Education

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The coronavirus outbreak is the biggest crisis ever to hit international education

Reseñas

By: Martin La Monica.

The coronavirus outbreak may be the biggest disruption to international student flows in history.

There are more than 100,000 students stuck in China who had intended to study in Australia this year. As each day passes, it becomes more unlikely they will arrive in time for the start of the academic year.

Of course international affairs are bound to sometimes interfere with the more than 5.3 million students studying outside their home country, all over the world.

After the September 11 attacks in 2001, the United States closed its borders temporarily and tightened student visa restrictions, particularly for students from the Middle East. Thousands were forced to choose different study destinations in the following years.

In 2018, Saudi Arabia’s government instructed all its citizens studying in Canada to return home, in protest at the Canadian foreign minister’s call to release women’s rights activists held in Saudi jails.

A significant proportion of the 12,000 or so Saudi students in Canada left to continue their studies elsewhere, before the Saudi government quietly softened its stance.

So we have seen calamities before, but never on this scale. There are a few reasons for this.

Why this is worse than before

The current temporary migration of students from China to Australia represents one of the largest education flows the world has ever seen. Federal education department data show there were more than 212,000 Chinese international students in Australia by the end of 2019.

Screenshot/Department of Education

This accounts for 28% of Australia’s total international student population. Globally, there are only two study routes that involve larger numbers of students. The world’s largest student flow is from China to the United States and the second largest is from India to the US.

It’s also difficult to imagine a worse time for this epidemic to happen for students heading to the southern hemisphere than January to February, at the end of our long summer break.

Many Chinese students had returned home for the summer and others were preparing to start their studies at the end of February.

By comparison, the SARS epidemic in 2003 didn’t significantly dent international student enrolments in Australia because it peaked around April-May 2003, well after students had started the academic year.

Read more: We need to make sure the international student boom is sustainable

Ending in July that year, the SARS outbreak infected fewer than half the number of people than have already contracted coronavirus. Even during the SARS outbreak Australia didn’t implement bans on those travelling from affected countries.

What will the impact be?

This crisis hits hard for many Chinese students, an integral component of our campus communities. It not only causes disruptions to their study, accommodation, part-time employment and life plans, but also their mental well-being.

A humane, supportive and respectful response from the university communities is vital at this stage.

Australia has never experienced such a sudden drop in student numbers.

The reduced enrolments will have profound impacts on class sizes and the teaching workforce, particularly at masters level in universities with the highest proportions of students from China. Around 46% of Chinese students are studying a postgraduate masters by coursework. If classes are too small, universities will have to cancel them.

And the effects don’t end there. Tourism, accommodation providers, restaurants and retailers who cater to international students will be hit hard too.

Chinese students contributed A$12 billion to the Australian economy in 2019, so whatever happens from this point, the financial impact will be significant. The cost of the drop in enrolments in semester one may well amount to several billion dollars.

The newly-formed Global Reputation Taskforce by Australia’s Council for International Education has commissioned some rapid response research to promote more informed discussion about the implications and impacts of the crisis.

Read more: What attracts Chinese students to Aussie universities?

If the epidemic is contained quickly, some of the 100,000 students stuck in China will be able to start their studies in semester one, and the rest could delay until mid-year. But there might still be longer-term effects.

Australia has a world-class higher education system and the world is closely watching how we manage this crisis as it unfolds.

Prospective students in China will be particularly focused on Australia’s response as they weigh future study options.

The world is watching

Such a fast-moving crisis presents a range of challenges for those in universities, colleges (such as English language schools) and schools who are trying to communicate with thousands of worried students who can’t enter the country.

Australian universities are scrambling to consider a wide range of responses. These include:

  • delivering courses online
  • providing intensive courses and summer or winter courses
  • arrangements around semester commencement
  • fee refund and deferral
  • provision of clear and updated information
  • support structures for starting and continuing Chinese students, including extended academic and welfare support, counselling, special helplines, and coronavirus-specific information guidelines
  • support with visa issues, accommodation and employment arrangements.

A coordinated approach involving different stakeholders who are providing different supports for Chinese students is an urgent priority. This includes education providers, government, city councils, international student associations, student groups and professional organisations.

