Education and Science

Minister wants to ‘decolonise’ education in South Africa

Noticias

Africa/ South Africa/ 06.02.2019/ Source: businesstech.co.za.

Basic education minister Angie Motshekga has called for a more ‘decolonised’ education system in South Africa – saying the current system needs to be amended to allow for diversification.

According to EWN, Motshekga made the comments on the sidelines of the Basic Education lekgotla in Boksburg on Monday, but gave very little in the way of expanding on the concept.

The ‘decolonisation of education’ was at the forefront of demands from students during the Fees Must Fall protests in 2016 and 2017, where students demanded that universities prioritise African studies, and overhaul the curriculum to serve African needs.

However, there has been no real consensus on what it means to decolonise education, with academics noting demands ranging from more African-centric subjects, to a complete overhaul of academia that rejects non-African, or ‘colonial’ studies.

According to Motshekga, the current education system should be amended, with more diverse subjects from high school right through to university. She described the current systems as “very colonial, British, academic”.

Changes to SA’s education system

Motshekga’s comments are generally in-line with the ANC’s latest election manifesto, which also calls for some major changes to the South Africa’s education system, including curriculum changes.

In the ANC’s 2019 manifesto, the party has called for changes to school curricula, predominantly to prepare for the fourth industrial revolution, but also to promote and implement indigenous language programmes, including the finalisation of language legislation in provinces for inclusion in the school curriculum.

Also included in the manifesto is a desire to put history as a key focus area. In December 2019, the department of education gazetted its plans to develop a new history curriculum – with some proposals to make the subject compulsory.

Moves have also already been made to open up access to universities, by doing away with the designated subjects list, and allowing matrics to get bachelor’s entry on a wider array of subjects.

Where a matriculant was previously required to meet the pass prerequisite from a subject list of 18 for bachelors entry at university – which included subjects like accounting, maths and science – they now need only to pass any of the approved 20-credit NSC subjects (excluding Life Orientation).

Academics have said that while it’s good to promote African-centric subjects and curricula, a balance needs to be struck so that the advances of modern medicine, education and science that originated elsewhere in the world aren’t abandoned.

Source of the notice: https://businesstech.co.za/news/lifestyle/294654/minister-wants-to-decolonise-education-in-south-africa/

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Armenia launches special education platform for new generation reforms

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Armenia/May 29, 2018/Source: http://www.tert.am

The Ministry of Education and Science, in collaboration with Tomo Center for Creative Technologies, on Saturday announced the launch of a special platform to consider new generation reforms.

The initiative aims to foster national debates over the future of Armenia’s education, as well as develop a special project proposing renewed approaches to its development and implementation, said Marie Lou Papazian, the managing director of Tumo.

In her speech at the opening event, she also stressed the importance of elaborating a special package to assist in future development projects.

“We should not be satisfied only with the reforms. It is also important to move to building a system which will be considered the most developed in the world. We have three clearly outlined objectives to work on in the six months to come,” she said.

“The first thing to do is to collect all the resources, programs and ideas potentially promoting reforms in education. Second, [we need] to create our vision for guiding those reforms, and third – develop a timeline to get the reforms underway,” Papazian added.

Highly appreciating the initiative, Minister of Education and Science Arayik Harutyunyan highlighted an increasing interest in education (in the past couple of weeks), considering it an important stimulus.

“It is important in the sense that the new government [which came to power] after the [velvet] revolution is planning reforms in these particular areas in collaboration with specialists. That’s something we do really need to introduce good concepts into education,” he said, requesting the attendees to concentrate serious efforts on possible solutions.

The minister said he also managed to address the urgent and pressing problems over the past weeks (since taking office), undertaking strategic and tactical steps to tackle the existing challenges.

He said that the reforms should be comprehensive to offer innovative ideas and approaches on practically all the levels of education (from pre-school institutions to universities).  “We need a closer study in the field of vocational education where we are facing numerous problems. Their solution would help build bridges between the labor market and the innovative trends,” he added.

The minister further emphasized the urgent need of de-politicizing universities and revising the distribution of resources. In his words, the Ministry of Education and Science made “quite unreasonable expenses” in the past years. “Certain expenses were made in the wake of special [telephone] calls by the legislative body. They amount to hundreds of millions,” he added.

Source:

http://www.tert.am/en/news/2018/05/26/Arayik-harutyunyan/2695705

 

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Armenia: Education ministry seeks to abolish re-examination opportunity in universities, academic staff express various positions

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Armenia/April 10, 2018/Source: https://armenpress.am

The ministry of education and science of Armenia had earlier suggested a new bill whereby the re-examination opportunity for students would be abolished. Under the current system, students of universities are entitled to three re-examination attempts in case of failing an exam. The bill suggest using solely the minimal and maximal credits system – a student either gains enough credits during the year to pass to the following year, or he/she doesn’t.

But executives of universities say that although the model is being used worldwide, the transitioning in Armenia won’t be swift and easy.

ARMENPRESS talked with Vice Rectors of several universities about this proposed change, as well as another change – the attempt to decrease the number of admission applications based on randomly selected professions, and applicants will give the exams partly.

Yerevan State University’s Vice Rector for Academic Affairs Alexander Grigoryan says abolishing the re-examination model is a familiar method which is applied abroad. Grigoryan says transitioning to the model will certainly be difficult, because the complete preparation of the universities requires time.

“Serious work is required and I think the Yerevan State University will be ready for the new bill”, he said.

Tsolak Akopyan, Vice Rector of Academic Affairs of the Valery Brusov State University of Languages and Social Sciences, said a transition-at once will be difficult.

“But the fact that students will chose how many credits during how many years and when to graduate – in four or six years, this is an  accepted option”,  he said.

Arkadi Barkhudaryan, Vice Rector of for Academic Affairs of the national university of architecture and construction, said he opposes the bill and students should at least have one re-examination chance.

Source:

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/929061/

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