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‘The importance of great teaching on children’s success’

By Peter Tait

We seem to be no closer to establishing what the most important factors are that make children succeed, apart from brilliant teachers, writes Peter Tai

As a society, we spend an inordinate amount of time, resources and money looking at how to improve the quality of education in our schools.

The questions we ask ourselves are always the same. How do we improve the quality of teaching and learning? (and its corollary, our examination results?) How do we make our children more motivated and competitive? And how do we get children to value and ‘own’ their education?

And yet, after all the talk of new methodologies and curricula; after new and different methods of teaching and models of assessment; after all the time and money spent on technology; after the personalisation of education and differentiated teaching; after learning styles and habits of mind; after mindfulness and Every Child Matters; after the debates about continuous and formative assessment; and after all the constant tinkering, bureaucratic and legislative, with their greater focus on data and compliance, we seem to be no closer to establishing what are the most important factors that make children succeed.

The only consistent factor we can identify is the role of the teacher, whose abilities and skillset, knowledge and enthusiasm are crucial in determining the success or otherwise, of the children they teach.

Teaching, after all, is about engagement, about getting children to listen and switch on. The best investment any government can make is to get the most effective, the most talented, the best teachers they can in front of the children.

By best, I don’t mean those who are the best qualified, but those teachers who know how to enthuse and connect with children regardless of their own levels of education. I mean those teachers who can properly engage with children and teach them by inspiring and challenging them.

Sometimes the pathway dictates that the process comes down to hard work rather than inspiration, but teaching is all about the relationship between teacher and pupil more than anything else.

Children will work harder for a teacher they respect, even if they demand more and insist on discipline and high standards. One can only speculate what would have been the impact if all the money spent on technology had gone instead into lowering the teacher-pupil ratio and improving the identification, selection and training of the most effective and passionate teachers. Where would we be now? In a somewhat better place, I would suggest.

I look back at outstanding teachers from my own teaching career and remember, in particular, one woman, whose ability with children was legendary. She was strict, uncompromising, but children wanted her approbation.

One particular year she took on a particularly difficult class of Year 4 children, two of whom had considerable physical and intellectual difficulties and could not even print their names and yet finished the year with impressive cursive writing – achieved through repetition, practice, discipline and unwavering high expectations.

She made such a difference to their young lives and all who were fortunate enough to have her as a teacher.

Good teachers don’t need the security of extra resources and technology that, evidence suggests, can detract rather than add to the learning process.

The best teachers entered the profession to make a difference

The best teachers entered the profession to make a difference  Photo: Getty Images

While they may use resources to embellish their lessons, they will not allow the resources to become the lesson. The best teachers are always wanting to do and find out more about their own craft, pushing out the boundaries of their learning and teaching, which is why many exceptional teaches re-work or even discard their teaching notes on a regular basis and look for new topics, and ways, to teach.

This lesson came home to me when I was asked to introduce art history into the sixth form in a New Zealand school and finding – after the subject had been offered, and places filled – that my knowledge of the period (Italian Art, 1300 – 1650) was almost as deficient as were my resources.

That year, with a few old text books and slides, I learnt alongside the students and at the year’s end, we were the top performing department in the school with one student in the top 10 in national scholarships.

The next year, I went to Italy and soon had the best resourced art history department anywhere with videos and CD Roms, slides, a library of outstanding books of reproductions, computer programmes on every aspect of the course, but my students never did quite so well ever again.

I think they learned better, as I did, by having to think more, by having to eke out what they could from the meagre resources, by having to think and having a teacher learning alongside them. There was no hiding place for any of us.

Teachers need to keep learning and growing – it is not a profession for the cynical or indifferent. The best can be identified by their enthusiasm and interest in pedagogy. They are not characterised by their own high academic performance, but by a thirst for passing on the benefits of education.

They may be unorthodox, idiosyncratic, employing a variety of approaches to get children to want to learn and to question what they are being taught. They are typified by their passion, their non-negotiable standards, breadth of interests, high expectations, understanding of how children learn, empathy, an insistence on greater self-discipline and by their relationship with their pupils.

Interestingly, children know who the best teachers are, even if they try and avoid them in favour of the more popular variety who may make their lives easy. They often criticise them to their parents for being too demanding and only realise later the opportunity they have squandered.

These are the teachers who entered the profession in order to make a difference. And they do.

 

Source of the article: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationopinion/12201014/The-importance-of-great-teaching-on-childrens-success.html

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La educación de los argentinos

Por Gladys Seppi Fernández

 

Diagnosticar el mal puede reducirse a dolorosas palabras: educación mediocre o, directamente, mala educación generalizada.

Como sucede con cualquier enfermedad, por el lado menos pensado aparece el síntoma. Los detonantes de la mala educación de los argentinos, el espejo en el que nos reflejamos, aparecen siempre y nos inundan, pero se hicieron más visibles en Rusia, como actos de patoterismo, irracionalidad, falta de respeto.

Entonces nos indignamos; “nosotros no somos” así, protestamos; “ese pequeño grupo no nos representa”, nos defendemos.

Sin embargo, tal vez sea hora de no dejar pasar estas descomposturas que muestran lo rasgado de la educación del argentino. Atender el síntoma para empezar a curar la enfermedad.

Diagnosticar el mal puede reducirse a pocas palabras, ciertamente dolorosas: educación mediocre o, directamente, mala educación generalizada.

El mal se viene gestando desde hace muchas décadas. ¿Ocho? ¿Siete? Es tiempo suficiente para que demasiados –personas mayores, adultos, jóvenes, adolescentes y niños– tengamos impresas las marcas que nos distinguen: productos de la demagogia familiar y luego escolar, que todo lo hace a medias y califica de acuerdo con la propia medida de los educadores: un 10 aunque se merezca un 4. Un resultado mediocre.

