Here’s an interesting – and, for once, encouraging – development. Motherwell College (soon to be moving to a new campus on the site of the old Ravenscraig steel mill) is going to offer students the chance to study for the International Baccalaureate, rather than Scottish Highers. That’s a small, but significant victory for school choice, as teenagers at high schools in Lanarkshire will now have the chance to apply for one of the places on an IB course that has, until now, only been available in the private sector in Scotland. (Indeed, fewer than 150 schools across Britain offer the IB at present, though that number will grow as A-Levels and Highers continue t lose their value.)
Most striking, however, were the comments from Motherwell College’s Principal:
“If, as is very widely acknowledged, this is the best post-16 educational qualification available then why shouldn’t kids in Motherwell, in other parts of North Lanarkshire and indeed beyond that, be able to access it?
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