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Egypt introduces 54.6K classrooms in 5 years

Asia/ Egypt/ 19.11.2019/ Fuente: www.egypttoday.com.

The government introduced 54,600 new classrooms between 2014 and 2019, as indicated in a report submitted by the Cabinet to the House of Representatives.

In the same period, 1.78 million school teachers received training to get qualified for the new educational system. Also, 35 Japanese schools, 14 schools for outstanding 14 STEM students, and Al Dabaa Nuclear School were constructed.

Minister of Investment and International Cooperation Sahar Nasr, Minister of Education and Technical Education Tarek Shawky, and Japanese Ambassador Masaki Noke signed in January a LE7.5 million grant that will be used to support Egypt-Japan Schools (EJS).

The size of cooperation between both countries has recorded $282 million, of which, $169 million are directed to EJS. The Egypt-Japan Education Partnership was launched in 2016 with the aim of establishing – across the country – 200 EJS adopting the Japanese concept of Whole Child Development through special activities, known as «Tokkatsu.»

The project began with 12 pilot schools 3 years ago. In the academic year 2018 – 2019, 35 schools were inaugurated in 21 out of 27 governorates. Next academic year, five others will be inaugurated in Kafr El-Sheikh, Daqahliya, Damietta, Assiut and Aswan.

 

Fuente de la noticia: https://www.egypttoday.com/Article/1/76310/Egypt-introduces-54-6K-classrooms-in-5-years

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Egypt’s Ministry of Education develops new curricula to discuss social issues and more

Africa/ Egypt/ 07.10.2019/ Source: egyptindependent.com.

The Egyptian Ministry of Education’s Educational Curriculum Development Center has developed a new curricula to discuss issues such as preventing discrimination against women, globalization, citizenship, health, the environment and combating drug addiction, following upon the instructions of Education Minister Tarek Shawki back in 2017, said the center director Nawal Shalabi.

Shalabi added that the curricula aims to match the new education system’s vision and help educate Egyptians, rebuilding their character. She pointed out that the center has cooperated with the Educational Research Center to study the curricula of 12 countries, known for their good global ranking in education.

The new educational system will be as a constitution for Egyptian education until 2030, she said.

Shalabi pointed out that the ministry is also keen on connecting the curricula of different school stages, including the primary, intermediary and secondary stages, developing educational skills and giving parents an opportunity to participate in the educational process.

The Ministry of Education said in 2018 that the current educational system will vanish by 2026, gradually replaced by a new one. The new system will modify the “Thanaweya Amma” high school exams, which causes great pressure and stress for students and their families. Instead of one final exam, there will be an evaluation over three years, and the exams system will change to something that fairly measures the skills and understanding of students.

Source of the notice: https://egyptindependent.com/ministry-of-education-inserts-curricula-on-globalization-drug-combating-non-discrimination-against-woman/

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Can homeschooling replace formal education in Egypt?

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Collection of testimonies and experiences of parents as well as educators on homeschooling

Alternatives to formal education are on the rise, homeschooling became one of the alternatives available to parents, allowing them a chance to offer a richer, more personalised educational experience than any of traditional school curriculum can.

Nouha Hafez, one of the parents –currently working in an academy offering homeschooling option– who decided tread on that path. She believes that homeschooling her son Ali, allowed him to be less stressed, and unleash his talents.

Another parent, Nesma share a similar view, Nesma felt the long hours her children spent at school with a poor curriculum and a lack of activities were of no benefit to them, and that now her daughter became more eager to study.

However, Egypt doesn’t recognise homeschooling, and the children has to be enrolled in a school, the only option available for them to be homeschooled, is to be enrolled in a school that allow them to enroll without attendance, they only need to go take the exams in such school.
According to Kamel Mogheith, an educational expert, modern technology made homeschooling more efficient, as social media allowed better communication between homeschooled students and their tutors.

Furthermore, Moustafa Farouk who currently is the head of an academy that offer homeschooling option to the parent, said that the idea started when he faced problems with the schools where her kids are enrolled at. So he decided to look for alternative options, and review the experience from different countries.

