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ÁfricaThreatened languages and how people relate to them: a Cameroon case study

Noticias

äfrica /Septiembre del 2017/Noticias/https://theconversation.com/

The world is going through an unprecedented period of language endangerment. Some experts predict that half of the world’s languages will disappear within a century, with urbanisation and the increasing use of major world languages diminishing smaller languages’ chances of survival.

The death of a language can be a significant loss for speaker communities who view their language as a key part of their heritage. This has led to revitalisation efforts, especially in parts of the world dominated by settler societies, such as Australia, Canada and the US. But the link between language and identity can differ greatly from community to community and is especially complex in societies dominated by multilingualism.

Since 2004 I have been working with my colleague Pierpaolo Di Carloand other collaborators to understand the language dynamics of a region of Cameroon known as Lower Fungom. Cameroon is one of the most linguistically diverse countries in the world. Around 300 languages are spoken by its approximately 20 million people. These include colonial languages such as English and French as well as hundreds of local languages.

Lower Fungom in Cameroon.

Lower Fungom is especially remarkable for its degree of linguistic diversity. In an area of around 100 square kilometres, roughly the size of the city of Paris, nine local languages are spoken by 12,000 people.

The languages of Lower Fungom, like so many others, are endangered. The ways that people use these languages are also endangered. Multilingualism is woven into the fabric of Lower Fungom society, as it is in much of Africa. What is especially remarkable is the sheer number of languages spoken by each individual in Lower Fungom. A survey conducted by Angiachi Esene Agwara, a Cameroonian collaborator, found there to be no monolinguals in Lower Fungom. The average adult is able to speak or understand around five to six different languages. Most are learned without any formal schooling and are acquired through family relationships, friendships or for work.

Shift to major languages

All over the world, the dominant trend is for small speaker communities to shift to major languages such as English, Spanish, or Chinese. But in Lower Fungom, individuals are actively learning both local languages as well as socioeconomically powerful ones.

We have been investigating what motivates people to become multilingual in Lower Fungom. From a Western perspective, a striking finding is that languages are not strongly connected to “deep” identities, such as ethnicity. In a country like France, speaking the French language is an integral part of what it means to be French. In countries like Australia and the US, immigrants are expected to master English if they want to become citizens of their new countries.

A panoramic view of Lower Fungom, where most villages are located on top of relatively steep hills. Pierpaolo Di Carlo

In Lower Fungom, we found something different. Each village is viewed locally as having its own “language”. A linguist might classify some of these languages as “dialects”, but, for those living in Lower Fungom, a distinct way of talking is a key marker of an independent village.

Villages are an important part of local life and the means through which individuals can access resources, such as food and shelter, and achieve personal security. Speaking a language is the clearest way for an individual to signal that they are part of a village community and that they should be allowed access to its resources. Being multilingual is a kind of insurance policy. The more languages a person speaks, the greater variety of resources they can claim access to.

Language saves man from drowning

Sometimes the connection between speaking a language and personal security is quite direct. A Cameroonian collaborator, Nelson Tsong Tsonghongei, working on the language of the Mbuk village, found close to Lower Fungom, collected a story about a man drowning in a river in the Mbuk area.

The man was not from Mbuk, but he knew the language of the village. He shouted for help in the Mbuk language and people from the village came to rescue him. After he was rescued, they were surprised to find out that was not from Mbuk. If he had shouted in Cameroonian Pidgin English, he almost certainly would have been understood, but people may not have come to help him.

Other times the connection between language and identity is more subtle. The fragment of a conversation given below, collected by another Cameroonian collaborator, Rachel Ojong, has been translated into English. It originally took place in two Lower Fungom languages, Buu and Missong.

There are two men speaking, one senior (S) and one junior (J). The senior man is from the Buu village. The junior man is from the Missong village, but his mother is from Buu. The Buu language dominates the conversation. This is because the junior man is showing deference to the seniority of the man from Buu.

Senior Man: Did you come up to Fang? I heard that you were chased away there.

Junior Man: Chased away? It was not me, it was Manto.

The senior man is accusing the junior man of some wrongdoing in a nearby village. The junior man first protests in Buu, but he then changes his language and speaks for one turn in Missong. This irritates the senior man, who ends the conversation immediately after.

S: So where did you go?

J: I reached here and saw you in this bar. (Language changes to Missong.)

S: You are still a child.

The junior man has switched his language to send a signal that he is no longer accepting the senior man’s authority: He should not be treated as a junior man from Buu, but as someone from another village entirely. This can be seen as a kind of codeswitching, with a very specific social meaning embedded within the local culture.

Dance of the Mndong ‘juju’ in the village of Ngun. Each village is characterised by having a distinctive set of ‘jujus’, where a juju is to be understood as a group owning exclusive rights on a mask and its associated dances, instruments, and songs.Pierpaolo Di Carlo

If we want to understand the full scale of the world’s linguistic diversity, we should be thinking not only about languages, but also how speakers relate to their languages.

 

Fuente: https://theconversation.com/threatened-languages-and-how-people-relate-to-them-a-cameroon-case-study-82395

Imagen: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/NEQxvUhHYd6YCRWAcVHTu13tVGmf6xMuflQn9X3akCEJzDpxfPNkv1dJhlElnjflCmqt84s=s85

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Chile: Comprobado. La diversidad cultural en la sala de clases forma niños más seguros de sí mismos

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América del Sur/Chile/Septiembre del 2017/Noticias/http://www.eldefinido.cl/

 

Estudios estadounidenses avalan los beneficios para niños y jóvenes de tener salas de clases diversas culturalmente.

