Education

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Kenya: Climate change to be included in new education curriculum

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África /Kenya / 26.02.2018 / By: www.the-star.co.ke.

Commonwealth countries have resolved to include climate change in their curriculum from Early Childhood Education to institutions of higher learning.

In a declaration of the 20th Commonwealth Conference of Education Ministers in Nadi, Fiji, on Friday, the ministers said they will double efforts to educate present and future generations on climate change.

Speaking during the conference, Education CS Amina Mohamed said rising seas and extreme weather changes are the greatest threats facing humanity.

Mohamed, who also chaired the conference, said there was need to promote climate awareness, including through mass education beyond the classroom.

The CS called for stronger engagement with the private sector and other industry players.

The conference also called for increased awareness of green and blue technologies and emerging alternative for clean energy sources.

The ministers said progress has been made in expanding access to education. They stressed the need to improve quality of education to ensure learners master both numeracy and literacy skills.

Member states also agreed to focus on training, recruitment and motivation of teachers.

The ministers said there was need to tackle emerging challenges like employment and ensure learners get the best start in education.

The conference called on governments to invest at least four to six per cent of their GDP or between 15-20 per cent of government spending in education.

The meeting in Fiji also resolved to have Kenya host the next conference in 2021.

The conference brings together education ministers from all the 52 Commonwealth countries to discuss key issues affecting the sector.

Mohammed appreciated the decision to have Kenya host the next conference.

“I wish to confirm, with gratitude and humility, that Kenya accepts the honour of hosting the 21st CCEM. Kenya looks forward to hosting the 21st Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers in 2021,” Mohamed said.

“We will work with the Commonwealth Secretariat to ensure that the logistical, administrative and other preparations are in place for a successful conference.»

From: https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2018/02/26/climate-change-to-be-included-in-new-education-curriculum_c1719891.

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Interview with Ong Ye Kung: Skills are something that activate your knowledge

Entrevistas

In the first of a four-part series, Education Minister Ong Ye Kung explains why he places skills above degrees

A man who places such a high premium on skills over the paper chase does not mind sharing that this year, under his watch, more school leavers will be able to land a place in the local universities.

The cohort participation rate (CPR) – or the proportion of those from this age group making their way to universities – will rise to 37.5 per cent from 35 per cent last year.

Despite the shrinking cohort size, this means the number of those heading to the six publicly funded universities is still higher than last year’s figure and translates to just over 16,000 places.

Between them, they will enrol in over 250 degree programmes, including new courses in emerging fields such as smart city management, data science and artificial intelligence.

Education Minister in charge of Higher Education and Skills Ong Ye Kung, who revealed this in an interview with The Straits Times, says with the increase, the Ministry of Education is well on track to meeting the 40 per cent cohort participation rate that the Government aims to achieve by 2020.

What happens after 2020? Will this figure be relooked? After all, there has been much discussion recently on the Singapore economy needing a more highly educated and skilled workforce.

 Minister Ong says the figure of 40 per cent for 2020 refers only to funded places at the autonomous universities for junior college or polytechnic students proceeding to full-time undergraduate studies before they enter the workforce.
Mr Ong Ye Kung, 48, was elected Member of Parliament for Sembawang GRC in September 2015, and subsequently appointed Acting Minister for Education in charge of higher education and skills.

He was also concurrently appointed Senior Minister of State for Defence.

On Nov 2016, he was promoted to Education Minister (Higher Education and Skills), and concurrently Second Minister in the Ministry of Defence.

Prior to his Cabinet appointment, Mr Ong held the position of director of group strategy at Keppel Corporation, overseeing long-term strategic planning of the group’s activities.

Before joining Keppel, he was the deputy secretary-general of the National Trades Union Congress, overseeing the labour movement’s employment and employability programmes.

He held various positions in the Government earlier.

These include being chief executive of Singapore Workforce Development Agency, where he spearheaded many initiatives to build up the continuing education and training infrastructure.