Another parent, says that his daughter personalty has changed, as she became more interested in learning, not out of fear of punishment, but instead she became eager to learn.

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61 years of education in Ghana

By Peter Partey Anti

Last Sunday was the maiden show of a news program on GhOne TV hosted by Nana Aba Anamoah. Normally our media houses do not have very rich current affairs programs for their viewers on Sundays, so this program caught my attention right from the start.

The truth, however, is that, during the headlines, I heard the term “belly schooling”, a term I was hearing for the first time in education literature, so I decided to listen to what the story was about. That story broke my heart. Pupils in a school in Yikurugu in the Northen part of Ghana lie on their stomach to study. This is happening in an educational institution in Ghana in the year 2018.

Again, recently a picture of a teacher trying to teach ICT, specifically, the interface of Microsoft word went viral on social media. That picture has been featured in international media reports like the CNN, BBC among others. While some were happy for the school and the teacher, others like myself felt bad for what our educational system has turned out to be. And yes, this is Ghana in 2018.

A country that prides itself as the first country sub of the Sahara to gain independence. A country that has spent between 22% – 27% of its annual budget on education over the last decade; a country that is 61 years today. Growth theorists are vocal about the role of human capital and technology in a country’s long-term growth potential and not just any human capital, but an educated one. It is therefore not surprising that, 61 years ago today, there was a huge focus on education by the leaders at that time.

The address of the President, Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah to the legislative assembly a day before independence had education as its pivot; the driving force of the country’s development agenda. He envisioned an educational system that is designed to address the challenges we faced as a country. A critical read of McWilliam and Kwamena-Poh reveal that the focus of the then President was to use education to answer the questions of technology, productivity and the economic potential of the country.

This explains the level of investment made by him in the education sector. It is therefore not surprising that between 1951 and 1966, primary schools increased by 647.8%, secondary schools increased by 707.7% whiles one university was added to the already existing two universities. This coupled with other levels of education such as teacher training colleges, technical and middle levels all saw a tremendous improvement. To most experts, education was geared towards solving the Ghanaian problem. Since then there have been changes in our educational agenda, prominent among them are the 1987 and 2007 educational reforms.

These two reforms in particular even though properly conceived were implemented in a way that made it impossible for us to realize its full benefits. The introduction of the JSS and SSS to replace the old system of O’Level and A’Level have been one of the defects of the 1987 Educational Reform according to some educationists. In fact, some have attributed the challenges in our educational system presently in terms of its structure and content to this reform. To others, the two systems should have been allowed to run concurrently.

As someone who is a product of the 1987 educational reform, I will not be quick to pass a judgement on it but to say that, a critical study of the reform brings to fore the good intentions of the policymakers but the problem of resources and lack of commitment to the implementation process led to the non-realization of objectives of that reform.

About five years ago, I had the opportunity to do a comprehensive review of the 2007 educational reform for an international organization. My observation was simple, we ignored the important elements in that reform and focused on the change of name and duration.

That reform was rich in its plans for Technical, Vocational and Agricultural Education agenda and the attempt to incorporate apprenticeship into our educational system. Sadly, we focused on the duration of either 3 or 4 years and the change of name from JSS and SSS to JHS and SHS respectively. The usual problem of fidelity in the implementation of the reform made sure that the objectives of the reform were not met entirely.

From the last 25 years, we have been able to increase access to education for a number of children in the basic level courtesy the introduction Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) in 1996 and the Capitation Grant in the 2004/2005 academic year. We are seeking to increase access to students at the secondary school level with the introduction of the free SHS.

Sixty-one years after the take off in the educational sector, supported with the fact that, other countries with a robust educational sector have been able to transform their economy, it would have been ideal to see a transformed Ghana championed by an education system designed to address the challenges of our time.

