’t enjoy mathematics or take it into further education, the workplace or use it in everyday life.”

OCR has now set up a new “maths council” to gather views on the future direction of the subject.

David Willetts warns over 'striking' university gender gap

Women are much more likely to go to university than men, according to David Willetts.?Photo: GETTY IMAGES

David Willetts, the Universities Minister, told how just four in 10 men now went on to graduate with a degree compared with half of women.

He said the gulf in educational achievement between men and women was a major challenge for society.

The comment comes amid ongoing concerns over the gender divide.

According to figures, boys fall dramatically behind girls after just a year of school and the divide widens throughout primary and secondary education.

This year, more than 26 per cent of GCSEs taken by girls were graded an A compared with less than 20 per cent of boys’ exams – a record gulf.

Data also shows that women in their 20s now earn, on average, more than men of the same age.

In an interview on Sunday, Mr Willetts said the gap could result in “changes in the pattern of household living” as women become the dominant wage earner.

“There is now a rather striking gap, if we look at the statistics, where it looks as if approximately 50 per cent of women are graduating from university by the time they are 30 and perhaps about 40 per cent of men," he said.

"This is where the sociologists step in and people think through the implications of that but we have got a gap in educational performance here that goes all the way through our schools and universities, and I want to see an improvement in educational opportunities for men and women because it does look as if the challenge we particularly face in our society at the moment is that the boys are lagging behind the girls.”

Speaking to Dermot Murnaghan on Sky News, Mr Willetts added: “It may, in turn, shift balance of earnings between women and men because it connects with what I was saying earlier that, by and large, graduates earn more.

"It may lead to changes in the pattern of household living, so there are some deep questions here and I think these are questions that, as a society, we should focus on."

Research by the Higher Education Policy Institute shows that women now outnumber men at every type of university, including top research institutions and former polytechnics.

They are also more likely to get a 2:1 degree pass and are less likely to drop out.

The changes have already had an impact on women’s earnings potential, it is claimed.

Separate data presented last month by Mary Curnock Cook, the head of the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, showed that women aged between 22 and 29 now earn just over ￡10 an hour, compared with less than ￡10 for men.