Tal vez nos dejamos engañar por el aprobado fácil, el pase y el certificado de estudios ganado a medias, que nos autoriza a ejercer un oficio o una profesión.

Un aviso que circula en las redes advierte de que en nuestro país, y por lo que venimos analizando, “los pacientes mueren a manos de médicos recibidos en nuestras universidades, las obras bajo tierra estallan porque los responsables no se hacen responsables… y la justicia se pierde en manos de malos jueces”. “El colapso de la educación es el colapso de la nación”, concluye.

Lo triste es que los argentinos no terminamos de concientizarnos de semejante enfermedad, aunque suframos las consecuencias.

Sufrimos cuando llevamos a un hijo al hospital y, en medio de pasillos mal o nada preparados, tenemos que esperar por horas la atención de una enfermera malhumorada que no nos trata bien y de un médico demasiado apurado para creer en la bondad de su diagnóstico y en la posibilidad de la curación.

Sufrimos en toda repartición pública, un banco, oficinas municipales, gubernamentales, educativas, cuando las esperas son insoportables y, llegado el turno, no se satisface nuestra necesidad.

Todos padecemos nuestra argentina enfermedad, porque a todos alguna vez nos toca ser los clientes, el público, el paciente. Nada decimos cuando somos el hijo o el alumno de nuestros poco exigentes maestros que facilitan el camino con una nula prevención del futuro, todo para hoy, lo que produce un escaso desarrollo neuronal y pobre desempeño.

Nuestros músculos intelectuales son débiles, mal preparados para el crecimiento y la superación.

¿Será porque la escuela argentina no ha encontrado aún sus para qué, sus fines, y como consecuencia no tiene conductores idóneos ni directivas claras? Lo cierto es que entrega a la sociedad bocanadas de productos a medio terminar.

La imaginamos, entonces, como un carro empantanado en el mismo terreno cenagoso que ella crea, sin saber cómo salir del fango y qué camino seguir, porque no hay camino. No se lo ve.

Ella misma ha formado –¿debemos decir mal formado?– a los que la conducen. Ella permitió las trampas en los exámenes, las copias, no exigió nada, o sólo el menor esfuerzo.

De ella, los conductores que hoy tenemos. Ministros de Educación, directivos, profesores, maestros… ¿dónde se formaron? ¿Qué fines persiguieron? ¿Qué principios los guían? ¿Qué valores los sostienen, dan fuerza a su trabajo, los apasionan?

Los mismísimos ministerios y las secretarías educativas, las asesorías que abundan, las direcciones escolares y hasta los docentes, son mayoritariamente cargos ocupados por personas no idóneas, ausentes o cumple-horarios, incapaces de dar soluciones y, mucho menos, de innovar y aceptar buenas propuestas. Buena memoria, repeticiones, escasa participación, nula creatividad.

¿Cómo pretender, entonces, que los que nos representan dentro y fuera del país sepan adaptarse a las circunstancias y a los modelos propuestos por países organizados, si se han nutrido en el todo vale argentino, placentero y cómodo, tan a resultas del amiguismo, escaso de méritos e incapaz de castigar o de premiar sus acciones?

Un desperdicio, porque hay importantes talentos, gente que actúa en forma aislada hasta perder el aliento, y sin aliento alguno.

Una pena, porque si no advertimos de una buena vez la situación de peligro en que nos encontramos, al carro empantanado que nos lleva a todos se lo va a llevar la correntada de nuestra historia hueca.

Fuente del artículo: http://www.lavoz.com.ar/opinion/la-educacion-de-los-argentinos

 

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What Asian schools can teach the rest of us

By Andreas Schleicher

The latest Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) focused on science, a discipline that plays an increasing role in our economic and social lives.

From taking a painkiller to determining what is a «balanced» meal, from drinking pasteurized milk to deciding whether or not to buy a hybrid car, science is pervasive.

And science is not just test tubes and the periodic table; it is the basis of nearly every tool we use — from a simple can opener to the most advanced space explorer.
In 2012, Shanghai came out as the top performer among all 65 education systems that were compared in mathematics, reading and science.
Some wondered to what extent Shanghai’s success was exceptional in China. In 2015, PISA provides data from Beijing, Jiangsu, Guangdong and Shanghai.
These regions combined again show strong science performance, outperformed only by Singapore, Japan, Estonia, Taiwan (which appears in the report as Chinese Taipei), Finland and Macau.
In fact, 13% of the top-performing students in the 68 countries and economies with comparable data in PISA 2015 come from these four provinces in mainland China alone.
So the world will continue to look to China as a global player in education.
education.

Social mobility key

Similarly, while the American dream of social mobility seems nothing more than that — a dream — for this generation of American students, it is emerging as a new reality in much of East Asia.
Between 40% and 80% of the quarter of the most disadvantaged students in the four provinces of mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Macau, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam perform as well as the 25% top-performing students around the world.
In the Western world, only Estonia and Finland match that level of student resilience against social disadvantage.
But there are also areas where China can look to other countries for inspiration.
Content knowledge in science, where China excels, is important. But it is equally important to be able to «think like a scientist,» and here Chinese students perform less well on the PISA test than when tested on content.
Source of the article: https://edition.cnn.com/2016/12/06/opinions/education-pisa-rankings-china/index.html
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Más ciencia, más educación sexual

Por Mileyda Menéndez Dávila

 El pueblo más feliz es el que tiene mejor educados a sus hijos en la instrucción del pensamiento y la educación de los sentimientos

José Martí

Hablar de sexo no solo está de moda: es un derecho que todas las personas necesitan ejercer a plenitud desde edades tempranas, por su propio bienestar y en aras de esa sociedad sin violencia a la que aspira la mejor parte de la Humanidad.

