Education

The Romans wouldn’t have understood our exam obsession

29 August 2020 9:00 am

Many commentators have argued that the recent grading controversy indicates just how important public examinations are. Up to a point,…

Spare a thought for next year’s A-level students

22 August 2020 9:00 am

Three years ago I was contacted by an official at the Department for Education to see if I was interested…

University challenge: the next education crisis

22 August 2020 9:00 am

Many institutions face the fight of their lives

Inflated exam grades let the government ignore its own failures

15 August 2020 9:00 am

It was obvious that closing schools would hit the poorest hardest, inflicting permanent damage and deepening inequality. While many private…

The proof that free speech in universities is in peril

8 August 2020 9:00 am

About 18 months ago, I attended a debate at Policy Exchange, the think tank founded by Nick Boles, Francis Maude…

The rise of the Econian

1 August 2020 9:00 am

The public school elite who rule the wokerati

The lost boys: the white working class is being left behind

18 July 2020 9:00 am

Britain’s forgotten demographic

Home advantage: not going to school was the making of me

18 July 2020 9:00 am

Not going to school was the making of me

school

In Los Angeles, school’s out…forever?

16 July 2020 9:15 am

Americans have mixed feelings about opening schools this fall. Some — like the Trump administration’s Department of Education — want…

Target for half of kids to go to university dropped

10 July 2020 12:08 am

In a sign of how worried the government is about youth unemployment, it will – quiet literally – pay firms…

Gavin Williamson is right to call out educational snobbery

9 July 2020 10:32 pm

Politicians give speeches all the time, but with differing levels of significance. Can you think of a genuinely important political…

To understand the past, you need to inhabit it for a while

4 July 2020 9:00 am

‘It’s no go my honey love, it’s no go my poppet; Work your hands from day to day, the winds…

The private school advantage has never been greater than in lockdown

27 June 2020 9:00 am

The private school advantage has never been greater

Children should get out more — even if it’s for hide and seek in the park

20 June 2020 9:00 am

We live in an urban world. It’s a statistical fact. The great outdoors for most of us is a thing…

School’s out: the true cost of classroom closures

20 June 2020 9:00 am

The lockdown is widening the gap between rich and poor pupils

Reopening schools must be our first priority

16 May 2020 9:00 am

It would be a tragedy if one of the legacies of Covid-19 — a disease which hardly affects children physically…

Coronavirus has made amateur mathematicians of us all

11 April 2020 9:00 am

‘What is the point of learning maths? When do you ever actually need it? How does it ever affect your…

Who leads the global 5G market?

1 February 2020 9:00 am

In the beginning How did Britain mark its entry into the European Economic Community on 1 January 1973? There were no…

British universities are a modern-day racket

22 January 2020 10:08 pm

One of the great myths of Scottish higher education is that it’s free. Outside observers can be forgiven for making…

Letters: Why have the Conservatives decided Chesterfield is a lost cause?

14 December 2019 9:00 am

Given up on Chesterfield? Sir: Matthew Parris makes some interesting and accurate points about growing Tory support in the north…

What have the Anglo-Saxons ever done for us?

14 December 2019 9:00 am

It has been a while since I’ve considered the vexed question of Byrhtnoth’s ‘ofermod’. More than 30 years, in fact.…

Must try harder: Labour wants to reverse a decade of progress in education

7 December 2019 9:00 am

If education rather than Brexit or the NHS was the biggest issue in this election campaign, the Tories would be…

Asians are doing too well – they must be stopped

12 October 2019 9:00 am

Riddle: when is discrimination against a historically disadvantaged racial minority perfectly legal? Answer: when they do too well. The first…

General de Gaulle’s advice to the young Queen Elizabeth

14 September 2019 9:00 am

There were so many ear-catching moments in Peter Hennessy’s series for Radio 4, Winds of Change, adapted from his new…

When did English A-level become a science?

24 August 2019 9:00 am

Now that my youngest has got her A-level grades, I’m finally free to say just how much I have loathed…