Too long, too short, too untidy... Hair and education have a long tradition of falling out with one another

What is it about schools and hair?

When I was a boy, I had to have it cut, a practice which seems to be alive and well in the US. My own sons had friends who were instructed to grow their various crewcut grades longer (again, a habit with form in the States).

Now a ponytail has led to a stand-off in Bolton between the family of an 11-year-old and Westhoughton High where he's just started this term. Connor Wallwork has had the tail since he was a toddler, according to his father Geoff, who is refusing the school's request that it be trimmed off.

That's breaching Connor's human rights, he says - at the heavier end of a string of arguments which also include the fact that no-one has complained, so far as the boy and his family know, and none of the 1100 other pupils have been distracted from lessons.

The school's headteacher Phil Hart says:

The school has a clear uniform code which covers uniform and hairstyles. This is published to all our parents and carers and is part of the student planner. We ask for the support of all parents and carers in supporting our high standards and ensuring the uniform code is followed by every student.

Nope, says Wallwork senior, and so Connor and his three inch ponytail have been missing school.

They're all going to meet up to try to sort it out now. Any advice, anyone? A propos of not very much, one of the north's greatest photographers, Kippa Matthews, has a ponytail. Our own superstar Chris Thomond is very neatly trimmed.

Scientists at Southampton University are testing a shape-shifting UAV – and insist they are focused on the civilian market

Exert light pressure on the radio transmitter's stick and the UAV banks around to left or right. Let go and the plane straightens up. Keep your mind focused on the flight path; avoid high trees.

Flying with the aid of a sophisticated autopilot has brought astonishing aerial skills within the reach of utterly inexperienced ground operators. So, in the future, we can all become drone pilots.

On a blustery, overcast day, Southampton University researchers were spurring their UAVs, or unmanned aerial vehicles, through a succession of test flights above a private airfield on the edge of the Wiltshire downs.

Invited to fly a drone, the Guardian managed, under close tuition, to send the catapault-launched Sulsa (Southampton University laser sintered aircraft) swooping around the skies for minutes without crashing.

Strict Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) regulations, known as CAP 722, require that UAVs are kept within vision by ground controllers and must stay below controlled UK airspace. Drones are also banned from flying within 150 metres of any "congested area of a city, town or settlement".

Sulsa is produced by revolutionary 3D printing technology which creates solid objects out of cakes of powdered nylon, solidifying designs with laser beams according to a programmed bluPeprint. The machines cost £250,000 or more. However, to order the Sulsa drone from a contract printer was only £1,200.

The curved texture of the surface feels like artificial wood, each layer a 10th of a millimetre thick. Weighing 3kg and with a top speed of 90mph, it has elliptical wings based on those of a second world war Spitfire.

Andy Keane, professor of computational engineering at Southampton, said: "If you want to do wildlife filming or covert observation, it may be the answer. We can also fit mini motorbike silencers, though in a battlefield they may not worry so much about sound."

A taciturn observer in dark glasses from the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) was also at the airfield. The police agency last year put out a tender for airborne surveillance "platforms". The Soca officer recorded the test flights on his mobile phone camera.

3D laser-printing opens up the prospect of disposable drones. Crash or damage one and you can print another, suggested Jim Scanlan, professor of aerospace design. Improve the design and you could update the blueprint. He is now discussing the concept with the US navy. "We suggested it to the MoD but they laughed us off," he said.

On the same day as the Guardian took control of a UAV, the Southampton team was trying out its morphing-wing prototype on an inaugural – and, as it turned out, final – flight. Its shape-shifting design was intended to reduce drag, thereby rendering the aircraft more fuel-efficient; instead of using ailerons to change direction it alters the profile of its wings.

The glow fuel engine whined into life, and the UAV raced across the grass and took off. "Air speed 24 knots," announced one of the ground controllers. "Limited response," cautioned Paul Heckles, the ground pilot.

The drone sped towards a distant line of trees as Heckles desperately prodded the control panel. "Lost response," he shouted. "Pitched vertically nose down." The assembled researchers stared as the drone disappeared behind the trees, followed by a shattering bang that reverberated from the neighbouring field. "That's a shame," observed Heckles.

The Wright brothers – who also experimented with morphing wings – must have had days like that. Several PhD students returned 10 minutes later bearing the wreckage of £10,000-worth of pioneering equipment. The batteries that controlled warping wing levers, it was thought, needed more power – or had lost connection.

The crash illustrated why the CAA imposes such tight air traffic restrictions on flying above crowded areas. Despite persistent rumours that the air above the 2012 Olympics will be buzzing with camera-laden security and broadcasting drones, an air exclusion zone will be in operation for miles around the main stadiums. "Light aircraft are banned," said Scanlan. "We will need CAA clearance to fly UAVs over the site."

The future civilian market, rather than intelligence-gathering or military deployment, is the main focus of the Southampton design course. GPS, he pointed out, was originally developed for the armed forces, but sales of satellite positioning technology to drivers and others now dwarf military usage.

Asked about Soca's interest in covert surveillance from the air, Scanlan said: "We want to take an ethical line in what we are doing. Police use and crowd safety are acceptable. We would form a view whether we want to do anything with it [Soca]."

UAV production is an increasingly large business and British firms are doing well. The latest quarterly strategic export controls produced by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills record exports of UAVs or their components to 14 countries including Bahrain, Iceland, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the UAE.

A report by the government export agency UK Trade and Investment last year urged academic and research organisations to "participate in progressing the capabilities of the industry".

It recognised that the main market was military but said: "The incipient civil market for unmanned vehicles includes an array of potential applications relating to emergency services, public security and commercial sectors such as communications, media, and inspection services." Many, it noted, were still at "an experimental stage".

What will transform the market is the development of successful "sense and avoid" computer systems that provide as much awareness of collision dangers as a human pilot would possess.

The CAA may be able to open more of the UK's skies to drones fitted with such equipment. "Detect, sense and avoid programmes are not there yet," said Dr Matt Bennett. "It could be another 10 years or more. People are talking about a future where unmanned cargo planes [traverse the planet].

"But we smaller UAV companies are already doing work within the current restrictive CAA requirements."

Keane has a schoolboy dream. One day, he hopes, he will be able to instruct his laser-printed drone to take off and then watch it touch down in his back garden "like an owl from Hogwarts".

Department of Education's claims messages conducting government business 'do not fall within FOI act' is rebuked

The information commissioner's office has challenged a claim by the Department for Education that private email accounts are not subject to freedom of information legislation.

The claim was made in response to allegations that the education secretary, Michael Gove, and his closest advisers conducted government business on private emails.

The Financial Times reported that these emails included issues such as a school literacy programme, which would be covered by FOI law.

In its rebuttal of the allegations, the Department for Education has claimed that private emails "do not fall within the FOI Act" and are not searchable by civil servants.

However, in a statement the information commissioner's office said: "It is certainly possible that some information in private emails could fall within the scope of the Freedom of Information Act if it concerns government business. This will be dependent on the specific circumstances."

The information commissioner's office is making inquiries after an FT journalist made FOI requests seeking to retrieve details of emails he had seen through other channels. According to the paper, the department said in each case it did not hold the information.

The email traffic includes questions about government business such as "where are we on reducing bureaucracy?", the FT reports.

In one email, Gove sums up what he expects from a judicial review of his decision to cancel the Building Schools for the Future programme with one word: "AAAAAARGGGGGHHHH!!!!!!".

The decision to cancel Labour's school building programme last summer generated the worst crisis of Gove's time in office. In February, a high court judge ruled he had acted unlawfully.

Sandwell, one of the councils affected by the scrapping of BSF, has instructed solicitors to write to the Department for Education, asking whether Gove and his aides used personal email accounts in the decision-making process.

The DfE has also responded to the disclosure that Dominic Cummings, Gove's chief political adviser, wrote to colleagues shortly after he was appointed stating he "will not answer any further emails to my official DfE account".

The email continued: "i will only answer things that come from gmail accounts from people who i know who they are. i suggest that you do the same in general but thats obv up to you guys – i can explain in person the reason for this …"[sic]

The department said the email concerned party political activity, not government business.