Sin embargo, en nuestras sociedades modernas persiste cierta ambivalencia ante esa necesidad, que se manifiesta, al decir de la Doctora Mariela Castro, «por un lado, en un gran interés por saber más, y por otro, en una amplia resistencia para hablar directamente del tema y transformar las relaciones de poder que perpetúan las desigualdades e inequidades, particularmente las de género».

Así lo expresó la diputada cubana y directora del Centro Nacional de Educación Sexual (Cenesex), en la apertura del Congreso Cubano de Educación, Orientación y Terapia Sexual, que en su octava edición estuvo dedicado al rol de los sistemas educativos latinoamericanos para materializar una Educación Integral de la Sexualidad (EIS) que conciba la escuela como uno de sus espacios más importantes, pues lo que ocurre en ese tercio de jornada marca la vida de sus protagonistas a muy largo plazo.

Por mucho que se invierta en asistencia médica o control judicial, quien resulta abusado, despreciado o subvalorado sistemáticamente en ese ámbito difícilmente logra ser feliz o desea ser útil a sí mismo o a la sociedad.

Esa institución tiene el encargo de establecer el diálogo con la familia y la comunidad, de poner sus fortalezas al servicio de una labor multisectorial y socializar saberes y valores basados en la evidencia científica, no en prejuicios que perpetúen asimetrías, apuntó la presidenta de Sexología 2018.

En el marco de este congreso se desarrolló la 3ra. Reunión de Expertas/os en Programas y Estrategias de EIS en América Latina y el Caribe y un taller para acelerar esos procesos con el aporte de Naciones Unidas, con el afán de consensuar recomendaciones para ampliar los programas escolares y potenciar la educación sexual de personas que viven en condiciones de vulnerabilidad, exclusión o discriminación, sobre todo niños, niñas y adolescentes no escolarizados, gente con discapacidades diversas, pueblos indígenas, afrodescendientes y personas con identidades sexuales no empoderadas.

Cosecha y proyección

El Congreso de Educación, Orientación y Terapia Sexual se estrenó como espacio de diálogo científico hace 25 años, y muy pronto se consolidó como un pilar del Programa Nacional de Educación y Salud Sexual por su capacidad para convocar lo mejor de la investigación y la asistencia en materia de Salud Sexual y Reproductiva a nivel nacional y de todo el orbe. La reflexión ética y centrada en el derecho que hoy caracteriza a las ponencias y debates es una conquista que un cuarto de siglo atrás estaba entre los sueños de su equipo fundacional.

La coyuntura cubana es muy favorable para sumar tales presupuestos al flexibilizado currículo de todos los niveles educativos, pero la prevención de actos violentos o discriminatorios en las más de 5 000 instituciones en activo requiere un personal docente cada vez más culto, capacitado y sensible, afirmó la Doctora Ena Elsa Velázquez, ministra de Educación.

En estas citas bianuales también han ido ganado presencia varias redes y articulaciones sociales que consolidan la defensa de los Derechos Sexuales y Reproductivos de nuestra ciudadanía a partir de un activismo inclusivo y respetuoso. Comunicarsex, la red de activistas y profesionales en el ámbito de la Comunicación sobre sexualidad, debutó este jueves con un panel sobre el rol de los medios en la deconstrucción de estereotipos y la legitimación de nuevos paradigmas e imaginarios sociales en los que el sexo no constituya moneda de cambio, sino un valor a compartir.

En esa cuerda, otra plaza consolidada en la cita bianual de la Sexología criolla es el Coloquio Internacional Trans-identidades, Género y Cultura, que en su sexta edición tuvo como aperitivo dos cursos precongreso en los que los expertos españoles Samuel Díez Arrese e Iñaki Goñi Garatea compartieron la experiencia ibérica en el manejo con la familia y las instituciones escolares que acogen a menores con una construcción identitaria transexual.

El mayor reto para la EIS es diversificar lenguajes y soportes para contender con los ideales conservaduristas que se reposicionan en la región latinoamericana, urgida de mantener sus conquistas sociales y hacer cumplir los Objetivos de Desarrollo del Milenio, destacó la Doctora Mariela Castro.

Fuente del artículo: http://www.juventudrebelde.cu/suplementos/sexo-sentido/2018-06-29/mas-ciencia-mas-educacion-sexual

 

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Too Little Access, Not Enough Learning: Africa’s Twin Deficit in Education

Por Kevin Watkins

Africa’s education crisis seldom makes media headlines or summit agendas and analysis by the Brookings Center for Universal Education (CUE) explains why this needs to change. With one-in-three children still out of school, progress towards universal primary education has stalled. Meanwhile, learning levels among children who are in school are abysmal. Using a newly developed Learning Barometer, CUE estimates that 61 million African children will reach adolescence lacking even the most basic literacy and numeracy skills. Failure to tackle the learning deficit will deprive a whole generation of opportunities to develop their potential and escape poverty. And it will undermine prospect for dynamic growth with shared prosperity.

If you want a glimpse into Africa’s education crisis there is no better vantage point than the town of Bodinga, located in the impoverished Savannah region of Sokoto state in northwestern Nigeria. Drop into one of the local primary schools and you’ll typically find more than 50 students crammed into a class. Just a few will have textbooks. If the teacher is there, and they are often absent, the children will be on the receiving end of a monotone recitation geared towards rote learning.

