A Green Paper, "Support and aspiration: A new approach to special educational needs and disability," was published by the Department for Education in March 2011. The Green Paper, styled as a response to the frustrations of children and young people, their families, and the professionals who work with them, sets out the government's commitment to…

Social mobility has been a big issue for the Government in the last year. Its attempts to address the widening gap between rich and poor and provide opportunities for all have been laudable, but, frustratingly, they have often been confused and opportunities to really make a difference have been ignored. The Government should be applauded though…

As Chief Executive of the National Youth Agency, the author was asked to give her perspective on the lifelong learning prospects for young people. She believes that one's capacity to be a learner and to learn, at whatever stage of life, is directly influenced by every other aspect of one's life, from one's attitudes to one's income. As a young…

The report of the Panel on Fair Access to the Professions, chaired by Alan Milburn, was published at the end of the summer. The report was the result of considerable investigation into the progress, or lack of it, of people from lower socio-economic groups in gaining access to professional jobs. It seems that this issue is one that all the main…

The first decade of the current Labour Government had been characterised by a whole raft of education reforms aimed at driving up standards--a focus on early literacy and numeracy, standards funds to push up exam results, the much greater use of technology to track individual pupils' progress and to ensure a growing number achieved the benchmark…

America is becoming a less educated nation (National Commission on Adult Literacy, 2008). While this is frequently measured through comparisons of the number of adults with college degrees, strategies to address sagging educational attainment statistics in the United States are typically focused on K-12 reforms--mostly through expanded definitions…

The aim of this philosophical and historical position paper is to discuss the ways in which Popular Education--folkbildning--has contributed to the social transformation of Sweden through self-directed and collaborative educational practices. One of our premises is that individual transformative learning, fostered by folkbildning, has contributed…

Over the past decade the issue of food and in particular, food consumed within schools has come to encapsulate a broad range of concerns regarding children and young people's health and wellbeing. In Australia, the UK and more recently the USA, attempts to ameliorate a range of public health concerns have provided the impetus for an unprecedented…

There are currently more than 2,500 secondary schools in England with specialist-school status and the number is increasing as part of the Government's strategy to raise standards of achievement. All specialist schools are required to develop a compulsory community element as part of their specialist school plan. They are expected to interact and…

The poor performance of the education sector in Nigeria has become very worrisome. What is the problem? Is the educational policy faulty or is it the implementation that is faulty? What are the implications for national development? These are the issues explored in this paper, based on a literature review approach. The findings blame the…