In its statement, the DfE said: "[The FT] has repeatedly asked that civil servants search private email accounts. However, the Cabinet Office is clear that private email accounts do not fall within the FOI Act and are not searchable by civil servants. Neither the secretary of state nor special advisers have been asked to disclose emails sent from private accounts."

The Guardian revealed yesterday that inquiries by civil servants about the Tories' free schools programme were blocked by Cummings.

The inquiries were an attempt to answer parliamentary questions about free schools tabled by the Labour MP Caroline Flint.

Flint has tweeted: "So Gove's adviser blocked answers to my freeschool PQs. Time for a public apology Mr Gove?"

London School of Economics asked to return £1.5m pledged to it by Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of deposed dictator

Tripoli University is to ask the London School of Economics to return the £1.5m pledged by the deposed dictator's son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, who obtained his PhD there.

University officials have told the Guardian that the money was stolen from the Libyan people and should be either reimbursed or used to fund scholarships for Libyans studying in the UK.

LSE faced furious criticism over its links with the Gaddafi regime, leading to the resignation of its director, Sir Howard Davies, though only £300,000 of the money had been paid out. "I am sure they will co-operate with us," said Khaifa Shakreen, Tripoli University's head of international relations.

The LSE said on Wednesday that it had earmarked the £300,000 for bursaries for north African students.

The university faced huge embarrassment shortly after the start of the uprising in February when Saif warned of "rivers of blood" if protests against his father's regime continued. "We'll fight until the last man, the last woman, the last bullet," he pledged.

Many Libyans believe he is now hiding in Sirte or Bani Walid, where fierce battles are still raging between loyalists and the victorious Nato-backed rebels.

An independent inquiry headed by Lord Woolf, a former lord chief justice, is examining the LSE's relationship with Libya and with Saif.

Many of the school-leavers applying for jobs at Westfield Stratford City need extra tuition in reading and writing. Our education system has failed them, but there is a way for individuals to help

Much revulsion has been expressed about the opening of a new shopping mall in east London, Westfield Stratford City. The majority of people attending the Olympics next summer will be obliged to pass through it. Certainly, the scheme shows a high degree of willingness to wring cash out of visitors. But, hey, that's "growth".

What's really revolting is the "incredible" discovery made by the mall's Australian director, John Burton, that so many British young people, who are applying for jobs at Westfield, have left school functionally illiterate and innumerate. Burton told the London Evening Standard: "We brought in tutors for the people we thought might make it because their enthusiasm levels were so high." One tutor, Petr Mracek, professed himself "astonished" by the lack of basic skills.

I've been critical of this appalling problem in the education system for years. I hope against hope that at last it can be tackled. But what about those who are far beyond school now? So many adults in Britain, especially in London, need to learn to read.

How can this be achieved without spending a fortune we do not have?

A big part of the solution has to be Yes We Can Read, a phonetics system designed by Libby Coleman, a retired comprehensive headteacher, and Nick Ainley, a former Mencap chairman who has worked with adults with severe learning disabilities for most of his career. Basically, Yes We Can Read is a big paperback book that anyone who can read fluently – no training needed – can use, a couple of hours a week, to teach another person, one-on-one, to read, in six months or less. If you would like to do it, and don't already know someone who needs help, then the charity's website has a Finding a Learner section. It's the simplicity of the concept that makes it a hugely hopeful aspect of an otherwise grim societal failing. It needs to be supported.

News that Michael Gove has questions to answer about the secrecy surrounding his running of the education department is no surprise (Report, 20 September). His rapid shifts in policy have been marked by refusal to consult and a preference for ignoring official advice.

He justifies his high-handed attitude by the need to catch up with other nations, notably in the allegation that England has fallen behind in the Pisa league tables of the OECD. In 2010 he made this central to his speeches, but in 2011 this has been notably absent. Perhaps this is because in March the exam regulator Ofqual said that the Pisa results for England were not a cause for concern. Which is not the case for another of Gove's obsessions – Sweden.

Everyone knows his free schools policy comes from Sweden. Yet in three major speeches over the summer, one to the rightwing Policy Exchange, he said not one word about Sweden. Perhaps this is because he knows that in Sweden the debate on free schools is becoming critical. Sweden has slipped down the Pisa tables in each survey since 1996 and the introduction of free schools. Even the business community in Sweden is now alarmed at the poor state of the nation's education. Michael Gove is convinced of his own infallibility and he has no intention of letting the facts get in the way.
Trevor Fisher
Stafford

• Mike Baker's piece on the obedience of teachers (Education, 20 September) does not mention the Education Reform Act 1988, which introduced over 300 new controls. Mrs Thatcher, having broken the miners, promised to bring teachers to heel. The history and philosophy of education were removed from teacher training so that teachers lost any sense of professional autonomy. But it is not only teachers who submit to central authority. Local authorities, which once had great influence on the quality of education in their areas, now submit without argument to the privatisation of education.
Geoffrey Hoare
Hiltingbury, Hampshire

• Reforming policies to help children in care is top of our agenda (Nobody's priority?, 20 September) and this government is clear that all state schools must give these vulnerable children highest priority in their admissions. You say that this will be undermined when the new admissions code is published. This is quite wrong. Academies and free schools, like all schools, must give highest priority to looked-after children. It is our responsibility to close the gulf in achievement and tackle inequality so as to make sure children in care get the extra support they need to succeed. That's why we are including looked-after children in our pupil premium grant and why they will also benefit from an extra year of free early education.
Tim Loughton MP
Minister for children and young people

Action follows targeting of plumbers and doctors as HMRC announces success in narrowing 'tax gap'

Private tutors are the latest group of professionals to be targeted in a crackdown on tax-dodging as HM Revenue & Customs said it was beginning to win the battle against avoidance, evasion and fraud.

HMRC said the so-called "tax gap" between what should have been paid by individuals and businesses and what was collected, had fallen by £4bn to £35bn.

Much of the focus recently has been on clamping down on tax avoidance among the super-rich, with an announcement last weekend that a team of "affluence" inspectors will concentrate on those whose personal wealth is more than £2.5m, but HMRC said it would turn its attention next month to relatively low-level tax-dodging by private tutors, which could include music and language teachers, horse riding instructors and fitness coaches. A number of schoolteachers work as private tutors to supplement their incomes.

The move follows earlier clampdowns on plumbers, doctors and dentists designed to "encourage" them to hand over any unpaid income tax.

The HMRC said those who came clean would face a lower penalty than if it found out itself. A spokesman said the "vast majority" of those who could be classed as private tutors were "fully law-abiding citizens" who pay what they owed. But, he added, there was a "significant enough minority" for it to be concerned.

It will employ cutting-edge tools such as "web robot" software to search the internet and find information about specified people and companies, and their financial affairs. It will then use this information "to pursue people who choose not to use the opportunities we provide for them to put their affairs in order on the best possible terms".

The campaign targeting doctors and dentists raised about £10m; it is understood one doctor who owed the taxman £1m paid the whole sum by handing over a cheque.

In the most recent campaign, involving plumbers, the money is "still coming in".

Five plumbers have been arrested, about 600 are under civil investigation for failing to pay the right amount of tax, and payments totalling more than £94,000 have been made, with a further £234,000 offered. Meanwhile, a partial amnesty for people with offshore accounts has raised about £500m.

HMRC yesterday announced that the UK tax gap for 2009-10 had fallen to £35bn (revised down from £42bn) in 2008-09. In simple terms, this gap is the difference between how much tax should have been collected and how much actually did come in. This includes direct and indirect taxes such as income tax, VAT, corporation tax and stamp duty. Much of the gap is money lost as a result of tax avoidance, evasion and fraudulent activity.

The main reason for the decrease was the reduction in the "VAT gap" following the cut in the tax from 17.5% to 15% from December 2008 to the end of 2009.

A total of £14.5bn of direct taxes – income tax, national insurance and capital gains tax – was not collected. Of this, £1.3bn of the missing cash was blamed on "ghosts" – the term used to describe people who have earnings from employment or self-employment and fail to declare any of this income.

