The Scottish National Party (SNP) is calling for school pupils as young as 14 to be allowed to opt for a vocational college education as an alternative to continued classroom study.It’s a call which appears, initially, at odds with generally accepted views that education in the British Isles needs to get better and last longer if it is to achieve its goal of being one of the hi-tech centres of the world.

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Three quarters of senior local authority officers say they believe that ‘best value’ is a key policy for driving improvements in local services, according to a new survey.The finding is contained in the first national census of local authorities’ attitudes towards best value, published by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM).

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