He was principal private secretary to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong from 2003 to 2005, and press secretary to Prime Minister Lee from 1997 to 2003.

Mr Ong was also the deputy chief negotiator for the US-Singapore Free Trade Agreement.

Mr Ong graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science with a first-class honours Bachelor of Science (Economics) degree, and holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the Institute of Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland.

He is married with two teenage children.

POLYTECHNIC OR UNIVERSITY?

It’s hard to say. When I was young, I was always interested in art. I drew comics, superheroes, gongfu characters – so if I were to follow my interests it will probably take me into art – perhaps digital animation. I will look at what course will train me best in those skills, so I will probably go to a polytechnic. If there is a degree in that field, I might go for it, provided it could teach me the skills I need. But having said that, I am also interested in science and maths, and if I go with the flow of what is expected of me, I may take a degree pathway, especially since degrees are still the dominant currency.

MR ONG YE KUNG, on whether he would choose the skills or degree path if he were 18 again and heading to further studies.

It does not take into account those who study part-time for degrees at both the public and private institutions here as well as those who head overseas. If these figures were included, then the proportion of degree holders among an age group is likely to be 50 to 60 per cent, similar to that for many developed countries.

But pressed further, he says: «In time to come, we hope that 100 per cent of Singaporeans will have skills or qualifications that are on a par with having a degree, or even master’s, in terms of job prospects.»

He stands by his constant refrain that Singaporeans should stop believing that university education is the only way to develop an individual’s potential.

«This could be in the form of a degree, a master’s, a specialist diploma, an accumulation of short courses attained in different phases of your life, or just something that the industry knows you are good at, without any paper qualifications. It is about having a high level of expertise, passion and mastery in a particular area, » he says.

Although university degrees are the «currency» to land good jobs at the moment, he stresses that deep skills are what will count for career progression.

He notes that Singapore’s economy has diverse needs and will require diverse talents from a spectrum of expertise. As such, the Government is looking at providing «diverse and multitudinous» pathways for people to build skills.

«Ultimately, it is not about having a degree for its sake, but about skills for work and for life. Throughout their lifetime, everyone should have that depth of knowledge and agility in applying their skills in different contexts. There are many paths to arrive there.

«One dominant path is to study, get a degree and work for the rest of your life. For that, we have a CPR that we plan for. Even in that traditional path, we are trying to make it more varied, through different universities, different teaching methods, different subjects and different domain expertise.»

But he admits that many employers still hire on the basis of qualifications, and this gets in the way of Singaporeans chasing skills instead of degrees.

«I speak to many employers and the bosses all agree with the idea of looking beyond academic results and degrees. Yet, they have not changed their hiring practices significantly. One employer of a fairly big company recently told me that he hires for skills, but when elaborating, he said he doesn’t just go for second upper honours any more… Now he hires graduates with second lower honours as well.»

Mr Ong urges employers to «go through the trouble» and be open to using various assessments and to hire based on skills, so as to find workers with the right fit to grow their businesses.

He goes on to list the important skills – both hard and soft – that all Singaporeans, including graduates, should acquire .

Because technological changes are «turning industries upside down», graduates need to understand the latest technologies and be able to work with them.

«I am not saying you need to be a coder or an IT expert. But it will be good to have a basic understanding of technology and how it can be used in the field you are in.»

With the advance of artificial intelligence, he advises Singaporeans not to be like robots.

«If you work like a robot, you will be replaced by a robot,» he said. In this era we must be «more human than ever – in anything we do», he says, pointing to the fact that AI is not very good at jobs that require creativity, empathy, critical thinking, leadership or artistic expression.

The other force to be reckoned with is globalisation, which is still gathering pace.

«Singapore’s economy will become more connected than ever to the region and the world,» he says. So Singaporeans must aim to take a cue from the expatriate talents coming to the Republic. They must have the hunger and sense of adventure to go out of Singapore and seize opportunities in a foreign land.

And Singaporeans must be able appreciate and operate within different cultures. Mr Ong reminds graduates that with half of their peers holding degrees, they cannot rely on just their qualifications to stand out from the crowd.

