Updated lockdown rules for schools – including matric exams, return to hostels and more

Africa/ South Africa/ 23.06.2020/ Source: businesstech.co.za.

 

The Department of Basic Education has published a new directive focusing on the reopening of school’s under South Africa’s lockdown.

While the directive is largely in line with previous changes made by the department, it does provide further clarity of a number of key issues.

These points are outlined in more detail below.


Matric exams

The directive states that the May/June 2020 examination for candidates who registered for the Senior Certificate and the National Senior Certificate will be administered in November/December 2020.

It adds that the November/December 2020 National Senior Certificate examinations will be administered as planned, subject to the alignment of the timetable to the 2020 revised school calendar.

The revised school calendar can be viewed here.


School attendance 

The directive makes specific provision for parents who do not wish for their children to return to school due to coronavirus concerns.

In these instances, a parent must apply to the Head of Department, who, in terms of section 4 of the South African Schools Act, may exempt a learner entirely, partially or conditionally from compulsory school attendance, if it is in the best interests of the learner.

This is subject to the proviso that the parent makes reasonable efforts to ensure that the learner continues learning from home in line with the learning materials provided by the school.

“Should a parent wish to apply for a learner to receive education at the learner’s home (home education), he or she must comply with the legal requirements for the provision of home education, as contemplated in section 51 of the South African Schools Act.”


Opening of hostels

The department said that school hostels are permitted to open provided that they comply with the department’s minimum health, safety and social distancing measures and requirements on Covid-19.

The directive also includes new requirements for both schools that plan to reopen their hostels, as well as requirements for schools who plan to close their hostels.

“Hostels may open once the notification and declaration have been submitted to the Head of Department: Provided that the Provincial Department of Education reserves the right to conduct an inspection, once the hostels have opened to verify the hostel with the measures and requirements.”


Learners with special educational needs

In addition to the guidelines developed for schools with specific categories of learners with disabilities, all schools with learners with special educational needs, as contemplated in the South African Schools Act, must comply with all directions and circulars regarding the re-opening of schools.

The new directive makes a number of specific provisions for the return of these learners, including autistic learners and learners who are blind, partially sighted or deaf.

“Officials who are unable to practise social distancing from learners with special education needs must be provided by the Provincial Department of Education with appropriate personal protective equipment, including protective clothing, where such provision is necessary.”

“Officials appointed to carry out symptom screening, in accordance with direction 13, in schools for deaf learners, must be able to communicate using South African Sign Language. Where this is not possible, a sign language interpreter must be available to ensure proper communication with the learners.”


Permits and certificates

The directive states that school officials who have to commute to and from work on a daily basis are permitted to move between provinces, metropolitan areas and districts provided they have the correct permit.

This permit may be issued by the Head of Department or a delegated official or, in the case of a school, by a principal or a person delegated by him or her.

Similarly, learners who are required to move between provinces to commute to and from school on a daily basis must be issued with a certificate issued by a principal or a person delegated by him or her.

You can find these documents in the directive below.


Curriculum trimming

To accommodate the teaching time lost as a result of the national state of disaster and the adjustment of timetables, the national curriculum has been reviewed by the Department of Basic Education.

The revised content phase map, which contains a broad overview of the curriculum content, including skills, knowledge, attitudes and values learners would be exposed to over a three year period, as well as the revised annual teaching plans and curriculum support guidelines, are accessible on the website of the Department of Basic Education here.


You can read the full directive below.


Source of the notice: https://businesstech.co.za/news/government/410045/updated-lockdown-rules-for-south-african-schools-including-matric-exams-return-to-hostels-and-more/

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Poe wants social media awareness included in primary, secondary education in PH

Asia/ Phillipine/ 30.07.2019/ Source: news.mb.com.ph.

Poe on Tuesday, July 2, filed Senate Bill No. 129, which seeks the inclusion of social media and its importance in the curriculum of primary and secondary levels of education in the country.

This was one of the first 10 measures she filed to begin her second term in Senate.

“Social media is upon us and should be put to good use by teaching the youth the value of responsible, fair and truthful usage,” Poe said in a statement.

“Magandang lugar ang mga paaralan para maimulat ang mga kabataan sa responsable, mapanuri at produktibong paggamit ng social media. Kailangang mabigyan din sila ng sapat na impormasyon kung ano ang maaaring i-post, ano ang mga dapat iwasang paniwalaan agad, at kung paano mag-beripika ng mga datos. Para na rin ito sa kanilang kaligtasan,” she added.

