'Diplomas fail to heal 14-19 split'

Leaders from higher and further education have united to criticise the UK Government for wasting an opportunity to reform 16-to-19 education by ditching the central plank of Sir Mike Tomlinson's proposals for the creation of an overarching diploma that it was hoped would improve the number of students staying on in education. The Government's alternate plans are criticised as being retrograde and damaging and it is noted that they ignore the advice of the thousands of experts who contributed to the Tomlinson report.