Education

Page 12 of 144
1 … 10 11 12 13 14 … 144

India: Mixed reactions to new education policy

Noticias

Asia/ India/ 04.08.2020/ Source: www.aa.com.tr.

Politicians and academics are divided in India about a new National Education Policy [NEP] 2020 that was approved last week and replaces a 34-year-old National Policy on Education (NPE).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Cabinet approved the policy Wednesday “making way for large scale, transformational reforms in both school and higher education sectors”.

The policy mentions teaching up to at least grade 5 in the mother tongue or regional language and a focus on “curriculum to integrate Indian culture and ethos at all levels.”

However, there are mixed reactions regarding the new policy.

“On the whole, my sense about the policy is actually it contains many sensible suggestions. The apprehensions like BJP is bringing this policy and it could be saffronisation of education … fortunately this policy is not all about that. I think it is a step forward because many sensible things are there. At the same time I remain deeply skeptical about its implementation by this regime,” Yogendra Yadav, a former academic and national president of political organization Swaraj India told Anadolu Agency, referring to earlier fears that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party may bring some right-wing Hindu policies to education.

Professor Najma Akhtar, Vice Chancellor of New Delhi based Jamia Millia Islamia, termed the policy “ground-breaking.”

“The higher education in India will now be holistic and multidisciplinary with a shared focus on science, arts and humanities,” she said.

But Pankaj Kumar Garg, a teacher at a college affiliated with New Delhi University and also convenor of Indian National Teachers Congress, said there are many problems in the policy.

“They are encouraging foreign universities to come to India. You need to improve the ranking of local universities. By allowing foreign universities to operate in India on their own norms is permitted in FDIs [foreign direct investment] in education sector,” he said. “Use of technology in New Education Policy would deprive marginalized and economically poor sections from education as they don’t have proper resources required for online education.”

“The policy has advocated major reforms in education, but as always, the devil lies in the details, and we will see how to get the NEP 2020 translated to action on the ground, true to the spirit of the reforms envisaged to empower the students in the country, to discover and fully develop their unique potentials,” Rupamanjari Ghosh, Vice-Chancellor of Shiv Nadar University in Uttar Pradesh was quoted by local news agency Press Trust of India.

Indian ethos

According to the policy document, the NEP “envisions an education system rooted in Indian ethos that contributes directly to transforming India, that is Bharat, sustainably into an equitable and vibrant knowledge society.”

“The Policy envisages that the curriculum and pedagogy of our institutions must develop among the students a deep sense of respect towards the Fundamental Duties and Constitutional values, bonding with one’s country, and a conscious awareness of one’s roles and responsibilities in a changing world,” it said.

Many organizations affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)- powerful Hindu far-right group and ideological inspiration for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have welcomed the NEP saying their suggestions were included, including remaining in India’s Ministry of Human Resource Development.

Two such outfits are Bharatiya Shikshan Mandal (BSM) and Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas.

“Almost all the things which were suggested by Bharatiya Shikshan Mandal have found place in NEP. We have been demanding renaming the HRD [Human Resource Development] ministry to education ministry and cultural ministry. They have changed the name to the education ministry,” Shankaranand BR who is All India Joint Organising Secretary, BSM told Anadolu Agency. “The NEP – 2020 would prove itself an instrumental in making Bharat Aatmnirbhar. The political independence we got on 15th August 1947 but the academic independence we got on 29th July 2020”.

He said the inclusion of «Bharatiya knowledge system, thrust for language and culture, will imbibe the values of life, constitutional values and life skills in new generation.»

“We welcome the policy. There is an integrated approach in the policy and It has talked about the development of students from all sections of the society. It has stressed on local culture, local skills, and traditional arts. Local, state and national has been combined. It has been inculcated in this. The biggest demand of ours was to change the name of the ministry, which has been done. There is also focus about promotion of Indian languages,” Atul Kothari, national secretary of the Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas told Anadolu Agency

India’s Samajwadi Party (SP) claimed the objective of the new policy was to “implement the RSS agenda.”

«The objective of the new education policy announced by the centre is to implement the agenda of the RSS. According to this agenda, the curriculum will now be presented in a special colour to mould the new generations,” SP President Akhilesh Yadav said in a statement, according to the Press Trust of India.