«In this landscape, you can no longer say, ‘I am a degree holder and am therefore different from others.’ You have to go beyond that. You have to develop a niche… and be able to sell and present that niche as your area of mastery and differentiate yourself,» he says.

Asked if he would place skills above degrees, he says it need not be one above the other.

«The traditional view is that a degree is above skills, but that is because when we think of skills in Singapore, we think of vocational skills acquired through polytechnic and Institute of Technical Education courses.

«You accumulate knowledge through a degree course, but to convert the knowledge into something useful to society, you require skills. Skills are something that activate your knowledge. From that perspective, skills are above degrees.

«The truth is, both are needed – it is a mesh of what you know and what you can do.»

He stresses that parents, students and employers all need to embrace this larger definition of skills future.

«That’s really the skills we’re referring to in SkillsFuture,» he says, referring to the national movement to harness the aspirations and talents of the population and encourage Singaporeans to keep on learning and upgrading their knowledge and skills.

He hopes that society as a whole will recognise and celebrate the spectrum of success in different fields. » If society sticks to a narrow notion of success, then we will always be stuck in it. Society must embrace them all. Only then will we have true diversity in meritocracy… not just academic meritocracy but a meritocracy of skills.»

In partnership with

By: Sandra Davir.

From: http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/education/minister-skills-are-something-that-activate-your-knowledge-about-mr-ong-ye-kung

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The reality of free education for all in Ghana

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Asia/Ghana/ 26.02.2018/ By: www.aljazeera.com.

Since gaining independence in 1957, Ghana has focused on improving access to education and achieving universal enrolment.

Primary education became free in 1961 and the 1980s saw major reforms swept through the education system, including restructuring primary and secondary education and introducing vocational classes.

In September 2017, the Ghanaian government made secondary education free, with President Nana Akufo-Addo reportedly saying: «There will be no admission fees, no library fees, no science centre fees, no computer laboratory fees, no examination fees, no utility fees. There will be free textbooks, free boarding and free meals.»

The benefits of the Ghanian government’s focus on education are reflected in the country’s rising literacy rate. According to UNESCO statistics from 2010, the literacy rate among 15-24-year-olds is 85.72 percent, compared with 34.89 percent in those aged 65 or older.

Despite these measures, many children, particularly those living in rural areas, struggle to stay in school.

Economic necessity forces children to drop out of school in search of work, and girls are often charged with looking after younger siblings and helping with domestic work.

NGOs are attempting to address these issues at the community level and ensure every child has access to education.

Johnson Ayonka is the director of the Grassroots Transparency Initiative at WillWay Africa, an NGO that supports low-income communities in health, education and economic empowerment.

Jo Hallett works with Ghana School Aid and Let’s Read Ghana to provide grants to schools in rural communities and support the teaching of English in the far north of the country.

Al Jazeera spoke with Ayonka and Hallett about the realities of getting an education in Ghana today.

Al Jazeera: What effect has the recent removal of secondary school fees had on both children and schools?

Johnson Ayonka: It has had an impact, but because the national government is inefficient, the money from the central government doesn’t always get to the communities. In the very poor communities, there is the wider problem of poverty that’s forcing people to drop out, despite education being free and some schools are still charging fees because the money from the government didn’t get to them.

Even though the intention behind the policy was good, the government was not well prepared to implement it to the fullest. They also tried to implement it from the centre, instead of from the local area and the money was not made available in advance. It was sort of «putting the cart before the horse», instead of the money being there before the policy, the policy comes and then the money.

The policy is OK, the students have enrolled because they know that they’ll get free education, but after that, we find out that nothing effective takes place because what is needed is not there because of bureaucracy and inefficiency.

Al Jazeera: What are the barriers still preventing access to education today?

Jo Hallett: In the last few years, there has also been quite a push on more school buildings and a big push on enrolment and I think that [the Ghanaian government has] done very well on getting the vast majority of children into school, [but] there are huge barriers to accessing education. There’s a serious lack of trained teachers. In many of the schools we go into, the majority of the staff are volunteers or student teachers.

