Inquiry into education overspends
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An official government inquiry is announced into the financial management of two education boards.
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Too many school leavers  cannot  read, write or add up properly, large businesses complain.
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The first wave of academies have had cost overruns of up to Â£3m each, says the public spending watchdog.
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Parents at a state-funded faith state school  are being asked  for voluntary contributions of more than Â£1,200 a year.
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Extra student funding would be better targeted at raising standards in school, says a financial think-tank.
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Parents worried about secondary school places are paying for extra tuition, says report.
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The education minister hits back at those who claim Northern Ireland's education spending is in crisis.
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Some students face increased tuition fees of more than Â£7,000 because of funding cuts, universities warn.
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More than $1 billion in federal funding to help schools and libraries go online is being held back
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Payment to resolve allegations pharmaceutical firm overcharged government for top drugs.
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Educational institutions will increase spending on open-source software and services over the next few years, but that doesn&#39;t mean proprietary software will be left in the dark, according to a new report covering 14 countries.Market research company Datamonitor predicts that primary and secondary schools and universities will spend $489.9 million on open-source software by 2012, up from $286.2 million now.The figure is based on interviews with vendors and school officials in the U.S., Canada, U.K., France, Germany, Australia, India, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Spain, Norway, Sweden, and Italy, said Justin Davidson, associate analyst at Datamonitor who covers education technology.The spending estimate covers operating systems and learning management systems, such as software used to make webcasts of lectures available online, plus maintenance and support.The figure represents a small portion of the $9 billion overall educational IT spending by those countries, but shows growing interest.&quot;I don&#39;t think we expected it [the figure] to be so much,&quot; Davidson said. Beyond 2012, however, Datamonitor expects open-source spending to flatten.Educators said they&#39;re attracted to open-source software since they feel they have more control over how applications are developed, Davidson said.&quot;Some institutions feel they will get a better return on their investment from open-source software,&quot; he said.Institutions were also aware that although the software licenses are free, maintenance and support can often make open-source offerings just as expensive as proprietary programs, Davidson said.A small minority of schools have opted for open-source for &quot;philosophical&quot; reasons, such as a desire not to give their money to a commercial software company. However, most decisions to use open-source were strategic, he said.Other drivers for choosing open source are increasing government interest. Certain regions in India, as well as the French government, have encouraged schools to use open-source software, especially operating systems, Davidson said.Interest in open-source software also seemed to be prompted by dissatisfaction expressed by some schools with Blackboard, a major provider of enterprise educational software and services, Davidson said.In 2005, Blackboard bought WebCT, another educational software company, for $180 million. Blackboard&#39;s share of the market grew to more than 70 percent, Davidson said. Concerns remain within schools over the dominance of one company in the market, he said.But Blackboard&#39;s software has an appeal for institutions with smaller budgets that can&#39;t fund developers to build their own open-source applications, Davidson said.It shows proprietary and open-source software will complement each other, depending on the needs of the schools, Davidson said.&quot;It&#39;s not the death of proprietary software,&quot; he said.&#160;
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It's strange but true -- the more you spend, the more you'll save for school.
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The United States spent an average of $8,701 per pupil to educate its children in 2005, the Census Bureau said on Thursday, with some states paying more than twice as much per student as others.
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As tuition has soared past the limits on federal aid, more students are relying on barely regulated private loans.
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VAT discounts could help Educational science centres are facing a funding crisis, a group of MPs has warned in a new report.â¦
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There are worries about the economic consequences of a decline in students taking science subjects.
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Typical graduate debt in England might rise to Â£15,000 under variable university tuition fees, a report says.