Not that there is much learning going on. One recent survey found that 80 percent of Sokoto’s Grade 3 pupils cannot read a single word. They have gone through three years of zero value-added schooling. Mind you, the kids in the classrooms are the lucky ones, especially if they are girls. Over half of the state’s primary school-age children are out of school – and Sokoto has some of the world’s biggest gender gaps in education. Just a handful of the kids have any chance of making it through to secondary education.

The ultimate aim of any education system is to equip children with the numeracy, literacy and wider skills that they need to realize their potential – and that their countries need to generate jobs, innovation and economic growth.

Bodinga’s schools are a microcosm of a wider crisis in Africa’s education. After taking some rapid strides towards universal primary education after 2000, progress has stalled. Out-of-school numbers are on the rise – and the gulf in education opportunity separating Africa from the rest of the world is widening. That gulf is not just about enrollment and years in school, it is also about learning. The ultimate aim of any education system is to equip children with the numeracy, literacy and wider skills that they need to realize their potential – and that their countries need to generate jobs, innovation and economic growth. From South Korea to Singapore and China, economic success has been built on the foundations of learning achievement. And far too many of Africa’s children are not learning, even if they are in school.

The Center for Universal Education at Brookings/This is Africa Learning Barometer survey takes a hard look at the available evidence. In what is the first region-wide assessment of the state of learning, the survey estimates that 61 million children of primary school age – one-in-every-two across the region – will reach their adolescent years unable to read, write or perform basic numeracy tasks. Perhaps the most shocking finding, however, is that over half of these children will have spent at least four years in the education system.

Africa’s education crisis does not make media headlines. Children don’t go hungry for want of textbooks, good teachers and a chance to learn. But this is a crisis that carries high costs. It is consigning a whole generation of children and youth to a future of poverty, insecurity and unemployment. It is starving firms of the skills that are the life-blood of enterprise and innovation. And it is undermining prospects for sustained economic growth in the world’s poorest region.

Tackling the crisis in education will require national and international action on two fronts: Governments need to get children into school – and they need to ensure that children get something meaningful from their time in the classroom. Put differently, they need to close the twin deficit in access and learning.

Why has progress on enrollment ground to a halt? Partly because governments are failing to extend opportunities to the region’s most marginalized children. Africa has some of the world’s starkest inequalities in access to education. Children from the richest 20 percent of households in Ghana average six more years in school than those from the poorest households. Being poor, rural and female carries a triple handicap. In northern Nigeria, Hausa girls in this category average less than one year in school, while wealthy urban males get nine years.

Conflict is another barrier to progress. Many of Africa’s out-of-school children are either living in conflict zones such as Somalia and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, in camps for displaced people in their home country, or – like the tens of thousands of Somali children in Kenya – as refugees. Six years after the country’s peace agreement, South Sudan still has over 1 million children out of school.

The Learning Deficit

Just how much are Africa’s children learning in school? That is a surprisingly difficult question to answer. Few countries in the region participate in international learning assessments – and most governments collect learning data in a fairly haphazard fashion.

The Learning Barometer provides a window into Africa’s schools. Covering 28 countries, and 78 percent of the region’s primary school-age population, the survey draws on a range of regional and national assessments to identify the minimum learning thresholds for Grades 4 and 5 of primary school. Children below these thresholds are achieving scores that are so low as to call into question the value-added of their schooling. Most will be unable to read or write with any fluency, or to successfully complete basic numeracy tasks. Of course, success in school is about more than test scores.

It is also about building foundational skills in teamwork, supporting emotional development, and stimulating problem-solving skills. But learning achievement is a critical measure of education quality – and the Learning Barometer registers dangerously low levels of achievement.

The headline numbers tell their own story. Over one-third of pupils covered in the survey – 23 million children – fall below the minimum learning threshold. Because this figure is an average, it obscures the depth of the learning deficit in many countries. More than half of students in Grades 4 and 5 in countries such as Ethiopia, Nigeria and Zambia are below the minimum learning bar. In total, there are seven countries in which 40 percent or more of children are in this position. As a middle-income country, South Africa stands out. One-third of children fall below the learning threshold, reflecting the large number of failing schools in areas servicing predominantly low-income black and mixed race children.

Disparities in learning achievement mirror wider inequalities in education. In Mozambique and South Africa, children from the poorest households are seven times more likely than those from the richest households to rank in the lowest 10 percent of students.

Unfortunately, the bad news does not end here. Bear in mind that the Learning Barometer registers the score of children who are in school. Learning achievement levels among children who are out of school are almost certainly far lower – and an estimated 10 million children in Africa drop out each year. Consider the case of Malawi. Almost half of the children sitting in Grade 5 classrooms are unable to perform basic literacy and numeracy tasks. More alarming still is that half of the children who entered primary school have dropped out by this stage.

Adjusting the Learning Barometer to measure the learning achievement levels of children who are out of school, likely to drop out, and in school but not learning produces some distressing results. There are 127 million children of primary school age in Africa. In the absence of an urgent drive to raise standards, half of these children – 61 million in total – will reach adolescence without the basic learning skills that they, and their countries, desperately need to escape the gravitational pull of mass poverty.

learning levels

What is Going Wrong?

Rising awareness of the scale of Africa’s learning crisis has turned the spotlight on schools, classrooms and teachers – and for good reason. Education systems across the region urgently need reform. But the problems begin long before children enter school in a lethal interaction between poverty, inequality and education disadvantage.