There’s a lack of finance for schools in general, so although the children are there, the buildings are not there, although overall they have improved, lots of schools have either very poor buildings or no buildings at all; they call it «under the tree» so classes are taught under a tree. There’s a lack of equipment and a lack of books and resources, the training of teachers, finance of all sorts and that needs to be addressed.

Often the teachers don’t get paid for several months because the District Education doesn’t have the finance to pay them and, therefore, there’s a lack of commitment on their part to some extent. Class sizes also vary enormously. A good teacher can manage quite a big class but sometimes it’s overwhelming: you go into a classroom and there are 70 pupils in there and one teacher who may not be trained, who’s trying to manage them and it’s impossible really, it’s really difficult.

There’s a lack of finance for schools in general, so although the children are there, the buildings are not there … lots of schools have either very poor buildings or no buildings at all.

Al Jazeera: How are rural communities affected?

Hallett: In many rural areas, the families are involved in subsistence farming or illegal mining and, with farming, the children get pulled out of school for harvest and sewing.

Another really significant thing that we see is the complete lack of spoken English in the rural areas. In school, after the first couple of years, the education is in English. There are 52 languages in Ghana, but the common language, and the language of government, [and] the language they’re expected to learn in is English.

If you live in a town, the chances are that you will see English sometimes and hear it, but out in the rural areas where we go in the far north, they speak a language called Guruni, which is spoken in a very small area, and it’s not written down at all so there aren’t any signposts or posters so [children] don’t have text in the environment, either in their own language or in English.

Al Jazeera: Do girls face additional challenges to entering education?

Ayonka: At the primary level the gender gap is small, it’s very, very small, and that indicates that a lot of progress has been made in the education of girls. But as girls mature into their teenage years, they face a lot of challenges because there’s a lot of gender disparity in terms of who should do house chores, so girls suffer more.

When you get closer to higher levels of education, even though the gap has reduced over the years, it’s still there because cultural factors come into play and there are issues of early marriage and families spending more on boys than on girls.

We need something to address that gap because it will relieve the economic aspects of education and leave the responsibility to the government so that families don’t have to decide: «Are we going to educate the boy and leave the girl out? Or are we going to educate both?»

Al Jazeera: What steps should the government take now?

Ayonka: What we see recently from the government is that a lot of policies and actions are done in isolation. Let’s say you see an area where there’s a high instance of teenage pregnancy and you don’t also make arrangements for the education authorities to work with the healthcare authorities and social workers; even though there’s free education, you are still going to get low enrolment because there is no coordination.

Another problem is the issue of access to the education infrastructure, there’s free education on paper but the schools are few, especially in the rural areas. You can say you want to give free education to people but if you don’t give them physical access to the schools by building more schools, then you still don’t have free education … I think communities need to be empowered to build their own schools, to recruit their own teachers, monitor the teachers and make sure that the standard of education is high.

There’s a big gap between what is happening at the government level and what is happening at the community level.

Hallett: There needs to be a bigger commitment to funding and a raising of the status of teachers. [The government] has done some really good things, some of the curriculum books are excellent, but they also need to have a bit of money and resources to back up that commitment, but I do think Ghana is trying hard.

Kayayo: Ghana's Living Shopping Baskets

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

From: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/qa-reality-free-education-ghana-180219070207774.html

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Singapore: Degrees or skills? ST Education Forum to debate issue

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Asia/ Singapore /26.02.2018 / From: www.straitstimes.com. By: Fabian Koh.

Con la cantidad de plazas universitarias en aumento este año, más estudiantes que abandonan la escuela tendrán una oportunidad de obtener una educación de nivel de grado.

With the number of university places increasing this year, more school leavers will have a shot at degree-level education.

There will be slightly over 16,000 places in the six publicly funded universities, despite a shrinking cohort size. This means the cohort participation rate will reach 37.5 per cent, up from 35 per cent last year.

Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills) Ong Ye Kung told The Straits Times that his ministry is on track to meeting the 40 per cent cohort participation rate announced six years ago.

Degrees have typically been associated with better job prospects and higher salaries. Degree holders draw higher starting salaries compared with diploma holders, and the earnings gap widens over the years.

Those who cannot get into a local public university tend to look overseas or take the private school route.

However, in an age of technological advancements and disruptions in the workplace, degree holders are increasingly unemployed, or underemployed, in many economies.

The oversupply of degree holders has also had a dampening effect on graduate salaries.

  • EVENT INFORMATION

  • The Straits Times Education Forum on Degrees versus Skills is supported by the Singapore Management UniversityDate: March 17 ( Saturday)Time: 10am to 12pm (Registration begins at 9am, guests to be seated by 9.50am)Location: Singapore Management University School of Law Building, Basement 1 SMU Hall, 55 Armenian Street, Singapore 179943Cost: Free for ST readersOnline registration: http://str.sg/st-education-forum-2018

    Limited seats are available.

In such a climate, does the conventional thinking that a degree equals success still hold true? Or should young people be focused on developing skills in fields relevant to the economy in this new age?

Singapore Management University (SMU) president Arnoud De Meyer said: «A university degree is more than just a piece of paper; it is more than just a way to get a good job. University education equips students with the ability to learn how to learn; it stimulates their curiosity and develops the whole person for lifelong benefits.»

Professor De Meyer will be part of a debate on the degrees versus skills issue at The Straits Times Education Forum, presented by SMU, on March 17.

The debate will be held at the SMU School of Law Building in Armenian Street.

Straits Times editor Warren Fernandez said: «This is a longstanding issue – do you need a degree to get ahead? – but it has added resonance today given the massive disruption across industries.

«It is pertinent to ask how best our people should prepare for work in the future and whether degrees or skills will help them more?»

Along with SMU law dean Goh Yihan, Prof De Meyer will be arguing against the motion: «You don’t need a degree to succeed in life.»

On the other side of the debate will be Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development education director Andreas Schleicher and SkillsFuture Singapore chief executive Ng Cher Pong.

The debate will be moderated by Mr Patrick Daniel, consultant to Singapore Press Holdings.

A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on February 26, 2018, with the headline ‘Degrees or skills? ST Education Forum to debate issue’.

From: http:///singapore/education/degrees-or-skills-st-education-forum-to-debate-issue

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South Africa: Why Budget 2018 gets a C for addressing education crisis

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South Africa / 26.02.2018 /By:  www.fin24.com/.

Educación de jóvenes de Sudáfrica se ha destacado como una de las tres principales prioridades nacionales en discurso sobre el presupuesto 2018.

Cape Town – The education of South Africa’s youth has been highlighted as one of the top three national priorities in Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba’s 2018 budget speech.

Soria Hay, head of corporate finance at Bravura, says that, while Budget 2018 gets an A for the commitment to fee-free higher education and training for South Africa’s disadvantaged youth, it deserves a meagre C for inefficiently responding to the burning issues at the heart of South Africa»s education crisis.

Fee-free higher education

The 2018 Budget Speech has made good on the commitment towards fee-free education by proposing an implementation plan that will guarantee access to higher education and training for all South Africans who qualify, based on merit rather than class position. Government is committed to spending over R1trn on education in the next three years.

Post school education and training will be the fastest-growing spending category in the 2018 budget, with an anticipated annual average growth rate of 13.7%.

A budget allocation of R57bn in the medium term for fee-free higher education and training will be dispersed as R12.4bn in 2018/19, R20.3bn in 2019/20 and R24.3bn in 2020/21. There is also the inclusion of a R10bn provisional allocation made in Budget 2017.

Fee-free higher education and training (including university and TVET colleges) will be implemented in a phased approach aimed at first-year students from poor and working-class families, with a total family income below R350 000 per annum. The roll out will continue into subsequent years until all years of study are covered.

