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One of Prime Minister Gordon Brown's first acts on taking office was to split England's Education Department in two.
The Department for Education and Skills has been replaced by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and the Department of Innovations, Universities and Skills (DIUS).
Responsibility for further education colleges straddles both departments. The DCSF oversees the 14-19 year old agenda which includes further education colleges; responsibility for funding adult education, often taking place at further education colleges, rests with DUIS.
Education will continue as a top priority under Gordon Brown’s premiership. The following areas have been highlighted as key education policy issues:
- Numeracy
- Gender gap
- Alternative school models
- Specialized diplomas
- Access to higher education
Following a historic election in May, the Scottish National Party now heads the government, by a narrow majority, in the Scottish Parliament. The First Minister is Alex Salmond. Key education leaders are:
- – Fiona Hyslop
- – Maureen Watt
- – Adam Ingram
The new government will focus on the following education policies:
- Early intervention (extending pre-school education);
- Supporting vulnerable children and families;
- Improving the learning experience in school (with additional teachers and reduced class size);
- Developing skills and lifelong learning (with a new Skills Strategy);
- Promoting excellence and innovation in higher education.
Tough new powers giving teachers’ clear and unequivocal authority to discipline badly behaved students recently became law.
Designed to combat disruptive, bullying or offensive behavior, they give teachers a clear statutory right to restrain, detain and remove unruly students, confiscate mobile phones that are being used in a malicious or disruptive way and punish students for poor behavior not just in school, but also on the way to and from school.
The National College for School Leadership has issued a report drawing on the findings of research and evaluation studies commissioned over the last five years.
It sets out what is known to date about school leadership, under headings such as:
- Context matters
- Core tasks of school leaders
- Learning-centered leadership
- Distributing leadership matters
- The importance of leadership development and succession planning
Adults under the age of 25 who have missed out on education and training opportunities will be able to get free tuition to obtain intermediate technician level skills, sought after by employers, from August 2007.
The new entitlement will provide routes back for those who left education early and want to return to improve their qualifications and job prospects.
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