The introduction of the new A* grade at A-level this summer will boost the chances of private school students going to university, research published yesterday indicated.

FIRST Minister Alex Salmond admitted the number of unemployed teachers in Scotland is "too high" during a heated clash at Holyrood yesterday.

Cheating in GCSE and A-level exams increased last year, with teenagers caught
almost 4,500 times, official figures showed today.

The news that a large number of schools – many in the most deprived areas of the country – have abandoned the Government's target of getting 50 per cent of all 14- to 16-year-olds to study a modern foreign language has been quietly received in education circles with little comment. The Centre for Information on Language Teaching (CILT), which produced the finding as part of its annual survey of provision, called for several measures to boost the take-up of languages.

The number of divorces in England and Wales has fallen for the fifth successive year to its lowest rate since 1979.