The interest rate on student loans in England is to rise by less than originally predicted this autumn.
The rate on repayments had been predicted to rise from the current 4.5% to 12% by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, but the government says it will now be capped at 7.3%.
Higher Education Minister Michelle Donelan said the level of the cap would bring peace of mind for graduates.
But the National Union of Students says the cap is still too high.
The IFS welcomed the announcement but said it would “have little or no effect” on most graduates’ repayments.
The interest rate on the loan for those currently at university in England is calculated by adding 3% to the retail price index (RPI) measure of inflation.
The RPI figure confirmed in April set the interest rate for the coming academic year – and the IFS said the maximum rate on student loans would jump from 4.5% this year to 12% from September 2022.
Confirmation of student interest rates is usually made in August, but Donelan said the government had brought forward this announcement to provide greater clarity and peace of mind for graduates at this time.
She explains that government has always been clear that where it can help with rising prices it will, adding “I will always strive for a fair deal for students.”
However, Larissa Kennedy, NUS president in the UK, criticised the new rate, she says while some graduates might breathe a sigh of relief that the interest rate is no longer in double figures, ministers should be prioritising providing urgent cost-of-living support here and now.
She added that the government “should introduce rent protections, offer basic levels of maintenance support and announce a cost-of-living payment for all students”.
The announcement from the government does not change the amount that borrowers repay each month.
For students starting degree courses from 2023, the interest rate will be fixed at a lower level.
Student Loans: England Caps Interest Rate At 7.3%
Turks, Lebanese Among 7 Found Dead In Helicopter Crash
Seven bodies were found Saturday in the wreckage of a helicopter that disappeared in the mountains in northern Italy two days ago, with no survivors, according to emergency services.
The Turkish foreign ministry said four Turkish citizens were on board the helicopter which went missing on Thursday, while Italian media reports said two Lebanese were also on board.
The pilot was Italian, originally from Venice, according to the ANSA news agency, which reported that the others had been on a business trip.
In a statement issued on Friday, before the wreckage was found, the Turkish foreign ministry confirmed four of its citizens were on board a helicopter that disappeared after leaving the city of Lucca on Thursday.
The Italian Air Force, fire and police services were all involved in the search, but the helicopter went missing in a sparsely populated mountainous area, and bad weather hampered the first attempts to find it.
In a video posted on Twitter, an unnamed spokesman for the Italian Air Force on Saturday said that after the wreckage was confirmed through aerial observations, rescue teams had to go in on foot.
A spokesman for the Alpine rescue service had told Newsmen on Friday that such a search is not easy, if a helicopter falls amongst trees, in this season the branches close over it and it is complicated to see it from the sky.
Biden, Western Hemisphere Leaders Announce Migration Plan
US President Joe Biden and other leaders from the western hemisphere have announced what is being billed as a roadmap for countries to host large numbers of migrants and refugees.
“The Los Angeles Declaration” could be the biggest achievement of the Summit of the Americas, which was undercut by differences over Biden’s invitation list.
Leaders of Mexico and several Central American countries sent top diplomats instead after the US excluded Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
A set of principles announced on the summit’s final day includes legal pathways to enter countries, aid to communities most affected by migration, humane border management and coordinated emergency responses.
The White House highlighted measures that were recently announced and some new commitments. Costa Rica will extend protections for Cubans, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who arrived before March 2020. Mexico will add temporary worker visas for up to 20,000 Guatemalans a year.
The United States is committing $314 million to assist countries hosting refugees and migrants, and is resuming or expanding efforts to reunite Haitian and Cuban families. Belize will “regularize” Central American and Caribbean migrants in the country.
The United States has been the most popular destination for asylum-seekers since 2017, posing a challenge that has stumped Biden and his immediate predecessors, Donald Trump and Barack Obama.
But the US is far from alone. Colombia and neighbouring South American countries host millions of people who have fled Venezuela.
Scuba-Diving Volunteers Remove 100 Pounds Of Garbage From Ancient Caeserea Maritima
Divers visiting the ancient seaport of Caesarea on Israel’s Mediterranean coast occasionally find treasure, but on this time, they searched for trash.
Twenty six scuba-diving volunteers removed around 45 kilograms (100 pounds) of garbage from between the sunken pillars and submerged ruins of the historic site of Caesarea Maritima as part of a United Nations World Oceans Day initiative.
Dozens more at sites along Israel’s Mediterranean coast and on the Red Sea reefs in the Israeli resort of Eilat removed more than 150 kilograms (330 pounds) of trash.
The cleanup included bottles and bags, ghost nets, fishing lines, aluminum cans, lost towels and other odd items, including a beach lounger, that were polluting coastal waters.
The events were organized by the Israeli Diving Federation with support from the Environmental Protection Ministry and Nature and Parks Authority, which manages the coastal areas, including Caesarea’s Roman-period port.