Un 72% han aumentado alumnos inmigrantes de la comuna de Santiago, los últimos cuatro años. Cada vez es más común en algunas regiones que niños chilenos compartan la sala de clases con haitianos, peruanos, venezolanos o colombianos, lo que dista mucho de la experiencia que tuvieron sus padres. ¿Cómo influye esta experiencia en ellos?

Según los estudios más recientes, realizados en Estados Unidos, cuanto más contacto con ambientes multiculturales tenga un niño durante su escolaridad, será más seguro de sí mismo e incluso tendrá mejores resultados académicos. Aquí te explicamos por qué.

Salas de clase diversas, ¡alumnos seguros!

Un estudio se preguntó cuándo y cómo los estudiantes se benefician de la diversidad étnica. Analizaron a 4.302 estudiantes en 26 escuelas intermedias del sur de California, en donde el 41% de los alumnos eran latinos, el 26% estadounidenses (“blancos” indica el estudio), el 18% correspondían a asiáticos y el 15% a afroamericanos. El resto eran de las islas del Pacífico y de Medio Oriente. Una muestra sumamente diversa en uno de los estados más diversos del país.

Lo interesante fue que se metieron a las clases de sexto grado, analizaron sus dinámicas y vieron cómo eran sus desempeños en las distintas materias. Buscaban saber si los distintos grupos se sentían seguros o vulnerables ante el resto, si creían que el trato que les daban los profesores era justo y equitativo, y si jugaban o almorzaban juntos o segregados culturalmente.

Los resultados fueron fascinantes. En la medida en que el sexto grado era más equilibrado racialmente, los niños decían sentirse menos solos, menos intimidados y muy seguros. Consideraban que los profesores eran justos y buscaban voluntariamente juntarse a jugar baloncesto o almorzar con estudiantes de otros grupos culturales. Si bien había casos en que ciertos alumnos latinos o afroamericanos habían sido víctimas de burlas, el estudio no pudo pesquisar quiénes habían sido los culpables.

Por otra parte, el estudio concluyó que la diversidad dentro del aula tiene una importancia fundamental, porque las escuelas que tienen miembros de distintas etnias, pero se encuentran segregados en distintas salas, no se benefician de estos valores y se genera más tensión y sentimientos de injusticia.

Todo indica que saben que la piel puede tener muchos colores y que conocen que su religión o sus creencias no son las únicas, sienten que viven en un mundo mucho más manejable y seguro. Resulta lógico pensar que el enfrentarse tempranamente a realidades diversas, los hace menos vulnerables a que lo distinto los espante. E incluso lo buscarán, porque encontrarán las semejanzas y no las diferencias entre unos y otros.

No sólo se ven favorecidas las minorías

Cuando el periodista Jeremy Adam Smith publicó un informe que mostraba la segregación racial de las escuelas de San Francisco, muchos lectores reaccionaron hostilmente diciéndole que ellos “priorizaban la excelencia académica, por encima de la diversidad”. Si bien la multiculturalidad era evidente en las calles de la ciudad, al momento de entrar a clases, esto no se reflejaba, como también sucede en muchos colegios chilenos.

Un estudio de The National Coalition on School Diversity que abarcó 60 años y aplicó pruebas multidisciplinarias, llegó a la conclusión de que este tipo de enseñanza acarrea beneficios para todos, y no únicamente para la inclusión de las minorías. Indican que, por diversos factores, los resultados académicos de los estudiantes “blancos” son a la larga superiores a los de quienes han estudiado en entornos cerrados. La buena noticia es que, mientras en 1942 sólo un 33% de los blancos pensaban que los niños debían asistir a escuelas multirraciales, hoy el 95% piensa de esta forma.

“Las familias blancas que desean maximizar los beneficios académicos y sociales de la educación de sus hijos, pueden buscar activamente escuelas diversas, asegurando que sus propios hijos serán fuertemente favorecidos por la experiencia”, concluyen.

Si bien en Chile las condiciones son muy distintas a Estados Unidos, un estudio como éste podría dar seguridad a aquellos padres que creen, por ejemplo, que la educación de sus hijos se podría ver perjudicada al compartir la sala con niños que tienen otras religiones o costumbres. Al contrario, un ambiente diverso les dará a los niños muchas más herramientas para enfrentar su futuro.

Además, ese miedo viene finalmente de la idea de que niños de ciertos países puedan tener un nivel más bajo de educación (pocos dudan de alumnos de Canadá, Francia o Inglaterra). Eso nos lleva al tema del rendimiento, donde se teme que unos alumnos con malas notas influencien a otros. Pero, ¿conviene separarlos culturalmente?, ¿qué dice la evidencia? No es recomendable. Esa separación no es efectiva, pues las tensiones se acrecientan.

En Chile: ¿cómo han cambiado nuestras escuelas?

