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United States of America: Meta-analysis: reading on paper improves reading comprehension

Paulette Delgado

North America/United States of America/29-09-2019/Author: Paulette Delgado/Source: observatory.tec.mx

By: Paulette Delgado

A professor at the University of North Dakota analyzed 33 studies to find an answer to the long debate about whether it is better to read on paper or on a screen.

Since 2008, numerous studies have compared reading from paper and electronic sources. To find out which method provides the best comprehension, Virginia Clinton, an assistant professor of education at the University of North Dakota, conducted a meta-analysis of 33 high-quality studies.

Out of all the studies, 29 of them find out students tend to absorb more information when they read on paper, especially if it’s a long read. These findings differ with the recent emphasis on digital texts from publishers like Pearson, the largest textbook publisher in North America, who announced in July a focus on a digital strategy.

The results are also problematic because, according to a report from the National Association of College Stores, in 2019 22% of college students are using free online texts and materials, compared to 3% registered in 2015.

The different studies did not include the supplements that give advantages to the digital format. These elements range from whistles, quizzes, questionnaires and the option to instantly search for unknown words. Without a reliable study that analyzes the impact of add-ons, it’s hard to tell if they would’ve made any difference. Clinton is determined to study them in her laboratory to find answers.

Experts have different explanations about why reading in print helps students. Some argue that it is easier for them to remember what they read because they recognize the location of a passage on a physical paper.

Another disadvantage of digital format found in the study is that digital readers usually overestimate their reading comprehension, thinking that they performed better than actual results. On the other hand, readers who read printed texts were more precise in their self-analysis. The difference may be in excessive confidence because it can affect the student by putting less effort into their reading.

The genre also matters. According to several studies, there is a considerable advantage in reading nonfiction texts in print but almost no difference in narrative fiction, like a Jane Austen book, for example.

Due to the high cost of printed books, it is easy to understand why companies like Pearson are becoming digital. Even so, Clinton recommends that teachers, if using screens, take extra time to show students how to read better online. One example could be to implement reading comprehension exercises to ensure that they do not miscalculate their understanding.

Still, each format has its benefits. It is a matter of knowing how to take advantage of each one. For example, digital books are excellent for younger students since the digital medium is usually more practical and affordable, which can help encourage reading. On the other hand, texts printed on paper are better for those who are easily distracted and need to pay more attention.

What is your preferred reading media? Share with us your reading habits.

Information reference: https://observatory.tec.mx/edu-news/meta-analysis-reading-onpaper-improves-reading-comprehension

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Summer Celebrations in Mexico

Rosalía Nalleli Pérez Estrada

By Rosalía Nalleli Pérez-Estrada

Summer is here and, in Mexico, the graduations bring unforgettable moments everywhere. These days you can see gowns and elegant suits in kinder gardens, elementary schools, junior high schools, high schools and in universities. Parents, students and godparents walk along the halls and corridors of the schools, while satisfaction invades the ambiance and their happiness promotes group bonding.I don’t know if this activity is also practiced in other countries but I guess it is not. I say this because a coworker, from The United States, was telling me that in his country they just celebrate the end of high school and that one of the university. Here, in Mexico, there is always a moment to celebrate and to be happy: it is a manner to stop the time and to record beautiful moments.

Meanwhile in the streets, people are seen with presents or flowers in their hands and it is impossible to avoid remembering that group of the Scientists, of the 20th century, who proposed a scientific direction for the government and country, and who thought that positivism was the only right manner to reaffirm knowledge by following Comte´s proposal.

Here, if the child finishes kinder garden, he is congratulated by his family and at school, he dances a prom and receives presents from his people. After that, there is usually a meal at home which includes chicken stew, white or red rice, salad, and tortillas. If the family has more money to spend, they all go together to a restaurant to eat or they contract a musical group to dance, because finishing school is an important achievement for the family. The level does not matter. What matters is that a period is being finished. And, as a witness, slumped onto a chair, I sometimes wonder if the family worries how much knowledge changed the students´ life, although I believe that it is assumed that if the child goes to school, he learns. Now it’s time to celebrate. However, if we think about cognitive, socioconstructive or formative learning theories, we know that after having been for three years or more at school, the student has definitely learnt more things than those he could have learnt if he had just stayed at home. For sure, traditions, beliefs, customs, behaviors and perceptions have been shared with him at school and at home, and have both developed a new human being, with a new vision of the life and a modified world.