Allocation to basic education

In terms of basic education, a total of R792bn in aggregate will be spent on basic education over the medium term. Within this, the education infrastructure grant will allocate R31.7bn over the medium term and will include a R3.8bn allocation to the school infrastructure backlogs grant in order to replace 82 inappropriate and unsafe schools, and to provide water to 325 schools and sanitation to 286 schools.

A further R21.7bn over the medium term will be set aside to provide daily meals to 19 800 schools (9 million learners) through the national school nutrition programme grant. And 39 000 Funza Lushaka bursaries will be disbursed over the next three years via the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, at a cost of R3.7bn earmarked for prospective teachers in priority subject areas such as mathematics, science and technology.Furthermore, to support effective curriculum delivery over the medium term, R15.3bn is allocated to provide printed and digital content to teachers and learners. This includes the provision of 183 million workbooks and textbooks, teacher support, and increased access to information and communication technology.

But Hay questions the merit of these allocations.

«Alarming statistics and reports on the state of basic education point to the need for far more aggressive management of teacher training and classroom efficiency. Allocations do not significantly account for this,» cautioned Hay.

Basic education system broken

Budget 2018 states that fee-free education will contribute towards breaking the cycle of poverty and confronting unemployment, as labour statistics point to the lowest rate of unemployment for tertiary graduates.

Hay says that, while the budget quite rightly considers tertiary education in the light of the development of the youth as being critical to SA’s economic recovery and long-term health, it falls short in acknowledging the fact that the primary and secondary education systems continue to let down SA’s children.

«While a substantial 70% of the R1trn budget has been earmarked for basic education, it is arguable whether the specific allocations will hit the right marks to meaningfully change the prospects for the majority of school-going children,» says Hay.

«It is widely acknowledged that the basic education system in SA is completely broken.»

Hay cites an article that appeared in The Economist last year, which highlighted the fact that SA has the most unequal school system in the world with the widest gap in the world between the test scores of the top 20% of schools and the rest of schools.

The article went on to quote a study undertaken in 2007 where maths teachers of 11- and 12-year-olds sat tests similar to those taken by their class. As many as 79% of teachers scored below the level expected of the pupils. The average 14-year-old in Singapore and South Korea performs much better.

According to a ranking table of education systems drawn up by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2015, South Africa ranked 75th out of 76 based on its overall education system.

In 2014, only 36.4% of those who began grade 1 in 2002, matriculated in 2014. And in 2015, Basic Education Department statistics in 2015 reflected 1.2 million learners registered for Grade 1, but only 790 000 learners in Grade 12.

The Department of Higher Education report in 2015 indicates that a vast 47.9% of university students did not complete their degrees, with black students holding the highest drop-out rate. As many as 32.1% enrolled students leave within their first year. This points to an alarming drop-off rate, which Hay says costs the taxpayer billions of rand with no outcome.

«South Africa’s historic spend on education (6% of GDP) is an appropriate percentage of our budget compared to other developing countries, if not slightly higher. Brazil spends 5.8% of GDP on education, India 3.3% and China around 4%. Yet, it seems that few countries spend as much to so little effect. The issue of quality remains highly problematic,» says Hay.

Accommodating all the additional students

«But let’s take a step back for one moment. As a result of the fee-free education programme, the anticipated number of tertiary students able to benefit in 2018 will include 340 000 university students and over 420 000 full-time equivalent students at TVET colleges. This means that by the end of 2018 around 760 000 students will have benefited from higher education and training.»

University student numbers are already near capacity. Plans have been in place to grow the current number of universities (26) that accommodate about 1 million students in order to ensure the inclusion of a further 500 000 students by 2030.

These plans, developed prior to the fee-free education commitment, could be severely impacted by fee-free education, leading to a fresh exclusion discourse based on access rather than cost.

Hay says that an important aspect of university education is to fuel research and innovation capability, which drives economic growth and competitiveness. She suggests that it is time for government to prioritise the areas and industries where they want students to focus on given that the country needs specific skills in order to grow our economy and ensure inclusive growth.