Estos dos estudios estadounidenses son muy relevantes, considerando que Chile está en vías de convertirse en un país multicultural. Según datos de Extranjería, entre 2005 y 2010, se emitieron 376.668 visas, mientras que entre 2011 y 2016, el número subió a 795.921, un aumento que hizo despegar a nuestro país en términos de diversidad. Se nota en las calles, en la micro, en los servicios en general y, por supuesto, en las aulas de clases.

Como te contamos hace poco en El Definido, muchas escuelas públicas y liceos en Chile están abriendo sus puertas a estudiantes inmigrantes, que llegan con urgencia buscando instituciones que los acojan. Comunas como Estación Central o Santiago, son un claro ejemplo de ello. En la Escuela Humberto Valenzuela (Estación Central), por ejemplo, de sus 360 estudiantes, 140 son inmigrantes. La Escuela República del Líbano (Santiago) cuenta con un 44% de alumnos extranjeros, y hasta hay cursos en donde superan a los alumnos chilenos. También en la Escuela República de Colombia (Santiago) se la están jugando por acoger a los niños extranjeros, aquí un 54% de ellos vienen de otros países.

Gracias a un trabajo diario, a docentes muy comprometidos, a equipos de psicólogos y a profesores multilingües, se han logrado ya muchos avances. A veces, el currículum escolar ha debido adaptarse y no solamente enseñar Historia de Chile, por ejemplo, sino realizar vínculos con otros lugares de América Latina.

De acuerdo a Carolina Stefoni, académica de sociología de la U. Alberto Hurtado, esto “abre una serie de oportunidades en la formación de los estudiantes, permite que se conecten con la sociedad que se está construyendo hoy día, que es mucho más globalizada y donde uno se encuentra con personas que vienen de múltiples contextos”.

Y ojo, que esta repentina oleada no sólo ha permitido un rico contacto multicultural, sino también ha copado las matrículas, lo que ha favorecido enormemente a las escuelas municipales, las que desde hace algunos años habían estado perdiendo a bastantes alumnos.

Fuente: http://www.eldefinido.cl/actualidad/mundo/8918/Comprobado-La-diversidad-cultural-forma-ninos-mas-seguros-de-si-mismos/

Imagen: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/NpsqGQqJddQCWk_lxrICmGghrkvM2id3tc6H0cjinvBdAbDOgphXXGMbvPvfdsaWyS_Cnw=s85

 

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India: The creativity quotient

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Asia/India/Septiembre del 2017/Noticias/http://www.thehindu.com

Think back to your earliest memories of effectively learning anything — even something as simple as discovering an instrument that helps you write. When your mother handed you a crayon and turned a blind eye when you scribbled arbitrary, yet colourful lines on the wall? Or in arts-and crafts class in pre-school, when you gleefully tried to fashion a paper boat from colour paper? Or was it when you emphatically mouthed Mark Anthony’s speech, along with the actor on stage — “Friends, Romans, countrymen….” — as you learnt about the skill of oration for your literature class?

While math and science are shoved down every student’s throat, irrespective of whether or not any interest is evinced, what about imparting knowledge on subjects that contribute to students’ all-round development — one that not only helps them ace exams but also sensitises them to the world around them? For instance, inculcating lateral thinking, the ability to come up with need-based solutions to a given problem, thinking out-of-the-box, and so on. This is where integrating the arts into teaching assumes paramount significance.

This explains why Nisha Nair, founder, Artsparks Foundation in Bengaluru, set up the organisation in 2014, with the intent of contributing to the dialogue, building awareness, and support for robust arts education in India. Nair, has spent two decades in the U.S. and worked towards improving the quality of education. Having spent her childhood in Bengaluru, she was determined to effect change in the Indian education system.

“Research indicates that meaningful experiences with visual art contribute to the development of valuable thinking skills and attitudes whose benefits extend well beyond the art room,” she elaborates. “The ability to pose questions, test ideas, take creative risks, solve problems, think flexibly and divergently, deal with ambiguity, persevere, and collaborate effectively, are just some of the many skills and attitudes that are developed and strengthened through engagements with visual art. Involvement in the visual arts is also associated with gains in critical thinking and communication skills. Beyond this, visual arts learning helps improve motivation, concentration, confidence, and teamwork.”

Role of the teacher

Anupama Gowda, Founder, Workbench Projects, and Open Minds Education Initiative also led Kali-Kalisu, a few years back. It is a joint initiative of the Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, the German Cultural organisation and India Foundation for the Arts, Bengaluru. She explains how teacher training is of utmost importance in terms of imparting arts-led education.

“Kali-Kalisu is a working philosophy which places the school teacher as the single most important agent in the Indian educational scenario — the agent of positive cultural engagement and a meaningful development. Hence, Kali-Kalisu continues to be an arts-based teacher training programme for government school teachers across the length and breadth of Karnataka,” explains Anupama. “The Kannada words, Kali-Kalisu, translate to ‘learn and teach’, and serve to remind teachers that education is a lifelong quest, and that the joy of learning stems from the joy of teaching,” she adds.

Anupama opines that an education steeped in the arts can equip students for the rigours of the working environment of the future. She cites the example of TheAims of Education, a position paper by NCERT, which emphasises that “education should be a liberating process” and that the curriculum should promote three key areas of development in the student — aid in the self-development of the individual through an exposure to the right set of values, impart sound knowledge in “constructivist” ways, and foster a sense of curiosity and excitement about learning.

