Education

Decline and fall: how university education became infantilised

26 October 2024 9:00 am

Last month, after 21 years study-ing and teaching Classics at the University of Cambridge, I resigned. I loved my job.…

Why French students want English uniforms

28 September 2024 9:00 am

Béziers, France The École Mairan in Béziers in southern France is a happy neighbourhood elementary school housed in a superb…

The ancients knew the value of practical education

21 September 2024 9:00 am

The welfare state was designed to serve everyone’s needs. But those needs were defined by the state. So schools teach…

Letters: A cautionary lesson for England’s schools

14 September 2024 9:00 am

Lessons to learn Sir: Your leading article ‘Requires improvement’ (7 September) rightly raised concerns that a curriculum review in England…

The real crisis in our school system

7 September 2024 9:00 am

For years, each school in England has been put in one of four categories: ‘outstanding’, ‘good’, ‘requires improvement’ and ‘inadequate’.…

The culture wars are far from over

27 August 2024 12:12 am

It’s only been a month since the new Culture Secretary, Lisa Nandy, declared that the ‘era of culture wars is…

Labour’s outrageous attack on academic free speech

26 August 2024 8:10 pm

In an extraordinary outburst, a government source has described the new Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act, introduced by the…

Should Labour be messing with the school curriculum?

24 August 2024 9:00 am

Labour’s new education secretary wishes, as usual, to change everything. She might consider the advice of the Roman educationist Quintilian…

The cult of Bedales

3 August 2024 9:00 am

Another of my ageing Bedales school cohort has died and so there’s an ad hoc reunion in his honour at…

The mystery of teaching composition

3 August 2024 9:00 am

Summer study courses for young composers have been popular for a few generations. After the second world war, up-and-coming experimental…

The intersectional feminist rewriting the national curriculum

27 July 2024 9:00 am

The appointment of Becky Francis CBE to lead the Department for Education’s shake-up of the national curriculum is typical of…

The craft renaissance

8 June 2024 9:00 am

As long ago as the 1960s, the poet Edward James was worried that traditional crafts were dying out. Having frittered…

Labour’s plans to rewrite the National Curriculum

1 June 2024 9:00 am

Michael Gove’s decision to stand down in this election was a reminder that the one really bright spot in the…

We have lost an unforgettable teacher and one of the greatest living critics

20 April 2024 9:00 am

Tanner, the critic RICHARD BRATBY Michael Tanner (1935-2024), who died earlier this month, had such a vital mind and stood…

The great sociology con

19 August 2023 9:00 am

My default mood at the moment is bleak despair, although it can sometimes be triggered into nihilistic loathing, which I…

A manner of speaking

15 July 2023 9:00 am

Britain’s schools are facing an epidemic of bad behaviour

11 June 2023 8:00 pm

Something troubling is happening in Britain’s schools. This week, the government released its findings from the first national survey into pupil behaviour in…

Progress is coming to our remote corner of Kenya

10 June 2023 9:00 am

Laikipia The principal of the local polytechnic was waiting for me in the kitchen. Frequently in the kitchen there is…

Why are my son’s teachers putting abstract principles before children’s education?

27 May 2023 9:00 am

The teachers putting principles before children

Why Britain is falling behind in the global universities race

20 May 2023 9:00 am

Our country still excels when it comes to higher education. Britain has seven of the world’s top 50 universities. In…

British universities are beyond redemption

13 May 2023 9:39 pm

There’s no doubt that the government has the best of intentions when it comes to clearing up the Augean stables…

Why are our universities still cosy with China?

19 October 2022 11:47 pm

It sounds like something from a spy novel: scientists linked to the Chinese military complex working at UK universities on…

A character assassination of Rudy Giuliani

17 September 2022 9:00 am

Lord help me I love a hatchet job, and you’ll have to too if you want to make it through…

The Roman roots of Tony Blair’s approach to education

3 September 2022 9:00 am

Sir Tony Blair’s Tone-deaf suggestion that Stem subjects should dominate the curriculum of all schools would paradoxically take education back…