Sadly, we are currently faced with graduate unemployment. What it means is that we are investing in education and yet the products of our educational system cannot be absorbed by the economy. The reasons for these are enormous but if in 1957, the focus was to use education to solve the problems of technology, productivity and how to harness the economic potential of the country, why have we not made progress?

The answer lies in the nature of our curriculum. As indicated earlier on, increasing access to education, investing in education and undertaking various reforms in the education sector should be geared towards addressing the challenges of the time and not be seen as a normal routine.

I am not oblivious to the fact that, currently there is a process ongoing to reform the curriculum for the pre-tertiary level and also teacher education in Ghana. How many of you are aware of this? I can only hope and believe that all the relevant stakeholders are involved in this process.

Aside from this, there is an increasing level of inequality between the urban student and his/her counterpart in the rural area. We continue to roll-out wholesale educational policies without paying attention to the disparities that exist in our society. A visit to most of the schools in rural Ghana will give you an indication of what we need to do as a country in terms of policy formulation in the education sector. How can we introduce ICT into the school curriculum and yet a majority of our schools in the rural areas lack just a computer?

How can we roll-out a policy called “One laptop per child” and yet most of those laptops were given to party members and sympathizers. What is the state of that policy now? Where are the laptops? Why should a child lie on his stomach to enjoy an instructional session when our leaders ride in expensive cars and jump from one radio station to another to lamenting about the problems that they have been elected and are being paid to solve.

This should not be misconstrued to mean we have not done anything as country in terms of education. We have improved access, we have expanded infrastructure and have increased our spending in the education sector. But the end product has been an increase in the level of youth unemployment, sanitation problems, increase in corruption, and an upsurge in crime, a total decline in the moral fabric of our society and reduction in patriotism.

According to Prof Agyemang, a renowned sociologist, education is a process by which each society influences its individuals by passing onto them the culture which is the totality of the society’s accumulated knowledge, art, laws, morals and ways of behaviour, the acquisition of which brings the individuals to the perfection of their nature. A good educational system should yield more positive fruits than negative but can we say this about our educational system, 61 years on?

So yes, this is Ghana’s education after 61 years, when you log on to social media and you come across videos and comments seeking to question the importance of learning osmosis, diffusion, quadratic equations among others, do not be dismayed, that is the system we have created. We have failed to establish relevance or what in Quality Teaching Model, we call, Significance. We love students who can reproduce verbatim what we presented to them during the instructional session.

We have paid lots of attention to examination than to learning. Our educational policies have sought to put students in school but not help students to learn. I once came across this distorted quote on social media “Education is key, but they have changed the lock”. This seems funny but it tells us the perception of people about our educational system after 61 years of independence.

We have to get it right, we will get it right, left us not be populace in our educational policies, let us avoid the wholesale educational policies and let us make sure that, each child in the country receives quality education irrespective of where he/she is. Education remains the key to lifting us from poverty to prosperity, let us get it right.

Source of the article: https://www.myjoyonline.com/opinion/2018/March-9th/61-years-of-education-in-ghana.php

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What may be missing in our education system

By The Royal Gazette

A great deal has changed in recent decades, in educating our young people to meet various challenges along the path of life. Most would agree that there have been major strides in technology and teaching techniques, designed to better equip students for a changing world with emphasis on knowledge needed for success. Nothing wrong with that, except in the process, it would appear that some traditional values have faded.

In the modern world today, where much of life rumbles along at a maddening pace, even commenting on this aspect of our educational system could be frowned upon as being out of step with education in today’s world. Education officials are confronted with a wide range of complex issues these days, and obviously officials strive to provide the best for students. However, no educational system is perfect, and there are always problems that require input from parents and community leaders, in trying to uphold values such as discipline and respect.

In Bermuda today, just as it is in many countries, the impact of illegal drugs and the consumption of alcohol by some young people, has been a problem that threatens the vulnerable, in addition to creating additional problems for parents and teachers, and eventually the community.

It is a situation that has challenged every government.

It should be noted that our teaching professionals are to be commended for their daily contribution in classrooms throughout the island, a task too often taken for granted.

