América del sur/Uruguay/10 Octubre 2017/Fuente: wradio
El Banco Mundial (BM) ofreció al Gobierno de Uruguay una rectificación sobre los resultados de un reporte de ese organismo que señaló la ineficacia de un plan educativo de ese país y que ahora calificó como «ejemplo a nivel mundial» de implementación tecnológica en las aulas.
«Reconocemos que el Plan Ceibal es un ejemplo a nivel mundial de cómo un programa puede llevar la tecnología a las aulas y ser un vehículo para acercar a los maestros y profesores soluciones innovadoras, con el objetivo de influir sobre aprendizajes para potenciarlos», remarca el BM en una carta dirigida al director de ese programa público de educación uruguayo, Miguel Brechner, difundida hoy por la prensa local.
En el «Informe para el desarrollo mundial 2018: aprender para hacer realidad la promesa de la educación», publicado el pasado 26 de septiembre, el BM se refirió a la falta de efectividad de los programas educativos que incorporan tecnología sin considerar la necesaria adaptación de las modalidades de enseñanza.
Así, en ese reporte el BM hizo referencia a la «falta de efectividad» para mejorar los aprendizajes del programa educativo Plan Ceibal de Uruguay, que entrega una computadora portátil a cada niño en edad escolar.
El organismo se excusó en su misiva indicando que «el informe citado refiere solamente a los primeros años de implementación (del Plan Ceibal), cuando su despliegue a nivel nacional era incipiente y la actividad estaba limitada a la instalación de infraestructura tecnológica», según señala la carta.
En ese contexto, el BM reiteró que «para evitar posibles interpretaciones» se modificó la expresión «totalmente ineficaz».
Sin embargo, sostiene que el hecho de que los niños solo asistan a las escuelas «no garantiza» que aprendan y que «proveerles tecnología tampoco lo asegura», aunque se subraya que ambas estrategias pueden ser utilizadas para mejorar la calidad de enseñanzas.
«Desde el BM valoramos el espíritu innovador del Plan Ceibal, que ha ido expandiendo sus estrategias en un modelo de desarrollo basado en evidencia, en forma transparente y visible para todos los interesados», concluyó el BM.
EEUU/ October 10, 2017/By: Valley News/Source: https://vtdigger.org
State officials and school board members say the Education Fund shortfall could go as high as $80 million and could wallop many property owners with a 5 percent increase in the school tax rate.
Vermont Secretary of Education Rebecca Holcombe has said that a 7- to 9-cent increase in the statewide property tax is likely unless school boards make significant budget cuts.
The projections for fiscal year 2019 will ultimately add pressure to local school boards gearing up to begin their budget processes, said Hartford School Board Chairman Kevin Christie, who also is a Democrat in the Vermont House.
“There might be some very, very difficult decisions to make, and until we know what that bottom line is looking like, we don’t know what they are,” Christie said.
Hartford School Board chair Kevin Christie. File photo by Geoff Hansen/Valley News
If the budget gap falls on property taxpayers, who pay $1.06 billion into the $1.58 billion Education Fund, it would add about 8 cents to the current homestead property tax rate of $1.51 per $100 of assessed property. It also would add 8 cents to the nonresident rate, currently $1.535, state officials said this week.
The exact impact on individual school districts will vary, depending on their spending, but the base rate increase would amount to a $200 tax hike on a home valued at $250,000 for those Vermont residents not eligible for the state’s income sensitivity program.
“Needless to say, the pressures that we’re trying to address are very similar to the state level, especially with the health care component, and we haven’t completed our negotiations for our teacher contracts,” Christie said.
Emily Byrne, the chief financial officer for the Vermont Agency of Education, said the primary driver of the funding gap is the state’s decision to prop up the current FY2018 budget with about $47 million in “one-time” funds that were taken primarily from an end-of-year surplus and an education reserve fund.
“The problem from a budgetary perspective is, if you use one-time money for ongoing costs, you have a problem right out of the gate the following year,” Byrne said.