If it is moment to celebrate, nobody cares about that 5% of gross domestic product invested in education (or few wonder about the non-complete, invested money for educative issues). Moreover, probably few of the relatives at the party worry about those results which can be shown by OECD to the world or, there is little concern about those researchers who have criticized Mexican education results, when they say that we, Mexicans, read less than three books in a year.

In any case, it has been predicted that Mexico will become, in little time, the eighth largest economy by 2050, and, if we, Mexicans, have been deprived from better education opportunities because the minds that control this country have decided so, anyway, we have learnt how to spend our life in a happier mood than the expected one. And; while better conditions come for us, we continue trusting on our leaders as a baby trusts on his parents, with a soul freed from wickedness. We feel angry when we do not get what we expect to have, but forget everything while we dance or laugh, probably without being aware that when we laugh, we lower our stress, decrease our pains, relax our muscles, ease anxiety and tension and strengthen our relationships.

Therefore, it could be said that those colorful bouquets, the expensive presents, the delicious meals or fruit drinks all seem to help Mexicans to forget the harsh moments of violence, theft and murder that are being lived by, in several places, and that attending at least fourteen parties in a year (some people may attend more than 40!), somehow helps them to forget grief or regret and have them united, while they enjoy the life in short periods of unconsciousness while singing or hugging.This common situation of every summer shows that many times humans behave according to what they have learnt at school and at home, recognizing that education and culture go hand by hand and are influenced reciprocally, (Solana et al. 2011) and that finally, life goes on and that human beings just go changing of space and places, where to stretch out their arms and to free their dreams.

References:

Solana, et al (2011) La historia de la Educación Pública en México. CFE

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-education-factbox-idUSTRE73C4UY20110413

https://www.helpguide.org/articles/mental-health/laughter-is-the-best-medicine.htm

*Rosalía Nalleli Pérez-Estrada. Directora de Universidad Santander, Campus Tlaxcala. Profesora por asignatura, de la Universidad Politécnica de Tlaxcala y en coordinación del Departamento de idiomas de la misma universidad. Investigadora invitada por CIFE y Fundadora de la Sociedad Anónima Madison School Come to be the Best, desde 1999.

Email: rosalia_na@hotmail.com this article was originally published at: Tlaxcala Cultural, https://tlaxcalacultural.com/2019/07/14/summer-celebrations-in-mexico/

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India: Hindi in schools. Education policy should not play games of domination

Noticias

Por: telegraphindia/05-06-2019

The gift of plenty can sometimes be troublesome. India is brimming over with languages — the 2011 census shows that although 96.71 per cent of the population speaks one of the 22 languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, there are 121 mother tongues including the listed languages spoken by more than 10,000 people. The number of rationalized mother tongues is 1,369, but not many of these are spoken by 10,000 people or more. It is no wonder that successive education policies in the country have been rather indecisive about language learning, wavering between two languages and three for children.

The latest hullabaloo over the three-language system enumerated by the draft national education policy of the new Narendra Modi-headed government was incited by a cleverly-written provision that, by implication, makes Hindi compulsory in non-Hindi speaking states. Protest exploded from parties in non-Hindi-speaking states, especially Tamil Nadu and Karnataka from the south, and Maharashtra and Bengal among others. Earlier efforts to make Hindi the lingua franca failed too, with the southern states perceiving it as politico-linguistic domination of the north.

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led government’s renewed attempt to slide in Hindi seems to have sharpened suspicions of not just an imposition but also an effort to force India into the homogeneous mould favoured by the BJP. That the draft national education policy appeared almost at the same time that members of the new government took oath of office did little to allay suspicions. It might look to the Opposition as though the BJP was just waiting to make sure of a firmer hold on power the second time before making Hindi compulsory in schools.

Maybe it was a bit too eager. The protests have forced a change in the draft so that, in effect, the languages learnt will be a choice of the states. The frantic assurances of ministers that this is merely a draft did nothing to stem the protests. The spirit of the Constitution encourages respect for all languages. Given the number of languages, even when the medium is the dominant regional language, many children would still be deprived of learning in their mother tongue. This is often a serious hurdle in learning among many minority groups. Education policies should focus on these problems instead of playing tug-of-war with games of domination.

