Education

Page 26 of 144
1 … 24 25 26 27 28 … 144

50,000 children missing from school: Australia’s ‘hidden disaster’ revealed

Noticias

Oceania/ Australia/ 03.12.2019/ By: Fergus Hunter /Fuente: www.smh.com.au.

At least 50,000 Australian children are completely detached from formal education at any one time, a new report has found, challenging schools and governments to face up to a «hidden disaster» that is structurally entrenched and poorly understood.

The research from the University of Melbourne’s Graduate School of Education has sounded the alarm on children disappearing through «trap doors» in education systems that are failing to accommodate young people’s needs and embrace those who are struggling.

«Australia has a very serious educational problem that we seemingly do not want to acknowledge,» the researchers, Jim Watterston and Megan O’Connell, concluded. «It is an issue that needs to be brought out into the open and receive urgent attention.»

Through modelling based on internal education department data and statistics from multiple other sources, the report concluded 50,000 was a conservative estimate of the number of unaccounted school-age children who are completely disconnected from any form of education.

Some of the detached children may never have been enrolled in school while others fell out of the system along the way, having been expelled, dropped out, or moved home. The research emphasised this group of detached young people as distinct from students who are sporadically engaged at school.

«They’re not absent from school; they simply aren’t in one. We’ve allowed them to opt out and disappear through a range of different ‘trap doors’,» declared Dr Watterston, the dean of the Melbourne Graduate School of Education and a former teacher, principal and head of the Queensland and ACT education departments.

In the report – titled «Those who disappear: The Australian education problem nobody wants to talk about» – Dr Watterston and Ms O’Connell identified a number of drivers of detachment, including mental health issues, dysfunctional home lives, disabilities, behavioural disorders, bullying, and discrimination.

«These students either disappear or, worse still, are silently ushered out of the ‘back door’ by school leaders concerned about the reputational impact of these students on potentially lowered NAPLAN and ATAR scores or due to community concerns about their behaviour or ‘fit’,» the report found.

It lashed mainstream school systems for exhibiting hostility to students seen as problematic, who become «collateral damage» in a competitive school market focused on academic achievement.

The researchers have put forward a series of recommendations to tackle the issue. They called for a national approach led by the federal government, including early intervention and boosted support for accessible education programs and alternative environments to mainstream schools.

One student who has experienced disengagement and detachment from education, Eddie Wilkins, told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald schools had failed to manage his personal circumstances.

Eddie, 16, has come from a difficult background and dealt with a number of behavioural issues. Having grown up in Bayswater in Melbourne’s east, he was excluded from the classroom for all of year 5, missed all of year 8 following surgery, only attended six hours a week in year 9 and was expelled in year 10.

«From my point of view, it was pretty unfair,» he said.

He said his teachers had been hostile to him because of his record and dismissive of his issues, including a sensory disorder that makes him sensitive to certain clothing.

«They’re pushing kids for better results – and I guess that’s a good thing – but the kids who aren’t getting good results are just ignored,» he said.

Eddie eventually ended up at Lynall Hall Community School in Richmond, an alternative setting that is significantly more accommodating to his needs. He is now more motivated to attend class.

«These kids exist right through the system,» said Dr Watterston. «It is time to take serious coordinated action to prevent our most vulnerable young people from falling through the cracks.

Source of the notice: https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/50-000-children-missing-from-school-australia-s-hidden-disaster-revealed-20191126-p53e5z.html

Comparte este contenido:
Leer más »

Education Can’t Wait Invests In Ethiopia Refugees’ School

Noticias

Africa/ Ethiopia/ 03.12.2019/ Source: newbusinessethiopia.com.

Education Can’t Wait (ECW), a global fund dedicated to education in emergencies, invests in the construction of 84 classrooms for refugees in Gambella region of Ethiopia.

The classrooms inaugurated this week were constructed in Nguenyyiel, Terkidi, Kule, and Jewi refugee camps and will enable 8,500 refugee children, 38 per cent of them girls, to receive quality education on a double shift basis, according to the press statement from UN agency for children – UNICEF.

The classrooms have been constructed as part of a US $15 million two-year investment from Education Cannot Wait aimed at expanding education opportunities for children affected by emergencies and protracted humanitarian crisis in refugee camps and host communities in Gambella and Benishangul-Gumuz regions.