Those measures actually slightly decreased the property tax rate for the current year, but for fiscal year 2019, which starts next July, there is pressure not only to make up for the loss of the cushion, but also to put about $9.4 million back into the reserve.
Adam Greshin, commissioner of finance and management said the Education Fund gap could go as high as $80 million if school district voters approve budgets with an average increase of of 3 percent. If school budgets are held level or below 3 percent, the anticipated tax increase could be partially averted, said Greshin, a former independent state representative and school board member from Warren.
“I think the governor is going to continue to focus on the same issues because they’re just as important,” he said. “We’re going to ask school districts to reduce the growth in their spending and level fund their budgets, and we’re going to continue to advocate strongly for a statewide health care contract.”
Greshin pointed to an anticipated spike in fiscal year 2019 health care rates — the Vermont Education Health Initiative says premiums will increase by as much as 17 percent for school district employees across the state.
“Keep in mind, the two initiatives that you saw out of the administration last (spring), both would have zeroed in on unsustainable growth. The first would have asked school boards to level fund their budgets. That didn’t happen,” Greshin said.
“The second initiative, which received a great deal of attention, was to move to a statewide health care contract for all school employees. That too didn’t happen. Both of those initiatives would have made life substantially easier this year.”
Royalton School Board member Geo Honigford, president of the Vermont School Boards Association, said he’ll argue against a budget cap at an upcoming Oct. 19 meeting of VSBA members that will include a discussion on how to address the fiscal crisis.
“Caps are never really great policy, because they’re a one-size-fits-all solution,” he said, citing schools with capital improvement emergencies or growing student populations as examples of districts that would not do well under a cap.
Honigford said the Vermont School Boards Association is developing recommendations for solutions that would include a statewide teacher health care agreement negotiated by school boards and unions.
The VSBA also will seek to address Vermont’s student-to-staff ratio, which Honigford said has fallen from 4.7 students per staff member to a lowest-in-the-nation 4.2 to 1 over the past several years.
“A task force would look at staffing in each district and then be able to make recommendations,” he said.
Honigford said that local budget talks in Royalton would depend on the outcome of an upcoming Oct. 24 vote on a consolidation with the Bethel School District.
Even as school boards prepare to sharpen their pencils on local education budgets, there will be various initiatives to change the picture at the state level.
Honigford said the Legislature is sure to make an effort.
“It’s an election year, so we fully anticipate legislators will have no stomach for an 8-cent increase and then saying ‘vote for me.’ We anticipate some sort of cost containment measures coming down the road and we want them to make sense,” he said.
Christie said he’s seen several proposals, some including diversifying the revenue stream, that would dramatically change the way that education is funded, and that any one of them could be implemented very quickly — if the political will can be mustered.
“Most of the concepts have been placed on the table before or at least have been looked at in a cursory way,” he said. “It kind of takes a collective will to say ‘we’re going to change.’ That’s not easy.”
Colombia/ 10 de octubre 2017/Fuente: http://www.eluniversal.com.co
La Secretaría de Educación de Cartagena se concentra en ponerle un tate quieto a los colegios privados irregulares que incorporan estudiantes sin el lleno de requisitos legales. Según informó, cerca de cien instituciones educativas están bajo revisión jurídica y podrían ser sellados si se confirman que no cumplen con la normatividad.
Jaime Hernández Amín, secretario de Educación, indicó que entre de las principales anomalías detectadas por las cuales se están analizando estos posibles cierres están: el funcionamiento con resoluciones vencidas o sin resolución, ausencia de permisos de Curaduría Urbana, carencia de estudios de suelo, inexistencia de planes de riesgo, ubicación en zonas de alto riesgo, entre otras.
“No permitiremos que se siga engañando a la comunidad en establecimientos que carecen de legalidad y que perjudican al estudiantado”, advirtió el secretario de Educación, Jaime Hernández Amín. Por su parte, Oviris Caraballo, directora de Inspección y Vigilancia de la Secretaría, señaló que “los estudiantes no aparecen en el sistema nacional de registro, lo que les perjudica, pues es como si nunca hubiesen ingresado y terminan perdiendo el año, y después quedan desfasados en condición de extraedad”.