A further £1.8bn was attributed to "moonlighters" – those who pay tax on their main job through PAYE but have a second job or extra income from self-employment

City law firm RPC said the figures were "evidence that HMRC's aggressive clampdown on tax evasion is having a real impact". Adam Craggs, tax partner at the firm, said: "The taxman was given £900m in funding last year to help improve tax compliance. If this money is spent on high-profile prosecutions, it may be that the tax gap will fall further over the next few years."

He said a "quick, cheap way" to reduce the tax gap further would be to cut the 50% tax rate: "The higher rate is encouraging a lot of high earners to structure their affairs so as to minimise their tax liability."

David Gauke, the exchequer secretary to the Treasury, said: "Although these numbers show continued progress by HMRC in reducing the tax gap, there is no room for complacency. Just in the last few weeks, we have challenged offshore tax evaders, closed tax avoidance loopholes and created a new HMRC unit to ensure that the wealthier members of society pay their way."

Gove cites Blair as his political hero – perhaps that is where he acquired such seeming disregard for due process in Whitehall

If there were ever a Conservative to convince you that there was substance to the Cameronian remaking of the Conservatives, it would be Michael Gove. Charming, urbane and brimming with concern about the chances of poorer children, his obsession with academies is controversial and may prove wrong-headed; but hear him enthuse about extending the ladder of learning down to the bottom of the pile, and it is hard to doubt he is sincere.

It has transpired, however, that the new Conservatives are not immune to old political tricks. As these columns have noted before, Mr Gove has demonstrated an exceptional flair for bringing Tory people into supposedly apolitical posts in the government machine. Labour occasionally succumbed to the same temptation, but the new regime's overhaul of the education ministry's communications outfit has been quite something, with some players who served the previous masters being enticed out of the door with considerable payoffs.

A potentially more serious, and certainly more unusual, piece of statecraft has been the innovation of the New Schools Network. This thinktank, dedicated to Mr Gove's signature free schools, is headed up by another former adviser. A minuscule outfit at the time of the election, it soon expanded afterwards, thanks to a rapidly signed cheque bearing public funds. Inquiries about establishing free schools were not to be directed to the responsible department of state, as one might have expected, but instead sent the Network's way; it was also tasked with guiding the hand of parents through as their plans for new institutions developed. With cash short, it might seem odd that money was so quickly found to outsource work that the department might have done itself. Through leaked emails from Mr Gove's right-hand man, Dominic Cummings, we learned that impatient demands were justified with the highly dubious argument that Labour had shovelled funds to other outfits which Mr Cummings deemed to be "leftie orgs".

Now the same Mr Cummings is in the spotlight again, after the Financial Times reported he had moved certain professional dealings with Mr Gove from an office to a personal email, urging select colleagues to do the same for reasons that could only be explained "in person". The most likely purpose is avoiding Freedom of Information obligations, although – as we report today – it could be that clan Gove has gone awry if it imagines these can be escaped so easily. Mr Cummings's attempts to keep NSN clear of the act underlines this unseemly impression. Mr Gove cites Tony Blair as his political hero; perhaps that is where he acquired such seeming disregard for due process in Whitehall.

Tripoli University was used to bolster Gaddafi regime but now it is preparing for a chance to be normal

No one seems to mind that term is starting late at Tripoli University this year. It's not every summer vacation, after all, that records the triumph of a revolution, and there are problems to sort out – not least the huge number of young men toting machine guns on campus – before the students start streaming in past the "down with Gaddafi" and "Free Libya" slogans.

Staff and new intake alike are preparing for a freshers' week with a difference. "In the circumstances I think we can be forgiven if this term is a bit delayed," says administrator Khalifa Shakreen. "Things are changing so fast."

For the first time in 42 years the university has the chance to be a normal academic institution. "Until now we had the form of a university but not the function," says Sami Khaskusha, a political scientist. "We fed young people garbage. [Muammar] Gaddafi just used this place to boost his cult of personality and bolster the regime. It did nothing for Libyan society."

Omar Tajouri, doing a master's degree in international law, wants better teaching, cleaner administration and, above all, freedom. His ambition – unthinkable just months ago – is to specialise in human rights. "Gaddafi's regime was founded on ignorance," he says. "They were the enemies of education and of students."

Signs of change are everywhere. Last term the university was still named al-Fateh ("The Conqueror") after Gaddafi's 1969 revolution. Now billboards advertising the rules of the sinister revolutionary committees have been defaced. Maps of Libya have been altered to remove the word "Jamahiriya" – the unlamented "state of the masses" presided over by the now fugitive "brother leader". The ubiquitous green flags have gone.

Faisal Krekshi, a Belfast-trained gynaecologist who helped co-ordinate clandestine preparations for the Tripoli uprising, has been appointed acting president instead of the old regime placeman awaiting investigation. "There is a new spirit in the university and in Libyan society," he says, "but I fear expectations are too high."

Anxious to quickly demonstrate some tangible benefits, he plans to provide free transport to and from the campus. And the new independent student union has been given computers and other equipment confiscated from the revolutionary committees, whose members are lying low or are in detention.

If the sense of freedom is intoxicating, painful memories have not faded. In the 1970s and 1980s students were forced to watch public hangings next to the medical faculty to punish dissent and inspire fear. Purges and book bannings were common. Executions stopped years ago but other abuses continued: two weeks ago a secret underground chamber was discovered under a lecture hall. It contained a bedroom, a Jacuzzi, and a fully-equipped gynaecological operating theatre that was used for officially sanctioned but illegal abortions.

Repression was routine under Gaddafi. But many say the corruption and cronyism were as bad. The highly qualified Krekshi only got his teaching job because he had treated the wife of a revolutionary committee member.

Huda Shadi, preparing a thesis on linguistics, was told she could not study English because she had good marks in sciences and was only able to switch through the intervention of a friend in the university administration. "The whole system was corrupt," she muses. "You had to do what the people with the files told you to do. It wasn't about what the student wanted. It was dictatorial – like everything else in Libya."

Khaskusha describes being questioned by the revolutionary committee after telling an international relations class on the global north-south divide about the issue of corruption in southern (developing) countries. He was ordered to clarify to his students that he had not been referring to Libya. "It was terrible," he says. "You had to act like a robot and simply repeat what they said. If you spoke your mind you would be classified as a counter-revolutionary."

The sprawling campus is pleasant enough but badly dilapidated. It is also strikingly relaxed: couples – many women wearing headscarves – walk hand-in-hand through leafy passageways that offer shelter from the baking heat.

But facilities and academic standards, staff say, urgently need improving. Curriculum reform is a big issue though the interim government – the National Transitional Council – has scrapped previously compulsory nonsense such as Gaddafi's "universal theory" and "Green Book studies" – a speciality of the University of Tarhouna, south of Tripoli.

Improving language teaching is expected to be an early focus: many young and middle-aged Libyans speak nothing but Arabic because of abysmal standards and a formal ban on "imperialist" tongues in one of Gaddafi's zanier periods in the 1980s.

Financial resources were never the problem – true generally of a country blessed with vast oil wealth and a relatively small population. "The priorities were always providing funds for the student union so they could jump up and down and declare their allegiance to the Gaddafi regime," says Hussein al-Ageli, who runs the university language centre. "Proposals for spending on the library or other improvements were just brushed aside."

Now, in a world without Gaddafi, exciting possibilities beckon. "If Libya is going to move forward and people can understand the new liberties and build a civil society, the universities are where it has to happen," Ageli says. "We must raise standards and play a role in scientific research. We are supposed to be the backbone of the intelligentsia."

Law student Tajouri expects things will improve. "But it will take time," he admits. "This is a country which has to be built from scratch."

Why doesn't Michael Gove mention Swedish free schools any more?

Michael Gove (still on the spot over free schools policy)

Yesterday Cribsheet outlined some of the troubles facing the education secretary – emails have been leaked that appear to show that Dominic Cummings, one of Gove's closest advisors, took measures to avoid parliamentary scrutiny of Gove's free schools policy:

Cummings told a senior civil servant: "NSN [New Schools Network] is not giving out to you, the media or anybody else any figure on 'expressions of interest' [from people wishing to set up free schools] for PQs [parliamentary questions], FOIs [Freedom of Information requests] or anything else. Further, NSN has not, is not, and will never answer a single FOI request made to us concerning anything at all."