In addition to these classrooms, Education Cannot Wait is supporting the construction of three new inclusive model secondary schools and 41 classrooms in eight secondary schools to benefit 3,600 children from refugee camps and the surrounding host communities in the two regions. The schools will be fully fitted with water, toilets, and furniture.

Since April 2017, Education Cannot Wait’s investment has surpassed its targets and reached over 138,000 children in refugee and host communities in the two regions.

The support has included training of 683 teachers at certificate and diploma level, distribution of 500 education and recreation kits and provision of school grants to improve education quality, training refugee and host community teachers in child-centered teaching methods and conducting accelerated school readiness classes for over 12,000 out-of-school children aged between six and seven years.

Partners in the school construction project include the Ministry of Education, Regional Education Bureaus, the Agency for Refugee and Returnee Affairs, UNHCR, UNICEF, Plan International and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.

ECW was launched by international humanitarian and development aid actors, along with public and private donors, to address the urgent education needs of 75 million children and youth in conflict and crisis settings. To date, ECW investments span more than 30 countries affected by armed conflict, disaster and forced displacement.

ECW’s investment modalities are designed to usher in a more collaborative approach ensuring relief and development organizations join forces to achieve education outcomes.

ECW is hosted by UNICEF. The Fund is administered under UNICEF’s financial, human resources and administrative rules and regulations, while operations are run by the Fund’s own independent governance structure.

Source of the notice: https://newbusinessethiopia.com/education/education-cant-wait-invests-in-ethiopia-refugees-school/

Comparte este contenido:
Leer más »

University strikes offer a lesson in principles, pay and pensions

The Guardian

By: The Guardian.

Your editorial is right to emphasise the wider issues in the strike by university lecturers and support services (Lecturers have a just cause in this important battle for the soul of the campus, 26 November). But the pensions issue still lies at the heart of the dispute.

With a few retired colleagues, we have been attempting to persuade both the University and College Union (UCU) and the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) to deal with the serious generational unfairness that has caused the need for additional contributions to the pension fund.

Current lecturers have already had their pension rights severely reduced in order to maintain the highly beneficial pension rights of those of us who have already retired, are living longer than expected and have not contributed enough while we were working to pay for our benefits. What is needed is a genuine effort to share the burden of paying for adequate pensions for us all, rather than gold-plated ones for those already retired and seriously reduced rights for those paying for it.

We have established that this can be done within the current law, but neither the UCU nor USS seem ready to work together to devise a fairer generational distribution of the costs and benefits of the pension system. The joint negotiating committee needs to work more seriously on the principles established by the joint expert panel on fund valuation last year.
Tom Hadden Emeritus professor, Queen’s University Belfast and David McLellan Emeritus professor, University of Kent

• As teachers, researchers and professional staff from across the UK, we endeavour to provide world-leading education for our students. However, this has become increasingly difficult in the current higher education climate – and this is why we are on strike.

A report published by the Universities and Colleges Employers Association showed that staff pay has dropped a staggering 17% in real terms since 2009. The USS pension reforms have meant that while worker contributions are going up, retired lecturers will be bringing home about £12,000 less per year.

In addition, a disgraceful gender and race pay gap means that male colleagues are, on average, getting paid 15% more than female colleagues, while colleagues of colour are 10% more likely to be on temporary contracts.

We also condemn the strong-arm tactics of universities that have encouraged students to report striking members of staff, threatened significant pay reductions in action short of strike, and told international students that their visas would be at risk if they supported the pickets.

These conditions are all part of the marketisation of universities. Evidence of this transformation includes the “managerial models of private and especially public sector corporations”, the research excellence framework and teaching excellence framework exercises carried out in universities, the inveterate university rankings, the introduction and increase of tuition fees, and cuts to courses and contact hours.

