If teachers were to say what they thought, this could make it very difficult for children in class with differing opinions. The warning in the NUT’s document that teachers themselves may need help, guidance and support to deal with the pressures arising from the conflict is therefore especially timely. Of course, such support will only be available if the headteacher or the local education authority has made arrangements in advance for counselling staff to be on hand to advise teachers. That is an extra recommendation that would have been welcome in both documents. Having said that, both organisations deserve praise for the way they have faced such a sensitive issue. Strong languageThe report on language study in universities from the Anglo-German Foundation makes a sobering read.

The number taking degrees in Spanish, French and German is down by more than 17 per cent. Instead, students are flocking to study modern languages as a “bolt-on” to their main degree subject. So it’s not that they are avoiding languages altogether, just that they view them as a useful extra skill rather than as a window on another culture. The languages lobby has got to get real, says David Mallen, the acting director of languages at the Department for Education and Skills, and market themselves accordingly We think that he has a point.. Nothing less than the transformation of education and training for 14- to 19-year-olds is the task that lies ahead for a group under Mike Tomlinson, the former Chief Inspector of Schools. Do I hear a sigh from the teachers? “Not another one: if we could only devote the energy to teaching that we give to Government initiatives, change and the bureaucracy that comes with it, that would indeed be a transformation.”

Nothing less than the transformation of education and training for 14- to 19-year-olds is the task that lies ahead for a group under Mike Tomlinson, the former Chief Inspector of Schools.

First, the Government wants consultation and to build a consensus for change over a decade, rather than create another brave new world. Hopefully lessons have been learnt from the fallout from the big bang approach to the national curriculum; the proclaimed new dawn for vocational training through the Youth Training Scheme, and, more recently, the introduction of modular A-levels. In appointing Mr Tomlinson to lead the review, the Government has found someone who knows his stuff about teaching.I read that Mr Tomlinson has inherited some 2000 responses to earlier consultation on what should be done. I have no doubt the chattering classes will add to that in the next 18 months.

Meanwhile, here are three thoughts from an old campaigner.First, Mr Tomlinson, however much you find that the debate is being focused on the future of A levels, or the baccalaureate that might succeed them, the more pressing problem, as the Government now recognises – one we have failed to crack for at least a century – is the provision of a highly regarded, effective, popular system of vocational, education and training, whether through schools, colleges, or apprenticeships. As the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, said in launching a new Modern Apprenticeships task force last month: “Skills are Britain’s Achilles Heel”. Part of the reason is that we have not secured the marriage between vocational education in schools and colleges and employment. It will make an excellent start if you and the chairman of the new Skills Task Force, Sir Roy Gardner, make it your business to work as a team.Your second major challenge is to create a framework for learning that is broad enough to hold many more young people, who are not by inclination academic, in education and training after age 17. We come bottom but four out of 29 developed nations in league tables for participation in education and training after age 17.