 

Source of the review: https://theconversation.com/the-coronavirus-outbreak-is-the-biggest-crisis-ever-to-hit-international-education-131138

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Coronavirus shuts down nearly 340 schools in S. Korea

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Asia/ South Korea/ 03.02.2020/ Source: www.koreaherald.com.

According to the Ministry of Education, 245 kindergartens, 53 elementary schools, 21 middle schools, 16 high schools and one special-education school postponed reopening following the month-long winter vacation or halted operations to rein in the spread of the coronavirus.

Most of the schools affected by the virus are in Suwon, Bucheon or Goyang in Gyeonggi Province, Gunsan in North Jeolla Province and in Seoul, where those infected with the virus have come from or visited.

Schools in areas considered to be vulnerable to the spread of the virus are now allowed to make a decision at their discretion on whether to temporarily close doors through prior consultations with regional educational authorities.

Education authorities in Suwon and Bucheon ordered all kindergartens and some elementary and middle and high schools in the cities to close for a week.

Authorities in Goyang recommended closure for all its kindergartens in the city for one week. However, only nine out of 157 kindergartens were closed, which led the ministry to revise the total number of kindergartens from 393 to 245 in the afternoon.

In Seoul, a total of nine schools — one kindergarten, three elementary schools, two middle schools and three high schools — were temporarily shut.

In Gunsan, all kindergartens, elementary, middle and high schools were ordered to close for two weeks.

Nurseries in Taean in South Chungcheong Province, Gunsan in North Jeolla Province and cities in Gyeonggi Province — Suwon, Bucheon, Pyeongtaek, Anyang and Goyang — were closed starting Monday.

Amid growing fears over the further spread of the virus upon Chinese students’ return to Korea for a new semester, the ministry said it plans to review whether to delay the reopening of universities this week.

There were an estimated 71,067 Chinese students studying at universities in Korea as of 2019, accounting for 44.4 percent of all foreign students here.

A total of 112 students and school officials are currently in self-imposed isolation after visiting the province, according to a survey of 242 universities by the ministry.

Meanwhile, 21 Korean students and school officials who visited China’s Hubei province, the epicenter of the new coronavirus, less than two weeks ago remain in self-imposed isolation, as they are not showing any symptoms of the virus, according to the ministry.

Korea has confirmed 15 cases of the coronavirus that is believed to have originated in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, with 913 people having come into contact with those infected with the virus, according to health authorities.

Starting from Tuesday, South Korea will temporarily ban foreigners who have visited Hubei province within 14 days from entering the country, and everyone who came in contact with those infected with the virus will be required to quarantine themselves for two weeks.

The coronavirus outbreak has killed at least 362 people and infected more than 17,300 globally. There are now at least 179 confirmed cases of the virus in more than 27 countries and territories outside mainland China.

One person outside mainland China, a 44-year-old Chinese man in the Philippines, has died. Sweden and Spain reported those countries’ first cases over the weekend.

Source of the notice: http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20200203000896

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Kenya school collapse kills several children

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Africa/ Kenya/ 03.02.2020/ Source: www.dw.com.

A school building has collapsed in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, killing at least seven children. Scores were also injured in the accident, which residents and others blame on shoddy construction.

A two-story school building made of corrugated metal and wood collapsed in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, early on Monday, with at least seven of the school’s roughly 800 pupils killed by falling debris.

Two of the 64 children injured remain in critical condition. The disaster occurred shortly after lessons at the privately run school, The Precious Talent Top School, had begun for the day.

Many residents of the suburb of Dagoretti, where the collapse took place, blamed bad building methods for the accident.

«You can easily break it with your own hands, as easy as that,» said one resident, Peter Ouko. «This is chicken wire, not a construction material, and someone had the guts to use this to build a construction for our kids. I think this is basically premeditated murder.»

Two soldiers near collapsed school building (Reuters/N. Mwangi)The school will be closed for the next four days, according to the Kenyan education minister

Lack of regulation

The MP for Dagoretti, John Kiarie, told KTN television the accident demonstrated that there was no proper «regulation of educational institutions, especially those in informal settlements … regulations that pertain to the construction and stability of educational institutions.»