Fuente de la Información: https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/hindi-in-schools-education-policy-should-not-play-games-of-domination/cid/1691737

Fuente de la imagen: https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/hindi-in-schools-education-policy-should-not-play-games-of-domination/cid/1691737

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Japan: Discipline or treatment? Schools rethinking vaping response

Noticias

Asia/ Japan/ 27.05.2019/ Source: www.japantimes.co.jp.

A glimpse of student athletes in peak physical condition vaping just moments after competing in a football game led Stamford High School Principal Raymond Manka to reconsider his approach to the epidemic.

His school traditionally has emphasized discipline for those caught with e-cigarettes. Punishments become increasingly severe with each offense, from in-school suspensions to out-of-school suspensions and, eventually, notification of law enforcement.

But Manka began thinking about it more as an addiction problem, and less of a behavior issue, after seeing the two players from another school vaping near their bus. “It broke my heart,” said Manka, whose school is now exploring how to offer cessation programs for students caught vaping or with vaping paraphernalia.

“We’ve got to figure out how we can help these kids wean away from bad habits that might hurt their body or their mind or otherwise create behaviors that can create habits that will be harmful for the remainder of their lives,” he said.

Schools elsewhere have been wrestling with how to balance discipline with prevention and treatment in their response to the soaring numbers of vaping students.

Using e-cigarettes, often called vaping, has now overtaken smoking traditional cigarettes in popularity among students, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Last year, one in five U.S. high school students reported vaping the previous month, according to a CDC survey .

E-cigarettes produce an aerosol by heating a liquid that usually contains high levels of nicotine — the addictive drug in regular cigarettes and other tobacco products — flavorings and other chemicals. Users inhale this aerosol into their lungs; when they exhale, bystanders often breathe it in too.

Compared with regular cigarettes, the research on the health effects of e-cigarettes is painfully thin. Experts say that although using e-cigarettes appears less harmful over the long run than smoking regular cigarettes, that doesn’t mean they’re safe — particularly for youth, young adults, pregnant women or adults who do not currently use tobacco products.

“Studies have shown that e-cigarette use among young people is potentially associated with an increased risk of progressing on to cigarette use and to vaping cannabis, which has become increasingly common in recent years,” said Dr. Renee Goodwin, a researcher and professor of epidemiology at the City University of New York and Columbia University who studies tobacco and cannabis use.

Besides nicotine, e-cigarettes can include other harmful substances, including heavy metals like lead and cancer-causing agents. The vaping liquid is often offered in a variety of flavors that appeal to youth and is packaged in a way that makes them attractive to children. And the long-term health effects, Goodwin noted, are unknown.

Experts say the CDC classifies e-cigarettes as a tobacco product, and many schools lump vaping in with tobacco use in applying codes of conduct, treating offenses similarly.

In Connecticut alone, administrators dealt with 2,160 incidents in which students were caught vaping or with vaping paraphernalia in violation of school policies during the 2017-18 school year, up from 349 two years earlier. The schools issued 1,465 in-school suspensions and 334 out-of-school suspensions, according to the state Education Department.

Nationwide, some schools have removed bathroom stall doors or placed monitors outside of restrooms to check students in and out. Others have installed humidity detectors that sound an alarm when vapor clouds are detected.

Lawmakers are beginning to show similar concerns. Oklahoma has passed legislation to ban vaping on school property, and a dozen states have passed legislation to increase the age for smoking and vaping to 21.

Nevertheless, some school districts have begun taking a more comprehensive approach by emphasizing treatment and prevention.

The Conejo Valley Unified School District in Southern California recently shifted from suspending students for a first offense to sending them to a four-hour Saturday class on the marketing and health dangers of vaping. A second offense results in a one-or-two-day suspension coupled with several weeks of a more intensive six-week counseling program that includes parents.

“I think we are seeing quite a bit of success, basing it on the reduction this year in both the number of incidents reported on campus and the number of suspensions,” said Luis Lichtl, the district’s assistant superintendent.

“The schools that seem to be most effective are those that are of course enforcing their disciplinary code — they can’t do otherwise — but are using that as the floor and not the ceiling,” said Bob Farrace, a spokesman for the National Association of Secondary School Principals.

Linda Richter, an expert on vaping and adolescent substance use who works at the New York-based Center on Addiction, suggests that schools provide information about the health consequences and how companies have manipulated students to use vaping products by making it appear fun and cool. She said that two-pronged approach led to a successful decrease in the use of traditional cigarettes.