Hay cautions that, despite government’s commitment to inclusivity in education based on merit and not class position, there are numerous risks that have not been accounted for.

«Principles, theory and strategy are important aspects and Budget 2018 can be applauded for a strategic pointing in the right direction. But details of how to ensure access to higher education and training for the fee-free education recipients, coupled with how best to allocate funds in basic education to guarantee sustained improvement in education, are glaringly absent,» says Hay.

From: https://www.fin24.com/Budget/why-budget-2018-gets-a-c-for-addressing-education-crisis-20180225

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Rural community session held to discuss education concerns in Nova Scotia

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Por: globalnews.ca/21-02-2018

A packed house filled a rural Nova Scotia community centre as many parents came out to hear why teachers are concerned over the future of education in the province.

“Transformation takes a lot of thoughtful collaboration and we’re not seeing that at the moment and that’s what needs to happen if we have any hope of this being successful,” Cynthia Bruce said, a mother of children who have gone through the provincial public school system.

Last fall, the province hired Dr. Avis Glaze, an “international recognized expert” to review the public school system in Nova Scotia for the first time in more than 20 years.

The Glaze report made 22 recommendations, including moving principals and vice-principals out of the Nova Scotia Teachers Union and into a new professional association.

The report recommended the establishment of an education ombudsperson to investigate and resolve concerns or complaints in the education system.

Glaze also called for a provincial college of educators to license, govern, discipline and regulate the teaching profession.

The province plans to implement all of the recommendations and that’s where concern from the Nova Scotia Teachers Union has come into play.

Grant Frost has over two decades of teaching experience and is also the president of the Halifax County local.

“I think that I’d be very happy with a pause button right now, so that everyone can catch their breath. Let’s put a pause on the Glaze report, let’s not rush this. If you rush this through, we’re going to leave kids behind and I think that’s a very real concern,” Frost said.

He says he’s not against making changes to the education system but feels the province is rushing the process. Frost hopes the move to ask NSTU members for a strike mandate demonstrates the need to slow down.

“Really, what I think we’re trying to accomplish here is to have an opportunity to sit down with this government and all the stakeholders, to try to figure out exactly what some of our concerns are and have a legitimate conversation around them.”

*Fuente: https://globalnews.ca/news/4034770/education-concerns-nova-scotia/

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6 key insights into the data and information education leaders want most

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Por: brookings.edu/21-02-2018

When data advocates promote evidence-based decision-making in education systems, they rarely specify who the intended users are, for what purpose, and what kinds of data are needed. The implicit assumption is: by everyone, for everything, and any data.

But since collecting, processing, and communicating data require substantial resources, it is prudent to assess whether data produced are indeed accessible and valuable to key decision-makers. Surprisingly little systematic research exists on the types of information education decision-makers in developing countries value most—and why.

In a new report, Toward data-driven education systems: Insights into using information to measure results and manage change, the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings and AidData offer insights to those very questions. We analyze the results of two unique surveys that asked education policymakers in low- and middle-income countries about their use of data in decision-making. Survey participants included senior- and mid-level government officials, in-country staff of development partner organizations, and domestic civil society leaders, among others. (For more details on the surveys, see page 18 in the report.)

The report aims to help the global education community take stock of what information decision-makers actually use and offer practical recommendations to help those who fund and produce education data to be more responsive to what decision-makers want and need. We summarize the findings below:

Finding 1: Having enough information is seldom the decisive factor in making most education decisions; instead, decision-makers desire to have sufficient government capacity.

cue_data-driven-education_figure1

Enacting education policies, changing programs, and allocating resources are complex decisions that demand weighing multiple factors, such as having sufficient capacity and financial resources, having enough information, and having the support of the public. So where do data and information fall within a decision-maker’s cost-benefit analysis?

We found that information is not as important as technical capacity, financing, and political support. Some decisions, however, depend more on having sufficient data and information, such as creating or abolishing schools or grades, and testing students. One possible explanation could be that leaders feel they need strong justification (via an evidence base) for these decisions which could become easily politicized.