(Schools are an ideal place to teach the youth on the responsible, critical and productive use of social media. They should also be given enough information about what they can or cannot post, what should not be believed easily, and how to verify data. This is also for their safety.)

In her bill, the Department of Education (DepEd), in consultation with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), will formulate the necessary steps and measures to achieve these objectives.

Aside from elementary and high school, Poe also sought to include social media education in the National Service Training Program (NSTP), particularly in the service components pertaining to the Literacy Training Service and the Civic Welfare Training Service.

The bill tasks the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), in consultation with DICT, to lead its implementation.

The “Digital 2019, a report from Hootsuite and We are Social showing people’s online behavior around the world, found that Filipinos spend an average of 10 hours a day on the internet.

Digital 2019 also revealed that social media use in the Philippines was at 71 percent, above the worldwide average of 45 percent. It said Filipinos spent the most time on social media at four hours and 12 minutes on average per day.
It also showed that 79 million Filipinos aged 13 and older were on social media.

In her bill, Poe noted the role of social media in information dissemination and shaping of public discourse and opinion.

She said she hoped that the youth will learn the virtues of discernment and critical thinking amid the prevalence of so-called “fake news”.

“This bill seeks to insulate the citizenry from attempts to unscrupulously utilize Social Media for various kinds of black propaganda and misinformation which are detrimental to transparency, accountability and truthfulness which could frustrate a meaningful, fruitful and intelligent discourse towards nation-building,” Poe added.

Source of the notice: https://news.mb.com.ph/2019/07/03/poe-wants-social-media-awareness-included-in-primary-secondary-education-in-ph/

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Special needs funding gap in London schools «unsustainable»

Europe/ United Kindow/ 29.07.2019/ By Jessie Mathewson/ Source: www.times-series.co.uk.

 

Special needs and disability support in London schools is facing “unsustainable financial risk” according to a report from London Councils.

A “dramatic and sustained rise” in demand for special educational needs and disability services (SEND) has led to a £77 million funding gap in the capital, research found.

There are more than 200,000 young people in London with special educational needs or a disability, and almost a quarter have high needs.

Children with high needs often require more support, which may include an education health and care plan. This is a record of the support that a child needs, helping them to access specialist services from their local council.

Demand for health and care plans in the capital has increased rapidly, rising by 31 per cent between 2014/15 and 2017/18. All but one London council now has a deficit in its budget for children with high special educational or disability needs.

Councillor Nickie Aiken, leader of Westminster Council and London Councils’ executive member for schools and children’s services, said the current pressure on council budgets was “unsustainable”.

She said: “When children and families aren’t getting the right support at the right time, the effects can be disastrous.”

She added: “The Government needs to boost investment in children’s services in line with councils’ rising costs. That’s the only way to ensure the sustainability of the high-value, high-impact local services that make such a difference to children’s lives.”

Responding to the report, the London Assembly’s education panel chair, Jennette Arnold, said the Mayor must continue to put pressure on the Government to increase funding in line with demand.

She said: “SEND pupils are more than capable of having a bright future and a good life in adulthood if the resource is made available to ensure the work to make that happens starts as early as possible.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Education said SEND funding for schools had increased from £5 billion in 2013 to £6 billion this year, with an extra £42 million earmarked for London in December.

He said: “Our ambition for children with special education needs and disabilities is the same as for every other child – to achieve well in education, find employment and go on to live happy and fulfilled lives.

He added: “We are looking carefully at how much funding for education will be needed in future years, as we approach the next spending review.”

London Councils could not publish borough-specific budget data, or confirm which boroughs had a deficit.

Source of the notice: https://www.times-series.co.uk/news/17792286.special-needs-funding-gap-london-schools-quot-unsustainable-quot/

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U.S. Department of Education Acts on School Safety Report Recommendation to Improve Understanding of Student Privacy Law

Por: www.ed.gov/13-02-2019

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Education today released a comprehensive set of frequently asked questions (FAQs) on schools’ and districts’ responsibilities under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) in the context of school safety.

The Federal Commission on School Safety (FCSS) released an in-depth report last December, which observed that “substantial misunderstanding remains at the local level among officials and educators concerning (FERPA), and in particular its application to school-based threats.”

This FAQ document, titled, School Resource Officers, School Law Enforcement Units and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), consolidates previously issued guidance and technical assistance into a single resource to help raise schools’ and districts’ awareness of these provisions.