“Within the space of the classroom, the arts can address gaps in curriculum, pedagogy, and the imagination that emerge from the putative “banking concept” of education, with its hierarchical and unilateral dispensing of information,” she says.

Nair believes that rote learning, the consequent regurgitation of facts, a one-dimensional approach to problem-solving — terms that are often synonymous with our education system— hinder authentic engagement, restrict deep understanding, discourage independent thought, and limit notions of intelligence. “The alternative is to offer students numerous opportunities to explore, experiment, and arrive at their own solutions. At ArtSparks, we believe that a great education should equip children with these 21st century skills to handle life’s complexities — skills such as flexible thinking, positive risk-taking, attention to detail, and more,” she says.

Creativity and confidence

Educator Shaheen Mistri, CEO, Teach for India, believes, “A visual platform of disseminating knowledge has always been effective in better assimilation of the subject on hand, by students, as opposed to the conventional chalk-and-blackboard methods.” Around 23 years ago, when she was part of Akanksha Foundation, she explains how she noticed that whenever kids were given anything to work on creatively, and linked to the arts, not only was there a spike in their interest levels, there was also a direct correlation to how kids felt about themselves in terms of their confidence. She believes that arts can be effectively integrated to teach academics in a much more memorable way.

She elaborates on how such an education becomes even more important during high-school and college as students are exposed to a lot more stress and there is more pressure on them to perform. It would help if the academic content is taught through the lens of art. “Imagine learning about the French revolution through role play as opposed to making notes and learning it from notebooks!” she says, and her excitement is palpable.

So, how does an art-based education help students arm themselves for the working environment of the future?

Nair is quick to add, “Today’s organisations need a workforce that is equipped with skills beyond the fundamentals of reading, writing and arithmetic. To be successful in the workplace of the information age, one needs to be able to think about issues, critically. In an age where change is the only constant, understanding and applying 21st century learning skills allows us to be adaptive and innovative in responding to new demands and changing circumstances.”

Anupama concurs. She explains how, the arts in education, instead of positioning the child as a passive recipient of information and knowledge which finds no points of reference in his/her own lived reality, positions the child as an active and autonomous subject who investigates his/her reality and exercises his/her imaginative capacities on what she/he has an immediate connection to. In this manner, the arts can help students find their own voice instead of speaking in a borrowed voice that the system legitimises. “The intervention of the arts in education can promote cultural diversity, counteracting Indian education’s centralised way of defining what and how a student must learn. This is how arts education can become a force for diversity, where diversity is understood as committed to accommodating contending interests, positions, preferences and perspectives, or ensuring a level playing field for rival conceptions of the meaningful or worthwhile,” she concludes.

Fuente :http://www.thehindu.com/education/the-creativity-quotient/article19564815.ece

Imagen: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Uvebsl4w_NYOWJYzteMpmIDamTlhO4lYFprPHdki7VWc4nKj0FRJA1h4tYv0YR5ElS6BOg=s85

 

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Sudan: How South Sudan’s universities have survived civil war and independence

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África/Sudan/Septiembre del 2017/Noticias/https://theconversation.com/

After almost half a century of conflict, South Sudan attained its independence from Sudan in July 2011. One of the challenges it faces as a new country is a small and troubled higher education system.

Sudan’s three oldest public universities – Juba, Bahr el Ghazal and Upper Nile – all have their origins in southern Sudan. In the late 1980s they were relocated to Khartoum in the north. This was ostensibly done to protect students and faculty from the war. It also allowed the regime to execute the war away from the scrutiny of intellectuals. In exile the universities flourished, acquiring additional property and staff.

After the comprehensive peace agreement between the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the government of Sudan in January 2005, the return of the universities became one of the priorities of the Government of the Southern Sudan. In late 2010 the institutions were moved back south.

But the return was rancorous. The universities left behind some of their most valuable assets – experienced academics, buildings, libraries and laboratory equipment. Infrastructure was taken over by the University of Bahri in Khartoum North.

In the south, universities struggled to reestablish themselves. They needed to resettle students, recruit staff and acquire new facilities and equipment. Issues of physical infrastructure and severe staff shortages trouble the university system.

Recently renewed conflict between factions of the ruling SPLM has exacerbated the problems. The hostilities in the Upper Nile region have drastically reduced oil production, which accounts for 98% of South Sudan’s GDP. This plus the plunge in global oil prices placed serious constraints on state funding of higher education.

Still, South Sudan has five functioning public universities: the three cited above, as well as Dr John Garang Memorial University of Science and Technology and Rumbek University. Together they educate nearly 20,000 students. That is only 0.16% of the population of about 12 million. The proportion is the lowest in the region.

The resilience of South Sudan’s higher education system is due mainly to dedicated staff, institutional partnerships and supportive governance.

Dedicated staff

South Sudanese universities lost many of their staff in the 2010 move south. Juba, with 66% of the students, lost 77% of its staff – leaving it with only 137 staff members in total. Similarly large numbers of Upper Nile and Bahr el Ghazal University staff remained in Khartoum. A World Bank report in 2012, which I used for my research but which is not available online, found that only 721 faculty were employed at the southern universities. Since then staff numbers have improved. For example, Juba’s staff increased from 291 in 2014 to 574 in early 2016. Today South Sudan has a moderate student to lecturer ratio of 28:1.