It would be fair to surmise that Gove's team are a bit cagey about expressions of interest, and about funding, but what else are they cagey about? In today's letters pages Trevor Fisher from Stafford reminds us where free schools came from in the first place:

Everyone knows Gove's free schools policy comes from Sweden. Yet in three major speeches over the summer, one to the rightwing Policy Exchange, he said not one word about Sweden. Perhaps this is because he knows that in Sweden the debate on free schools is becoming critical. Sweden has slipped down the Pisa tables in each survey since 1996 and the introduction of free schools. Even the business community in Sweden is now alarmed at the poor state of the nation's education. Michael Gove is convinced of his own infallibility and he has no intention of letting the facts get in the way.

Education news from the Guardian

• The inland revenue have commenced a crackdown on tax avoidance by private tutors. They will use "web robot" software to search for people offering tutoring services. A similar crackdown on plumbers resulted in five arrests, with a further 600 cases still under investigation.

• Tripoli University is to ask the London School of Economics to return the £1.5m pledged by the deposed dictator's son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, who obtained his PhD there. University officials have told the Guardian that the money was stolen from the Libyan people and should be either reimbursed or used to fund scholarships for Libyans studying in the UK.

• Ian Black has written a lovely feature about the reopening of Tripoli University after the revolution:

No one seems to mind that term is starting late at Tripoli University this year. It's not every summer vacation, after all, that records the triumph of a revolution, and there are problems to sort out – not least the huge number of young men toting machine guns on campus – before the students start streaming in past the "down with Gaddafi" and "Free Libya" slogans.

• And, where do you sit of the great haircut divide? Should schools be able to exclude pupils on the basis of a hairstyle? Westhoughton High is in a standoff with the family of 11-year-old Connor Wallwork over the length of Connor's hair. Connor's father Geoff is refusing to give his son's three inch ponytail the chop. The debate is raging on Martin Wainwright's blog.

• Deborah Orr is hopeful that a phonetics book called Yes We Can Read will help solve the problem of adult illiteracy:

Basically, Yes We Can Read is a big paperback book that anyone who can read fluently – no training needed – can use, a couple of hours a week, to teach another person, one-on-one, to read, in six months or less. If you would like to do it, and don't already know someone who needs help, then the Yes We Can Read's website has a Finding a Learner section.

Education news from around the web

• Headteachers have announced a ballot date for a pensions strike, the BBC has reported.

• The BBC is also carrying an interesting story that highlights a problem that Muslim would-be university students are faced with. The report points out:

According to the Islamic faith, paying or charging interest on any loan is not permitted. Many Muslim students are therefore facing a major dilemma in trying to pay future tuition fees without applying for student loans.

High street banks have got around this by designing specialist mortgages that do not involve an interest component. Will the universities minister need to come to a similar arrangement? And if so, will it be available to all students, and not just those of the Muslim faith?

• The Mirror is telling the sorry story of East Bridgwater Community School in Somerset. The school is a crumbling wreck, with rotted window frames, pervasive damp and a collapsed sewer - parts of it have actually been condemned, their report says. The school was to have been rebuilt with funds from the Building Schools for the Future scheme. But Gove axed the fund just seven days before the East Bridgwater contract was due to be signed, the Mirror reports.

"In East Bridgwater's school gym, sweaty kids are charging about as Mr Elliott shows us where damp has breached the flooring.
"As soon as it gets cold, it's like a skating rink," he says. "We've had to stop using it in winter. Last year we had two broken limbs from slipping over on the icy floor."
The school showers have also been closed due to contamination.
"They're not fit to wash a dog in," Mr Elliott says. "If kids have rugby in the rain in the morning, they just have to stink their way through Maths, English and Science."

• Hacks at the Telegraph having been poring over their calculators, scrutinising the tuition fee loan book. They estimate that it will take the government 35 years to recoup the money it lends on tuition fees. At peak, the say graduates will owe the government £191bn. Under the current system students owe about £35bn for tuition fee loans.

• Nick Clegg told delegates at the Lib Dem party conference that breaking his promise on fees was "heart wrenching", the Times Higher reported.

He said the experience had taught him that despite working hard on the details of the policy, it made no difference "if the perception is wrong".
"We failed to explain that there were no other easy options. And we have failed so far to show that the new system will be much, much better than people fear," he said.

From the Guardian's Higher Education Network

Internationalisation and the problem of degree recognition

British universities should wise-up to the geographically specific and long-term consequences of their educational offerings overseas, observes Tamson Pietsch

Teacher seminars from Guardian professional

The Guardian Teacher Network runs training sessions for teachers throughout the year in Yorkshire and London. Upcoming courses include:

Is your school thinking of becoming an academy?

This seminar will provide an independent view of the advantages and disadvantages of converting to academy status. It will look at the process of conversion, the implications of academy status, and the support and funding available. November 30, in London. February 21, 2012 in Yorkshire

Protecting young people in a digital age

Led by school digital safety experts, this one-day course will provide safeguarding policy and Ofsted criteria updates, as well as looking at social media and offering practical advice to help your school develop its digital safety policies. February 1, 2012 in London. February 8, 2012 in Yorkshire.

For a full list visit the Guardian Teacher Network

Teachers seminars from the Guardian Education Centre

Reading for pleasure – bringing classics to life

This half-day conference for secondary school teachers will explore the use and teaching of classic books from Dickens and beyond. Keynote speakers will be Simon Callow, actor and Dickens enthusiast and Judy Golding, daughter of William Golding, author of Lord of the Flies. 20 October, London

Insight into digital journalism

Spend a day at the Guardian and find out how an international news media organisation works. The seminar will focus on aspects of digital journalism including writing and editing for a news website, the relationship between print and web journalism, live blogging, the use of social media, podcasting and video production. 2 November, Kings Place, London

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Would you rather an indifferent or a passionately wrong child in the science classroom? Let's not simply sneer at Darwin deniers

Yes yes, we're all agreed that evolution is true, and that the biblical (or Qur'anic) accounts of creation are literally false and should not be taught any other way in science classes. This has been the case for at least the last 50 years. Yet studies show that the number of creationists, or at least those who deny or fail to understand the fact of evolution, is very large among the adult population. Last year's Theos study, for example, showed something like 40% of the UK's adult population unclear on the concept. There are also stupefying numbers for the proportion of the British population who think, or who at least will assent to the proposition, that the Earth is around 10,000 years old.

This is quite clearly not a problem caused by religious belief. Even if we assume that all Muslims are creationists, and all Baptists, they would only be one in 10 of the self-reported creationists or young Earthers. What we have here is essentially a failure, on a quite staggering scale, of science and maths education. The people who think the Earth is 10,000 years old are essentially counting like the trolls in Terry Pratchett: "one, lots, many". Ten thousand is to them a figure incalculably huge.

I don't think this particular innumeracy matters nearly as much as the related inability to calculate that, say 29.3% annual interest on credit card debt is in many ways a much larger and more dangerous number than 10,000 years. But you can't blame either flaw on religious belief.

You could perhaps blame it on human nature. There is a lot of good research to show that children are natural creationists, who suppose that there is purpose to the world, and that we have evolved that way. That needn't worry teachers terribly much. A great deal of the world that science reveals is absurdly counter-intuitive and in one sense the whole purpose of education is to lead children away from the "folk beliefs" that they develop naturally.

But sometimes these folk beliefs, or intuitions, are elaborated into scientifically testable schemes – even empirically testable ones. Then you can test them. You can drop a heavy ball and a light one from a tower and see which one – if either – reaches the ground first. You can test to see if spontaneous generation occurs or if geese hatch out of barnacles. You can prove mistaken theories are wrong. "Creationism" in the modern sense is just such an elaboration; and the question occurs – is it something which should be welcomed when it is found among pupils?

