Communities

Australian education bodies take action as bushfires still rage

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Oceania/ Australia/ 14.01.2020/ Source: www.timeshighereducation.com.

Australia’s international education representative body is vowing to curb its carbon emissions, as the bushfire emergency elevates climate consciousness across the scorched country.

The International Education Association of Australia is developing a carbon neutral policy to mitigate the climate impacts of globetrotting education leaders. Meanwhile the leading university body is joining education minister Dan Tehan’s crisis meeting on the bushfires.

Mr Tehan said Prime Minister Scott Morrison had asked him to call the meeting of the sector’s representatives “to hear first-hand how the bushfires have impacted education, and how our government can help”.

The summit, scheduled for 15 January, echoes similar forums of key players in other sectors. It will focus primarily on schools and childcare centres, where the summer break ends much earlier than at universities.

But Universities Australia chief executive Catriona Jackson said the meeting offered an opportunity to thrash out how her members could continue supporting affected communities.

“University expertise is being deployed to help the community make sense of the crisis, across almost every aspect,” she said.

Ms Jackson highlighted the need for clear communication with international students during the crisis. She said students heading for Australia should contact their prospective universities if they had queries or concerns, while those already in the country should “reach out to university support services if they feel distressed or anxious”.

The support has not all been one-way, with international students among those contributing to the relief effort. International media has carried a story about Mark Yeong, a Singaporean student at the University of Sydney who joined a volunteer firefighting brigade.

International education representatives from Australia’s eight states and territories are also putting together a joint statement on the bushfire emergency, in collaboration with the education and trade departments and IEAA.

Its primary focus is ensuring the safety of current and incoming foreign students, in line with provisions outlined in a “collaborative marketing framework” developed a year ago by the Council for International Education, which is convened by IEAA chief executive Phil Honeywood.

The provisions are designed to coordinate the sector’s responses to critical incidents, and to ensure that jurisdictions do not profit from each other’s misfortunes in situations like the bushfire crisis.

Mr Honeywood said the disaster had also presented an “appropriate time to have a comprehensive look at the carbon footprint situation and to lead by example”. He said that given their considerable domestic and overseas travel, international education representatives needed to find ways to alleviate the climate impact.

This included encouraging webinars and teleconferences as an alternative to international travel. When flying became unavoidable, education representatives should support measures offered by airlines to mitigate the carbon footprint, such as paying for trees to be planted.

He said the industry should also look at ways of reducing the far greater carbon footprint generated by the international travel of students themselves. An obvious measure was to put more resources into branch campuses rather than focusing on onshore recruitment.

“Australia has not been very good on transnational education,” he said. “Surely it’s part of our mission as a sector to be more accessible to the largest number of students possible…to provide world class education in countries where it’s not readily available.”

He said the policy was expected to be approved by the end of February.

Source of the notice: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/australian-education-bodies-take-action-bushfires-still-rage

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Africa: Homegrown Approaches to Achieving Quality Education for Girls

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Africa/Allafrica

Resumen: La educación es mucho más que una oportunidad para ir a la escuela; es una oportunidad para determinar el futuro de uno, establecer una voz dentro y fuera de la propia comunidad y soñar más allá de los límites de las circunstancias.

Education is so much more than an opportunity to go to school; it is an opportunity to determine one’s future, to establish a voice within and outside of one’s community, and to dream beyond the limits of one’s circumstances.

Education has the capacity to lift people out of poverty and to interrupt intergenerational poverty by equipping children and youth with the skills needed to obtain employment and command higher wages (Haveman and Wolfe, 2001; Huisman and Smits, 2009; Post, 2002).

Education also brings with it countless social benefits, such as an improvement in self-esteem, knowledge about one’s environment, and information on how to make a difference and how to practice a healthy lifestyle.