Indian politician and Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury said, “Bypassing Parliament, ignoring opinion of state governments and rubbishing opinions of all stakeholders, Modi government is unilaterally destroying our education system,” he said.

‘Shining example’

Modi said the framing of NEP 2020 will be remembered as a shining example of participative governance.

“I thank all those who have worked hard in the formulation of the NEP 2020. May education brighten our nation and lead it to prosperity,” he tweeted.

“Respecting the spirit ‘Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat’, the NEP 2020 includes systems to promote Indian languages, including Sanskrit. Many foreign languages will also be offered at the secondary level. Indian Sign Language (ISL) will be standardised across the country.”

Source of the notice: https://www.aa.com.tr/en/education/india-mixed-reactions-to-new-education-policy/1930132

Comparte este contenido:
Leer más »

Japan: The shape of post-pandemic university education

Noticias

Asia/ Japan/ 28.07.2020/ Source: www.japantimes.co.jp.

How will the pandemic affect universities? How will they metamorphose as they go through the COVID-19 period and then the time after it’s over?

I define the COVID-19 period as the time before vaccines and drugs are developed to combat the new coronavirus. This is the time when the “new normal” of wearing masks, washing hands and maintaining social distances are required to avoid infection in the “Three Cs” environment: closed spaces with poor ventilation, crowded and close-contact settings. In the period that follows, COVID-19 will become an ordinary infectious disease that can be combated by vaccines and drugs, like influenza.

At Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU), where I serve as president, all the classes during the first half of this school year (April-September) are being held online using the Zoom video-conferencing system.

Fortunately, the COVID-19 outbreak is under control to some extent in Japan. So far, some 31,000 people have become infected with the coronavirus and 1,000 have died in this country, while worldwide 16 million people have been infected and more than 640,000 have died. Since Japan accounts for about 1.5 percent of the world’s population, it can be said that it is relatively safe as far as COVID-19 is concerned.

As Japan cautiously tries to return to normalcy, universities are exploring how to normalize their education. In the latter half of the school year, APU plans to hold hybrid classes, with students attending classes on campus when possible, and online classes being provided for students who cannot come to campus or when otherwise appropriate.

Universities have no other choice but to try hybrid teaching since there is no telling when the second wave of coronavirus infections will hit.

As such, we will have to consider several issues: 1) What kind of face-to-face classes are possible while maintaining social distancing under the terms of the new normal; 2) Where to draw a line between online classes (typically large classes with the priority of imparting knowledge to students) and face-to-face classes (typically a seminar in which the teacher and a small group of students discuss specific topics); and 3) To what extent will technology be able to help provide equal educational opportunities for students participating remotely in a class that other students are attending in-person.

During the COVID-19 period, the quality of hybrid teaching will hold the key to the competitiveness of universities.

What will universities be like in the post-COVID-19 period? It is unthinkable that they will completely go back to the old normal because it’s human nature to not let go of things that are found to be convenient. Some of the teachers who become accustomed to the convenience of teaching online from home may not want to return to face-to-face classes.

Does that mean that universities will move toward online teaching and distance learning? The tuition for the broadcast-based Open University of Japan is about one-fifth that of ordinary universities. If this is adopted by other universities, teachers’ salaries or the number of teachers could be reduced to one-fifth. Would Japan be able to maintain its level of research and education under such a system?

If teaching moves online, students will be able to compare class options. Students may in fact be happier if videos of classes taught by popular instructors known for their teaching virtuosity are distributed online — like some prep schools have been doing. In this sense, pursuing an “online” university may result in axing large numbers of teachers and getting rid of big university campuses.

Minerva Schools at KGI, touted as a model for 21st century universities, may give us a hint as to the future of higher education. While all of Minerva’s classes are online, their students are supposed to live in dormitories that are scattered across the globe. The students move among them so they can experience living in various parts of the world.

Minerva attaches importance to the idea of peer learning. Most people are lazy so it is fairly hard for them to study by themselves. In general, students can learn only when they mingle with each other and with teachers. Philip II, king of the ancient Macedon, spent a large sum of money to invite Aristotle from Athens to tutor his son Alexander and provide him with a special education. Philip II then opened a school where Aristotle taught Alexander and select children of other aristocrats.

