Cribsheet daily 08.11.10

Goldsmith University students take over the council chambers in protest against new student fees — Goldsmith University students protest last week against increasing student fees. Photograph: Graeme Robertson

Polly Toynbee has caused ructions with her piece about students being selfish for demonstrating against tuition fees. Her thought-provoking article argued:

"There is material enough for the students' protest, if they direct their indignation towards the main victims of education cuts – those whose life chances will be fatally damaged long before they get anywhere near university. Protest at the FTSE directors' obscene 55% pay rise this year and at £8m a year for the new head of state-owned Lloyds.

Protest at housing benefit capped, evicting families from their homes, while David Cameron has been charging more – un-means tested – for his second home in Chipping Norton (with wisteria). It's time people got angry, time for long-dormant students to rampage.

Start with the wickedest cut, the abolition of the education maintenance allowance (EMA) – the £30 a week that helps young people stay in school or college, replaced by a tiny tin of hardship money for unhappy college principals to disburse in extremis."

Barbara Ellen, writing in yesterday's Observer, welcomed the march:

"Finally. Hallelujah. I've been wondering why they weren't rioting, sitting in, getting all Vietnam and direct action about it – nothing violent, some gentle eggings perhaps. Students are traditionally in the vanguard of protest, the heartbeat of righteous fury, so recently you couldn't help but wonder: where are they, where's their fire gone? Now something is happening and not before time."

And she wasn't having anything to do with arguments that the protest isn't legit because other people are worse off than students:

"I'm not sure I agree with the persistent, well-meaning attempts to put tuition fees "into context" with other devastating cuts. Isn't there a risk that too much "putting things into perspective" plays into the coalition's hands, effectively running their smear campaign against students for them?"

It's the "top trumps" approach to empathy, she declared:

"I did feel sorry for students, they were one of my best cards, but now I see this other group has got more Suffering & Hardship points, so they win."

And the National Union of Students has hit back with a letter to the Guardian today:

"If only Polly Toynbee had cared to read up on the reasons we will march on the streets of London on Wednesday before pouring misplaced scorn on us, she would have discovered that thousands of college students and staff will join thousands of university students and staff to protest against the foolish and short-sighted withdrawal of public funding for both further and higher education as part of a jointly organised National Union of Students and University and College Union national demonstration."

Look out for more from the NUS in a piece by Shane Chowen on the site later today.

And check out the latest Twitter news and discussion at #demo2010.

Education news from the Guardian

The best schools ignore governments and set their own agenda

Millions of pounds of public money is being spent on the pensions of teachers at private schools

British students, reluctant to study abroad, need to change their thinking

Applying to secondary school is a nightmare for families

Why Lucy Mangan is glad she doesn't have to fill in another Ucas form

Children need parenting classes to break the cycle of poverty, says Frank Field. There's more on this story in an interesting blog from Teacher Talks.

News from around the web

Huge amounts of data coming out of the Department for Education's new transparency page. The @SchoolDuggery Twitter page seems to be chomping through it.

Government policy won't deliver better teachers, says the Reform thinktank. The Association of School and College leaders says the report paints an out-of-date picture.

Warwickshire is setting up a twitter feed to inform students and parents about goings-on in schools

The Evening Standard reports on a school that says Gove is bullying it into becoming an academy

Sleight of hand is used to push up exam grades, says 5 Live presenter. Also available as a podcast.

The Telegraph says Ofsted praises Muslim schools that "oppose a Western lifestyle".

It also has private school head Bernice McCabe complaining about science lessons being dumbed down.

Competition

Do you have a clever way of using technology to teach children at your school? Enter the Classroom Innovation awards by sending us a short video of what you can do. There is a primary and secondary category and each winner will get £7,500 of Asus computing kit.

Careers advice

Interested in the vocational path into a career? Guardian Careers is running a live Q&A session on the website this afternoon. Our experts explain what training is available – plus what employers want from applicants, today from 1pm.