The early childhood years set many of Africa’s children on a course for failure in education. There is compelling international evidence that preschool malnutrition has profoundly damaging – and largely irreversible – consequences for the language, memory and motor skills that make effective learning possible and last throughout youth and adulthood. This year, 40 percent of Africa’s children will reach primary school-age having had their education opportunities blighted by hunger. Some two-thirds of the region’s preschool children suffer from anemia – another source of reduced learning achievement.

Parental illiteracy is another preschool barrier to learning. The vast majority of the 48 million children entering Africa’s schools over the past decade come from illiterate home environments. Lacking the early reading, language and numeracy skills that can provide a platform for learning, they struggle to make the transition to school – and their parents struggle to provide support with homework.

Gender roles can mean that young girls are removed from school to collect water or care for their siblings. Meanwhile, countries such as Niger, Chad and Mali have some of the world’s highest levels of child marriage – many girls become brides before they have finished primary school.

School systems in Africa are inevitably affected by the social and economic environments in which they operate. Household poverty forces many children out of school and into employment. Gender roles can mean that young girls are removed from school to collect water or care for their siblings. Meanwhile, countries such as Niger, Chad and Mali have some of the world’s highest levels of child marriage – many girls become brides before they have finished primary school.

None of this is to discount the weaknesses of the school system. Teaching is at the heart of the learning crisis. If you want to know why so many kids learn so little, reflect for a moment on what their teachers know. Studies in countries such as Lesotho, Mozambique and Uganda have found that fewer than half of teachers could score in the top band on a test designed for 12-year-olds. Meanwhile, many countries have epidemic levels of teacher absenteeism.

It is all too easy to blame Africa’s teachers for the crisis in education – but this misses the point. The region’s teachers are products of the systems in which they operate. Many have not received a decent quality education. They frequently lack detailed information about what their students are expected to learn and how their pupils are performing. Trained to deliver outmoded rote learning classes, they seldom receive the support and advice they need from more experienced teachers and education administrators on how to improve teaching. And they are often working for poverty-level wages in extremely harsh conditions.

Education policies compound the problem. As children from nonliterate homes enter school systems they urgently need help to master the basic literacy and numeracy skills that they will need to progress through the system. Unfortunately, classroom overcrowding is at its worst in the early grades – and the most qualified teachers are typically deployed at higher grades.

Public spending often reinforces disadvantage, with the most prosperous regions and best performing schools cornering the lion’s share of the budget. In Kenya, the arid and semi-arid northern counties are home to 9 percent of the country’s children but 21 percent of out-of-school children. Yet these counties receive half as much public spending on a per child basis as wealthier commercial farming counties.

Looking Ahead – Daunting Challenges, New Opportunities

The combined effects of restricted access to education and low learning achievement should be sounding alarm bells across Africa. Economic growth over the past decade has been built in large measure on a boom in exports of unprocessed commodities. Sustaining that growth will require entry into higher value-added areas of production and international trade – and quality education is the entry ticket. Stated bluntly, Africa cannot build economic success on failing education systems. And it will not generate the 45 million additional jobs needed for young people joining the labor force over the next decade if those systems are not fixed.

Daunting as the scale of the crisis in education may be, many of the solutions are within reach. Africa’s governments have to take the lead. Far more has to be done to reach the region’s most marginalized children. Providing parents with cash transfers and financial incentives to keep children – especially girls – in school can help to mitigate the effects of poverty. So can early childhood programs and targeted support to marginalized regions.

Africa also needs an education paradigm shift. Education planners have to look beyond counting the number of children sitting in classrooms and start to focus on learning. Teacher recruitment, training and support systems need to be overhauled to deliver effective classroom instruction. The allocation of financial resources and teachers to schools should be geared towards the improvement of standards and equalization of learning outcomes. And no country in Africa, however poor, can neglect the critical task of building effective national learning assessment systems.

Aid donors and the wider international community also have a role to play. Having promised much, they have for the most part delivered little – especially to countries affected by conflict. Development assistance levels for education in Africa have stagnated in recent years. The $1.8 billion provided in 2010 was less than one-quarter of what is required to close the region’s aid financing gap.

Unlike the health sector, where vaccinations and the global funds for AIDS have mobilized finance and unleashed a wave of innovative public-private partnerships, the education sector continues to attract limited interest. This could change with a decision by the U.N. secretary-general to launch a five-year initiative, Education First, aimed at forging a broad coalition for change across donors, governments, the business community and civil society.

There is much to celebrate in Africa’s social and economic progress over the past decade. But if the region is to build on the foundations that have been put in place, it has to stop the hemorrhage of skills, talent and human potential caused by the crisis in education. Africa’s children have a right to an education that offers them a better future – and they have a right to expect their leaders and the international community to get behind them.

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Hecha la memoria educativa, es tiempo de conclusiones

Por Monserrat Martínez 

Llega junio y la elaboración de la memoria se convierte en una obligación para los docentes, entre los que yo también me encuentro.

Comenzó el mes de julio de 2017 y se conocieron los primeros datos que pronosticaban que este curso no traería nada bueno para la comunidad educativa conquense, ya que se suprimieron 44 plazas de maestros y se desplazaron a 22 profesores de Secundaria por falta de horario, se cerró el CRA de Villaescusa de Haro, se bloquearon dos ciclos formativos en la capital y uno en Motilla del Palancar, se eliminó oferta formativa en la , y además se cerró el Aula TEA del colegio Fuente del Oro dejando al alumnado con espectro autista sin la atención especializada que requerían.