The idea of peer learning has been handed down unbroken from Ancient Greece to this day. Here lies the essence of university education. It can be said that a university is a form of business that makes sense only when it provides students with a physical environment for learning. The core value of this is joy that is born when students deepen their study by spending time with each other and with university staff, including teachers.

In other words, students deepen their studies through total immersion in campus life, including extracurricular activities. Therefore, there won’t be any problems even if classes, which make up only one part of campus life, are replaced by online teaching. Teachers can use the time spared by online teaching to provide guidance and to advise students on their various needs.

Source of news: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2020/07/28/commentary/japan-commentary/shape-post-pandemic-university-education/

Comparte este contenido:
Leer más »

This women’s college in Ghana leads the way on e-learning during the pandemic

Wunpini Fatimata Mohammed

By: Wunpini Fatimata Mohammed.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, many universities are currently deliberating what to do for the forthcoming semester. St. Teresa’s College of Education, one of five female-only colleges in Ghana, is leading the way with e-learning by consolidating the use of messaging applications like Telegram and WhatsApp.

Established as the Women’s Training College in 1961 and later becoming the St. Teresa’s College of Education, Hohoe, Volta region, in 1964, the college is one of 46 colleges of education in Ghana.

In March, the college sent its students home as part of measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus and most classes shifted online. While some students have been asked to return to school to prepare for their final exams, many students continue to learn online from home.

The college does not have an in-built e-learning platform like Sakai, Canvas or Blackboard, and there are no officially recognized learning platforms in Ghana. At other colleges, tutors often use whichever platform they feel works best and as a result, many students download multiple applications like Google Classroom, Zoom, Telegram, and WhatsApp, some of which consume a lot of data. In many cases, students are not formally enrolled on these platforms by their institutions to take lessons.

At St. Teresa’s, however, online learning is mostly conducted on WhatsApp and Telegram. After consulting with tutors and students, the apps were designated as the official learning platforms for the college. Tutors switch to WhatsApp if they run into network problems while conducting classes on Telegram. Students observe that these platforms are low-cost, and this helps them save money on internet data.

Speaking to Global Voices by phone, Benedictus Mawusi Donkor, a tutor at the college, explained why the college decided to enroll all students on WhatsApp and Telegram for e-learning:

When we were using the Google Classroom and YouTube, downloading videos becomes a problem when the network is not that strong. But when it comes to Telegram, I think with a little bit of network you easily get access to text mostly and audio. And some too, just a handful even with the Telegram they have a problem, so we try to engage them on WhatsApp. They have a WhatsApp platform as well as the Telegram.

By consolidating and centralizing platforms for e-learning, tutors have found creative methods to keep students engaged in classes conducted on these messaging apps. Some of these methods include close monitoring of student engagement and attendance, customizing available digital platforms for learning, listening to and addressing students’ and tutors’ concerns and providing monthly digital training for tutors in need.

Doreen Mensah, a first-year student, said that tutors and the college’s authorities found ways to motivate students to participate in online lessons.

The tutors have been motivating us. They know it’s not easy, so they tell us to try. When they are online, and you are not available he will pick his phone to call and find out what is going on. And then they will give you words of encouragement to convince us to go online.

However, there are still structural issues that mitigate learning at St. Teresa’s. According to Jennifer Nyavor, a first-year student, students are struggling financially since their allowances have not been paid since March when they were sent home:

When we were in school, we depended on the allowance but now that we are home, they stopped paying allowances and some of us use it to pay school fees so it’s making life difficult. Since we came back home in March when the president said no school till further notice, that was when they stopped paying the allowances. The allowance is 200 Ghana cedis [$34.54] per month. Unless my parents give me something small to buy data. So when I come online, I can’t ask questions because then the class is over.

High student engagement

According to a Transforming Teacher Education and Learning (T-TEL) report, while some colleges reported attendance rates as low as 31 percent in June, St. Teresa’s reported a 97 percent attendance rate. Tutors were highly engaged and in touch with students’ pedagogical needs. Tutors checked in regularly with students who were missing classes to work with them so that they could maintain regular class attendance.