The distinction I am making here is one between being wrong, as the biblical creationist or intelligent designer is, and not even getting that far, like the wholly irreligious child who leaves school thinking, if he thinks about it at all, that the Earth is around 10,000 years old, and dinosaurs and cavemen probably did live side by side.

The question, then, is which kind of pupil does more harm in the science classroom. Is it the passionately wrong child, or the dully indifferent one? Which would you rather argue with, and which argument would teach the rest of the class more?

This may be a wholly unrealistic question, because it depends on the classroom working as a place where facts and argument are respected. Obviously, there are lots of places where this doesn't hold. If the whole thing becomes an exercise in challenging the authority of the teacher, then it's completely pointless.

But let's assume a classroom that has already taught the fundamentals of learning: where facts are true, whether you like them or not, and where arguments are examined on their merits, and not on the political force behind them.

In such a hypothetical classroom, is it really a catastrophe if some child comes in and says that he knows evolution is false and gives some wholly spurious scientific explanation? That at least can be argued against, informatively. And it has been. The experiment I am describing has to some extent already been played out over the last 30 years, on the internet. There, the arguments between "scientific creationists" and real scientists have resulted in the creation of a vast collection of arguments and facts showing that evolution is in fact observable, and, in a word, true.

Some of that must have changed people's minds or provided useful and vivid teaching material. That couldn't have happened without the development of creationist intuitions into pseudo-scientific hypotheses. It really is an inspiring example of good ideas triumphing over bad ones – or it would be, if there had been any notable diminution of the number of creationists in the last 30 years.

So perhaps we could stipulate that this material could be produced without sneering at the intellect and character, and without the ambition to crush their egos as well as to prove them wrong – ah, but that would require a different kind of education, in another classroom.

Headteachers' leader warns repeated criticism may lead to members ignoring government reforms

The government faces a backlash from teachers for repeatedly talking down schools' achievements, the leader of a headteachers' union has warned.

Brian Lightman, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, told the Guardian that ministerial attacks on school standards "may well have reached unprecedented levels".

Comments from the prime minister and Michael Gove, the education secretary, "exude low trust in teachers", he said.

Lightman warned that teachers have become so disenfranchised by and impatient with the criticism, many are deciding to take little notice of the latest government reforms.

"Many are becoming more assertive by ignoring those reforms they consider to be unimportant or not in the interests of their schools," he said.

Lightman, a former head, pointed to comments David Cameron made this month about an "urgent need to restore order and respect in the classroom".

"For a long time in this country, there has been a scandalous acceptance of under-performing schools," Cameron said. "It's the attitude that says some schools – especially in the poorest areas – will always be bad. That meekly accepts educational failure as a fact of life. Well, I'm sorry – that's patronising nonsense."

Last week Michael Gove, the education secretary, said some schools may not deserve the "outstanding" rating inspectors had given them. "It is a worry to me that so many schools are still judged as 'outstanding' overall when they have not achieved an 'outstanding' in teaching and learning," he said.

Lightman said the government had been "very, very robust" in its criticism of schools. "If you talk about discipline all the time, the message is that behaviour is dreadful in all our schools, which plainly isn't the case," he said. "Teachers are becoming quite impatient with statements about a 'failing system' and under-performance. Actually, there is a lot that is going really well in schools.

"Teachers are not getting the encouragement they need from government. Instead, they are getting a very punitive regime. There's an implication that school leaders don't want to improve further and that couldn't be further from the truth."

He said he feared that talking down schools gave some children a "cast-iron excuse to have low aspirations".

His comments come as teachers step closer to mounting their biggest strike in a generation this autumn.

The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), which represents more than 28,000 heads and their deputies, has decided it will ballot members to take industrial action over pension reforms. It will be its first strike ballot of its 114-year history.

If members vote in favour of industrial action, a co-ordinated strike with several other classroom unions could take place on 30 November and would be likely to shut the majority of schools in England and Wales and send the government on a collision course with teachers.

The National Union of Teachers and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers have already voted to carry out rolling strikes, while another teachers' union, the NASUWT, has proposed industrial action. The Public and Commercial Services Union has already said it is planning a strike in November and the Association of School and College Leaders has polled its members to gauge opinion on whether to ballot for a strike.

A spokesman from the Department for Education said the government wanted "great schools for all". The spokesman said: "We already have the best generation of teachers we've ever had. We are going further – giving teachers better training throughout their careers, making sure they have the powers they want to keep order in the classroom, and trusting them with the freedom to innovate."

National Association of Head Teachers to hold ballot on whether to take industrial action over cuts to pensions

Teachers stepped closer to mounting their biggest strike in a generation this autumn after a headteachers' union decided it would ballot members to take industrial action over pension reforms.

The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), which represents more than 28,000 heads and their deputies, will hold its first strike ballot in its 114-year history from 29 September.

If members vote in favour of industrial action, a co-ordinated strike with several other classroom unions could take place on 30 November, coinciding with a TUC day of mass action. The action would be likely to shut the majority of schools in England and Wales.

The National Union of Teachers and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers have already voted to carry out rolling strikes, while another teachers' union, the NASUWT, has proposed industrial action. The Public and Commercial Services Union has already said it is planning a strike in November.

A government-commissioned report in March by the former Labour minister Lord Hutton called for final salary pension schemes to be scrapped and replaced with career averages for public sector workers. He recommended that public sector staff should pay higher monthly contributions and called for a rise in the retirement age to 68 – most headteachers now retire aged 60 to 65.

The government said changes were needed because the cost of teachers' pensions would rise from about £5bn in 2005 to almost £10bn by 2015 as more staff retired and life expectancy increased.

Russell Hobby, general secretary of the NAHT, said the decision to ballot members was taken with "great reluctance".

"Faced with a refusal by the government to negotiate on the basis of a proper valuation of the scheme, we feel we have no option but to demonstrate our anger at this attack on the teaching profession," he said.

"We fear for the future of a system with a demoralised and devalued profession. We fear that we will not be able to attract people to become heads at a time when targets and workloads are rising."

He said many headteachers believed an attack on pensions was a threat to the future of education itself. "Teaching is a vocation and no one entered the profession to get rich. However, we do need to ensure that teaching is an attractive career choice for the most talented graduates. Future pupils deserve nothing less."

In June, teachers staged the biggest school strikes since the 1980s over the pension reforms. More than two million pupils missed classes and many parents were forced to take a day off work with nearly 6,000 schools closed and 5,000 partially closed. In total, half of schools were affected.

A Cabinet Office spokesman said there was "genuine engagement" with trade unions over pensions: "We have a lot to talk about and there are proposals on the table for discussion."

But unions said they would "step up" plans to ballot for strikes involving up to 3 million public sector workers on Thursday after talks failed to bridge the union-government gap over pensions reform.

The TUC said both sides were "a long way apart" following talks involving union officials, the Cabinet Office minister, Francis Maude, and the chief secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander.

Brendan Barber, the TUC general secretary, said: "There has been no dramatic change and unions will be stepping up their efforts to ballot their members and planning for industrial action. We have put some serious proposals on the table but, regrettably, the ministers did not accept them and are continuing to press ahead with very damaging changes to pensions."

As well as the national-level talks, discussions are taking place on individual pension schemes which cover workers in health, education, the civil service and local government.

Will you strike?

Liam Nolan, headteacher of Perry Beeches school in Birmingham

"I support strike action over pensions. When I went into teaching I thought that whatever my salary I would have a decent pension. I could have gone into industry, where the salary rises if you perform well. In education, when my school does very well, it makes no difference to my salary. I totally accept that changes to pensions are needed, but I think it is grossly unfair for these changes to be made to those of us who are halfway through our careers."

Phil Harte, headteacher of St George's high school in Salford

"I'm not convinced about going on strike. I haven't seen definitively what the proposals are. Only when we know exactly what it is the government is proposing can we negotiate."

