Ministers 'bungled' handling of disease
The Government's handling of the foot-and-mouth emergency has been condemned as "lamentable" by a report from the public inquiry into the epidemic. (Times, Daily Telegraph, Independent)
£180 buys Oxbridge hopefuls the edge
A new company that charges pupils £180 for Oxbridge application training has been condemned by college heads. Application Research, based in Oxford and with head teachers and admissions tutors among its advisers, claims to double the chances of its clients by providing interview training and customised profiles of colleges and courses. (Times)
Student digs suffer from vermin
Nearly one in six students live in vermin-infested houses, according to a national survey. The "Housing and Health Survey 2001", carried out by the National Union of Students, found that 16 per cent of students have digs riddled with pests such as rats, mice and cockroaches. (Times, Independent)
Graduate tax should be greeted with contempt
Labour's latest ideas for funding higher education are a half-baked triumph of expediency over rational policymaking. (Financial Times)
Remains of 'Boston Strangler' exhumed for tests
Forensic scientists began examining the nearly 30-year-old remains of the self-confessed Boston Strangler at the weekend to try to resolve nagging doubts over whether it was he who terrorised women there between 1962 and 1964. (Independent, Guardian)
Acquitted teacher sets precedent for force in classroom
A judge's ruling in which he endorsed the use of "physical force" by a teacher to restrain an unruly pupil is likely to have widespread implications for classroom control. Teachers' unions have welcomed the precedent set when one of their members was cleared of assaulting a boy disrupting a class. (Daily Telegraph)
Monkey tests raise human clone fears
Scientists have taken a big step towards creating the world's first cloned monkey, raising fears that a human clone will not be far behind. Embryos cloned from a rhesus monkey are being prepared in the United Sates and could be implanted into a surrogate mother. The first monkey clone could be born within months. (Daily Telegraph)
Prince to give youths a £20 night out
Teenagers in one of the country's poorest areas are to receive £20 vouchers for leisure activities in a scheme to be launched tomorrow by the Prince of Wales. The prince is concerned about the plight of young people in remote rural areas who have low job prospects and little social mobility. (Times)
Video will turn babies on to TV at 12 weeks
An educational video for babies as young as three months is being launched with the promise that it will "develop the cognitive processes of the brain" and "maximise and lengthen a baby's attention span". (Times)
The teachers in a class of their own
A deputy head who poses mental arithmetic questions to pupils he passes in the corridor and a religious education teacher described as a "teaching and learning evangelist" were named last night as the teachers of the year. (Guardian)
Education-hungry Greeks boycott holiday
Greek festivities marking one of the country's finest hours - its stinging rejection of an Italian ultimatum and its entry into the second world war on the side of the allies - were marred yesterday by protests about severe teacher shortages and underfunded schools. (Guardian)