In phone conversations with Global Voices, students and tutors observed that the college’s principal, vice-principal and quality assurance officer were added to each course platform to observe classes and work to address challenges as they emerged.

According to Jennifer Agyekum, a second-year student at the college, the efforts of tutors to keep students engaged have been effective:

Those who do well in assignments, tokens are being given to students in the form of [internet data] bundles. They are really motivating us to participate in the virtual learning and they are doing their best.

However, tutors and students still had to deal with other structural issues that specifically affected student engagement while they studied remotely.

Sophia Adjoa Micah, the principal, said:

As students are at home, some parents may not understand the whole business of learning online. Seeing their wards online they may not take kindly to it. And being females, some of the students have to do chores at home. It is a challenge to learn online and concentrate without any distractions.

Other tutors took the initiative to call parents and talk to them about creating conditions at home to enable their daughters to learn online with as few distractions as possible.

At the end of each month, tutors are required to write reports detailing the progress of their online classes and identify the challenges of mitigating teaching and learning. These reports are then submitted to school management who review them and work with tutors and students to develop strategies to address these issues.

The college also adopted an open communication style where conditions were created for students to share their concerns and challenges. The students who spoke to Global Voices found that this communication style was helpful for supporting their learning.

A model for higher education e-learning

While some lecturers in other higher education institutions in Ghana have struggled to navigate teaching online, St. Teresa’s College has worked in close collaboration with tutors to ensure that they are properly equipped to use digital tools to teach their classes.

Some tutors said that the Information Technology (IT) department of the college organizes monthly programs and workshops to help tutors who are struggling to navigate digital platforms in their classes.

In an email conversation with Global Voices, Principal Micah explained how some of the college’s support funds from T-TEL were used to enroll tutors in an online certificate course organized by Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences.

The college is doing well with limited resources, but Micah believes that the establishment of a state-of-the-art ICT center will help them improve the quality of e-learning. Micah has also appealed to telecommunications companies in Ghana to provide support for students via free data packages to improve access to education, especially for marginalized students.

Source of the article: https://globalvoices.org/2020/07/10/this-womens-college-in-ghana-leads-the-way-on-e-learning-during-the-pandemic/

Comparte este contenido:
Leer más »

United Kingdom: universities comply with China’s internet restrictions

Noticias

Europa/ United Kingdom/ 27.07.2020/ Source: www.bbc.com.

UK universities are testing a new online teaching link for students in China – which will require course materials to comply with Chinese restrictions on the internet.

It enables students in China to keep studying UK degrees online, despite China’s limits on internet access.

But it means students can only reach material on an «allowed» list.

Universities UK said it was «not aware of any instances when course content has been altered».

And the universities’ body rejected that this was accepting «censorship».

A spokeswoman said the project would allow students in China to have better access to UK courses «while complying with local regulations».

But in a separate essay published by the Higher Education Policy Institute, Professor Kerry Brown of King’s College London cautioned of the risk of universities adopting «self-censorship» when engaging with China.

MPs on the foreign affairs select committee have previously warned against universities avoiding «topics sensitive to China», such as pro-democracy protests or the treatment of Uighur Muslims.

Chinese students have become an important source of revenue for UK universities, representing almost a quarter of all overseas students – and Queen’s University Belfast is chartering a plane to bring students from China this autumn.

The number of Chinese students have risen 34% in the last five years

The pilot project involves four Russell Group universities – King’s College London, Queen Mary University of London, York and Southampton – and is run by JISC, formerly the Joint Information Systems Committee, which provides digital services for UK universities.

China’s internet censorship means that some websites are filtered or blocked – and there have been concerns that students in China could not study online, such as clicking on an embedded link in a scholarly article.

The technical solution, provided free by the Chinese internet firm Alibaba Cloud, creates a virtual connection between the student in China and the online network of the UK university, where the course is being taught.

But a spokeswoman for JISC says Chinese students will not have free access to the internet, but will only be able to reach «resources that are controlled and specified» by the university in the UK.

Any online information used in these UK university courses will have to be on a «security ‘allow’ list, which will list all the links to the educational materials UK institutions include in their course materials», said JISC.