All this amid a looming mental health crisis among university students and the expanding casualisation of higher education staff, whereby 70% of research staff are on temporary contracts, while 37,000 teaching staff in universities are on hourly paid contracts. Many are not entitled to holiday pay, annual leave or a pension. Defying other university leaders, Anthony Forster, vice-chancellor at the University of Essex, claimed that employers can actually afford to pay more to USS, and by so doing could avoid widespread disruption. Voices like these actually represent 40,000 of our colleagues and offer a more hopeful future for today’s and tomorrow’s students.
Professor Gargi Bhattacharyya Sociology, University of East London
Professor Ambreena Manji Law, University of Cardiff
Professor Akwugo Emejulu Sociology, University of Warwick
Professor Gurminder Bhambra Sociology, University of Sussex
Professor Emily Grabham Law, University of Kent
Dr Priyamvada Gopal English, University of Cambridge
Professor Khaled Fahmy Asian and Middle Eastern studies, University of Cambridge
Professor Debbie Lisle International relations, Queen’s University Belfast
Professor Neve Gordon International law, Queen Mary University of London
Professor John Holmwood Sociology, University of Nottingham
Dr Ruth Fletcher Law, Queen Mary University of London
Dr Eva Nanopoulos Law, Queen Mary University of London
Dr Isobel Roele Law, Queen Mary University of London
Professor Tim Morris Physics, Southampton University
Professor Keston Sutherland Poetics, University of Sussex
Professor Alan Bogg Law, University of Bristol
Professor Clément Mouhot Maths, University of Cambridge
Professor Tobias Kelly Anthropology, University of Edinburgh
Professor Matthew Beaumont English, University College London
Professor Gregory Claeys History, Royal Holloway, University of London
Professor Natalie Fention Media, communications and cultural studies, Goldsmiths, University of London
Professor Roberto Veneziani Economics and finance, Queen Mary University of London
Conor Crummey Law, Queen Mary University of London
Dr Tanzil Chowdhury Law, Queen Mary University of London
Professor Catherine Rottenberg American and Canadian Studies, University of Nottingham

Fuente del artículo: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/dec/02/university-strikes-offer-a-lesson-in-principles-pay-and-pensions
Comparte este contenido:
Leer más »

High stake exams for children

Manzoor Ahmed
By: Manzoor Ahmed.

Issuing a suo moto rule on November 20, the High Court questioned the legality of the expulsion of children from Primary Education Completion Examination (PECE) and its madrasa equivalent Ebtedayee terminal examinations. The HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Md Mostafizur Rahman issued the rule following a report published in a Bangla daily. The daily reported that around 15 students had been expelled from PEC and Ebtedayee terminal examinations which had started on November 17. The hearing has been set for December 10.

The court will consider the circumstances and justification of children being expelled from the exam. According to some reports, the expelled children were proxy examinees on behalf of other children, an offense, if true, that cannot be tolerated. The larger and more serious concern is how a primary school exam has such high stake that children, their parents, and perhaps teachers find it necessary to collude to commit a crime.

This is the question, we hope, the HC will consider. The education authorities have failed to address this question. It has been raised persistently by education researchers, child development experts, and parents ever since the nationwide public examination at the end of class 5 was introduced in 2010.

Until 2010, school-based assessment of students in primary school was the common practice. A small number of students of class 5, aspiring for a government scholarship, sat for a centrally administered test. The rest went on to secondary school after obtaining a certificate from their school.

Since then, highly competitive, high-stake, national, centrally administered public examinations at the end of grades 5 and 8, were added to the already existing SSC and HSC exams at the end of grade 10 and 12. The intention was to put teachers and schools under scrutiny, set some common standards of performance, and satisfy over-anxious parents.

The potential effect on children and teaching-learning in school from frequent public exams was forgotten. Education experts were sceptical about this move. But there was a great hype about the virtues of frequent examinations by politicians and officials, always on the lookout for quick-fixes. A dispassionate look was not taken at the consequences of making students totally pre-occupied with preparing for and taking tests, instead of engaging in and enjoying learning. Frequent exams became the remedy for the perceived decline in students’ learning outcome.

The counter-productive and perverse consequences of too many public exams since 2010 have been well documented. These included a surge of private coaching, commercial guidebooks, rote memorisation, desperation for guessing questions, cheating in exams, question leaks, incentive for authorities to show high pass rates and so on. (Education Watch Report 2014, Whither Grade 5 Examination, CAMPE.)

Evidence collected by researchers and CAMPE led to the recommendation to the government in 2016 to drop the grade 5 public exam and rethink student assessment. The then Minister of State for Primary and Mass Education, Mr Mostafizur Rahman, MP accepted the recommendation, but was not able to persuade his cabinet colleagues to change the status quo. Exams continue to reign supreme—and learning a lesser priority.

A Bangla daily, under a banner headline, “A Primary Education Board in the Offing,” reported that establishment of a new education board along the line of secondary education boards, is under consideration to conduct the nationwide PECE. An institutional structure, it is argued, is needed to administer the exam for over three million examinees at the end of class 5. The parliamentary committee on primary and mass education apparently has suggested such a step.

