Education

Jeremy Black prepares readers for the rigours of university history.

Concerns about the British primary school curriculum made their way onto the political agenda last year with the publication of the interim Rose Report. With the full report imminent, Richard Willis looks at the history of progressive education and ponders its future.

Edna Fernandes visits a madrassa in northern India founded in the wake of the Indian Mutiny. One of the first Islamic fundamentalist schools, its influence has spread into Pakistan and Afghanistan, among the Taliban and followers of Osama bin Laden.

Richard Hughes lends us the benefit of his expertise.

Michael Morrogh sees value in historical films, despite their evident imperfections.

Russel Tarr introduces the new International Baccalaureate, assessing its advantages and disadvantages compared with A Levels.

Anthony Fletcher delves into the diaries of teenage girls in the Georgian and Victorian eras to explore the little-changing constraints, punishments and occasional delights of being brought up a girl in upper-class Britain before the Great War.

As Fidel Castro finally hands over the reins of power after forty-nine years, Michael Simmons finds his country poised between past and future.

Antonio Cazorla-Sanchez introduces a distinctive method of engaging with the past.

Amanda Forshaw advises how to approach ‘Themes’ units.