This raises questions about academic freedom and free speech – but when asked about whether these principles were being put at risk, the universities have so far referred back to JISC.

JISC, which is an online services provider, says such issues are for the universities – and that «all course materials have been within regulations. Nothing was altered or blocked».

Students attending a lectureImage copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image captionUniversities have feared that the pandemic could reduce overseas student numbers

Universities UK, which is a supporter of the project, said: «We do not endorse censorship. This scheme is intended to ensure that Chinese students, learning remotely during the pandemic, can access course materials and are able to continue their studies.»

The university body said a similar scheme was already operating for Australian universities.

As well as complying with Chinese regulations, this online link is intended to create a more reliable connection, so that students can more easily watch lectures and follow their courses.

JISC says online students in China face particular barriers with restrictions that «screen traffic between China and the rest of the world, filtering content from overseas used for delivering teaching and learning and blocking some platforms and applications».

The pilot will finish this month and it could be offered more widely from September.

Source of news: https://www.bbc.com/news/education-53341217

Comparte este contenido:
Leer más »

We can use COVID-19 pandemic to reinvent education

Harin Contractor

By: Harin Contractor.

 

A lot has been said about how the COVID-19 pandemic has been exacerbated by the digital divide in education, health care and elsewhere.

Overnight, millions of students were consigned to the wild wild west of distance learning at home. And we are quickly discovering the depth of the digital divide in the field of education, and that its dimensions reach far beyond the simple notion of just having broadband inside the home.

Currently, distance learning is breaking down for many reasons. Nearly three months into distance learning in Philadelphia, fewer than half of the students participated in their virtual classroom. Los Angeles’ largest school district reported 15,000 students were absent from online learning, even after many students received distance learning devices.

The lack of planning by school systems is probably the most significant failure. Surveys show that nearly 65% of teachers worldwide were completely unprepared for what the distance education transition requires, and it takes a lot: understanding the technology, updating curricula, in-home supervision especially in single-parent households, literacy and a range of other baked-in sociological factors.

Inequities, already ubiquitous in public education, are also deepening in distance education. Forty-three percent of Hispanics and 42% of African American students don’t have a desktop or laptop at home, and 33% of urban students lack home computers.

And even if students get devices from their local schools, we face a digital literacy crisis. One survey found many fifth and eighth graders are insufficiently prepared digitally.

In order to fix the distance education challenge, government, business and nonprofit leaders must come together and get our nation’s best minds focused on every aspect of the problem. The future of our education, health care and so many other institutions depend on it.

Through the CARES Act, Congress is trying to address some of the device gap and other divide challenges by appropriating $13.2 billion in grants for elementary and secondary schools. Congress wisely sees that the distance education challenge involves many issues simultaneously and appropriated funds for a wide range of purposes — curricula, computers, broadband connectivity, software and so on.

It’s a useful start, but unless the education community, parents, community leaders and students all rally to fix the underlying challenges, we will be climbing a steep hill on education this fall and beyond.

While many broadband providers have stepped up to provide $10 a month broadband internet service to low-income households — and some are even offering free service to many homes during COVID-19 — we need the flexibility on E-Rate and CARES funds to beta-test other broadband adoption strategies. For instance, we should use these funds to help broadband providers wire every single unconnected home in a community where that provider already servicing a school.

Other ideas should also be tested, including incentivizing even more low-cost broadband by returning universal service contributions to broadband providers that take such initiatives. Federal funds should also better support public libraries, which have become critical learning centers for many communities during social distancing phase of education and training.

But most fundamentally, it’s time for the government and private sector partners to set up a national blended learning, mentoring and tutoring effort. Unless we think big along those lines, students will remain sidelined this fall regardless of how much broadband connectivity and devices they have.

Big structural change ideas must include massive new digital literacy efforts in urban and rural America where the online education gaps are most stark. Policy leaders must remember that the divide is as much an adoption issue as anything else; many non-adopting homes don’t see the relevance of the internet or may prefer their mobile device.

This crisis allows us the opportunity to reinvent our education system and make it more fair and inclusive to reflect our 21st century realities.