While education is beneficial for all children, educating girls is particularly important. According to the World Bank 2016, quality education helps girls to find their voice—to “speak and be listened to.” Educating vulnerable girls in marginalized communities and rural areas also leads to a reduction in child marriage, teen pregnancy, at-risk behaviors, female genital cutting, and violence against women and girls. When girls are educated, cycles of gender bias against girls and women are effectively disrupted.

Furthermore, the Global Education Monitoring Report 2016 found that when educated girls become mothers, they are more likely to seek consistent prenatal care for themselves and immunizations and other medical care for their young children, passing the benefits of education on to the next generation. When girls are educated, they are better equipped to lift up themselves, their families, and their communities.

Although the importance of girls’ education is widely acknowledged, access to quality education is still beyond the reach of too many girls. Across Africa, several reasons account for this situation, including forced child labor and marriage. Various explanations have been given for why families choose to marry off their girls or send them to work instead of to school. Scholars suggest that a lower financial return on investing in girls’ education poverty, low school quality, and religious values and patriarchal norms all contribute to this problem.

The question is, how can we ensure that girls receive the education they deserve to help dismantle the structures of poverty and enhance societal well-being? More than that, how can we ensure that girls receive a quality education in a girl-friendly environment, develop their own voice, are consistently engaged, and feel safe from harm? At the grassroots level, this means identifying which practices are transformative in girls’ education; which practices deserve our full exploration and dedication; and how we can move away from responding to the symptoms of a lack of quality education and focus on addressing root causes. As a believer in the game-changing efforts of grassroots initiatives, I will share a few ideas in that direction.

To achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 4—“ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”—holistic, innovative, and gender-sensitive approaches are critical. Grassroots education strategies that are woven into the fabric of communities and facilitate self-sustainable development demonstrate promising results, especially when it comes to reaching the most vulnerable girls and ensuring access to education, retention in school, effective learning, and advancement to the next grade level.

Grassroots organizations are making impressive strides.

Pax Sakari, the executive director of Rural Initiative for Community Empowerment-West Nile (RICE-WN), a thriving grassroots organization in Arua, Uganda, stated, “Grassroots efforts challenge gender bias and discrimination and focus on establishing creative, girl-friendly environments that prioritize girls’ social and emotional development.”

He added that RICE-WN does this by mobilizing the efforts of all major key stakeholders at the community level, including faith-based organizations, local authorities, occupational groups, children’s/youth clubs, parents, and teacher associations.

In Kenya, Shining Hope for Communities (an urban, slum-based initiative) and Girls Leading Our World (which runs programs in rural areas) confirmed Sakari’s assertion as they shared that as a result of their prioritization of girls’ social and emotional development, over 95% of their students remain in school and transition from upper primary to secondary school.

As important members of civil society, grassroots leaders have a unique opportunity to promote new pedagogy and share lessons that may contribute to the timely achievement of SDG 4. Grassroots initiatives are usually small, home-grown efforts, generally led by local people with a passion for addressing needs in their communities. These efforts are effective because their design and implementation involve potential program participants and mobilize stakeholders to find solutions.

However, though most leaders of grassroots organizations are driven by passion, passion alone is not enough to effect sustainable social change. Responding to issues regarding girls’ education requires in-depth technical understanding. This creates an opportunity for more learning and on-the-ground exposure on the part of grassroots leaders, or for grassroots leaders to build a team of people with sound technical knowledge in the areas in which the organization works.

Furthermore, while most grassroots organizations are led by local community members who have clarity on the needs of the people they serve, it can be challenging to meet these needs and satisfy donor expectations at the same time. In some cases, grassroots initiatives become heavily influenced by donors’ expectations, and the real needs of the community are not fully addressed.

Another challenge facing grassroots organizations is the investment of resources in responding to the symptoms of a problem rather than tackling it from the roots. If the issue is early forced marriage, how will grassroots efforts get to the root of the problem? Is the root cause poverty, ignorance, outdated traditions, or something else?

Local efforts face increasing challenges in attracting funding.