Pasó el verano y el curso comenzó con novedades importantes. Por fin teníamos Presupuestos en -La Mancha para el año 2017, aunque fuese con ocho meses de retraso. Y estas nuevas Cuentas regionales incorporaban dos sorpresas importantes para la comunidad educativa. La primera hacía referencia a la obligación que tenía el  de reducir una hora lectiva al profesorado de Secundaria, convirtiéndose el profesorado de Primaria en el gran olvidado de estos Presupuestos. Y digo sorpresa, porque dio la impresión de que el consejero de Educación no se había enterado de que esta reducción la debía realizar el curso 2017/2018, ya que su primera reacción fue negarse a ponerla en práctica alegando cuestiones presupuestarias (curiosa disculpa cuando este presupuesto contenía 700 millones más que el anterior). Al final, el Gobierno regional no tuvo más remedio que cumplir a regañadientes y por imperativo legal.

La segunda sorpresa era para el profesorado interino al descubrir que por primera vez les habían clasificado en dos categorías: los que cobrarían el verano si su vacante se iniciaba el 1 de septiembre, y los que no lo cobrarían aunque empezasen a trabajar al día siguiente.

Avanzaba septiembre y llegó el momento propagandístico del Gobierno regional con la exclusiva de que este curso trabajaban más interinos. Lo que olvidaba decir es que el 42% de los contratos eran precarios, muchos de ellos de un tercio de jornada, lo que ha obligado a algunos interinos a tener que pagar por trabajar. ¿Con 500 euros puede subsistir un profesor si tiene que desplazarse diariamente o vivir fuera de su domicilio habitual? Porque ya les digo yo que no.

Esta precariedad en la contratación, el no haber presupuestado la reducción de una hora lectiva y el hecho de que muchas bolsas de interinos estuviesen agotadas o próximas a agotarse, desembocó en el caos educativo nunca vivido en esta comunidad autónoma, y que afectó muy especialmente a la provincia de Cuenca.

¿Cómo se puede justificar que a 1 de octubre faltasen por adjudicar 62 profesores en nuestra provincia? ¿Cómo se puede justificar que 15 días más tarde aún fuesen 25 las plazas que todavía estuviesen vacantes y que los alumnos llevasen más de un mes sin clase de muchas materias? El caso es que se perdieron miles de horas lectivas y, por el momento, aún no tenemos noticia de que se hayan recuperado. Particularmente sangrante fue lo que ocurrió en Horcajo de , donde el alumnado de Bachillerato estuvo más de un mes sin recibir clases de inglés. ¿Es de recibo que esos alumnos, que se habrán examinado este mes de la EvAU, hayan tenido que hacer la misma prueba que el resto que tuvo un mes más de clase?

En medio de este caos, el consejero, en una carta remitida a los centros, reconoció lo que estaba ocurriendo y se atrevió a afirmar que los culpables eran los 600 interinos que habían renunciado a las vacantes. Solo le faltó decir, ¿cómo es posible que con estos contratos de 500 euros un profesor no quiera dar clase fuera de su domicilio habitual?

Y como el Gobierno regional aprendió de sus errores y ya no está dispuesto a que esto vuelva a suceder, ha resuelto este problema con “mucho dialogo y consenso”: “O aceptas la plaza que te oferto o te quito de la lista de interinos”; así, tal cual. Aspecto, por cierto, denunciado por los sindicatos en reiteradas ocasiones.

Este curso fue también noticia por el mal funcionamiento de los sistemas de calefacción de los centros educativos. La sociedad conquense se quedó perpleja cuando vio las imágenes del alumnado del IES  con los abrigos puestos en las aulas porque la calefacción no funcionaba. Eso sí, inmediatamente salió el consejero afirmando que era un caso puntual. Sin embargo, pocos días después, se pudo comprobar que el caso asilado no era tal, porque fueron los alumnos del IES Santiago Grisolía de la capital los que mostraban a la prensa imágenes de como en sus aulas había una temperatura inferior a la legal por el deficiente funcionamiento de la caldera de pellet. En este caso la solución fue poner una caldera de gasoil en el patio de recreo del centro educativo. Por lo tanto, solo aquellos centros que aun mantenían la caldera de gasoil pudieron afrontar el duro invierno sin dificultades.

No le ocurrió lo mismo a los jóvenes de la residencia escolar de Albaladejito, dependiente del IES , que después de una semana sin agua caliente y sin calefacción, se atrincheraron en sus vehículos y en el propio centro cuando les comunicaron, por parte de la Dirección Provincial de Educación de Cuenca, que se cerraba la residencia. Fue el clamor y la presión del alumnado y sus familias, los sindicatos y el PP, lo que hizo que la Junta rectificara la decisión de cierre que ya había comunicado a los alumnos como definitiva. En estos momentos aún se desconoce lo que ocurrirá el curso próximo con esta residencia, ya que la decisión de cierre se dilató al mes de junio.

Llegó diciembre y los nuevos Presupuestos de 2018 se pronosticaban esperanzadores para la comunidad educativa. Un incremento de más de 1.000 millones de euros respecto a 2015 suponía que ya no había excusas para que la inversión en educación se hiciese efectiva. A esta cantidad había que sumar los 4,5 millones de euros que se recibieron por parte del Gobierno central para financiar la compra de libros de texto y avanzar en el apoyo de los alumnos para que no abandonasen el sistema educativo, porque no podemos olvidar que Castilla-La Mancha es una de las comunidades autónomas de España con una tasa de abandono escolar temprano más elevada, alcanzando el del 22%.

Esta esperanza no se materializó y fueron los sindicatos los que alertaron sobre la noticia de que Castilla-La Mancha es una de las comunidades autónomas que menos invierte en educación (4591 € por alumno), por debajo de Castilla y  (5981 €),  (6241 €), Aragón (5372 €) y Extremadura (5881 €).