Source of the article: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/2020/07/16/opinion-we-can-use-covid-19-pandemic-reinvent-digital-education/5450925002/

Comparte este contenido:
Leer más »

COVID-19 : Ce que vous devez savoir sur l’éducation des réfugiés

Reseñas

By: Unesco.org.

Malgré un assouplissement relatif des fermetures d’écoles dues au COVID-19 et une tendance croissante à la réouverture, plus d’un milliard d’apprenants à travers le monde restent touchés par la fermeture d’établissements scolaires. La perturbation de l’éducation est sans précédent à cette échelle. Le COVID-19 laisse peu de vies et d’endroits intacts, mais son impact, y compris dans l’éducation, est plus dur pour les groupes qui sont déjà dans des situations de vulnérabilité comme les réfugiés.

Comment les fermetures d’écoles dues au COVID-19 affectent-elles l’éducation des réfugiés ?

Déjà avant le COVID-19, les enfants réfugiés avaient deux fois plus de probabilité d’être non scolarisés que les autres enfants et malgré l’amélioration de leur taux de scolarisation, seulement 63 % des réfugiés étaient inscrits à l’école primaire et 24 % dans l’enseignement secondaire. La pandémie risque d’engendrer un recul des modestes gains réalisés et d’être catastrophique pour des groupes tels que les adolescentes.

Ces dernières années, des efforts importants ont été déployés pour inclure les apprenants réfugiés dans les systèmes éducatifs nationaux, mais les obstacles à l’éducation persistent et pourraient même s’aggraver en raison de la pandémie. Il est aussi inquiétant de constater que la discrimination et la xénophobie à l’encontre des populations réfugiées augmentent, ce qui nuit à leur scolarisation et à leur maintien à l’école.

Que pouvons-nous faire pour assurer une éducation de qualité pour les apprenants réfugiés ?

La première étape consiste à défendre et à garantir le droit à l’éducation des réfugiés en veillant à ce qu’ils puissent tous apprendre à la maison et retourner à l’école en toute sécurité. Certains signes prometteurs montrent que les gouvernements accélèrent l’inclusion des réfugiés dans leurs réponses au COVID-19, ce qui offre l’occasion de travailler à la réalisation des engagements contenus dans le Pacte mondial sur les réfugiés.

Au fur et à mesure que l’on met moins l’accent sur l’apprentissage à distance et la fermeture des écoles, et plus sur la réouverture et le retour à l’école, il convient d’accorder une attention particulière aux inégalités existantes et exacerbées auxquelles sont confrontés les réfugiés, en particulier les filles en âge d’être scolarisées dans le secondaire, qui étaient déjà deux fois moins susceptibles de s’inscrire que leurs pairs masculins. On s’attend à une aggravation de ces conditions.

Le HCR estime que 20 % des filles réfugiées qui sont scolarisées dans le secondaire risquent effectivement de ne jamais retourner à l’école lorsque celle-ci rouvrira après le COVID-19. C’est dès maintenant que nous devons agir pour remédier aux inégalités et à la situation désastreuse auxquelles sont confrontés les apprenants réfugiés.

Pourquoi est-ce si urgent et qu’est-ce qui est en jeu ?

Les apprenants réfugiés sont confrontés pendant et après le COVID-19 à de nombreux enjeux. On s’attend à un accroissement important du décrochage, ce qui signifie que l’on perdra cette génération si elle est écartée de l’éducation. La situation éducative des réfugiés était déjà précaire dans de nombreux pays avant la pandémie, beaucoup ayant manqué plusieurs années de scolarité et devant travailler sans relâche pour rattraper leur retard. Ils doivent maintenant faire face à d’autres perturbations de leur apprentissage.

Ceux qui n’étaient pas inscrits dans des programmes d’éducation risquent encore plus de ne jamais revenir à l’apprentissage. Le manque d’accès aux infrastructures, au matériel et à la connectivité, les conditions de vie et l’éloignement de nombreuses zones accueillant les réfugiés signifient que les enfants réfugiés risquent également de ne pas pouvoir accéder aux programmes nationaux d’apprentissage à distance mis en place par les gouvernements dans le cadre de la réponse au COVID-19.

Que fait l’UNESCO pour faire avancer le droit à l’éducation des réfugiés ?