Numerous buildings in Nairobi and other cities have collapsed in recent years, often causing deaths. Kenya has experienced a booming construction industry in the past few years, but corruption is rampant, allowing contractors to ignore regulations and safety standards.

Source of the notice: https://www.dw.com/en/kenya-school-collapse-kills-several-children/a-50553375

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US teacher suspended after casting children of colour as slaves

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North America/United States/02-02-2020/Author and Source: www.bbc.com

A teacher at a US elementary school has been suspended after casting two of her pupils of colour as slaves in a school play.

They were to be whipped by other children as part of the play featuring fifth graders – 10 or 11 year olds.

The parents of a mixed-race girl, aged 10, complained to the school and other officials in Hamden, Connecticut.

Carmen and Joshua Parker are calling for diversity training for teachers in the district.

Ms Parker did not think the play was an appropriate way of teaching children about slavery, and she was concerned about how black people were portrayed in it, she is quoted as saying by the New Haven Independent website.

«The scene starts with nameless slaves [number] one and two getting pushed towards the ship by the slave owner and a child is acting as the slave owner.»

«I was trying to make sense of the whipping of the children, the children were going to be whipping the slaves,» Mr Parker told local TV.

Ms Parker – who moved from Georgia to Connecticut to become assistant professor of psychiatry at Yale University to research racism in medicine – said no teacher at her daughter’s school in Georgia would have assigned that play to students.

The teacher, who is white, has been placed on administrative leave, pending the outcome of an investigation. A local schools official said the play was not a part of the curriculum, and that it had not been approved by the district.

Ms Parker said blaming the teacher was not the solution.

«Teachers are not the scapegoat for a system that is clearly broken and has been suppressing minority voices and the voices of those with disabilities,» she told a local education committee on Tuesday.

Sourse and Image: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51308746

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United Kingdom: ‘I have a tiny violin somewhere’: Private schools roasted online after complaining about plans to get more poor students into uni

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Europe/United Kingdom/02-02-2020/ Author and Source: www.rt.com

Leading private schools in England have criticized plans to improve access to top universities for poorer students, saying it could lead to discrimination of rich kids based on “class,” provoking ridicule on social media.

The Headmasters’ & Headmistresses’ Conference (HMC), an association that represents some of the UK’s most expensive private schools, voiced concerns about proposals published on Wednesday by the Office for Students, the higher education regulator for England.

Mike Buchanan, the HMC’s executive director, claimed universities should expand to accommodate as many “truly suitable students” as needed, rather than “rob some students of a future to award it to others.” He argued that institutions must look at their international students intake rather than restrict places to UK students “based on their class.”Plans being put forward by the regulator include a promise to halve the access gap at England’s most selective institutions in the next five years, increasing the amount of disadvantaged students by 6,500 a year from 2024-25.

The seemingly hostile reaction from elite private schools has, perhaps unsurprisingly, prompted much mockery online, with many people expressing little sympathy with their “predicament,” with one person tweeting: “I have a tiny violin. Somewhere.”

Guardian columnist Frances Ryan sarcastically remarked that being discriminated based on class sounded like a “terrible education system,” adding: “We should totally do something to fix that.” Others online mercilessly attacked the premise that the “kids of the rich and greedy” deserve sympathy because they’re being attacked based on their “accident-of-birth privilege.”

Helen the Zen@helenmallam

All those poor, expensively educated, emotionally deprived, kids of the rich and the greedy, being discriminated against on the basis of their accident-of-birth privilege. You’ve got to laugh. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/jan/29/private-schools-criticise-plans-to-get-more-poor-students-into-university?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other …

Private schools criticise plans to get more poor students into university

Regulator’s pledge to boost university access in England ‘may discriminate based on class’

theguardian.com

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Some accused the private schools of being “actual Marvel villains,” while another Twitter user claimed the “lack of self-awareness is astounding.”

Kalwant Bhopal, a professor of education and justice at Birmingham University, said that it was clear that young people going to independent fee-paying schools were “more likely to be middle-class,” adding that “these schools continue to perpetuate privilege.”