In addition, some local efforts are increasingly facing challenges in attracting funding. This challenge disproportionately affects organizations that are remotely located and those that are more risky to work with due to having little or no internal control systems and limited external networks. Some organizations dream of endowment funds or resource mobilization efforts but struggle to find partners to support those ideas. Others have initiated their own internal resource mobilization mechanisms, but the income accrued is inadequate for fully funding their programs.

In spite of all these challenges, grassroots organizations have made impressive strides in promoting girls’ education. Some of their most effective approaches include:

Raising community awareness. Deepening community awareness on the importance of girls’ education addresses community members’ misconceptions and misinformation about girls’ education and helps remove some of the gender bias. Because community awareness efforts change attitudes, this approach is able to have a real effect on some of the root causes that keep girls from completing their education. Grassroots organizations that incorporate awareness raising into their programs often work with young people and families through community forums, home and school visits, and door-to-door campaigns to help them better appreciate the value of girls’ education. Some of the most effective methods in addressing social and cultural barriers to girls’ education involve boys and men, families, community leaders, faith-based organizations, and the local private sector to ensure that girls are given equal opportunities.

Fuente: https://allafrica.com/stories/201803230687.html

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Australia: Chisholm mum pleads with Education Directorate for special needs transport

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Australia/ February 13, 2018/By: Emily Baker/Source: http://www.smh.com.au

Duffy Primary was the best fit for Allan Liang. Autism Spectrum Australia felt it, and so did his mum, Nancy Ju.

It’s a 20-minute drive from their Chisholm home but Allan, now nine, is thriving in Duffy’s learning support unit. He’s made great progress. But Ms Ju is desperate for help in getting him to school each day, a task made difficult by her worsening mental health.

Despite pleas from her psychologist, representations from Labor MLAs and low-level advocacy by community organisations, the Education Directorate and Transport Canberra have refused Allan access to special needs transport.

The directorate argues Allan could attend a closer school and has repeatedly pointed to Ms Ju agreeing she would organise Allan’s transport when enrolling him at Duffy Primary in 2014.

But Ms Ju, a single parent from a non-English speaking background, said she agreed to the condition as she was given a day’s deadline to get him enrolled. Her health has declined since then. She claims another student in Allan’s autism unit was offered transport support, though the Education Directorate said it was «not aware» of students using special needs transport to travel from Tuggeranong to Duffy Primary.

«Special needs transport is provided by Transport Canberra for students to travel to their closest appropriate and available learning support program,» a directorate spokesman said.

«It is not normally available if a family chooses a different program in a further location.»

The situation has become a bureaucratic nightmare for Ms Ju, who has been repeatedly encouraged to access transport funding through the NDIS only to be knocked back because Allan attends a school outside his priority enrolment area.

In a statement on Friday, the Education Directorate again suggested Ms Ju «discuss this further» with the National Disability Insurance Agency. The NDIA told her in December it was unable to fund special needs transport without the permission of the Education Directorate.

Ms Ju is adamant her son stay at Duffy Primary.

«Allan has shown many positive improvements since he attended the autism unit at Duffy Primary,» Ms Ju said.

«He requires being secured with this environment for his education with consistency and the routine that he is familiar with.

«In the past three years, the stress of challenging this unfair condition has impacted on my mental health. Additionally, there has been the significant financial impact as a result of that unfair condition being imposed.»

The Education Directorate spokesman said: «The Education Directorate understand the frustration of the family regarding this situation.

«The directorate and schools work hard to accommodate the needs of all students and school communities as much as achievable.

«In a situation like this, families are advised that enrolling a student in a learning support unit at a school that is not nearby, when programs are available closer to home, will usually mean that special needs transport is not provided.»

The spokesman said it had also encouraged Ms Ju to «continue to seek support from the ACT Disability, Aged and Carer Advocacy Service».

Source:

http://www.smh.com.au/act-news/chisholm-mum-pleads-with-education-directorate-for-special-needs-transport-20180209-h0vurm.html

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Is innovation in education oversold?