The U.N. marked World Oceans Day on Wednesday, but the scuba diving volunteers were taking to the water to clean the sites on Friday and Saturday, Israel’s weekend.
The U.N.’s environment program says the equivalent of a garbage truck full of plastic is dumped into the ocean each minute. Plastic waste can take centuries to degrade, and causes extensive damage to marine ecosystems.
Iran And Venezuela Sign 20-Year Co-Operation Deal
Iran and Venezuela signed a 20-year deal on cooperation between the two allies subject to US sanctions during a visit Saturday to the Islamic republic by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said the inking of the agreement shows the determination of the high-level officials of the two countries for development of relations in different fields.
Maduro, speaking at a joint news conference in Tehran, said the cooperation covered the energy and financial sectors, as well as “work together on defence projects”.
Maduro also met Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who said that “resistance” is the way to confront US pressure.
Khamenei welcomed the agreement, and called for “stronger” cooperation between Tehran and Caracas, according to a statement on his official website.
Alongside the likes of Russia, China, Cuba and Turkey, Iran is one of Venezuela’s main allies. And like Venezuela, it is subject to tough US sanctions.
State news agency IRNA said in addition to the 20-year accord inked by the two countries’ foreign ministers, “Iran and Venezuela signed documents on cooperation in the political, cultural, tourism, economic, oil and petrochemical fields.
From July 18, direct flights would operate between Caracas and Tehran “in order to promote tourism and the union between our countries,” he said, adding that “Venezuela is open to receive tourists from Iran”.
Iran’s president said direct flights would pave the way for enhanced “trade and economic relations, as well as bringing the two nations closer together”.
Rebuilding Ukraine: President Zelensky Addresses UK University Students
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has addressed students as part of a live broadcast to a number of UK universities.
The event on Friday evening was organised by the Ukrainian Students Union (USU).
He spoke about the need for ongoing international support and compared the destruction of the Russian invasion with the Nazi bombing of Coventry.
During the virtual meeting, some students got the chance to pose questions to the leader.
Universities taking part includes Birmingham, Cambridge, City University of London, Coventry, Glasgow, LSE, Manchester, Oxford and UCL.
Earlier this year, students from Ukrainian Societies at UK universities joined to form the USU and it was to the members that President Zelensky spoke.
He addressed hundreds of students in the UK over a virtual call, including the few dozen who snapped up tickets for the event at Coventry University.
After a 15-minute opening speech, he answered questions largely focused on rebuilding Ukraine after the war.
The president of Coventry University’s Ukraine Society, 20 years old Pavel Pimkin asked his nation’s president about attracting entrepreneurs and start-ups to help with the reconstruction.
The Ukraine leader also addressed the issue of the two Britons sentenced to death, saying we “cannot have any kind of excuses for such actions”.
Pavel Pimkin, said it is not just students President Zelensky has engaged with during this war, he has addressed parliaments and welcomed world leaders in Kyiv.
“However, I think he understands students are the future of our nation, they’ve organised protests, fundraised for Ukraine, and been enthusiastic in their support for Ukraine – we have a very powerful voice” he adds.
Pimkin says he hopes to “help build a bright future for our country” once the war is over.
Speaking after the meeting with British media,,
Coventry University’s vice-chancellor, Professor John Latham, said the president’s address would be a “demonstration of the Ukrainian government’s continued interest in the power of education, despite the terrible devastation that has been inflicted on the country during this war”.
ASUU Decries Private Crowdfunding Platform
The leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has rejected a crowdfunding platform initiated to end the ongoing strike by lecturers of public universities in the country.
The crowdfunding platform initiated by acclaimed philanthropist and owner of Human Rights Radio, Ahmed Isah, was aimed at raising money for the lecturers’ union with a view to ending the strike that has grounded academic activities in the nation’s public varsities.
Isah had invited the leadership of ASUU, led by its president,Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, to his station to intimate them of his efforts aimed at resolving the age-long crisis between ASUU and the federal government but Osodeke blatantly refused the gesture.
It is gathered that the public had started donating money to the cause with the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Udom Emmanuel, contributing N50 million to the project before ASUU decried the action and asked that it be counted out of the initiative.
Recall that ASUU has been on strike since February and all efforts made by the government, stakehokders including religious and traditional leaders to make the union call off were unsuccessful.
Isah also said he had set up a special intervention bank account domiciled in TAJ Bank to raise funds for the union, with a view to ending the strike.
In his desperate bid to convince ASUU to support the crowdfunding project, Isah had openly displayed the N50 million cash support by the governor but rather than applauding the initiative, Osodeke flayed the development, asking that his union be dissociated from the initiative.
Given the red flag accorded the project by the union he was working to assist, Isah furiously announced discontinuation of the intervention scheme.
Recall that ASUU’s demands include, funding of the revitalisation of public universities, Earned Academic Allowances, University Transparency Accountability Solution,UTAS and promotion arrears.