Par l’intermédiaire de la Coalition mondiale pour l’éducation, l’UNESCO facilite les partenariats entre plusieurs parties prenantes afin d’offrir des possibilités d’apprentissage aux enfants, aux jeunes et aux adultes, y compris aux réfugiés qui ont été touchés par la perturbation de l’éducation due à la pandémie.

L’UNESCO a pris un engagement et s’efforce de renforcer les systèmes éducatifs nationaux en fournissant aux États Membres une expertise et des orientations techniques pour la conception, la mise en œuvre et la planification de politiques en faveur de l’inclusion des réfugiés à tous les niveaux des systèmes éducatifs nationaux.

Le Passeport des qualifications de l’UNESCO destiné aux réfugiés et aux migrants vulnérables lancé en 2019 vise à faciliter l’intégration des apprenants dans le système éducatif et sur le marché du travail par le biais de procédures d’évaluation. Le processus assure la reconnaissance d’éléments clés tels que les qualifications, les compétences, l’expérience professionnelle pertinente et la maîtrise de la langue.

Le 13 juillet, de 16h à 17h30 CET, une table ronde de haut niveau virtuelle menée par le HCR et l’UNESCO réunira des réfugiés pour faire entendre leur voix sur leurs besoins et les réponses à apporter sur le terrain. L’événement est convoqué et présidé par l’Envoyée spéciale Angelina Jolie et co-organisé par le Canada et le Royaume-Uni.

Source of review: https://fr.unesco.org/news/covid-19-ce-que-vous-devez-savoir-leducation-refugies

Comparte este contenido:
Leer más »

Australia: Students head back to school amid coronavirus nerves

Noticias

Oceania/ Australia/ 21.07.2020/ Source: www.smh.com.au.

 

Health authorities are confident hygiene and social distancing measures will reduce the risk of COVID-19 outbreaks in schools as NSW students return to class for term three.

The NSW Department of Education will press ahead with the easing of restrictions in public schools, including allowing special religious education volunteers back onto campus, and the resumption of inter-school competitions and work experience.

Some principals said they were nervous students’ return would exacerbate COVID-19 outbreaks in south-west Sydney, particularly after a cluster at Al-Taqwa College in Melbourne led to 173 cases.

But Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said the NSW Department of Education had «strong, COVID-safe practices».

«We’re very confident in the social distancing and hygiene measures that have been put in place,» she said.

Dr Chant urged parents to maintain a safe physical distance when dropping off and picking up their children, and said while masks were a personal decision for families, children often did not use them properly, which could lead to further risk.

NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant has confirmed 20 new COVID-19 cases were diagnosed in the last 24-hours.

«At this point in time we are not recommending that students are sent to school with face masks,» she said.

While NSW Health research found transmission rates were low between school students, a major study from South Korea involving thousands of coronavirus cases found rates were as high as adults among those aged between 10 and 19.

However, the director of the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance, Kristine Macartney, said the Korean study looked at transmission within households rather than at school.

«What’s important to bear in mind is that households are quite different to schools,» she said. «If we stick to the health advice, I am confident we will see little transmission in school.

«As we have seen in Victoria, when the virus is out in the broader community, and we have circulation in families, communities and schools put together, that’s a different situation.»

Professor Mary-Louise McLaws, an adviser to the World Health Organisation, said Victorian health authorities were investigating the Al-Taqwa cluster, but the most likely driver was social contact between students’ families after hours rather than between students on campus.

«Authorities will start looking at whether the students are actually from family clusters, and happen to go to the same school,» she said.

President of the Parents and Citizens Federation Tim Spencer said parents were concerned about the spread of COVID-19 in the community, but «at this stage we are hopeful that the Department [of Education] will be able to manage anything that may occur,» he said.

NSW Teachers Federation President Angelo Gavrielatos said the union would continue to monitor the situation.

«As always our actions will be informed by putting the health and safety of students and teachers and principals first,» he said.

Source of news: https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/students-head-back-to-school-amid-coronavirus-nerves-20200720-p55dsc.html

Comparte este contenido:
Leer más »
Page 12 of 144
1 … 10 11 12 13 14 … 144