By Richard Garner

The National Union of Teachers is justified in expressing concern over the materials included in the lesson plan commissioned by the Ministry of Defence for teaching about the Iraq war. As Steve Sinnott, its general secretary, says, it makes no mention of civilian casualties or the fact that the UN failed to sanction the invasion. A High Court judge ruled that Al Gore's Oscar-winng film, An Inconvenient Truth, could not be shown in schools without teachers providing "balance" and correcting inaccuracies in it.  The same should be the case for the MoD lesson plan.

By Richard Garner

The move by Newbury Park primary school in Rebridge, north-east London, to teach its pupils forty languages by the time they transfer to secondary school is to be applauded.

Of course, learning so many languages, they do not study all 40 in depth and the project - under a different language spoken by a pupil as a home language is chosen as the "language of the month" just gives them a smattering of phrases in that language and a little bit of cultural knowledge about the country concerned.

By Richard Garner

It really should not come as a surprise that a youngster who shines at a struggling comprehensive - getting its best A-level results even if he or she does not get three straight A's - can do just as well at university as someone from an independent or grammar school with higher grades. The effort the former has had to be put in to overcome what could be an anti-education culture in their community should be recognised.

Yet the idea that pupils from poorly performing schools should be offered places at prestigious universities with lower grade passes sends a frisson of horror down the spines of the country's independent schools with threats of law suits to their pupils who are refused places following.

By Richard Garner

The news today that university drop-out rates are still the same as they were in the UK five years ago must be a little dispiriting for a government committed to widening participation in higher education. One of the reasons why the percentage of youngsters quitting degree courses remains at about 22 per cent may well be that not enough effort is made in inducting youngsters from backgrounds where there is no history of higher education in the family into what to expect at university.

By Richard Garner

At first sight, it looks as though it is bad news that more than 600 secondary schools have failed to meet Prime minister Gordon Brown's new target that every state school should have thirty per cent of its pupils achieving five A* to C grades at GCSE including maths and English. However, when this year's figure is compared to last year's, the number has dropped by about 100 - so it shows progress is being made.

By Richard Garner

It's probably not rocket science to reveal that children from vulnerable homes achieve better results if they go to boarding schools.

However, the research by the Royal Wanstead Children's Foundation showing that 85 per cent of children from such backgrounds do better than the average child after three years at boarding schools deserves to trigger off a response from the Government increasing aid to these youngsters so they can attend a boarding school.

By Richard Garner

It is deeply worrying that UK youngsters come bottom of the class when it comes to international awareness, according to a poll by the British Council.