«One key takeaway from the commission’s work was that the federal government needs to do a much better job of providing useable information that’s simple, streamlined and clear,» said Secretary DeVos. «FERPA is an area where widespread confusion remains, and this clarification will give local school leaders and law enforcement the tools they need to protect student privacy while ensuring the health and safety of students and others in the school community.»

The document consists of 37 commonly asked questions about schools’ and school districts’ responsibilities under FERPA relating to disclosures of student information to school resource officers (SROs), law enforcement units and others, and seeks to explain and clarify how FERPA protects student privacy while ensuring the health and safety of students and others in the school community.

The FAQ document includes answers to common FERPA questions involving school safety, such as:

  • Can law enforcement unit officials who are off-duty police officers or SROs be considered school officials under FERPA and, therefore, have access to students’ education records?
  • Does FERPA permit schools and districts to disclose education records, without consent, to outside law-enforcement officials who serve on a school’s threat assessment team?
  • When is it permissible for schools or districts to disclose student education records under FERPA’s health or safety emergency exception?
  • Does FERPA permit school officials to release information that they personally observed or of which they have personal knowledge?

The full FAQ document can be found here.

For additional information on the meetings, field visits, listening sessions, roundtables and other resources used to produce the FCSS report, please visit the school safety website.

*Fuente: https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-acts-school-safety-report-recommendation-improve-understanding-student-privacy-law

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United States: Fixing education is key to improving job creation

North America/United States/02.07.18/By Bernie Marcus/Source: thehill.com.

Could merging the Labor and Education departments, as the Trump administration proposes, help make the U.S. education system more responsive to the 21st century needs of the labor market?

Students hope so. While the economy is booming, and the class of 2018 has it better off than its millennial predecessors, the entrepreneurship rate is still sputtering. Combining Labor and Education could help influence colleges to add broad entrepreneurship requirements, which are needed for all students in today’s economy where creative destruction is seemingly upending every profession.

According to Census Bureau data, the start-up rate is still hovering near its Great Recession low. The share of young companies less than a year old has declined by almost half in the last generation. And the Kauffman Foundation’s Startup Activity Index is still below its pre-recession level. Given that start-ups drive productivity and innovation, their disappearance has broader implications than just reduced entrepreneurial opportunity.

There are many reasons for the low start-up rate. For one, health-care premiums on the individual market doubled between 2013 and 2017, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. These high costs tip the scales for would-be entrepreneurs in favor of keeping their day jobs with relatively inexpensive health insurance.

But perhaps the biggest reason for the low start-up rate is the country’s higher-education system, which has not modernized along with the economy. Roughly one-quarter of the 1.9 million bachelor degrees awarded in 2016 were in the fields of humanities, psychology, communications or languages — majors where students generally graduate without any entrepreneurial instruction at all.

Just as students majoring in business and STEM (science, tech, engineering and math), are required to take liberal arts courses because these ideally teach critical thinking skills, students majoring in liberal arts should be required to take entrepreneurship courses. Entrepreneurship can bring solutions to scale, and can especially help liberal arts graduates who have few, if any, hard skills.

Liberal arts programs would also better prepare students for the 21st century economy by incorporating principles of entrepreneurship into the general curriculum. In practice this could mean history classes that highlight how comparative advantage and trade made the West rich; geography classes that explain how micro-lending contributes to indigenous wealth creation in Africa; sociology classes that showcase how economic opportunity is the best way to alleviate poverty; philosophy classes that teach the morality of capitalism.

It’s not only college curricula that have weighed on startup rates but also college cost. According to the Department of Education, the cost of attending a four-year college has risen by 64 percent over the past 20 years, adjusted for inflation. As a result, Americans now shoulder $1.5 trillion in student loan debt — an average of more than $30,000 per borrower. Carrying this much debt makes it difficult to take the entrepreneurial plunge, given that it usually means going into more debt. Colleges that more efficiently teach entrepreneurial skills valued by the job market play an important role in helping to bring down these costs.

All this isn’t to say there’s no entrepreneurial movement on campuses. A Kauffman Foundation report finds entrepreneurial programs have more than quadrupled since 1975. The re-examination of the Department of Education priorities as a result of a merger with the Department of Labor could help build on this momentum to make entrepreneurship a core part of the college experience.

All students should be equipped with the thinking to start the next Etsy, Main Street diner or The Home Depot. Only when entrepreneurship is a core pillar of the educational system will students be able to take full advantage of the modern economy, reverse the dwindling startup rate, and — more importantly — renew the American dream.