“To expect a 13-, 14- or 15-year-old to break an addiction by yelling at them or suspending them, it’s just not going to happen,” she said. “They need help, treatment, counseling, support, education and understanding.”

Dr. J. Craig Allen, medical director at Rushford, a mental health treatment center in Meriden, said suspending teens for vaping may be counterproductive.

“If your solution is to send these kids home, what do you think they are going to be doing at home,” he said. “They are going to be taking rips off their Juul all day long to kill the time.”

Thomas Aberli, the principal at Atherton High School in Louisville, Kentucky, said it began an intensive anti-vaping education program this year with the help of the American Association of Pediatrics. Teaching teens about how vaping companies have been courting them with flavored products seems to be having an effect.

“You could tell how angry they were getting with this sense of manipulation,” he said. “That was really a turning point for us in knowing the best way to approach this problem.”

Other schools have continued to emphasize discipline in crackdowns on teen vaping.

At the Mattawan Consolidated School District just outside of Kalamazoo, Michigan, Principal Tim Eastman recently wrote to parents that students found congregating in bathrooms or parking lots will be taken to the office and searched.

“Anyone found with vaping equipment will face suspensions,” Eastman wrote. “Although this may seem extreme, the health and safety of our students is too important to ignore.”

Eastman said the school is not currently providing those caught vaping with any additional education or medical intervention, but is considering it.

Source of the notice: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/05/27/world/science-health-world/discipline-treatment-schools-rethinking-vaping-response/#.XOutY9IzbMw

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India: Delhi schools told to ensure infra for the differently abled

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Por: hindustantimes.com/22-05-2019

The specifications for such infrastructure has been given in a handbook recently compiled by the directorate. The education department is distributing such handbooks across Delhi government schools to ensure barrier- free accessibility in the school buildings for children with disabilities.

school for disabled student,accessible school,delhi school infrastructure

An official from the inclusive education branch (IEB) of the directorate said that so far, 200 government schools under Directorate of Education (DOE) had received the handbooks(File)

To promote inclusive education in all Delhi government schools, the Directorate of Education (DOE) has directed all heads of government schools to maintain, provide, renovate, and repair existing infrastructure to ensure they are friendly to the differently- abled.

“This shall be done through Public Works Department by generating EOR (extra ordinary repair),” a recent DOE circular said adding that no further construction should be done without ensuring the same. “Any leniency or non-compliance of this circular/order will be viewed seriously,” it added.

The specifications for such infrastructure has been given in a handbook recently compiled by the directorate. The education department is distributing such handbooks across Delhi government schools to ensure barrier-free accessibility in the school buildings for children with disabilities.

An official from the inclusive education branch (IEB) of the directorate said that so far, 200 government schools under Directorate of Education (DOE) had received the handbooks. “The principals and teachers need to be sensitised. They need guidelines on how to counsel the children, their parents and how to care for them,” the official said while explaining the reason behind the distribution of such handbooks.

Along with talking about different types of disabilities, the book also talks about the rights and entitlements for children with disabilities and the penalties for offences committed against persons with disabilities. The handbook also specifies the space to be allocated for people using mobility devices as well as those walking with assistance. It also gives specifications on toilets, walks and paths, tactile pavers, corridors and ramps, door hardware, dropped kerbs, staircases, and drinking water fountain among other things.

Two hard copies of the handbook are being distributed to all government schools. According to an official IEB circular, the handbook was prepared by adopting the guidelines of Ministry of Urban development, Government of India and the handbook on barrier free accessibility by Central Public Work Department as well as in consultation with the Office of Delhi State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities.

The circular also mentions Section 16(ii) and Section 89 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 which mandates that the government should make efforts to provide inclusive education in schools funded or recognized by it and any person who contravenes any of the provisions of this Act should be made to pay a fine.

The circular also mentions Section 16(ii) and Section 89 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 which mandates that the government should make efforts to provide inclusive education in schools funded or recognized by it and any person who contravenes any of the provisions of this Act should be made to pay a fine.
“Instead of distributing handbooks, the government should audit schools to see what needs to be done. Sometimes, we do symbolic stuff and tokenism. For instance, one special educator is not going to solve the problem. One must think of a universal design and approach that every child can use and access,” Radhika Alkazi, founder of NGO ASTHA which works with children and people with disabilities. “This is band-aid approach. We need to look at overall situation like how is the child going to get to the school from say slum areas. The government says so many schools have been built but are they all accessible to all children?”
Fuente de la Información: https://www.hindustantimes.com/education/delhi-schools-told-to-ensure-infra-for-the-differently-abled/story-SYezJLtVf2qRfa0f8GqvcO.html
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Hungry, unwashed children fill our schools – how has it come to this?