Fuente e Imagen: https://www.rt.com/uk/479471-private-schools-poor-students-universities/

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Kenya: NGAOs directed to ensure 100pc secondary school transition

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Africa/Kenya/02-02-2020/Author: Hunja Macharia/Source: www.kbc.co.ke

The Government will conduct a head count of last year’s KCPE candidates who have joined form 1 in line with the 100 percent transition policy.

Speaking in Vihiga County Interior CS Fred Matiangi warned that National Government Administrative officers will be held personally liable for the absence of these learners from school.

“Despite our progress in transitioning from primary to secondary school education we’re still holding out for 100% of last year’s KCPE candidates. Chiefs & Asst. Chiefs must comb through villages & account for these learners within their areas of jurisdiction.” Matiangi said.

The same was replicated in Kilifi County where Senior Ministry of Education and Teachers Service Commission officials embarked on an exercise to ensure the 100 percent transition to secondary school policy is complied with.

This follows revelations that the County had achieved a transition rate of 86 percent with the other students unaccounted for.

The senior officials led by Education Chief Administrative Secretary Mumina Bonaya together with administrative and security officers went on a house-to-house mop up exercise and forcefully took parents and their children who were still at home to nearby secondary schools where they supervised the admission of the children.

The team also included Deputy Director of Education Hassan Duale, Coast Regional Director of Education Hussein Osman, TSC Coast Regional Director Victoria Mvoka and Kilifi County Director of Education Eunice Khaemba among other government officers.

Ms Bonaya said less than 60,000 students were yet to join form one in the Country as efforts to attain 100 per cent transition reach top gear.

Kilifi and Tana River Counties are said to be the Counties with the highest number of students who are still at home with the CAS saying the Ministry remains committed to ensure full compliance with the policy.

“We are just following up to ensure that we do not leave anyone behind as it is now a government policy to ensure 100 percent transition from primary to secondary school,” she said.

Bonaya however acknowledged that some parents or guardians had failed to take the students to school due to financial constraints.

“Some of the children are total orphans while others were abandoned by their parents and are living with their elderly grandparents. Others are not aware that government secondary schools do not charge school fees, but we have advised them accordingly,” she said.

Source and Image: https://www.kbc.co.ke/ngaos-directed-to-ensure-100pc-secondary-school-transition/

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Egypt’s Higher Education Exams to Start Following ‘Open Book’ System

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Africa/ Egypt/ 28.01.2020/ Source: egyptianstreets.com.

The Ministry of Education and Technical Education announced that students from grades 1 and 2 in the secondary level of the Thanaweya system would be following the new system in which they would have open access to textbooks during their exams.

The implementation in the system, announced through the Ministry of Education itself, was long anticipated since Egypt’s Minister of Education Tarek Shawki announced a new reform in Egypt’s education system.

Such updates are expected to be implemented as of the next the round of exams set for January for most Egyptian students or students in the public ‘thanawiya ammah’.

Over one million students are expected to be venturing into this change, with the exams designed to be a combination of both paper and electronic forms, as per local news outlets.

For years, Egypt’s ailing educational system has relied on heavy set memorization and ‘ideal answer’ practices. Switching to an ‘open book’ form of examination is intended to spark critical-learning skills as learners become less reliant on memorizing facts.

To score highly in the competitive system, Egyptian students largely depend on expensive private tutoring in which they are encouraged to submit ‘expected’ and ‘model’ answers rather answers than based on understanding which hinders long-term retention of information and the quality of education overall.

Indeed, Egypt in its Global Competitiveness Report 2018–2019, the World Economic Forum ranked the quality of Egypt’s ‘critical thinking in teaching’ as 2.7 out of 7. In 2018, the country’s education quality ranked 129 in Spectator Index

Egypt introduced a new education system in August 2018, with the beginning of the new school year. Part of the reviving the curriculum is introducing a digital system to replace the old paper-based examinations. This move comes in an attempt to prevent manipulation of grades.

The upgrade of the educational programme comes after Egypt received a US $500 million loan from the International Bank of Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) last April to help revamp the system. This also feeds Egypt’s ‘2030 Vision’ development plan that emphasized the importance of educational reform to achieve social development in the country.

Source of the notice: https://egyptianstreets.com/2020/01/10/egypts-higher-education-exams-to-start-following-open-book-system/

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