The real problem is qualifications. Most faculty are under qualified. According to the same World Bank survey only 86 of all academics in South Sudan held PhDs in 2012. Only 36 faculty were full professors, while 62 were associate professors, 76 assistant professors, 242 lecturers, and 262 teaching assistants.

This is still the most educated workforce in the country. Rigorous recruitment procedures insulate the universities from the corrupt practices in the civil service. More importantly, the dedication of the academic staff to the institution is exemplary.

While universities work to overcome the staff shortage, they depend on part-time lecturers. According to Professor John Akec and Professor Samson S. Wassara, the Vice Chancellors of Juba and Bahr el Ghazal, 31% of Juba and 60% of Bahr el Ghazal lecturers were part-timers.

Productive partnerships

The universities have developed staff development programmes with each other and internationally.

In early 2011, Juba agreed to a three-year venture with the Virginia Polytechnic and Virginia State University to train staff.

Juba also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Open University of Tanzania in August 2015 to promote distance learning.

Bahr el Ghazal entered a similar arrangement with Makerere University in Uganda and the University of Oslo in Norway. A&M University in Texas and the State University of New York signed an MoU with John Garang Memorial University in June 2010.

Some South Sudanese academics are pursuing postgraduate studies at Makerere University, the University of Zambia and the University of Zimbabwe.

Professors in other universities also supervise some of Juba’s graduate students.

Universities share the meagre facilities they have. Juba and Bahr el Ghazal, which were least affected by the conflict, support their colleagues in John Garang, Rumbek and particularly Upper Nile. The latter has moved to Juba because of insecurity in Malakal.

Supportive governance

The Ministry of Higher Education has supported the tertiary institutions through its challenges.

In addition to organising the international staff development programmes, the Ministry has improved university staff pay and given the vice-chancellors a voice in making policy.

Some of the senior officials in the ministry have an academic background. They ensure that the views of universities are taken seriously.

The vice-chancellors also draw on their connections and political insight to access resources. Members of university councils are often influential ministers or parliamentarians. In South Sudan, informality tends to yield better results than bureaucracy.

Fuente: https://theconversation.com/how-south-sudans-universities-have-survived-civil-war-and-independence-80095

Imagen: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/WHOdLa6dZ0OUH9ZU-xlWRxScx16zvtQK2dgAi8KRwPd-Al-bIDaUCpTd8tqObak7On_bk_Q=s85

 

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The UK is rethinking university degrees and Australia should too

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Oceanía/Australia/Septiembre 2017/Noticias/https://theconversation.com/

There are growing calls for a debate about the role of post-school in society, both in Australia and overseas.

After 30 years of constant expansion, some complain that universities have become too vocational in nature – too focused on jobs, not enough on the art of inquiry.

At the same time, the vocational education sector is reeling from 15 years of funding cuts and the aftershocks of failed free-market experiments. Numbers in trade apprenticeships and traineeships are plummeting. Less than 30% of vocational students in Australia work in the areas in which they studied.

The same is true of higher education. An annual survey of university graduates from 2014 shows that 54% of all bachelor’s degree holders said their qualification was a formal requirement for their job. But the proportion ranged from one in four humanities graduates to 96% of medical graduates. The more regulated the profession, the more degree and career path are likely to be correlated.

The British higher education system is rolling out an alternative education route. Degree apprenticeships were launched in the UK in 2015. These are designed to bridge the gap between technical skills, employment and higher education.

They’re part of a larger scheme intended to reinvigorate apprenticeships more broadly. A 0.5% levy on corporations with an income of more than £3 million (A$4.8 million) funds the system.

Supporters say the initiative is good for employers and good for students, especially for disadvantaged students. They not only struggle to get into higher education (despite an uncapped system) but are also much more likely to drop out of it.

Degree apprenticeships work a lot like traditional trade apprenticeships: students work in a related job with their education strapped on around their employment.

Traditional degrees are steeped in theory and deliver practical experience through internships, practicums or other work-based experiences. In contrast, degree apprenticeships deliver a skill and a qualification simultaneously. Students work four days a week and study for one.

Crucially, the apprenticeship levy covers tuition fees, so students don’t graduate with a debt. If adopted here, this could enable Australia to avoid the distress over rising debts seen in the UK, where it is expected 80% of students will never fully repay their loans.

In the last UK election, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn rode a rising tide of anger among younger voters over student debt with his promise of a return to free higher education.

Even Andrew Adonis, Tony Blair’s former adviser and architect of the current loans scheme, has switched camps. He described the income-contingent loans scheme that resulted in a tripling of fees in 2012 as a Frankenstein’s monster and “a Ponzi scheme”.

While Australia doesn’t have the same immediate crisis, several factors suggest higher education could be heading slowly towards a tipping point. Government plans to increase university fees and introduce more rigorous parameters for the Higher Education Loans Program (formerly HECS) have sparked furious debate.

Meanwhile, graduates face a declining employment market. Just 69% of graduates in 2014 held a full-time job four months after graduation, compared to 81% a decade earlier.

Part-time work, casualisation and under-employment are widespread. Graduate salaries have been more or less static for years. Increasingly, students, particularly the most advantaged, turn to postgraduate education to boost their chances in an overcrowded jobs market, raising questions over credentialism.