Source of the notice: http://thehill.com/opinion/education/395011-fixing-education-is-key-to-improving-job-creation

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Sudáfrica: Matric pupils robbed of an education

Por: risingsunchatsworth.co.za/Bianca Lalbahadur/04-04-2018
Angered parents of the pupils said their children were being robbed of an education due to the lack of interest by the Department of Education to employ teachers at the school and in the interim, their children are at a major disadvantage.

Irate and disgruntled SGB members and pupils of Dumisani Makhaye High School in Welbedacht West marched to the Education Board in Pietermaritzburg to demand their basic right to an education after they missed their first quarterly physical science examination due to a lack of proper staff, on Wednesday.

Angered parents of the pupils said their children were being robbed of an education due to the lack of interest by the Department of Education to employ teachers at the school and in the interim, their children are at a major disadvantage.

The only pupils who did not write their exams are those studying physical science.

“Physical science is one of the most complicated subjects that children study at secondary school level and the fact that they were forced to miss the examination is very disappointing and unacceptable,” said the parents.

Speaking to journalists, the chairman of the school governing body, Joseph Jili said, “The reason for the protest was to highlight all of the issues that the pupils have been faced with since the inception of the school.  The school has been left without six teachers and non-teaching staff as well, since early last year.  As a result of this, pupils of matric physical science class had to miss their first exam.”

He added that the principal is doing everything in his power to assist and resolve this issue.

Since the protest, the head of the Department of Education agreed to meet before the next school term to address all of the issues that are being faced at the school.

“The reason why we do not have the staff that the school requires is because the department sent out a new HRM which made it difficult to hire new teachers as there is only one person, who signs off these documents.  Members of the school governing body, and myself included are hopeful that through this meeting, we can establish a way forward for the school and the pupils in terms of their examinations which they were unable to write,” added Jili.

Spokesman of the Department of Education, Kwazi Mthethwa said, “All schools in the district do have teachers that the department of education has provided to them.  The school governing body and the pupils need to address the principal with regards to their issues.  The governing body of the school still needs to be elected.”

Principal of the school, Mr Zwane, was unable to comment on the matter at hand, due to protocol from the Department of Education.

*Fuente: https://risingsunchatsworth.co.za/109965/matric-pupils-robbed-education/

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Afghanistan: Improving girls’ access to education in Bamyan’s northeast districts spotlighted in UN event

Afghanistan/ August 26, 2017/By: UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan/ Source: http://reliefweb.int

Afghan girls must be supported in pursuing their education to enable their full participation in all aspects of social and political life, said community leaders at a UN-backed event held last week in the central highlands province of Bamyan.

Department of Education officials, community leaders and students from Bamyan’s northeastern districts of Kahmard, Saighan and Shibar gathered at the event to understand the factors that are contributing to low enrolment of girls.

Bamyan’s northeast districts have been vulnerable to the influence of anti-government elements, just as long-held conservative beliefs continue to restrict the rights of girls in the province.

The recent event, facilitated by the Bamyan regional office of UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), was set up so participants could strategize on ways to address these and several other factors, including school infrastructure and teacher qualifications.

“It is essential to have more women teachers and an increased recognition among communities and families as to why sending girls to school is important,” said Najiba, a girl from a local school.

Sayed Ali Ihsani, the head of the monitoring section of Bamyan’s Department of Education, underscored the importance of girls’ education in fostering both development and peace, and urged community leaders to ensure the security of teachers and school monitors.

Participants at the event agreed that the best way forward in addressing the many challenges unique to the province’s northeast districts is to focus on increasing collaboration between communities and local government, and continuing to strategize on ways to reduce poverty and unemployment.

Participants universally called for expanding access to education for girls as a fundamental right, and agreed to convene district-specific meetings between education officials, teachers, parents and community leaders to continue the dialogue and strategize further on education-related issues.

The event was recorded by local media and was broadcast by radio to an audience estimated at 350,000 people in and around the province’s capital city.

UNAMA is mandated to assist the Afghan Government and the people of Afghanistan in the prevention and resolution of conflicts through facilitation of dialogues and provision of ‘good offices’. ‘Good offices’ are diplomatic steps UN takes publicly and in private, drawing on its independence, impartiality and integrity, to prevent international disputes from arising, escalating or spreading.

UNAMA also promotes coherent development support by the international community; assists the process of peace and reconciliation; monitors and promotes human rights and the protection of civilians in armed conflict; promotes good governance; and encourages regional cooperation.

Source:

http://reliefweb.int/report/afghanistan/improving-girls-access-education-bamyan-s-northeast-districts-spotlighted-un

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