Cribsheet 05.05.11

Why the Guardian loves essays

As students cram their brains with facts and fancies to regurgitate as exam essays in a few weeks time, a Guardian editorial praises the format:

"The best essays, like George Orwell's, are tough but not fanatical, delight in the commonplace and ambiguous and can see the world as easily in a ham sandwich as a morning rose."

Invented apparently by Michel de Montaigne, the essay is an "intensely personal and conversational genre which has been the preferred literary mode of free spirits."

Which will undoubtedly be a comforting thought to all those free spirits who'll soon find themselves sitting in exam hall rows chewing their pens.

Education news from the Guardian

• MPs have backed a call by the Tory MP Nadine Dorres for girls aged 13-16 to receive lessons in abstinence. Society is "saturated in sex", she says, and sex education is not helping:

"Teaching a child at the age of seven to apply a condom on a banana is almost saying: 'Now go and try this for yourself'. By the age of 18, some girls have been taught three times how to put a condom on a boy."

"Girls are taught to have safe sex, but not how to say no to a boyfriend who insists on sexual relations."

Jane Martinson, in her Women's Blog, says Dorries's analysis could not be more wrong:

"Dorries said her bill was 'about giving empowerment to young girls'. It is nothing of the sort. It is an atavistic move that in effect blames weak-willed, ill-educated teenage girls for many of society's ills."

And Sarah Ditum, writing for Comment is Free, says girls can't be talked out of having sex:

"When I got pregnant at 19, it wasn't for lack of warnings about the dire potential outcomes of intercourse: I'd had enough graphic discussions of STIs to put me right off cottage cheese (although not enough to deter me from actual sex, it turned out)."

A lively Twitter debate is happening at #Dorries.

• Rod Thornton, an expert in counter-insurgency at Nottingham University, has been suspended after accusing the university of passing "erroneous evidence" to police and attempting to discredit a student who downloaded an al-Qaida training manual from a US government website. An article written by Thornton has been taken off an academic website because of allegations that it defames the university.

• A government quango,the Young People's Learning Agency, spent almost £7m last year bailing out academy schools in financial deficit, official figures reveal. One academy - Richard Rose Central in Carlisle - needed a cash injection of nearly £5m.

• In the US, it's National Teacher Appreciation Week - but anti-union fever is hitting teachers hard, John Logan writes:

"In a remarkably short period of time, teachers have gone from being everyone's favourite public employees to being viewed as the cause of the ills of the entire educational system. At the core of the problem, conservative politicians and pundits argue, is teacher bargaining."

On the Higher Education Network

Start posting questions now for a live Q&A tomorrow: How do you promote female leadership in higher education? The president of the European University Association says the scarcity of women at the top of HE is down to cultural, societal and economic factors. Join our panel to discuss what universities can do about that.

Education news from around the web

• Private universities in England, expected to mushroom in the higher education marketplace, must be subject to the same regulations as public universities, says the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi).

• The BBC reports that the economies of university towns could be badly hit by the move to raise student tuition fees as high as £9,000 from 2012. A report by the Centre for Cities says student spending accounts for 10% of the economic activity of some cities. A recent Guardian blog by Rosie Taylor points out:

"Students are a huge boost to a city's economy. Loans are there to be spent, and millions of pounds are poured into cafes, restaurants, bars, pubs, clubs and shops in university cities every year. Many of these businesses are also staffed by students."

• The Teacher Support Network has put together a useful roundup of the teachers' conferences, with links to the big news stories and comments from delegates.

• Tuition fees for new overseas students at the University of Cambridge are set to rise by 10% in 2012-13 for the second year in a row, the THE reports. Some international science students will face fees of about £20,000 a year, while most undergraduate arts and humanities courses will cost at least £13,000.

• "Is England's system of centralised monitoring, pressure and support for schools, which uses test and exam data as its informational bedrock, a force for good or bad in our education system?" That's the question Warwick Mansell sets out to answer in his latest blog for the NAHT.

Education event

• The Reader organisation is holding a Reading for Wellbeing conference in Merseyside on Tuesday, 17 May. Star turns will be Pulitzer prizewinning author Marilynne Robinson and reading expert Professor Maryanne Wolf. The conference will bring GPs, librarians, teachers, psychiatrists and other health professionals, care home workers and probation officers together for lectures and discussion groups about the benefits of reading in groups. Reader director Jane Davies says:

"Our work is based on creating relationships between people and literature, and we're leading a revolution to change the reading habits of the nation."

Keep up with the latest developments at #readingforwellbeing.

Education seminars from Guardian Professional

Getting the best education for children in care

The Guardian's one-day seminar in association with Tact (the UK's largest fostering and adoption charity) will provide an overview of the UK education system and strategies for dealing with the challenges faced by looked-after children and their carers.

26 May, London.

Making the most of media opportunities to enhance your school's profile

Whether it's sharing good news or handling a crisis, headteachers and school management teams need to be able to handle the media in all of its forms. This one-day seminar in association with the NAHT is essential for new and aspiring heads as well as established school leaders who wish to update their knowledge. It includes a session on social media.

13 June, Birmingham and 20 September, London.

Distinctiveness and branding in higher education

Higher education institutions will struggle in the marketplace unless they stand out from competitors and make sense to stakeholders. The Guardian's half-day seminar in partnership with the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education will explore what it takes to develop and maintain a distinctive brand that attracts students, staff and funders. Participants will hear from experts, examine case studies and have the opportunity to network with peers.

28 June, London.