Having larger numbers of people with a higher degree produces public benefits, including better health, better parenting, higher rates of volunteering and lower rates of incarceration. But all of this comes at a cost to the taxpayer and does little to correct an imbalance in skills entering the jobs market. Too many lawyers does not balance out a shortage in IT experts or agricultural scientists.

The question is whether new pathways need to be created to help young people straddle the gap between education and work.

Work is under way on this issue in Australia. The University of Tasmania, for example, is adding associate degrees, which are shorter, cheaper and more vocationally focused on local industries than full bachelor degrees.

Perhaps other institutions, particularly those in regional and outer-metropolitan areas, should consider the possibilities offered by the UK-style degree apprenticeship model. These are the universities, after all, that educate by far the greatest proportion of disadvantaged students.

Ironically, degree apprenticeships are a modern, more work-intensive version of the associate degrees that colleges of advanced education offered before the higher education system was unified under the Hawke government in 1989.

Perhaps part of the emerging discussion should include a return to a tripartite public education and training system, which includes TAFE, teaching-only polytechnics and research-intensive universities.

The post-secondary education sector may have a limited appetite for more structural reform. However, as a society, we do need to tackle the question of whether a higher education system devised 30 years ago, onto which uncapped student places have been glued, is still fit for purpose. Times have changed and education systems must surely move with them.

Fuente: https://theconversation.com/the-uk-is-rethinking-university-degrees-and-australia-should-too-82973

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https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/VzomlBB6rQ3lpoyEQr1Ps3qjMlmARiVn9yy9Hus170KYtSTSrHtMNR3D4DXssQUjZGri_v0=s85

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EEUU: College admissions probe relates to bias against Asian Americans’

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América del Norte/EEUU/asiatimes

Resumen: El Departamento de Justicia de Estados Unidos (DOJ, por sus siglas en inglés) dijo el  miércoles  que un proyecto que investiga supuestos prejuicios raciales en el proceso de admisión a universidades estadounidenses tiene como objetivo investigar un caso específico involucrando estudiantes asiáticos que fue presentado en mayo de 2015.Un portavoz del departamento describió un artículo de primera plana del 2 de agosto en el New York Times , titulado » Unidad de Derechos de los Estados Unidos para estudiar el sesgo antiblanco «, como «inexacto». La historia, recogida por los medios estadounidenses, aborda la investigación a las universidades norteamericanas por sus políticas de admisión consideradas discriminatorias contra asiaticos. El informe se basó en un documento interno del DOJ obtenido por el periódico en busca de abogados de personal para un nuevo proyecto sobre «investigaciones y posibles litigios relacionados con discriminación intencional basada en la raza en la universidad y universidades». La portavoz del DOJ dijo que la investigación a la que se aludió en el New York Times se refería a una denuncia presentada por 64 grupos asiáticos que «alega la discriminación racial contra los asiáticos en la política y las prácticas universitarias».

The United States Department of Justice has clarified ‘inaccurate’ report that it is investigating ‘anti-white’ discrimination. Asian American groups have welcomed the move

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) said on Wednesday that a project probing alleged racial bias in the US college admissions process is aimed at investigating a specific case involving Asian American students that was filed in May 2015.

A department spokeswoman described an August 2 front-page article in the New York Times, headlined “US Rights Unit to Study Antiwhite Bias,” as “inaccurate.” The story, which was picked up by the US media, said the agency’s civil rights division was preparing to probe and sue American universities over affirmative action admissions policies “deemed to discriminate against white applicants.”

The report was based on an internal DOJ document obtained by the newspaper seeking staff attorneys for a new project concerning “investigations and possible litigation related to intentional race-based discrimination in college and universities.”

The DOJ spokeswoman said the investigation alluded to in the New York Times story concerned a complaint filed by 64 Asian American groups that “alleges racial discrimination against Asian Americans in a university’s admission policy and practices.” The university wasn’t named.

The DOJ appears to be referring to a suit filed by the Asian American Coalition for Education (AACE) in May 2015 against Harvard University that alleges the Ivy League school discriminates against Asian American applicants through the use of racial quotas that disregard their academic, test score and other qualifications. The filing was supported by more than 60 Asian American organizations nationwide.

Asian American groups backing the admissions suit against Harvard welcomed the DOJ’s probe.

“This is a direct and very positive response to the complaint AACE filed in 2015”

“The Asian American Coalition for Education (AACE) is very pleased to learn that the US Department of Justice is considering a civil-rights-violation investigation into the admissions processes of Harvard and other Ivy League colleges for their alleged discrimination against Asian American students,” the group said in a statement. “This is a direct and very positive response to the complaint AACE filed in 2015.”

“The DOJ initiative is very helpful,” said S.B. Woo, president of the 80-20 National Asian American PAC, a political action committee that is among the groups supporting the complaint against Harvard.

Asian American backers of affirmative action are opposed to the DOJ’s move, however. “It’s absolutely ridiculous that the Trump administration is directing tax payer dollars to target a program that only begins to level the playing field for communities of color seeking access to higher education,” Ivy Yan, a graduate of the Harvard College Class of 2015, told Asia Times. “Affirmative action policies benefit all students, including Asian Americans, which is why it has been upheld in the courts time and again.” Yan will be returning as a law student to Harvard this fall.