Fue en febrero cuando se consumó el ataque al derecho de los padres a poder elegir la educación que quieran para sus hijos. En Cuenca se implantó la zonificación y los padres ya no pudieron elegir centro en función de su proyecto educativo, sino que debieron elegir el que esté dentro de la zona que ha delimitado el Gobierno regional en función de su domicilio.

En el mismo mes se publicaron las plantillas y venían con recortes importantes. Se habían amortizado 46 plazas (de las cuales 33 eran de maestros); se habían eliminado seis unidades de colegios (una en el colegio  De Cuenca, dos en Honrubia, dos en la Parrilla y una en Graja de Iniesta) y además habían desaparecido la mayoría de las plazas de informática de los institutos; desaparición que fue denunciada por la asociación de profesores de la especialidad alertando de que esta asignatura pasaría a impartirse por profesorado que no fuese especialista.

También se publicaron las ratios alumno-profesor para el curso 2018/2019 y volvimos a comprobar como en Castilla-La Mancha siguen siendo ilegales en muchos niveles educativos y que el Gobierno de Page no está dispuesto a cumplir la legalidad vigente, a pesar de que fue una promesa electoral.

Fue también en febrero cuando saltó la noticia de que la UCLM no tenía ni para pagar las nóminas y que el Gobierno regional no destinaba los millones suficientes para su adecuada financiación. A partir de este momento el Ejecutivo de Page inició una campaña de ataque y descrédito a la misma poniendo en duda hasta su autonomía y, por el momento, lo único que sabemos es que hace unos días el rector denunciaba que aún no se había firmado el contrato programa, tras seis meses de negociación con el Gobierno de Page. Fueron también los investigadores doctores contratados por la UCLM los que en marzo denunciaron que no habían cobrado su última nómina y también los becarios colaboradores que alertaron de la tardanza de la convocatoria y el retraso en el pago.

Un mazazo para nuestra provincia fue descubrir que el Grado de Turismo no se implantaría el curso próximo en nuestro campus y que el Gobierno regional no había hecho nada para dicha implantación.

El 9 de marzo se celebró el Día de la Enseñanza y los sindicatos le recordaron al consejero que en Castilla-La Mancha había muy poco que celebrar, ya que si el sistema educativo funcionaba era porque el profesorado seguía trabando sin desaliento; la administración seguía sin invertir en educación, a pesar de tener de 1.000 millones de más en su Presupuesto.

En el tema de las infraestructuras y después de más de tres años del Gobierno de Page, yo me pregunto: ¿se ha finalizado alguna de las infraestructuras prometidas y presupuestadas en los tres últimos ejercicios en la provincia de Cuenca? Y lo más sorprendente, sin apenas ejecutarlas infraestructuras prometidas ya nos han vendido un nuevo plan con más infraestructuras para la próxima legislatura. ¡Ojo!

En este tema hemos descubierto una nueva modalidad de anuncio y autobombo: el anuncio de la construcción de un instituto que ya se había adjudicado ocho años antes. Pongamos que hablo del instituto de Tarancón, donde fue el  en 2010 el que adjudicó la redacción del proyecto de este centro por valor de casi 250.000 euros y ocho años más tarde, en el 2018, por Resolución de 23 de abril y varios anuncios en prensa, se vuelve a anunciar la redacción del mismo proyecto de instituto y en la misma ubicación.

De todo este entresijo de anuncios ‘varios’ me surgen varias preguntas. ¿Qué ocurrió con el primer proyecto? ¿Qué fue de los 250.000 euros? ¿Se pretende engañar al alumnado de Tarancón y su comarca anunciando a un año de las elecciones lo mismo que se anunció en 2010?

Y no pensemos que esto es un caso aislado. El gimnasio del colegio de Villagarcía del Llano es otro ejemplo de promesa electoral incumplida hace muchos años. O qué decir del gimnasio del colegio  de Cuenca, denominado por algún medio digital como el “gimnasio de Cuéntame “, y que el Gobierno de Page no ha incluido en ninguno de sus presupuestos hasta ahora.

Pasemos ahora a las obras del IES . Felpeto anunció en septiembre de 2017 que este instituto estaría operativo a inicio del curso 2018/2019. Me imagino que el equipo directivo ya estará empezando a empaquetar todo lo necesario para su traslado este verano, porque sería muy duro que ocurriese lo mismo que en 2011, cuando se les dijo a los padres en el proceso de admisión que ese instituto ya estaría terminado para ese curso, y luego ya sabemos todos lo que pasó (que la empresa dejó la obra porque el Gobierno socialista de Barreda les debía varios millones de euros y los alumnos quedaron escolarizados en una ubicación distinta).

Ahora el Gobierno de Page tiene la oportunidad de hacer efectivos los Presupuestos Generales del Estado del  para que se puedan beneficiar los alumnos universitarios de Castilla-La Mancha, ya que estas Cuentas posibilitan que la primera matrícula del Grado universitario sea gratis para todos los alumnos en nuestra región.

Y de paso, tienen la posibilidad de cumplir con todas las promesas electorales en materia educativa, que después de tres años de legislatura vemos que han quedado en el olvido tanto para los que deben ejecutarlas, como para los que con tanta vehemencia reclamaban mejoras ,siendo conscientes de la ruina en la que se encontraba esta comunidad en 2011.

No puedo dejar de incluir la última ocurrencia del Gobierno regional, denunciada por los sindicatos, de que el próximo curso todos los centros educativos conquenses adelantarán los exámenes de septiembre a junio. ¿Han consensuado esta medida con la comunidad educativa? ¿Han pensado en ese alumnado que durante los dos meses de verano se preparan para superar las asignaturas no superadas?