Barbara Ellen

By: .

 

According to a survey from the headteachers’ union, the Association of School and College Leaders, schools have become “an unofficial fourth emergency service” for the families worst affected by austerity across England and Wales.

A majority of the 400 school leaders surveyed said schools were increasingly forced to help pupils, despite less help from councils, and have had to cut budgets. Schools are helping with food parcels, equipment, shoes and hygiene – nine out of 10 give out clothes, while nearly half do laundry for them. Some are running impromptu food banks or sourcing beds.

How could it not be a source of national shame that there are food banks in any schools in England and Wales? When did it become normal for schools to wash pupils’ clothes? As for anyone wishing to start ranting about parents sitting, smoking, with cans of lager, in front of wide-screen televisions – spare me. Wasn’t it precisely these Tory cartoons of the unemployed and low-income workers that gave austerity measures credibility in the first place? That fake standoff between “striver” and “skiver” (remember that?) pitted people against each other, when, in truth, they had all too much in common.

While it’s just one survey, it’s far from a one-off – schools keep trying to speak up about how much they’re helping pupils. It’s happening on too large a scale for it to be dismissed as straightforward parental failure. Pupils have come to this because they reflect the reduced circumstances of their families – they are merely the school-aged manifestation of peak-impact austerity. Swaths of the population have been crushed to the point where basics (food, clothes, heating, hot water) have become unaffordable. Underresourced schools have been left to cope with the fallout and teachers are only able to teach pupils after they’ve dealt with their basic needs.

This fundamentally undermines what schools are supposed to be – educational establishments. While there has always been an element of social work to teaching, it shouldn’t be so dominant. What should be a place about teaching and learning becomes a barely disguised holding pen, with a bit of ABC thrown in. It wouldn’t just be a relief if these children manage to reach their full potential – it would be a miracle.

While schools go above and beyond for their pupils, why does the buck stop there? Long-term austerity seems to have numbed people into accepting relentless struggle as normality, almost as though it’s all a terrible, inexplicable enchantment in a warped austerity-themed fairytale.

In reality, there’s a context (actual policies, brazen cuts) explaining how it all happened and telling us exactly who is responsible. So, yes, it’s very sad to hear about these children who arrive at school needing food and clothes before they can even think about algebra. It’s also the government’s responsibility to own its mess and do something about it.

The gossip mill continues to churn about the actress Kate Beckinsale, 45, dating the 25-year-old comedian Pete Davidson. And when I say “gossip mill”, I mean, saddos like me, who tragically feel the compulsion to gawp at happy couples, forensically examining photos of them, say, smooching at hockey games, in order to pass ill-informed judgment on their relationship. So, let’s do it.

Considering the sexist “cradle-snatching” fuss, you’d have thought that Davidson was in his teens, not a high-achieving grown man. Although some of us might not want to deal with the “extra admin” that seems to go with a large age difference (“They used to be called Marathon bars, goddammit!”), if others are up for it, then more power to them. While Davidson is punching above his weight, he’d probably admit to “punching” just as hard with his erstwhile fiancee, Ariana Grande, similar in age. Besides, he has already sagely pointed out that the older-male/younger-female celebrity dynamic is practically Hollywood’s 11th commandment.

With age-gap couples such as Beckinsale and Davidson, the focus is always on it being a “terrible shame” that they aren’t similar ages, at the same stage in life. However, who’s to say that they would have got on as well if they had been at the same life-stage? They could have irritated, even disliked, each other. Their differences might have mattered more – there could have been more niggles and clashes – over values, perspectives, anything. It’s quite possible that their age gap is making them not sweat the dreaded “small stuff” and have more fun.

Best of luck to Beckinsale and Davidson, an odd couple who could be living proof that sometimes age differences aren’t the problem, they’re the things that make it work.

Are women too wary of corporate tokenism? The Investment Association, a £7.7tn investor group, has joined the Hampton-Alexander review, a diversity study, to send letters to 66 FTSE 350 firms that have only one female board member. Good. “One and done” syndrome is a joke, when the government target is around 33%.