Fuente: http://www.atimes.com/article/college-admissions-probe-relates-bias-asian-americans/

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Guatemala: El colegio de los niños sin infancia

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Con el índice de trabajo infantil más alto de América Latina, sólo la educación puede cambiar el futuro de los niños-lustradores. Un programa educativo pionero en Guatemala apuesta por ello

América Central/Ciudad de Guatemala/PABLO L. OROSA

De cuclillas, sobre el enlosado que aún guarda la humedad y el cansancio de la noche, el mundo se ve distinto. Como lo ven los ciegos, los huidos y los que olvidaron aprender a leer. Diego, 13 años de los que multiplican miserias, sabe mirar ese mundo. Porque él vive allí. En las noches húmedas y las mañanas cansadas. Esas en las que los otros chicos, los chicos de un mundo que no es el suyo, pasan por delante de sus manos embetunadas sin ni siquiera reparar en ellas. Porque a los niños lustreros del centro histórico de Guatemala, los niños que limpian los zapatos de los diputados, les han arrebatado hasta el derecho a ser niños.

Los niños son niños porque sueñan. Porque imaginan. Porque conquistan estrellas y cabalgan unicornios. A Diego no le queda tiempo para eso. Él solo lustra, come, lustra y vuelve a casa, si hay suerte, con los 100 quetzales (12,6 euros) al día. Si no, ni siquiera habrá cena. Para el mundo, Diego no puede ser un niño. Aunque su voz mude en cada gallo. Aunque siga creyendo que un día será Messi. Para el mundo, Diego es solo uno más, uno de esos críos sin suerte a los que la vida les salió cruz. Son pobres, parias y analfabetos. Así que solo les queda una salida: trabajar en lo que nadie más quiere hacer. Limpiando los zapatos sucios. Mirando al mundo desde el suelo.

Cada madrugada, cuando la luna aún secuestra las estrellas, el ejército de niños lustreros avanza hacia el centro de la ciudad. En su mochila, Diego, Victor, José Ricardo y los otros chicos de la Santa Compaña no llevan libros, sino enseres: el cepillo, la pasta amarilla, la negra y la marrón, y el trapo. Todo lo necesario para que los zapatos brillen. Los primeros en llegar ocupan los mejores sitios: las puertas de las oficinas ministeriales y los alrededores del Congreso son los más demandados. Allí volverán a la hora de la refacción, cuando funcionarios y diputados salen en busca del café. Entretanto, los lustradores remontan un par de cuadras, hasta el Paseo de la Sexta, el epicentro comercial de la capital. Allí seguirán, en cuclillas, hasta que vuelva la luna a conquistar a las estrellas.

Niños sin escuela, combustible para el trabajo infantil

Es viernes, poco antes del mediodía y el Paseo de la Sexta está abarrotado. Los turistas buscan el Parque Central, mientras los locales avanzan sus compras del fin de semana o disfrutan de la primera cerveza. Un enjambre de chicos camina a su alrededor.

“Parqueo, parqueo”, se escucha una voz aflautada desde la esquina de la 12 calle. A pocos metros, otro joven, no más de 13 años, vende tarjetas de memoria y auriculares. Otro de sus amigos, ofrece smartphones a mitad de precio. Las chicas vociferan desde el interior de una tienda de ropa. “Pase, pase y pregunte”. “Licras a 10 quetzales”. En las calles aledañas, otras jóvenes de su edad preparan tortillas (uno de los platos tradicionales del país a base de maíz) para el almuerzo. Ya ni sienten el calor abrasante al sacarlas del comal.

Actualmente, Guatemala registra el mayor índice de trabajo infantil de toda América Latina con más de 850.000 menores integrados en el mercado laboral. Sin acceso en la mayoría de los casos al sistema educativo (este mismo año se detectó que 141.000 niños de entre cinco y siete años no acuden a la escuela), las opciones laborales de estos jóvenes se reducen a la elaboración de fuegos artificiales, la agricultura, la recolección de café o la venta ambulante. Un modelo que perpetua el círculo de la pobreza.

La escuela de los zapateros para los chicos que cuidan de sus zapatos

Son más de las ocho de la tarde cuando Baltasar Mejía, que hace 18 años que dejó de ser un niño, recoge sus bártulos. Tiene hambre, pero su horizonte vuelve a dibujar un plato de tortillas de maíz con chile. Le gustan, pero hace tiempo que querría probar otra cosa. “Son chiles pasados”, bromea Diego. Ambos comparten oficio y confidencias en las esquinas de la Sexta, junto a los hornos de la San Martín y los licuados de la Berna. Baltasar es mucho mayor que Diego. 34 por 13. Pero los dos miran el mundo de la misma manera. Quieren aprender, “salir de la Sexta” y sacarse el bachillerato.

Guatemala registra el mayor índice de trabajo infantil de toda América Latina con más de 850.000 menores integrados en el mercado laboral

“Quizá así tenga un oportunidad”. Sentado en la última fila de un aula con seis alumnos, Baltasar revisa los ejercicios mientras habla. Hoy tocan números romanos y tradiciones guatemaltecas. Justo delante de él, Diego descubre qué santo se asocia con las fiestas patronales de cada Departamento.

-“No sale Quiché”, avisa otro de los chicos.