Patrick Hazlewood, headteacher of St John's school and community college in Wiltshire

"I am fundamentally against strikes, but in this particular circumstance, the teaching profession has been pushed into a situation where they have little option but to take action. The case has not been proven for these changes. The teachers' Ppension Sscheme is robust and seems to be able to stand the test of time. The mMost significant issue is that of the way the teaching profession will be seen to potential new recruits. The pension is one of the things that attracts people. It is a very demanding job and the idea of going on until you reach 65 is just crazy. Many teachers are running out of steam by the time they reach their mid-fifties. I would be concerned if I was running a school where staff were dying on their feet."

Roger Whittal, headteacher of Westwood academy in Coventry

"I am very undecided as to whether I'd strike or not. I'd want to know that every formal route of negotiation had been extinguished before any strikes took place. We have to think about the damage to the continuity of children's education that a strike would cause. There is a wider impact on our communities of strike action too. Many parents would have to take the day off work."

'Pompeiian red' was created when gases from Vesuvius reacted with yellow paint, research reveals

When word spread to Britain of the sensational discovery of the Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum in the 18th century, "Pompeiian red" became the favoured colour for smart dining-rooms – as it remains today.

But, it seems, it may be time to get out the paint chart. According to new research presented to Sapienza University in Rome last week, large swaths of the vivid "Pompeiian red" frescoes in the town actually began life as yellow – and were turned red by the gases emitted from Vesuvius as it erupted in AD 79.

Experts have long realised that some of the characteristic vivid reds of the frescoes in Pompeii and Herculaneum were originally yellow. But a new study, conducted by Italy's National Institute of Optics, suggests the sheer extent of the colour change.

Sergio Omarini, who presented the institute's findings, said: "At the moment, there are 246 walls perceived as red, and 57 as yellow. But based on the new research, the numbers must have been, respectively, 165 and 138.

"The discovery allows us to rethink the original appearance of the city in radically different way from how we are used to – in which red, indeed 'Pompeiian red', has been prevalent."

Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, professor of classics at Cambridge University, and author of Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum, said: "One of the ironies of this is that red was constantly forged in antiquity. Red was an extremely expensive and valued colour. The proper, bright red was based on minium [red lead] imported from Armenia. What we often think of 'Pompeiian red', though, was a poor man's version, made by giving yellow walls a red wash."

The various reds of Pompeii – the true, expensive red; the cheap version; and that caused by the gas emissions – can be hard even for experts to tell apart, he said. Sometimes, though, the latter can be identified by "tide marks": "you can see a swath of red on a wall that gradually smudges into yellow".

Perhaps the most famous set of red frescoes from Pompeii are those in the so-called "Villa of the Mysteries", in which an enigmatic set of figures perform arcane rituals on a scarlet background.

According to Wallace-Hadrill, these walls almost certainly started out red – although their brightness and sheen are down to aggressive restoration in the early 20th century. "That red is probably an expensive, real red," he said. "It's certainly too soon to throw out the idea of Pompeiian red as a fabulous colour."

Mary Beard, professor of classics at Cambridge University and author of Pompeii, said: "I am always a bit suspicious of these claims. We know that some of the red was once yellow, but I'm not sure that we can be certain about the proportions. What is certainly true, though, is that the heat had some effect on the colours; it's another case in which we can see that Pompeii was not the time capsule we sometimes imagine it to be."

The discovery of apparently pristine houses in Pompeii, Herculaneum and elsewhere had an enormous effect on the history of taste in Britain. Generations of gentlemen were influenced by visiting Italy on the Grand Tour, not least the architect Sir John Soane, who saw the excavations in 1780. Judging by his frequent use of the colour in decorative schemes, "Pompeiian red was his favourite colour", according to Tim Knox, director of Sir John Soane's Museum.

Amanda Vickery, professor of history at Queen Mary, University of London, and author of Behind Closed Doors: At Home in Georgian England, said: "The Grand Tour shaped the cultural parameters of the ruling elite for 150 years. It was like a gap year, and it stamped on these men what good taste was."

Archbishop Sentamu launches first public meeting of a project squarely in the great tradition of Seebohm Rowntree

The city of York's promising new initiative, the Fairness Commission, has started public meetings, with the first opened on Wednesday night, September 21, by the Archbishop of York.

Rt Rev Dr John Sentamu, who we risk losing to Canterbury at some stage so let's get everything we can out of him, was characteristically ebullient at the launch.

He told participants at the open-ticket event at York university, that societies' health could be well-judged by their treatment of the vulnerable, poor and socially excluded.

The Commission follows in York's great tradition, most famously exemplified by Seebohm Rowntree's studies of poverty, of bearing exactly this point in mind. It aims to tackle poverty and injustice in all its forms, drawing on all the major local institutions as well as Joe Public in this crusade. It has set itself three main tasks: ensuring the well-being of everyone in the city, providing clear and easy access to services and support, and making the provision of work a priority.

Rowntree came from the famously practical chocolate dynasty whose Quaker piety was given muscle by the employment provided by the family and its company for thousands. The firm was also famous for enlightened employment practices including the provision of medical care, a model village, parks and education for its staff.

The Archbishop told the meeting:

I am so encouraged by the establishment of this Fairness Commission for York – and so proud to be its Patron. It is a great privilege to be asked to open this 'Fairness debate' in this great City of ours. As our country goes through tough economic times we need to remember that not all in our society are greatly privileged.

Over the next few weeks we will be discussing the big issues affecting our community. However, if is to be successful, the Fairness Commission must also deliver at a grass roots level. That is why these public meetings are so important.  What needs to happen is a dialogue across our City. We need to listen to those in need and those facing difficult times. We want to hear your views. We want to do something about this. Let us stand together, united against injustice.

 
The first meeting focused on voluntary and community groups, public and private sector service providers, small businesses and trade unions, all of whom had members present. The commission's chair Ruth Redfern, formerly of Yorkshire Forward, the sadly abolished regional development agency, was there, along with commissioners Richard Wilkinson, Kate Pickett, John Lister and John Kennedy.
 
The next public meeting will be held on Wednesday 28th September at 2pm at the Priory Street Centre in York. All are welcome. 

A compelling persuasive report highlights the importance of early child development – and it demands a radical response

The first rule of any self-respecting target is that it should remain static. In this, the millennium development goals (MDGs) have performed admirably since their inception in 2000. But what happens if our understanding of how to meet a target changes? Should we shift the goalposts accordingly?

The publication in Friday's Lancet of a series on early child development (ECD) raises just that question in relation to the MDGs. The two-part series draws on new science and evidence to transform our understanding of the tremendous benefits of programming for under-fives, and the risks of inaction.

The findings are unambiguous: poor nutrition, maternal and family stress, and poverty affect brain development from the prenatal period or earlier. If children are denied relatively simple interventions in their early years, their academic aptitude, cognitive development and ability to generate income as adults will suffer. Conversely, the evidence on the biology, the psychology, the economics, all points to the value of early stimulation and early investment in childhood.

According to a Nobel laureate in economics, the new evidence around early childhood development does indeed require the MDGs to be revised. Programmes must be integrated. And, yes, more money is needed.

That's a tricky trifecta against a backdrop of global financial uncertainty, yet the research is forthright – governments and donors simply can't afford not to invest in ECD and in parents across the developing world. The report finds that the economic benefit of ECD could give a seventeenfold return on investment if a developing country increased pre-school enrolment to 50%. So investing in ECD now will quite literally yield billions of dollars in later years.

According to the report, the most successful and cost-efficient time to prevent inequalities is prenatally and in the first years of life. Equity in life chances means starting early, very early.

The crux is a home focus, with parenting as the linchpin. Exclusive breastfeeding and early parent-to-child stimulation are key protective factors, along with maternal nutrition and education of mothers. Outside the home environment, good quality pre-schooling, conditional cash transfer schemes and educational media are also important tools in the battle for child development.

Integrating early child development priorities into health programmes can have a dramatic impact too, the research finds. For this critical process to happen, changes are required in the way governments and development agencies go about business. Vertical programming - of health, education, nutrition - has to give way to combining interventions for children. The answer may well be to look at the lifecycle of a child, and ECD appears to be the perfect vehicle to make the change.

