Schools news dominates UK news headlines this morning. The majority of schools across the country are likely to be shut on 30 June, Polly Curtis and Jeevan Vasagar write, after teaching unions' overwhelmingly vote for strike action to defend their pensions.
"Michael Gove has asked officials to look at contingency plans should rolling strike action follow in the autumn, and headteachers are being urged to keep schools open. But there is little the government can do to avoid widespread school closures."
Jeevan looks at the stormy first year of the education secretary's tenure marked, as he says, by "a series of reversals". And he reports on the ambitious new GCSE targets Gove is setting for schools: they'll be regarded as "underperforming" if half their pupils don't get five A*-Cs.
@warwickmansell tweets:
"In 2008, M Gove criticised plan to close schs failing to meet targets, saying 'a decade of top-down targets has failed'."
Frederika Whitehead has been following up the story of the incarceration of the Swazi NUS president Maxwell Dlamini (above).
South African journalists have smuggled a hidden camera into the prison where the Dlamini, 21, is being held. SABC journalists visited Dlamini and a fellow activist, law graduate Musa Mgudeni, at the Manzini remand centre.Off-kilter images track the journalists' route into the prison as the voiceover alleges that "apparently hundreds of young protesters have been arrested and charged with treason, terrorism or sedition". The voiceover continues: "In many of these cases the state could not produce enough evidence to convict the accused."
The journalists, who say there are allegations that Dlamini has been tortured in prison, are allowed to talk to him and Mgudeni through a mesh with a policeman at their side. Dlamini, whose first language is Siswati, speaks to the reporters in English: "As the youth, we want our freedom as of yesterday of course, we can't wait another day or another year."
And still on the world news front, Frederika reports on the latest bulletin from Scholars at Risk, which maintains a list of academics and students in trouble with authorities around the world. Its carries news of the arrests of "several dozen" students and lecturers in Inner Mongolia, and the murder of a muslim university rector in southern Russia who had been leading a government-sponsored anti-terrorism campaign.
• The number of people employed in the public sector decreased by 24,000 in the first three months of this year, half of those in education, as schools and colleges shed staff at the rate of 1,000 a week, writes Polly Curtis.
"The figures, released by the Office for National Statistics, show that compared with the last three months of 2010 there were 12,000 fewer people working in education and 10,000 fewer public administrators."
• Pupils studying at private and grammar schools are twice as likely to take maths, physics and chemistry A-levels as their state school peers. The Guardian Datablog has all the figures by institution type and local authority.
Jessica Shepherd reports that the data was obtained by Elizabeth Truss, MP for South West Norfolk, through parliamentary questions on the A-level subjects pupils take at private and state schools in England.
• Gordon Brown has written a piece for the New Statesman in which he bemoans joblessness around the world and extols the benefits of education.
"One of my favourite images in poetry comes from Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, when he imagines beneath the gravestones 'some mute inglorious Milton' - a person of huge hidden talents who was never given the chance to show what they could do: 'Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,/ And waste its sweetness on the desert air.'What brought me into politics was my anger at the injustices that prevented people from making the most of their lives - and these injustices are at their most acute in the case of the life chances of young people."
• The BBC reports on an interesting study led by the Institute of Education's professor Susan Hallam, which found one in six children are being streamed by ability by the age of seven. She found boys are more likely to be placed in the bottom stream than girls, children born in the autumn are more likely to be in the top classes, and ethnicity is not linked to stream placement.
• Government plans to grant anonymity to teachers accused of mistreating pupils have been branded "unprecedented, unnecessary and unworkable" by a leading Conservative peer, the Mail reports. Lord Black of Brentwood warned that the measures would have "frightening implications" for the welfare of vulnerable children and for press freedom.
• Concerns have been voiced that only one in five new teachers in Scotland found permanent, full-time jobs after qualifying in 2009-10, a figure revealed in a General Teaching Council for Scotland survey of 1,222 graduates and reported by the BBC.
The post-PhD diaries: taking steps towards securing my first academic role. After being on the panel of our "Life after PhD" Q&A, Sarah-Louise Quinnel reflects on how the discussion changed her thoughts on social media for early career researchers
Reading for Pleasure
This half-day conference for primary school teachers will help you inspire students to read with pleasure and maintain the reading habit. Andy Stanton, author of the Mr Gum series, will be joined by Julia Eccleshare, Guardian children's books editor, and reading development experts.
Time: 1 July, 9.15-12.45.
Cost: £48, including refreshments and resources.
Insight into Journalism: investigative and features journalism
This seminar, part of our popular Insight into Journalism series, gives secondary school teachers and college tutors the chance to spend a day at the Guardian. You'll meet specialist journalists from the investigations team, find out from writers what makes a good features article and learn about commissioning, editing and interview techniques.
Time: 8 July, 9.15-4.30.
Cost: £72, including lunch and resources.
Making the most of media opportunities to enhance your school's profile
Whether it's sharing good news or handling a crisis, headteachers and school management teams need to be able to handle the media in all of its forms. This one-day seminar in association with the NAHT is essential for new and aspiring heads as well as established school leaders who wish to update their knowledge. It includes a session on social media.
20 September, London.
Distinctiveness and branding in higher education
Higher education institutions will struggle in the marketplace unless they stand out from competitors and make sense to stakeholders. The Guardian's half-day seminar in partnership with the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education will explore what it takes to develop and maintain a distinctive brand that attracts students, staff and funders. Participants will hear from experts, examine case studies and have the opportunity to network with peers.
28 June, London.
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