However, another problem lies with the wider negative perception of female quotas and targets, when even qualified, credible female candidates find themselves dismissed as not getting there entirely on merit. This gives quotas an undeserved bad name, even among women, who worry that their achievements could be dismissed as token. All completely understandable, but still – phooey!

Women worrying about tokenism need to remember that, over the years, structural sexism has given far more men far more opportunities to pursue and exploit unfair advantage. When there’s a rare attempt to redress the balance, the very last thing women should feel is guilty.

I dream of a scenario where a female board member gets some envious threatened male idiots grumbling about tokenism and she just smiles delightedly and says: “I know, great, isn’t it?”

Odds are, she’d still be some way from being as shameless as they’d be, given half the chance.

Source of the article: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/16/hungry-unwashed-children-fill-our-schools

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Schools can’t be substitute parents, Ofsted chief warns

Michael Savage

By: Michael Saavage. 

Issues such as obesity are better handled in the home, says Amanda Spielman

Parents must not “abdicate their responsibility” by expecting schools to solve all the major problems children face, the chief inspector for schools will warn this week.

In a robust intervention attacking the increasing burdens placed on teachers, Ofsted chief Amanda Spielman will say schools “cannot be a panacea” for all social ills and will criticise some parents for neglecting some of the “most basic of parenting tasks”, such as toilet training.

While teachers “can play a role” in educating children about the dangers of knife crime and obesity, primary responsibility for these complex problems lies elsewhere, she will warn. When it comes to keeping to a healthy weight, she will say, “schools cannot take over the role of health professionals – and above all parents”.

In a speech marking the publication of her second annual Ofsted report, Spielman will say: “Our education and care services don’t exist in isolation from the local areas they serve. They are and should be a central part of our communities. But being part of a community means being very clear what your responsibilities are, and what issues, however worthy, can only be tackled beyond the school, college or nursery gates.”

Knife crime will be singled out as one of the most recent issues to place an additional burden on schools. “Most of our schools are safe, and we fully support measures, including zero-tolerance policies on the carrying of knives, to keep them that way,” Spielman will say. “But beyond that, while schools can play a role in educating young people about the danger of knives, they cannot be a panacea for this particular societal ill.

“Instead, preventing knife crime requires all local safeguarding partners to work together to protect children from harm while the relevant agencies tackle criminal activity and bring to justice youths and adults who cause harm to children.” Spielman said the obesity crisis was also “an issue which sits largely beyond the school gates”.

“Schools can and should teach children about the importance of healthy eating and exercise … their PE lessons should get them out of breath.

“But beyond that, schools cannot take over the role of health professionals – and above all parents. The answer to the obesity crisis, particularly among younger children, lies in the home, and parents should not abdicate their responsibility here.”

By the start of primary school, almost a quarter of children in England are overweight or obese, and the proportion rises to more than a third by the time they leave for secondary school. However, research by Ofsted has found no pattern to suggest that, on their own, interventions at school can be linked to a direct and measurable impact on weight.

Spielman will also chastise parents who allow their children to reach school without being toilet-trained. It comes amid growing evidence of children arriving at reception unable to use a toilet. “This is difficult for teachers, disruptive for other children and has a terrible social impact on the children affected,” she will say. “This is wrong. Toilet-training is the role of parents and carers, and should not be left to schools. Only in the most extreme cases should parents be excused from this most basic of parenting tasks.”

Spielman’s comments represent a blunt message to ministers keen to tackle topical issues by placing more responsibilities on schools even as they face cuts to resources in the face of austerity. Over the summer the Home Office issued lesson plans for children as young as 11 about the dangers of knife crime, which would involve them being told it is a “myth” that they will be safer with a weapon.

Plans were also announced to educate teachers on related slang.

Children’s minister Nadhim Zahawi said the lesson plans would “help illustrate the real impact of knife crime on young people’s lives” and that schools “up and down the country are taking advantage of them”. With evidence that the average age of knife crime victims is falling, some NHS doctors have called for school exit times to be staggered to reduce the chances of clashes.

There have been major concerns about teachers’ workloads and the impact on the numbers staying in the job. The Department for Education recently pledged to ease pressures on teachers in England after a report blamed an “audit culture” for causing stress among staff.

Source of the article: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/dec/02/schools-parents-ofsted-knife-crime-obesity
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