Finding 2: Education decision-makers use evidence to support the policymaking process, for both retrospective assessment and forward-looking activities

cue_data-driven-education_figure2

But while information may not be the most decisive factor in education decisions, its role is significant. We found that decision-makers in the education sector are more likely to use data and analysis as compared to other sectors (such as health and governance), including for forward-looking purposes, such as design and implementation of policies or programs, as well as retrospective assessments of past performance. As shown in Figure 2, most education sector decision-makers (over 70 percent) report using data or analysis fairly consistently throughout the policymaking process.

Finding 3: Education decision-makers most often use national statistics from domestic sources and program evaluation data from international sources.

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Decision-makers overwhelmingly rely on national statistics from domestic sources and program evaluation data from international organizations. The high use of national statistics points to the salience of such data for each country, including, for example, dropout rates for primary school students by district or municipality, the number of schools providing secondary education in each village, or pupil-teacher ratios in urban vs. rural areas.

Finding 4: Education decision-makers consider administrative data and program evaluations most essential, and want more of the latter, signaling a gap between need and supply.

cue_data-driven-education_table1

We asked leaders about their wish list—what types of information would they want more of? We found that those who allocate and manage resources place a premium on administrative data (e.g., number of schools, teachers, students) and government budget and expenditure data (e.g., school-level budgets, expenditure per student). Meanwhile, those working on personnel management need teacher performance data, whereas leaders tasked with overseeing instructional matters need program evaluation data and student-level assessment data. Given respondents’ wish lists, we identified four opportunities for data producers to respond to unmet demand: (1) program performance and evaluation data; (2) budget and expenditure data; (3) student-level assessment data; and (4) teacher performance data.

Finding 5: Education decision-makers value domestic data that reflect local context and point to policy actions, and improving the timeliness and accessibility of information will make it more helpful.

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Having identified some of the gaps that exist in meeting the needs of education decision-makers, we asked what producers and funders of data should do better or differently to meet the data demands. Leaders said that data from both domestic and international sources were most helpful when they provide information that reflects the local context. They also viewed information from international sources as most helpful because it provides policy recommendations (43 percent) and is often accompanied by critical financial, material, or technical support (36 percent). Leaders viewed domestic data as helpful when it was available at the right level of aggregation, as well as timely, trustworthy, and insightful.

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When asked what improvements producers could undertake to make data more valuable, respondents suggest improving the timeliness and accessibility, as well as improving data disaggregation, accuracy, and trustworthiness. The respondents requested data from the national government, in particular, to be more accessible and disaggregated.

Finding 6: Decision-makers strongly support strengthening their countries’ education management information system (EMIS) to bolster their education data ecosystem.

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Beyond finding general areas of improvement for education data, we also asked respondents to rank a list of specific solutions. Respondents largely agreed on the seven solutions proposed, rating all of them as “extremely important”, on average. But of the seven solutions, the recommendation to strengthen the EMIS within the education ministry resonated with the highest number of respondents.

Moving from data generation to impact

The path from data generation to impact is not simple, automatic, or quick. The seemingly straightforward story of information supply, demand, and use is complicated by users’ norms (how they prefer to make decisions), relationships (whom they know and trust), and capacities (their confidence and ability to turn data into actionable insights). The process of moving from data generation to use and, ultimately, to impact on education outcomes must also take into account the different institutional environments (i.e., political context) that may incentivize or dampen efforts to make decisions based upon evidence.

Most essentially, though, investments in data creation must be matched by an equal (or greater) emphasis on increasing the use of evidence by decision-makers, built from a strong understanding of what data and information they use, value, and want. Understanding why education decision-makers and influencers do not notice, value, or use data that are produced by their own statistical agencies or by international organizations deserves more attention than it has received thus far.

*Fuente: https://www.brookings.edu/blog/education-plus-development/2018/02/20/6-key-insights-into-the-data-and-information-education-leaders-want-most/

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