This move would be wrong on at least three counts. First, with grave doubts and ongoing debate about the PECE, it is not right to double down to take measures for institutionalising this exam. Secondly, it is necessary to get beyond the past fragmentation of school education management into primary and secondary and start thinking about curriculum, learning assessment and quality improvement for school education, pre-primary to grade 12, as a whole; universal quality primary and secondary education is the SDG 2030 goal which is also a pledge of Bangladesh’s. Thirdly, we need a technical body for learning assessment research, development and application, rather than an examination board of the type that exists today at the secondary level.

It is not that all exams and student assessment should be ditched. The value of traditional school-based annual exams needs to be restored. Public assessment at key stages should be for assessing basic competencies in language, math and science rather than using these as a substitute for the annual school-based exams. Schools, teachers, parents and the education authorities need to prioritise teaching and learning, rather than preparing for and taking public exams.

The example of Singapore or Finland having primary level public exam is sometimes mentioned in justifying our primary completion examination. This is based on a misunderstanding of student assessment in advanced systems. Singapore has a Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) at the end of grade 6, which, among other things, determines school choice for students. It is held over four days in October, about two hours each day, on students’ skills in English, mother tongue, math and science, rather than on all school subjects and is not linked to textbooks. Elimination of even this form of PSLE is under consideration, to be replaced by an assessment approach in line with the “learning for life” goals (“Testing and Learning – How Singapore Does It,” The Daily Star, October 5, 2018).

In Finland, a grade 6 external exam is optional for students, and is used to assess schools and the system rather than individual students who are not given a specific mark or grade based on the exam.

Moreover, the learning resources and teacher skills and competencies are very different in Singapore and Finland and similar advanced systems. Assuring the quality of teaching-learning is the priority there; assessment in school and external ones are a secondary means to this end.

The original introduction of PECE and class 8 public exam (JCE/JDE) and the prospective exam board are examples of how decisions affecting millions of children should not be taken. It is a closed and bureaucracy-dominated approach without due consideration of all the consequences and lessons from research. Could the Parliamentary Committees for Primary and Mass Education and for Education hold a joint public hearing inviting experts and stakeholders on these issues?

Source of the article: https://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/education/news/high-stake-exams-children-1834363

Comparte este contenido:
Leer más »

Nigeria: Atiku Seeks More Funds for Education

Noticias

Africa/ Nigeria/ 02.12.2019/ Source: allafrica.com.

Former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar who was the presidential candidate of the main opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the 2019 general election, has called for more investment in education for Nigeria to lift majority of its people out of poverty. He also queried the increasing rate of borrowing by the federal government as against spending more on education.

Atiku, at the convocation ceremony of the America University of Nigeria, Yola, said Nigeria could not grow if it did not invest heavily in education.

«When philosophers say that an investment in education yields the most interest, they were stating a truism for which we see ample evidence in Nigeria,» he stated.

He also attributed insecurity in the country to poverty, adding that poverty is caused by illiteracy.

«It is a cycle that we can only break by educating our people. For the past four years, our education budgets have demonstrated the fact that developing the minds of our people has not been our priority.

«Two weeks ago, a friend of mine, Prof. Anya O. Anya, who just happens to be a former Chief Executive Officer, Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG), revealed that Nigeria has taken more loans in the last three years than she has taken in the 30-year period preceding 2016,» he added.

The former vice president queried the increasing rate of borrowing in Nigeria to the detriment of funding investment in education.

He said: «Now, how can we have such a monumental increase in borrowings vis-à-vis an unprecedented reduction in investments in education?»

According to him, as a businessman, the first lesson one should learn in business is that you do not take loans except it is to expand your business and there is no justification for taking out loans to pay salaries.

Atiku said Nigeria’s greatness was not tied to its elders but to its youths, who should be the focus of national investment.

He went further to give statistical relationship between education, crime and insecurity.

«Scandinavia outspends every other part of the world in investing in education, with the Nordic nation of Denmark spending an average of eight per cent of its Gross Domestic Product on education. They are followed closely by Iceland, Sweden, Norway and Finland.

«Now, is it a coincidence that in every survey of crime and insecurity released by the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) for 2018, these same nations and their region are listed as the safest parts of the world as well as the most crime-free states? I don’t think so. In fact, as someone who has invested heavily in education for decades, I know that this is not a coincidence,» he said.

Atiku explained that instead of doing many things and doing them poorly, the federal government and the federating units should rather focus on doing one or two things so that they can do them well.