Hecha la memoria, es el turno de las conclusiones; y en este caso dejaré a cada lector que decida si con estos datos se puede determinar que este Gobierno cumple verdaderamente sus promesas y si este Gobierno está comprometido honestamente con la mejora de la educación en Castilla-La Mancha.

Fuente del artículo: http://www.lacerca.com/noticias/articulos_opinion/hecha-memoria-educativa-conclusiones-senadora-partido-popular-cuenca-426547-1.html

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Expired education and Africa’s learning crisis

By The Guardian

The recent dismal report of a new World Bank study, which stated that Africa faced learning crises that may hinder its economic growth and the well-being of the citizens, questions the quality of basic education African governments have been providing their people. It is also an eye-opener to the abysmal degeneration of succession management for the society. Although keen observers of events on the continent have been worried about the celebration of mediocrity pervading key areas of society, this new study has presented bleak hope for Africa’s future, if drastic measures are not taken to address basic education. This is disheartening and highly lamentable.

The World Development Report (WDR) 2018, titled “Learning to Realise Education’s Promise”, was co-launched in Abuja the other day by the World Bank Group, the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Federal Ministry of Education. Whilst the report raised concerns about poor future prospect of millions of young students in low and middle-income countries owing to the failure of their primary and secondary schools to educate them to succeed in life, it also called for greater measurement, action on evidence, and coordination of all education actors.

It claimed that despite “considerable progress in boosting primary and lower secondary school enrollment, … “some 50 million children remain out of school, and most of those who attend school are not acquiring the basic skills necessary for success later in life.”

To substantiate its claims, the report noted that among second-grade students assessed on numeracy tests in several sub-Saharan African countries, three-quarters could not count beyond 80 and 40 per cent could not solve a one-digit addition problem. It went further to add: “In reading, between 50 and 80 per cent of children in second grade could not answer a single question based on a short passage they had read, and a large proportion could not read even a single word.”

Concerning Nigeria, the study found out that, when fourth grade students were asked to complete a simple two-digit subtraction problem, more than three-quarters could not solve it. It further stated that “Among young adults in Nigeria, only about 20 per cent of those who complete primary education can read. These statistics do not account for 260 million children who for reasons of conflict, discrimination, disability, and other obstacles, are not enrolled in primary or secondary school.”

Deon Filmer and Halsey Rogers, World Bank Lead Economists, who co-directed the report team, summarized the report when they stated “too many young people are not getting the education they need.” This remark corroborated the observation of Prof. Gamaliel O. Prince, the Vice Chancellor of University of America, California, who remarked at the matriculation of its Nigerian affiliate students, that Nigerians are receiving expired education. The question now is, what kind of education do African young people need?

As if a section of Nigerian youths foresaw the World Bank report, they had, two weeks, earlier flayed the poor education of Nigerian leaders, and had set a list of criteria for the next president. According to them, “many of our past and present leaders are an embarrassment to the country due to their very low educational background and lack of exposure.” These remarks are very instructive because, if today’s leaders, reputed to have had quality basic education, are leading the country astray, the quality of future leaders leaves little to imagine about when the discouraging report of the World Bank is considered.

The vital point that should not be missed in the interpretation of the report is the emphasis on quality basic education. This aspect speaks to Nigeria, where the idea of the educated is construed on the basis of holding a university degree. What kind of education would one claim to have acquired if he earned a university degree and cannot solve the problems of basic numeracy and comprehension? What kind of outcomes would be accomplished by the kind of learning provided by today’s educational institutions? This is not to assert that Nigeria does not have well-trained and adequate manpower. This is far from the truth. The highly quality manpower and human resources which Nigeria has in abundance could be seen in the value Nigerian professionals have added to the growth and progress of other countries.

As this newspaper has always admonished, addressing the problem of education in this country demands emergency response. What this country needs is a leadership that is vision-casting enough to align its human resources for growth in production. All it takes is a vision, the political will to realize that vision, and the sincerity of purpose in mobilizing the people around that vision. If learning is to be impactful and effective as to lead to personal development and pragmatic relevance to society, then Nigeria and all of Africa must first of all, understand the problem they face. Owing to the experiences of colonization, neo-colonization and even globalization, Nigeria and other African countries find themselves in the shackles of economic slavery, and have tied their educational curricula to exploitable learning models that service foreign powers.

Because the structure of income-generation and production has a part to play in learning outcomes in African countries, education ministries and stakeholders of such countries must see learning as a tool for solving problems and generating production in the society. Education should have a promise for children and youths in Africa; incentives should be made available for structured learning.

One of the maladies of African leaders is cronyism and nepotism. This extension of selfish interests to the benefits of family, friends, clans, ethnic groups and political party loyalists has encouraged the dominance of mediocrity in leadership in a manner that suffocates excellence. African leaders should build a culture of succession management founded on excellence so that the right persons in the right places would think out the right policies to move their countries forward. They should take a cue from forward-looking countries by identifying the best in all fields, and positioning them as managers for national reconstruction.

Furthermore, African leaders should go back to the drawing-board and identify the problems facing their people, and on the basis of this, begin to design curricula that should enable African children think inwards. Learning models should consider the role of history in understanding the African predicament and how it can empower them to think about Africa’s place in a competitive world. These models should also stress the relevance of language in learning.

To effectively get this done in Nigeria, especially, and save the nation from its many crises, it is indeed apparent that restructuring into a properly run federalism would have to drive structured learning.

Source of the article: https://guardian.ng/opinion/expired-education-and-africas-learning-crisis/

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