This is a point accentuated by Nobel laureate Professor James Heckman. "The key new concept reported in The Lancet series - that I don't think was present in the millennium development goals - was a sense of how the outcomes at one age were linked to the outcomes of an earlier age," he says in a debate to be aired next week on unicef-irc.org.

"We've got to get children, all children, on to the right trajectory, so that they can take advantage of all the opportunities that they will have as they downstream, and they go into life and they become adults. And the millennium development goals simply didn't recognise this dynamic. Now I think we do, and so [the MDGs] should be amended."

The Lancet series asserts that the payoff from concerted, integrated action around ECD would be enormous.

"Early childhood is the most effective and cost-effective time to ensure that children are well prepared," say the authors of paper II.

However, many governments appear reluctant to make the initial investment in under-five schooling. The Organisation for Co-operation Development (OECD) estimates a minimum of 1% of GNP needs to be spent to ensure quality early child development services; OECD governments spend an average of 2.36%. Some central and eastern European and South American countries budget 0.4% for pre-school education, while the figure is as low as 0.1% in Kenya, Nepal and Tajikistan. Nicaragua and Senegal spend less than 0.02%.

"Unless governments allocate more resources to quality early child development programmes for the poorest segment of the population, economic disparities will continue to exist and to widen," warns the paper.

Unicef, Save the Children, the Agha Khan Foundation, Step by Step and the World Bank are among those backing ECD initiatives, but many bilateral donors show signs of retreat, and the poorest governments are not spending enough.

This latest report, however, brings with it an injection of new science to support policies and funding. We cannot afford to wait until 2016 to act on the evidence in support of early childhood development.

• Gordon Alexander is the director of the office of research at Unicef's innocenti research centre

Pensions are not a luxury to be slashed on a whim – academic staff are determined to defend the deferred pay they've earned

"People like to divide the unions into moderates and militants, but we are all militants when it comes to defending and advancing pension rights."

So said former TUC general secretary John Monks, and he was absolutely right. For the 120,000 members of the University and College Union (UCU) that I represent their pensions are not simply a benefit of service to be given and taken away on a whim.

They are hard-won deferred pay and if you attack them you will find the unlikely militants will bite back. Our members are employed in two different pension schemes and both are under attack.

The Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) was formed jointly by employers and unions four decades ago to provide pensions for academic and academic-related staff in the traditional universities.

Staff working in the modern universities and further education colleges are members of the Teachers' Pension Scheme (TPS).

TPS scheme members are in dispute with the government over changes to public sector pensions. USS members are battling against detrimental changes imposed by the country's second biggest private scheme.

The USS scheme is in good financial health, yet the changes will see an end to the final salary scheme, lower pensions for new staff, less protection against inflation and reduced pensions for staff made redundant – the latter a particular worry at the moment.

The changes have twice been rejected by over 90% of members of the scheme in consultation exercises. That is why our USS members have voted for a sustained industrial action campaign. Not because they want to. Not because they are militant. Not because they want to hurt their students. But because the proposals are unfair, unnecessary and without mandate. 

As action begins in USS, colleagues in TPS confirmed that they, along with a host of public sector unions representing teachers as well as lecturers, will take action at the end of November if the government continues to refuse to negotiate properly about changes to their pensions.

A lobby of parliament has also been organised by the education unions for the Wednesday of half-term (26 October) to keep up the pressure but minimise disruption for students and parents.

I, and my union colleagues, have made it clear that the negotiations need to be more than just the government seeking the best ways to implement pre-ordained changes. They need to be a genuine dialogue and they need to address whether changes are really justified by the valuation of the fund.

One would hope that the prospect of the largest day of co-ordinated strike action in a generation would focus government minds on trying to resolve the dispute, but instead ministers have once again taken to the airwaves to condemn the unions. 

So does that make industrial action inevitable in either TPS or USS, or indeed across the public sector? I hope not. There is still time for USS and the government to change tack and agree to serious negotiations, genuinely aimed at reaching a solution.

The pensions my members get are hardly, in the government's words, gold-plated. Women who teach in further education, for example, retire on an average pension of just £6,000 a year.

We have fought for generations for the right to dignity in retirement and we will not let these rights go in the blink of an eye. We may be unlikely militants but we are determined and we will see this through to the end.

Marine Academy principal offers hope to youngsters who believe 'success is not for the likes of us'

Perched on a hill overlooking Plymouth Sound, the neighbourhood of St Budeaux has its fair share of social challenges.

The decline of the nearby dockyard means jobs are difficult to find and aspiration among young people patchy. Residents bemoan the paucity of training opportunities and facilities for teenagers and say there is a lack of racial and cultural diversity.

In short, it may be just the sort of place Liz Sidwell is talking about when she suggests "white working class communities" in coastal areas pose one of the greatest challenges to the government's education reforms.

Helen Mathieson, principal of Marine Academy, the area's secondary school, accepts she has a big job on her hands and has a "lot of sympathy" with Sidwell's stance.

"There is a real danger for our communities of being left without aspiration, of a sense of hopelessness, a sense of being always left behind," says Mathieson.

When they start at Marine Academy, some of the students have not even visited Plymouth Hoe two miles away, where Sir Francis Drake supposedly played bowls as the Spanish Armada approached. The attitude is that such places are for other people, not for them.

Mathieson, who was head at Treviglas in Newquay, north Cornwall, sees the same sort of thinking towards jobs in St Budeaux (which rhymes with Ludo) and other coastal areas. "Youngsters are unable to imagine being in decent, long-term work and conclude 'success is not for the likes of us'.

Sidwell's acknowledgment of a problem is welcomed by Mathieson, who believes coastal areas can be forgotten by the "urban power base".

"It is difficult not to feel that the needs of urban areas are more important to the centre than those of far-flung areas such as the southwest," she says.

St Budeaux's relative isolation from big business is also a challenge, Mathieson believes. "The Dragon's Den is not, and will never be, around the corner, nor is British Aerospace, nor Dell, nor any other multi-national able to trot down the road to inspire students to think they, too, can aspire to work in those environments."

So what is the Marine Academy doing to try to inspire its children? A lot, actually. Its predecessor, Tamarside Community College, closed last year and the Marine Academy opened in its place, the round-the-world yachtsman Sir Robin Knox-Johnston cutting the ribbon.

The academy's central ethos is to use its greatest natural resource, the sea, to teach and inspire. It gets children out of the classroom and on to boats, where they learn about everything from literacy, numeracy, English, biology, physics and history – and develop leadership skills, teamwork, self-confidence and reliance.

Another key partner is the National Marine Aquarium. There is a flow of children and experts between school and attraction.

Paul Cox, head of learning at the aquarium, said children who did not do well in traditional classrooms often thrived among the fish.

"Sometimes you get kids who are not that attentive in class but go fishing with their dads. So they've got a whole lot of knowledge and they go from being the one in class who doesn't say very much to having a lot of information to share. Often something every exciting happens.

"Coastal areas can be remote and deprived. Part of what we and the Marine Academy are trying to do is raise aspiration. We're building on what we have on our doorstep."

Not everyone involved in the Marine Academy, however, accepts Liz Sidwell's points. Dave Linnell, the principal of Cornwall College, is a co-sponsor of the Marine Academy. Linnell, Cornish born from a working class family, sees aspirational children at his college's seven sites in Cornwall from Newquay to St Austell to Saltash.

His students are mainly white and many are working class but they are doing well. "I struggle to relate to what she is saying," he says.

The Marine Academy is pleased with its progress so far, managing a GCSE pass-rate of 37.4% (pecentage of pupils achieving five good GCSEs including English and maths) – an increase of 7% on last year's results under the school's previous incarnation.

Another key goal is to include the whole neighbourhood, chiming with Sidwell's view that to turn around a school, you have to turn around the community.

So young mothers and their children benefit from the Shining Stars nursery and pensioners dine at the school's lunch club. Mathieson says she wants the academy to be a "hub-on-the-hill", a place that will "make a difference" and that comes to benefit from its geographical position rather than being a victim of it.