He said: «When we get this right, we will get Nigeria right. The easiest way to make the most significant impact, in the shortest amount of time, is via education.

«As proof, I cite the fact that 2014 represented the year Nigeria invested the most in education with a N493 billion allocation (then the equivalent of $3.3 billion) to education, representing 9.94 per cent of the total budget.

«The very next year, the trio of the World Bank, the World Economic Forum, and CNN Money rated Nigeria as the third fastest-growing economy in the world. Again, I ask, was that a coincidence?

«If you think that it is, then how do you explain the fact that Nigeria slid into a recession the same year that our education budget began to drop from their pre-2015 levels? The total percentage of the budget allocated to education in 2014 was 9.94 per cent, which dropped to 6.10 per cent in 2016. It is as clear as night and day.

«What I propose is that the federal, states and local governments should consider a policy of allocating at least 10 per cent of the total budget appropriations to the education sector. If insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results, it follows that the sane thing to do is that when you get a result that you like, you are challenged to repeat the process, and in fact, improve upon it, so that you can get the same or perhaps improved results.»

He explained that there is documentary evidence from the Human Development Index that the United Nations publishes annually that educated people are healthier.

He said: «Because they are healthier, the proportion of their income and the income of the government that is spent on treating diseases and sickness reduces, they, therefore, have more disposable income to spend, which boosts the economy. Healthier people are more productive. Because they are more productive, they are less prone to crime. The multiplier effects go on and on.

«And all tiers of government must recognise that there would be more money available to the government, via an improved economy, which means improved taxation, if they invest in education. I have been in this business since the 1980s. For every naira, you invest in educating a child, you add N5 to his life earnings. Tell me which other investment can yield that type of return on investment?»

«I have been spending some time in Germany because of the Saudi German Hospital investment I am attracting to Nigeria. One thing I found out in Germany is that private-sector corporations and manufacturers have their schools and institutes. Vocational education is so big in Germany and Japan that a lot of the German and Japanese labour force are vocationally educated by the industrial sector, rather than by the government or their parents or themselves,» he added.

Atiku said with support from the government by way of tax incentives and part-funding, Nigeria could ease its educational challenges by adopting the German Dual VET model, stating that it is a win-win for both government and the organised private sector because education will lead to an increase in highly skilled workers for the real sector, which will boost the economy and reduce unemployment.

He challenged multi-national companies and banks in Nigeria to step up their corporate social responsibilities, saying, «I want to see an MTN Academy for Telecommunications Studies, an Access Bank School of Business and Banking Studies, a Dangote Institute for Agriculture and Engineering and an Innoson School of Automotive Studies.

«Think of the impact such institutions will have. They will ease the burden on our public institutions and will enable artisans and technicians get the certification they need to transit from being low skilled workers to medium to highly skilled specialised semi-professionals.

«We are the largest black nation on earth, and it is our destiny to be a beacon of hope in Africa and to the Black Diaspora. And the only way we can fulfill our potential and live up to our boast of being the giant of Africa is by educating our people and unleashing their creative geniuses.»

Source of the notice: https://allafrica.com/stories/201912020257.html

Comparte este contenido:
Leer más »

Misplaced Modesty Hampers Sex Education in Japan’s Schools

Noticias

Asia/ Japan/ 02.12.2019/ Source: www.nippon.com.

Sex education in Japan’s schools lags behind that in other countries on many fronts. What are the differences and why is Japan behind so much of the rest of the world? We asked Hashimoto Noriko, professor emeritus at Kagawa Nutrition University and an authority on educational sociology and gender studies, to explain.

Learn About the Body—But Keep It Clothed

This is a page from a health and physical education textbook for third and fourth grade school students. The textbook is Minna no hoken (Health for Everyone, published in 2011 by Gakken) and the page is titled, Otona ni chikazuku karada (“As the Body Approaches Adulthood”).

Shown are a boy and girl, around age 10 and as adults. All are depicted wearing short-sleeved tops and shorts. Says Hashimoto: “How can you learn about the changes in the body by looking at an illustration of clothed figures?” In the 2005 edition of the textbook, the figures are naked, but someone decided to put clothes on them for the 2011 edition.

What are the textbooks like in other countries and how do they handle sex education? Hashimoto explains, “Many countries carry out comprehensive sex education based on UNESCO’s International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education. Comprehensive sex education covers much more than just the subject of how the body develops. It encompasses everything from relationships and rights to sexual diversity and gender equality.”

