Did Michael Gove really try to stop teaching climate change?

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Image caption The new environment secretary, Michael Gove, is having his green credentials challenged

Did Michael Gove really try to stop schools in England from teaching about climate change in geography?

His ministerial return, as secretary of state for the environment, food and rural affairs, has prompted a wave of claims that Mr Gove tried to remove the teaching of climate change when he was in charge of the education department.

"This is a man who tried to stop young people in our schools learning about climate change, who tried to take it out of the geography curriculum," said Caroline Lucas, co-leader of the Green Party.

On social media, these claims about climate change have been linked with pictures of Mr Gove's visit to the newly elected President Trump, as though their awkward thumbs up were evidence of some kind of global compact.

But is there any substance to the claims?

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General election 2017: All or nothing for Labour on tuition fees

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Image caption Labour is promising to scrap the system of university tuition fees

Scrapping tuition fees in England is the biggest and most expensive proposal in Labour's £25bn worth of pledges for education.

Instead of fees rising to £9,250 per year in the autumn, Jeremy Corbyn is proposing a complete handbrake turn in saying that university tuition should not cost students anything.

Read full article General election 2017: All or nothing for Labour on tuition fees

Lord Bird wants prevention unit for poverty

John Bird
Image caption Lord Bird says successive governments have failed to tackle the roots of poverty

"Poverty is stitched into the system," says Lord Bird, the outspoken and larger-than-life Big Issue founder and campaigner on homelessness.

But he has plans to unpick it - and says he has been in talks with Theresa May about a new approach to tackling poverty if she is re-elected as prime minister.

Read full article Lord Bird wants prevention unit for poverty

How a university became a battle for Europe's identity

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Image caption Protesters this week in Budapest chanted: "Europe, not Moscow."

Michael Ignatieff is not a person you would expect to find at the centre of a global political power play featuring names such as Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

He was the rangy intellectual presenter on late night TV arts shows of the early 1990s in the UK, who looked like he might moonlight in an experimental jazz band.

Read full article How a university became a battle for Europe's identity

The pendulum swings back on school tests

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Image caption There have been long-running arguments about how much testing is right for primary schools

If news stories could have a soundtrack, then this scrapping of tests in the early years of primary school would have the creaking sound of a pendulum slowly swinging back.

The Department for Education is proposing that national curriculum tests taken by seven-year-olds in England could be ditched.

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Is school funding the next crisis?

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Image caption Schools have been warning the prime minister that the sums for school budgets do not add up

After the NHS and social care, is the next funding crisis going to be in England's schools?

Like a snowball getting bigger as it rolls downhill, momentum is gathering around the warnings of school leaders about impending cash problems.

Read full article Is school funding the next crisis?

Who really paid up to help Syria?

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Media captionThe BBC's Alex Forsyth travelled to Lebanon to meet some of Syria's refugee children

There have been angry recriminations about the UK's apparent scaling back of plans to accept unaccompanied child refugees.

Lord Dubs, with all the moral freight and sense of history of a refugee from Nazism, said the government was going back on its own commitments.

Read full article Who really paid up to help Syria?

Cable warns of 'appalling' record on skills

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Image caption Vince Cable says the low status of vocational qualifications has deep roots

"Britain has done appallingly badly at vocational education for many years," says Sir Vince Cable, former business secretary, as Theresa May's industrial strategy promises to regenerate technical training and tackle the skills shortage.

But why has this always been such a struggle? You could build a paper mountain out of all the plans to give vocational education the same status as university degrees, A-levels and GCSEs.

Read full article Cable warns of 'appalling' record on skills

Could tuition fees really cost £54,000?

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Image caption The last time tuition fees were increased there were waves of student protests

How much will it cost to get a degree in England when tuition fees increase to £9,250 in the autumn?

How about £54,000?

Read full article Could tuition fees really cost £54,000?

What does post-truth mean for a philosopher?

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Image caption AC Grayling says a post-truth world threatens the "fabric of democracy"

"Post-truth" has come to describe a type of campaigning that has turned the political world upside down.

Fuelled by emotive arguments rather than fact-checks, it was a phrase that tried to capture the gut-instinct, anti-establishment politics that swept Donald Trump and Brexit supporters to victory.

Read full article What does post-truth mean for a philosopher?