The DfEE will be delighted to find that Peter Mandelson has managed to strike a blow against the idea that learning is for life. At the official opening of St Patrick's High School, Keady, County Armagh on 31 May, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland said: "... the pupils of St Patrick's. This school was built for you. I know it doesn't always seem this way, but the school wasn't built for your teachers or your parents or your politicians - we're much too old to learn anything."

Thanks for this story go to TrainingZone member Hazel Edmunds, who obviously has her ear to the ground!

Hazel says "it seems that the Secretary of State hasn't managed to learn anything if he can put his foot in it this way but as for me, older than him by an unspecified number of years, I can still learn and delight in doing so!!"

What price lifelong learning now?

The full story can be found at www.nio.gov.uk.