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15 de noviembre de 2017 / Por: Manzoor Ahmed / Fuente: http://www.thedailystar.net/

Innovation and technology are seen as the solutions to the educational deprivation of millions of children in the developing world. How does the technology-based model of innovation relate to the real world of learners, teachers, schools, families and the communities that we live in?

Focusing on scaling up quality education, BRAC hosted an international conference titled “Frugal Innovation Forum 2017,” on November 9-11, 2017 at BRAC’s conference centre in Savar. Some 200 educationists and innovators from Bangladesh, Australia, India, Nepal and South Africa presented projects based on innovative solutions for improving quality in education.

Only 25 percent of the 5th grade children could read at minimum grade level in Bangladesh, which means three quarters could not quite read, write and do their sums after completing primary education. This was the finding of a rigorous sample survey under Primary Education Directorate auspices in 2013. The same survey in 2015 showed no improvement.

Yet students have to sit for four high-stake public examinations at grades 5, 8, 10 and 12 before tertiary education. Test-taking—model tests, mock tests, private coaching, memorising test guides, guessing test items—is the total concern of pupils, teachers and parents. Test papers are being leaked in advance and sold to examinees—a sign of desperation for high scores in the exams.

Teaching is the last occupational choice for university graduates in Bangladesh and many young teachers keep looking for ways to move out of it.

Meeting a necessary teacher-to-student ratio of no more than 30 students per primary school teacher, with enough learning hours in a school day, would require doubling the number of primary teachers in Bangladesh.

At secondary level, qualified and subject-trained teachers lack in core subjects such as languages, math, science and computer. For 100 secondary schools, there are 50 Bangla, 57 English and 138 qualified teachers for all sciences and math, according to a 2015 survey. It is of course not just a matter of numbers.

There is no pre-service professional training or certification for school teaching. There is no career path for teachers; most school teachers begin their career as assistant teacher and retire as assistant teacher.

Two recent reports on the world education scene, the Global Education Monitoring Report 2017/18 of UNESCO and the 2018 World Development Report of the World Bank, focusing on education, draw attention to the realities in poor countries.

In 1,297 sample villages in rural India, 24 percent of the teachers were found to be absent in primary schools on unannounced visits.

High-stake tests on narrow measures lead to efforts to “game the system”, which punish the marginalised, according to the UNESCO report. India’s National Crime Records Bureau reported 2,672 students committing suicide in 2015 due to failing exams.

Young students who were already disadvantaged by poverty, conflict, gender or disability reach adulthood without even the most basic life skills. “This learning crisis is a moral and economic crisis,” says Jim Y Kim, President of the World Bank.

The innovations described or proposed in the conference concerned pedagogy: making teaching and learning more exciting and joyful; using digital technologies to help learners and teachers; and finding new ways of mobilising funding for education and using it better. Partnerships, decentralisation and devolution, accountability, and inspired and dedicated teachers figured in the discussion.

The promises of innovation and technology still beg the question how these are made to work in the public education system which has to serve the large majority of children ensuring equity and acceptable quality.

Some of the ideas presented were: a greater role of the private sector in education; low-cost private schools; and even public funds provided for schools managed by entrepreneurs. The argument given is that the education task is too large for the government alone to handle. Moreover, greater diversity and choices must exist in services available.

A radical suggestion advocated by Dr James Tooley, professor of education policy at the University of Newcastle in UK, was to keep the government out of education and hand over schooling to the private sector. “The market gives the choice to parents, ensures best use of the resources, and eliminates corruption and waste of the public schools,” argued the professor.

Tooley’s aggressively utilitarian worldview seems to ignore the moral and ethical dimension of rights, obligations of the state and society, and the fact that the market has not served the poor and the disadvantaged well. Nor have the public schools. But an absolute faith in “market fundamentalism” cannot be the magic bullet, however much one wishes for it.