On Monday students all over Europe will be celebrating the European Day of Languages. However, while pupils in other European countries learn two new languages in school, we have less to celebrate. Language learning in the UK is in serious decline (Editorial, 13 September). While we find it difficult to motivate pupils to study French and German, young people in east London are campaigning to make qualifications available in a wider range of languages. They speak community languages such as Somali or Albanian, as well as English, and are keen to study these and use them in their future careers. Many are already learning at complementary schools – Saturday schools or mother-tongue schools. Four recent studies funded by the Economic and Social Research Council show how complementary school pupils gain the cognitive, linguistic and social advantages of bilingualism.

As academics involved in complementary schooling, we urge the government to engage in constructive dialogue with young people and their communities and make qualifications available in a wider range of languages. This would be an important step towards a coherent policy on multilingualism. The UK's unique language resources could then benefit the country's economy, particularly in global trade. On the European Day of Languages, we need to celebrate the linguistic talent of all our citizens.
Dr Raymonde Sneddon University of East London

Dr Charmian Kenner Goldsmiths, University of London

Prof David Block Institute of Education, University of London

Prof Li Wei Birkbeck College, University of London

Prof Zhu Hua Birkbeck College, University of London

Prof Viv Edwards University of Reading

Prof Ben Rampton King's College London

Dr Salman Al-Azami Liverpool Hope University

Dr Tozun Issa London Metropolitan University

Dr Vally Lytra Goldsmiths, University of London

Prof Constant Leung King's College London

Mahendra Verma University of York

Dr Leena Robertson Middlesex University

Dr. Vicky Obied Goldsmiths, University of London

Dr Joanna McPake University of Strathclyde

Dr. Geri Smyth University of Strathclyde

Dr Gee Macrory Manchester Metropolitan University

Ms Ratha Perumal University of East London

Dr Maggie Gravelle University of Greenwich

Dr Olga Barradas Goldsmiths, University of London

Dr Jean Conteh University of Leeds

Dr Jim Anderson Goldsmiths University of London

Dr Dina Mehmedbegovic Institute of Education

Ms Saiqa Riasat Bradford Learning and Teaching Association

Dr Terry Lamb University of Sheffield

Dr Rowena Arshad School of Education University of Edinburgh

Prof Daniel Muijs Southampton Education, School University of Southampton

Prof Naz Rassool University of Reading

Dr Brenda Johnston University of Southampton

Ms Francine Whitmore Glasgow Asylum Seeker Support Programme

Ms Yvonne Foley University of Edinburgh (Moray House School of Education)

Joke Dewilde Hedmark University College, Norway

Ass Prof Kirsten Lauritsen University College of Nord-Trondelag, Norway

Louise Salmon London Metropolitan University

lMs Giovanna Fassetta University of Strathclyde

Dr Sunny Man Chu Lau The School of Education

Bishop's University Sherbrooke, Québec

Dr Vini Lander University of Chichester

Ms Kathy Mason University of Southampton

Britain's most famous atheist and scourge of the creationists Richard Dawkins debates faith, science and education with Catholic writer Cristina Odone

Richard Dawkins has written a new book for children that compares scientific explanations with supernatural ones. Catholic writer Cristina Odone believes an education without religion is missing a crucial dimension. Susanna Rustin brings atheist and believer together.

Richard Dawkins: I've got an idiosyncratic view that evolution could be taught to very young children.

Cristina Odone: I have no problem with the teaching of evolution in science just as I have no problem with the teaching of creation in religious studies. But I think it's very important that religious studies should be taught at school – they bring out different dimensions.

RD: I'm strongly in favour of comparative religion being taught. Modern schoolchildren are lamentably ignorant of the Bible.

Susanna Rustin: Isn't there a difference between learning about religion and the religious teaching that goes on in faith schools and Sunday schools?

CO: Faith schools have to do comparative religion, but what distinguishes, say, my daughter's Catholic school is that they get much more – they'll begin assembly with prayer, she's had Bible readings. But the garden of Eden for her is a story, it isn't the truth. Even in faith schools our children are now being taught about religion in a very metaphorical way.

RD: The problem with that metaphorical view is that you have to decide which bits are metaphorical. Take the story of Adam and Eve. I think the official Catholic position now is that evolution is true, so Adam and Eve didn't exist in a corporeal sense. And yet if you look up the doctrine of original sin it makes heavy reference to Adam's sin. I'd be quite curious to talk to a Catholic theologian about that.

But yes, I think there is a distinction between teaching about religion, which I think we are both strongly in favour of, and teaching a child, "you belong to this religion – you are a Muslim child or you are a Jewish child" – that seems to me a very different thing and I think it's presumptuous.

CO: I'm a Catholic and my husband is an Anglican, and transubstantiation is an issue between us. Do I want my daughter to take up my Catholic beliefs? Yes I do. Do I believe my beliefs are superior in any way to his? Yes I do. But do I want to teach her that mine is the only way? No I don't. What I want her to feel is that there are some beautiful principles in all religions. In your new book you say scientists cheerfully admit they don't know, "cheerfully" because not knowing the answer is exciting. What's so funny is that I feel about religion in the same way. You musn't think that religion is stuck in its inquisitorial phase; religion is capable of evolution and many people of faith are filled with doubts.

RD: But how do you decide which bits to doubt and which bits to accept? As scientists, we do it by evidence.

CO: You can't boil everything down to evidence!

RD: But you're saying religion evolves and changes, so what are the criteria?

CO: Look at birth control. The pope has said there are no ifs or buts, this is doctrine – we must never use birth control. But how many Catholics do you think go to confession and say, "I'm sorry, I've used birth control"? Well here we are, and this is part of the evolution of theology.

RD: So why stick with it? Why call yourself a Catholic when you don't do what Catholics are supposed to?

CO: For me, Catholicism is the easiest way to feel the transcendental dimension, and if I only believed in science that would be lacking. I do believe in eternal life and that the wicked get their comeuppance and virtue is rewarded in the other world. The church offers me a very strong sense of identity – Catholicism is integral to how I see myself and it offers a guide to a way of living.

RD: So you believe in hell?

CO: I don't believe it in a physical, licking flames sense, but I do firmly believe that evil will be punished in the eternal sphere .

RD: At what stage in evolutionary history do you think that started? With Homo erectus? Homo sapiens? There must have been some sort of divide.

CO: I believe it's about free will – it was when primitive people began to make moral choices.

SR: When people talk about creationism versus evolution they usually hold up the US as an example. How much do you think we in Britain need to worry?

RD: There are some real problems in schools and universities from children brought up to believe that the Koran is literally true. But I think it's also creeping into evangelical Protestant Christianity. So I don't think it's just an American problem, I'm seriously concerned children are being misled.

CO: I spent a year visiting faith schools and I think it is very important that the state should continue to provide an umbrella for them. Once they get out of the state system and the national curriculum, anything can be taught. And unfortunately, there are parents and teachers who believe not only in creationism, but in girls not being educated beyond puberty and so on.

SR: Has the atheists-versus-believers debate run its course, or even been counterproductive?

RD: This question arises in America, where for many of my colleagues the main issue is creationism in schools. They find fault with people like me for alienating sensible religious people and I can see from a tactical point of view it might be expedient to make common cause. On the other hand, I do care passionately about the truth. But my book The Magic of Reality is not an atheist book. It's nothing to do with fighting religion in the way The God Delusion was.

CO: I would have no problem with my daughter struggling through it and one of the reasons is the tone. Many people of faith found The God Delusion very strident.

SR: Where does morality fit in your view of education?

RD: Science is about what is true; we need to have lessons in what is true and those are science lessons. But we need to have lessons in morality, as well, and I would hate it if they were regarded as the monopoly of religion. Citizenship, being social, being aware of other people's needs – all these things should be taught as civics or something.

CO: We don't have in the national curriculum morals or ethics or civics, so it does come under religious education, but I agree some of the most interesting moral philosophers have not been believers. All I ask of them is to tolerate people of faith. Intolerance squashes curiosity.

Members of Guardian Extra can buy two top-price tickets for the price of one to attend an evening with Richard Dawkins at the Royal Albert Hall on 19 October. Each ticket includes a voucher for a copy of the book. Cristina Odone's new website freefaith.com launches on Monday.