With numerous changes in teaching from the way it was decades ago, it is also worth noting that it is still crucial for students to learn the true meaning of why discipline, respect, and a commitment to being a good citizen, are values that never change.

Our schools are generally thought of as learning centres for all there is to know about how to be successful. But these days in many countries, values such as discipline and respect have diminished with an increase in negative behaviour patterns.

Many of Bermuda’s heroes will never have their names flashed across the television screens, or in banner newspaper headlines. Yet these were the people who diligently toiled against enormous hardships and social injustices, to help steer Bermuda towards a society where decency, respect, and truth formed the pillars of society.

Yes, they knew the importance of economic success, but they also knew without values, success would be shallow.

Bermuda needs to take a deep look at itself in the area of values, because without them, our future will be up for question. While the Government cannot solve all community problems, they must be seen and heard to do everything possible to avoid a gradual slide to an “anything goes” society, where respect for others is shoved under the bus. This is a growing concern throughout our communities.

If our young people are influenced by the notion that what is popular gains more attention than what is right, the next generation will face even bigger challenges. Education involves far more than academics.

We often hear of things being different today, but when essential values are bypassed, as being outdated, or no longer relevant, seeds are being planted for a weakened society with the door open for potential civil chaos.

Discipline and respect were very much a part of our education system years ago, and with Bermuda being a religious community, it was normal for most schools to have a brief moment of devotion, prior to starting the school day.

Much has changed. Today, families seldom sit together at meal times to discuss matters of interest. The home should be the setting where education begins.

Instead, swallowed up in a world of cyberspace activity, there is little time for one-on-one family conversation. Some might say this is just a part of modern society.

We hear often that more financial investment should be made to enhance our educational system, and while that is positive, a real concern should be about what values have faded from the system, when it comes to discipline and respect for strong values.

Students of today are expected to be leaders of tomorrow, but they will only be successful if armed with solid values and a commitment to making Bermuda a safe and peaceful island. Bermuda must make use of all of its resources to protect values for future generations.

It is a challenge bigger than politics, and success will depend on how well we all work together for the good of the community.

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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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afb Ghana declares $10m support to education sector

Ghana/March 06, 2018/By: Abubakar Ibrahim/Source: https://www.myjoyonline.com

One of the leading financial services companies in the country, afb Ghana, has launched an education solution to support the players in the educational sector of the country.

The new solution was launched in collaboration with the Ghana National Association of Private schools (GNAPS), during its education week celebrations in Accra.

The solution, designed to address the respective needs of schools, teaching and non-teaching staff and even suppliers who conduct various businesses with the educational institutions, will range from asset financing, project financing to personal loans.

Speaking at the launch, the Director of Education-Pre Tertiary Institutions, Catherine Appiah-Penkra said, the education of the citizenry remains a critical agenda of Government.

«One of the deepest concern is the collaboration of the private sector to support this agenda. I will commend afb Ghana for this move and encourage other players within the financial services landscape to join the course to enhance the quality of education in Ghana,» she said.

“It is my hope, that with the provision of this support, owners and management of schools and other players within the value chain will take advantage it, as well as meet their obligations in a timely manner to make this solution sustainable”.

Arnold Parker, Managing Director of afb Ghana said, “this year, we are committed to supporting the education sector with a 10-million-dollar fund to finance school projects, assets acquisition and personal loans for all parties within Ghana’s educational system.”

He also added, “I am confident that this solution will help to improve Ghanaian lives as it ensures access to good quality education which is a key agenda for the government of Ghana”.

James Abuyeh, Head of Financial Inclusion at afb, also added that “the move to launch this solution has come as a result of the insufficient financial support to players within the education ecosystem”.

He again mentioned that “products from financial institutions are often designed to focus on supporting other sectors with little attention to the education ecosystem which also requires equal attention. The introduction of this solution underpins our vision to foster financial inclusion.”

Source:

https://www.myjoyonline.com/business/2018/March-5th/afb-ghana-declares-10m-support-to-education-sector.php

 

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