The main conclusion of the lively exchange points to a pragmatic and practical approach, rather than a magic solution. As Mohammed Musa, executive director of BRAC, summed it up, “For education to be able to serve the future of our communities, we need to empower teachers, methodologies, practitioners and more importantly [change] mindsets… to solve real problems with simple, frugal solutions, that include the under-privileged communities of the present world.”

Horace Mann (1796–1859), a visionary US educator, said, “A teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn is hammering on cold iron.” Bill Gates, summing up ten years of experience with the Effective Teaching Project in large cities in the US supported by his foundation, recently said, “Over time, we realised that what made the most successful schools successful—large or small—were their teachers, their relationships with students, and their high expectations of students’ achievement.”

Turning to Bangladesh, a ten-year plan for a national initiative to bring in and keep talented young people in teaching is needed. This plan needs to have four key elements: (i) education should be a major area in the four-year general undergraduate degree; (ii) talented students should be recruited competitively with the incentive of stipends; (iii) a high-quality education course in a hundred degree colleges should be introduced and essential standards and teaching facilities ensured in these colleges; and (iv) a national teaching service corps should be established where the option of suitable position and attractive rewards for graduates of the new course is available.

Thus, in 10 years, a nucleus of talented and inspired teachers can be created in each school. And the environment for innovations to work in these schools will be built.

Fuente noticia: http://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/innovation-education-oversold-1490659

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Sudáfrica: Communities, parents have to become part of school bullying solution – education department

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Durban / 18 de octubre de 2017 / Fuente: http://www.news24.com/

The Department of Education in KwaZulu-Natal has called on parents, communities and all other stakeholders to come together to combat school bullying.

«We are very much disturbed by this kind of continued violence that we see happening in our schools. As the department of education, it is not a matter we can address alone,» department spokesperson Muzi Mahlambi told News24 on Wednesday.

«We need [the] support of parents and communities. This has to be multi-pronged.»

Mahlambi made the statement following a video that emerged online this week, showing a street brawl between two groups of boys allegedly from Palmview and Woodview Secondary Schools in Phoenix, Durban.

The video gained traction on multiple social media platforms, with many expressing disgust at the savagery and violence displayed by the youngsters.

It is not clear when the brawl took place.

In the video, two boys begin kicking and punching another boy in the head. Pupils can be heard jeering in the background as the youngsters land devastating blows to the back of the boy’s head.

After he falls to the ground, the duo increase their ferocity and focus their attack on the boy’s head, repeatedly punching him while pulling his shirt.

Two more youngsters join in kicking the boy as he lies on the ground clutching his head. The assault halts after a car stops and a man exits the vehicle to break up the fight.

Mahlambi said that the department was aware of the incident and would be investigating the matter.

Fear escalation

He, however, urged the community and parents to become more active in curbing bullying at schools.

«As you can see, you say it happened outside school. The boys were, however, in full school uniform. We obviously cannot police the youngsters all the time. This is why we are calling on the community to come forward and also help.»

Mahlambi said the department was working with police. He said he feared bullying could escalate.

«This sometimes starts small but grows. With boys involved, we find they always want to settle a score. Sometimes they can bring weapons like guns and knives. We must, as communities, start asking: Why are they like this and where do they get weapons from?»

Mahlambi said the department had also witnessed situations where siblings and families become involved in school bullying fights.

«It then begins to breed serious problems and create[s] faction fighting in the area.»

He urged parents to take any form of bullying seriously.

«Do not take small issues for granted. Don’t tell your boys to ‘be a man’. Take it seriously as parents. Even if someone takes your child’s sandwich, report that. We do not want these situations to escalate. We need to find solutions together.»

Mahlambi said the department was prioritising the incident and would soon take action against the perpetrators in the video.

«We will take disciplinary actions. We want to set an example here. We will also take actions against [the] boys shouting and filming. They are equally guilty.»

He added: «It must be noted, these incidents don’t just emanate from school, but also from home.»

Fuente noticia: http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/communities-parents-have-to-become-part-of-school-bullying-solution-education-department-20171018

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