• Independent schools which charge lower fees are more generous with bursaries than more well-endowed institutions; faith schools too tend to allocate a smaller proportion of spending to bursaries. More prestigious schools do the same: researchers found that a school ranked between 1 and 70 in the Times league table spent an average 4.3% of income on financial aid compared with 7.2% for one listed between 211 and 280. Times


• The NUT is backing amendments to the new Academies Bill which call for the removal of a clause which allows schools to consult about becoming an academy before or after an order is granted for academy status. NUT's general secretary Christine Blower commented that it is 'completely against common sense' for parents to be consulted after a decision has already been taken and the policy represented 'an attack on...democratically accountable, free state comprehensive education'. Telegraph


• Ofsted has found that in one in three schools, pupils' knowledge about sex and relationships are 'no better than satisfactory'. At primary level, pupils are left with a 'partial understanding' of sex and told inspectors they needed information earlier than 11; secondary school pupils said that information was 'too late and too limited'. The 'serious gaps' the inspectorate found, it put down to sex being 'squeezed off' the curriculum because of teachers' prudishness. Telegraph


• Cambridge University has expressed its concerns in a letter to Michael Gove about his plans to alter A Levels to make them more traditional and encourage schools to drop AS Levels. It claimed that the proposals would undermine ten years of work to even out its admissions process. Director of admissions Geoff Parks commented that AS grades achieved by pupils in their penultimate year of school were a more accurate measure of pupils' future performance than GCSEs or aptitude tests. Telegraph


• The Campaign for Science and Engineering has warned that the Academies Bill - if passed - would leave pupils 'unprepared for modern life' as new academies are not obliged to teach maths, science and English according to the National Curriculum. The group's director commented that already two thirds of employers report difficulties with recruiting people with skills in STEM subjects. Guardian


• Exams watchdog Ofqual has found that science GCSEs are still too easy, despite its warnings last year that the exams needed to be toughened up. Pupils did not need to demonstrate knowledge of how science works: in one paper, only needing to score six marks of 30 for a grade C. The body ordered an overhaul of the qualifications in March 2009, mandating immediate action to make them more difficult. Telegraph

• The government has given approval for the first 'private university' in 34 years, as the law and accountancy college BPP is given 'university college' status. David Willetts has said that amid 'fiscal pressures', the private sector 'has a much greater role to play' in delivering tertiary education. Times


• Max Davidson meets some of the graduates prospecting the jobs' market. Telegraph

• Almost one in five of the 83% of girls who are sexually active by the age of 18 say they have been pregnant at least once; 28% of girls who are eligible for Free School Meals reported getting pregnant at least once. One third of those who left school with four or fewer GCSEs had been pregnant at least once by the time they were 18 compared to 6% for those who scored eight or more GCSEs at grade C or above. Guardian


• For every year a person stays in full-time education, the risk of suffering memory loss and loss of control falls by 11%. Researchers believe that education may have this power to stave off dementia because education makes the brain more flexible and improves its ability to offset the symptoms of conditions such as Alzheimers. Telegraph


• The government has abandoned plans to grant anonymity to defendants in rape cases. Justice Minister Crispin Blunt cited his intention to find a non-statutory solution, saying that the government will negotiate with the Press Complaints Commission to persuade newspapers and media outlets to grant anonymity to suspects. Yvette Cooper, shadow minister for women and equalities, claimed that by adopting the policy, the government 'chose to send out the very strong signal that women are not to be believed'. Guardian

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