Aunque hay más de cien colegios en evaluación, la Secretaría de Educación reveló que contra algunos ya procedió el cierre, entre los que se mencionan Santo Domingo, Guillermo Valencia, Alborada de El Pozón, Javeriano y Cristiano Bilingüe de Cartagena.
El Distrito también hizo un llamado a los padres de familia para que aprovechen el periodo de apertura de matrículas en las 104 instituciones educativas oficiales, abierto hasta el 14 de noviembre, y no arriesguen la educación de sus hijos en colegios carentes de legalidad.
“Esta mala práctica administrativa se detectó al hacer un barrido por una base de datos, y una vez se haga cada evaluación, procederemos al cierre definitivo de cada colegio irregular”, finalizó Neil Fortich, asesor jurídico de la Secretaría.
España/ 10 de octubre de 2017/ Fuente: http://www.elperiodico.com
La Plataforma por la Escuela Pública ha anunciado hoy movilizaciones «si continúa la inactividad del Gobierno en materia educativa», y ha exigido que se derogue la Lomce, se reviertan los recortes y se ponga en marcha una hoja de ruta por un pacto social por la educación.
Así lo ha manifestado, Paco García, de la Federación de Educación de CCOO, quien ha acusado al ministro de Educación, Íñigo Méndez de Vigo, de «parapetarse en el pacto educativo para aplicar las mismas políticas con menos ruido».
«La Plataforma sigue existiendo, vamos a poner encima de la mesa iniciativas. Por el momento no hay calendario, pero lo habrá», ha asegurado García, que ha advertido de que la «comunidad educativa no aceptará un pacto sin consenso social».
En este sentido, Maribel Loranca, responsable de enseñanza de UGT, ha lamentado que el Gobierno siga aplicando las políticas regresivas y los recortes, mientras la Subcomisión del congreso encargada del pacto educativo «eterniza sus trabajos para no abordar con los sindicatos, los estudiantes y las familias los problemas reales».
Loranca ha criticado que Méndez de Vigo «sólo ejerza de portavoz», al asegurar que «tiene absolutamente abandonada la educación».
Por ello, ha calificado de «absolutamente normal que las comunidades autónomas estén tomando sus iniciativas» para resolver los problemas pendientes, como el que afecta a los «100.000 trabajadores de la enseñanza en precario» o la necesidad de modificar el sistema de becas, «como se comprometió el ministro el pasado mes de julio tras una protesta de los estudiantes».
Las críticas al trabajo de los grupos parlamentarios en la Subcomisión de Educación han sido unánimes por parte de los todos los integrantes de la Plataforma.
Para Jesús Aguayo, de STEC, la Subcomisión «sólo sirve para dar apariencia de un diálogo que no existe» y ha insistido en que para el «Ministerio supone ganar tiempo y para la Plataforma perderlo».
Fritz Jacques emphasized the importance of the book in the cross-training of young people and invited the high school directors to appreciate this initiative of the Ministry at its true value.
The aim is to set up library embryos in high schools or to reinforce existing ones for the benefit of pupils.
Director Pléteau and Brice Saintil, the Representative of the National Office of Education Partnership (ONAPE), explained to the heads of the lycée that this initiative is part of the improvement of the quality of education but also a healthy way to occupy the minds of young people.
After the Northeast, the North and Center are the last two departments that will be touched before completing this operation.
Political and Business leaders discussed the connections between terrorism and education and the challenges posed by migration at the 15th Rhodes Forum organised by the Dialogue of Civilizations Research Institute (DOC). The fundamental importance of education as the key to a sustainable future for humankind was the focus of Leaders’ Club meeting at the 15th Rhodes Forum which was attended by various heads of state and government, and other high-profile speakers, to develop concrete approaches to solving key problems that is being faced by the countries.
Former presidents of Nigeria and Mali, Goodluck Jonathan and Dioncounda Traore, both stated that the «increased dissemination of knowledge» is vital to unlocking the vast potential of their «continent’s young generation».