-“No, no están todos”, se apresura a explicar el profesor Marlon.

Todos los alumnos de esta peculiar escuela sabatina miran el mundo de la misma manera que lo hacen Baltasar y Diego. De cuclillas. De abajo hacia arriba. Mas por unas horas, las que van desde las siete a las 12 de cada sábado, esta decena de niños lustreros de Ciudad de Guatemala vuelven a ser solo eso. Niños que aprenden matemáticas, español y ciencias sociales.

Zapaterías Cobán, el mayor productor de calzado del país, lanzó hace unos años un proyecto pionero para cuidar de los chicos que cuidan de sus zapatos en las calles. “Era la oportunidad de devolver algo a la población que nos ha dado tanto: se trata de romper el círculo vicioso de la pobreza a través de la educación”, asegura Pablo Sánchez, gerente general de la entidad. En colaboración con la Universidad pública de San Carlos de Guatemala, idearon un programa educativo con charlas para que los chicos escuchasen mientras no tenían clientes. En julio de 2016 dieron un paso más: un curso básico de alfabetización. Tenía que aprender a leer y escribir para poder unirse al programa de formación acelerada homologado por el ministerio de Educación.

El programa Lecciones Brillantes ofrece también desayuno y refacción a los chicos.
El programa Lecciones Brillantes ofrece también desayuno y refacción a los chicos. DAFNE PÉREZ
 Hace unas semanas que Baltasar, Diego y otra decena de chicos arrancaron las clases de primero básico. “A la primera llegaron muchos, porque regalaban insumos (cremas, cepillos), pero ahora ya solo vienen unos once”, reconoce Fredy Lemus, director del colegio Liceo san Francisco de Borja, donde se imparte el curso. Pero once es un número ideal para cambiar el mundo.

A esta hora, siete y media de la mañana, son poco más de media docena los que han llegado. Están en una sala contigua acabando de desayunar. “Ayuda mucho venir aquí y no tener que comprar el desayuno”, señala Baltasar. Al fondo del pasillo, en el aula decorada con dibujos de la fauna local y con rostros de los literatos más destacados del país, Marlon Ruano y Mayra Hernández, los maestros que también miran el mundo desde el suelo, tienen preparada la «lección brillante» de hoy. “Nos incentiva ver como crecen de esta manera. Es distinto trabajar con ellos, son más espabilados. Lo agarran todo más rápido”, afirma la profesora. “Excepto la composición de las unidades, que la tuve que repetir tres veces”, interrumpe Marlon. Tiene una risa inabarcable.

El curriculum académico, adaptado a la realidad de los chicos, se centra en enseñarles matemáticas, español y ciencias sociales

Ambos crearon un currículum académico adaptado a la realidad de los chicos. Niños que “no han seguido una enseñanza regular, que a menudo son del interior del país —la gran mayoría son indígenas para los que el español no es su idioma materno— y que en muchos casos han tenido que dejar el colegio para ayudar a sus familias”. A menudo, estos pequeños son la única fuente de ingresos, lo que los obliga a cambiar el pupitre por la calle: “Cuando no vienen es porque tienen que ir a trabajar, porque el dinero que han conseguido durante la semana no alcanza”.

Sin alzar la vista del libro, Baltasar corrobora las palabras del maestro. Si por él fuese, hace años que habría dejado de mirar el mundo desde el suelo. Estaba decidido a hacerlo hace 18 años, cuando llegó a la capital desde su Totonicapán natal (200 kilómetros al occidente) para trabajar en una maquila. Pero los “vicios” y las malas decisiones se cruzaron en su camino. Así que no tuvo más salida que volver a lo que había sido toda su infancia: el chiquillo que le sacaba brillo a los zapatos de los demás. “Perdí mi trabajo, así que tuve que volver a lustrar. No tenía otra alternativa, si no, no lo hubiera hecho”.

Ahora la ha encontrado. El programa Lecciones Brillantes es su oportunidad. “Quiero aprender, salir de la Sexta y sacarme el bachillerato. Quizás después aprender computación”. No es el único. Victor y José Ricardo, hermanos de sangre y enemigos futbolísticos, también quieren estudiar para ayudar a su familia. En casa esperan cuatro hermanos más y su madre. Demasiadas bocas que alimentar con los 50 quetzales (seis euros) que consiguen al día.

Los chicos sueñan con terminar su educación básica para poder dejar la calle y conseguir un mejor puesto de trabajo.ampliar foto
Los chicos sueñan con terminar su educación básica para poder dejar la calle y conseguir un mejor puesto de trabajo. DAFNE PÉREZ
 Lejos de la escuela, los chicos, en su mayoría entre ocho y 15 años, se convierten en “pequeños adultos”. “Ellos mantienen a sus familias, por lo que acá adentro son más responsables. Valoran lo que están aprendiendo”, apunta Mayra, mientras revisa las tareas de la última semana. Las cartillas están mojadas y arrugadas. Las líneas de texto, torcidas. Porque los niños-lustreros no tienen más que el suelo para hacer sus ejercicios, pero aún así los hacen. Sin dejar huecos en blanco. Mirando al mundo a los ojos.
Fuente: https://elpais.com/elpais/2017/08/24/planeta_futuro/1503572431_369644.html?id_externo_rsoc=TW_CC
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