Others are the renegotiation of 2009 ASUU-FG Agreement and the inconsistency in Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System.
Ofsted Downgrades Holland Park School Rating To Inadequate
The Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills, Ofsred has downgraded an elite school mired in controversy over safeguarding practices from “outstanding” to “inadequate”.
In May, Holland Park School in Kensington, West London, was found to have a “culture of fear and favouritism”.
An investigation by its governors uncovered that the school used “public humiliation” or shouting as a behaviour policy.
Pupils and teachers were also subject to sexism, Islamophobia and racism.
Last year, the school announced that former headteacher Colin Hall would retire early, while a new chair of governors was appointed.
Now Ofsted has concluded that disruption in the school’s leadership had “destabilised” the school community.
Inspectors found many aspects of school life, including pupils’ behaviour, had “declined substantially” since a previous inspection seven years ago.
The inspectorate said that pupils and staff had “welcomed the governors’ intervention to stop previous behaviour management strategies that they deemed unacceptable”.
Ofsted said behaviour policies had not been updated, leaving a vacuum with staff and students confused over how to deal with unacceptable behaviour, some of which was spilling into the local area after school.
Some findings made by the governors’ investigation includes:
● An inappropriate response to the case of a teacher who was found to have had a relationship with a pupil
● Inappropriate use of the isolation room
● Open discussion at staff meetings about the personal appearance of teachers
● Rapid promotion of newly qualified teachers to positions of senior leadership without appropriate training or experience
● Inappropriate sharing of confidential information
● Staff questionnaires relating to the Ofsted inspection of January 2020 were destroyed at the instigation of some senior leaders
A spokesperson for the school said: “Ofsted has independently identified many of the long-term, historical weaknesses which governors have also been concerned about, and which they have been working extremely hard, with school leaders, staff, and external partners, to put right.
“These serious problems were also set out in the independent investigation report and in the Notice To Improve that the government issued to the school last year.
“We now ask that the whole school community come together and unite around a strategy to support the school to reach the standards that our students deserve.”
The Department for Education previously issued the school with a Notice to Improve in November, highlighting financial mismanagement as well as leaders’ “excessive salaries and failure to seek prior approval from the government for ‘novel and contentious’ expenditure”.
INEC Deploys MORE Registration Machines To Lagos, Kano, 5 other States
Additional 209 registration machines have been deployed to the five South-east States, Lagos and Kano as the deadline for the Continuous Voter Registration draws to an end.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, said the decision was in response to the unprecedented surge in the number of citizens that wish to register as voters.
INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, said these in a statement issued on Friday in Abuja.
According to him, “the commission is aware of the challenges faced by citizens across the country, hence the deployment.”
Okoye said in some states, the sudden turnout of prospective registrants is overwhelming.
He said; “Consequently, the commission convened an urgent meeting with all the Resident Electoral Commissioners on Thursday 9, to review the situation so that eligible Nigerians who wish to register are able to do so.
“The necessity to urgently deploy more voter enrolment machines to ease the congestion at the registration centres was identified as a priority.”
England To Open 75 New Free Schools, 14000 Extra Places As Part Of Levelling Up Plans
England plans to create thousands of new school places particularly for children in disadvantaged areas and for those with special needs.
Up to 75 new free schools and standalone sixth forms will be opened, with 14,000 extra school places made available.
A total of 15 new mainstream schools will also be introduced within 55 Education Investment Areas identified in the Levelling Up White Paper.
The first of a new wave of up to 60 special and alternative provision (AP) free schools will open from September 2025, creating 4,500 new school places.
The government says AP schools will keep pupils who have been excluded or at risk of exclusion engaged with their education, as well as offering behavioural and mental health support.
The Education Department said the drive was launched in a bid to build on commitments made in both the Levelling Up paper and in special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and AP green papers, aiming to end a “postcode lottery” for pupils with special educational needs.
Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi is quoted as saying “All children have the right to a high-quality education. Parents should feel confident that their local school works for their child, no matter where they live or their ability…”
The special schools will offer support for pupils with needs such as autism, severe learning difficulties or social, emotional and mental health conditions, and can be built to be more accessible, equipped with ceiling hoists, wheelchair ramps and acoustically adapted classrooms.
However, policy director at the Association of School and College Leaders, Julie McCulloch, warns against selective sixth forms.
She said that while headteachers welcomed the creation of new school and sixth form places, they urged the government “against creating super-selective standalone sixth forms”.
Meanwhile, shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson, a member of the Labour Party has criticised the move.
She said ensuring every child can learn in a suitable environment is the minimum that should be expected, but after 12 years of Conservative governments the SEND system is broken.
She added that Ministers are promising a few ‘elite’ opportunities to escape a post-16 system increasingly on its knees rather than delivering a plan for education in the country.
She said “Just like the Conservatives’ mythical 40 hospitals, there’s no plan to get these schools built or promised new places delivered. This is a government of empty promises.”