They also stressed that broadening access to scientific research and factual information must be accompanied by the transfer of an ability to discern value.
Confronted with the threat of Boko Hara— a jihadist group that fundamentally opposes «Western» education—Goodluck Jonathan advocated «religious literacy» as an educational objective in its own right.
This inaugural session of the Leaders’ Club Summit considered the connections between terrorism and education. The level of complexity around the issue became clear during the discussion of migration and its causes.
Ian Goldin, South-African born Professor of Globalisation and Development at Oxford University and former Vice President of the World Bank, stressed that «education, in particular post-secondary school education, should not be seen as a panacea for all of society’s ills.»
Goldin said,»If it is not accompanied by a sense of perspective and an overall scenario of growth and development, education can even backfire. He pointed to the relatively high percentage of university educated individuals among suicide bombers and jihadists.»
Walter Schwimmer, former Secretary General of the Council of Europe, gave the example of an Austrian-financed university in Burkina Faso as proof that a properly educated young generation is less prone to leave their home country and emigrate. Graduates of that particular institution, Schwimmer said, instead seek to pursue their careers in Burkina Faso and can be seen in leadership positions throughout the country.
Others, such as Jan Figel from Slovakia, former EU commissioner and currently Special Envoy for the promotion of freedom of religion and belief outside the European Union, were more skeptical and stressed the fact that with higher education comes the ambition to improve one’s position in life. If their home country does not offer the anticipated opportunities, the lure of greener pastures elsewhere becomes almost impossible to resist.
Dioncounda Traore gave a powerful description of the pulling power that an education and a life in France or the US affect on his young compatriots. He also said he views the concept of transnational citizenship and identity as matter of fact. Migration is, he said, the hallmark of our age, whether we want it or not.
Ruben Vardanyan, Armenian-Russian entrepreneur and philanthropist, who yesterday received an award for his special contribution to the Dialogue of Civilizations, pointed «Due to historical circumstances most Armenians live outside their homeland, and they remain both faithful to their Armenian roots and responsive to their foreign environment, be it Singapore, France, Iran or the USA.»
Ruben Vardanyan in particular noted that «global citizens who have a local identity and education play a key role. This means that teachers bear particular responsibility for preparing coming generations for this globalised world.»
Community Girls Schools (CGS) is a unique education program designed to accelerate equitable access to quality basic education for girls aged between 8-12 years in villages that have no established formal schools. It’s a modified education program which offers flexible learning opportunities to learners mainly in lower primary education, where girls are expected to constitute 70% of the total learners, and boys constitute the remaining 30%. The CGS program is mainly characterized by condensed syllabus, faster learning process, targeting marginalized female learners, and flexibility in the learning schedule and calendar.
One of the four clusters of CGSs that are getting support from the Out of School Children (OOSC) project being implemented by UNESCO Juba Office is that of Imotong State. The partner that is given the assignment to provide the support and to run the 93 CGSs in the three counties of Torit, Magwi and Nimule is Alternative Basic Education for Pastoralists (ABEP). ABEP has also managed to cater for displaced children who left their areas of Pageri, Moli and Kerepi and are temporarily settled in Nimule.
ABEP has recruited 93 all-female CGS teachers who are conducting classes for 2,731 students (1,927 girls and 804 boys). As the target set was to enroll 2,790 students, ABEP has achieved a 97.9% success rate in terms of enrolment. With regard to sex disaggregated targets, ABEP had planned to enroll 1,953 girls and therefore has achieved 98.7% of its target; the success rate for boys is 92.8% as the plan was 837 boys and actual enrolment is 804. ABEP has reported that it has given capacity development orientation training for all its 93 teachers in the writing of lesson plans, and use of learners’ attendance register.
ABEP has conducted one assessment of learning so far, and the pass rate for girls was 63% and for boys 67%, an indication of the need to work harder to support girls succeed in their education.
ABEP mentions insecurity and famine in the project areas as two of the major challenges it faces in the execution of its activities. It recommends some kind of school feeding programme to be launched in the CGS schools if it is possible to do so.
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