The international differences are stark, as she explains. “In Finland and France, they teach biological facts, such as the role chromosomes play in determining the sex of a fetus; they delve into the diversity of human sexuality; and they explore the phenomena of human relationships. In China, they use explicit illustrations of the sexual organs to teach about sex, and the sex education in major Chinese cities is strongly influenced by the attitudes of Chinese citizens who have studied abroad. In Japan, however, as we can see by this textbook illustration, nothing is taught about the biological and scientific facts of human reproduction.

“In South Korean sex education textbooks, they even explain how to put on a condom. Thailand doesn’t go into that much detail, but does teach about safe sex as one way to deal with sexual urges. The correct way to put on a condom is not taught in Japan. Most sex education textbooks in Japan just do not meet international standards.”

Hashimoto Noriko believes Japan has much progress to make in the area of sex education. (Photo provided by Hashimoto)

A great part of this is due, says Hashimoto, to National Curriculum Standards that prohibit teaching about the processes of fertilization in fifth-grade science or about pregnancy in first-year junior high school health and PE classes.

Hashimoto explains how sex education in Japan got to this point.

“In the 1990s, sex education in Japan was among the most advanced in Asia, in part because of the AIDS scare. It was possible then to teach junior high school students about sexual urges and sexual behavior, sexual intercourse and birth control, and sexually transmitted diseases. The revised government education guidelines for elementary schools issued in 1992 for the first time called for health class textbooks for the fifth and sixth grades. A supplementary reader published in 1991 included a section on sexual intercourse. A textbook with similar content is being used in South Korea right now for sixth grade classes. But in Japan, this supplementary reader is out of print.”

Backlash Against Sex Education

Japan’s sex education was at the forefront in the 1990s. Why did it suddenly regress? The backward trend is related in part to a 2003 campaign to stop sex education at what is now the Nanao Special Support School, a Tokyo public institution for children with special needs. The campaign was led by some members of the Tokyo metropolitan assembly who were shocked to learn the school was teaching children with mental disabilities about sex using songs and dolls. They criticized the school for teaching “inappropriate” content that went well beyond government curriculum guidelines. The Sankei Shimbun concurred with a report critical of such “extreme” education, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education took disciplinary action against the principal and other teachers at the school. The faculty and parents fought back, however, taking the case to court with the claim that such intervention by metropolitan assembly members and the board of education was illegal. The case went all the way up to the Supreme Court, where it ended in 2013 in the defeat of the Tokyo metropolitan government and legislature.

These sex education materials in the health care office at the Nanao school were confiscated by the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education in 2003 in response to growing public disapproval of sex education in general.
These sex education materials in the health care office at the Nanao school were confiscated by the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education in 2003 in response to growing public disapproval of sex education in general.

“The court decision stated that the National Curriculum Standards could not be interpreted as word-for-word legal writ,” says Hashimoto. “In other words, the Standards are simply guidelines and a school’s decision to do something outside of the guidelines cannot be immediately judged as illegal. This case took ten years to resolve and went all the way to the Supreme Court. During this decade, sex education stagnated in Tokyo schools, where the disciplining of the Nanao teachers had a chilling effect.”

In 2004, immediately following the furor over the Nanao incident, the Tokyo Board of Education revised its handbook on sex education to emphasize that sex education must be pursued systematically and in stages appropriate to students’ physical development and in line with the National Curriculum Standards.

The Nanao defeat did not deter a Tokyo assemblyman involved in the case to once again, in 2018, decry as “inappropriate” a school’s approach to sex education. This time the criticism was aimed at a ninth-grade class on birth control and abortion in a public junior high school in Adachi, Tokyo. The National Curriculum Standards recommend that these topics be covered in senior high school, but this does not mean the junior high school acted illegally by including them in their curriculum.

“This junior high school had found in a survey that nearly half of its students thought it was OK to be sexually active once they moved on to high school. This, and the fact that the school was located in a less affluent district, led to the decision that earlier education on birth control and abortion was imperative. The school did not bring up the topics all of a sudden. The teachers began by teaching the seventh graders about relationships and the importance of equality, gradually leading up to the topics of birth control and abortion.”

Hashimoto stresses: “Children who undergo sex education learn to control their bodies. Without proper knowledge, they are left defenseless. And yet there are people who do now want to give children the knowledge they need.”

The Problem with Sex Ed in Ethics Classes

In the case of this junior high school, the Tokyo Board of Education reprimanded the school for prematurely introducing topics that did not coincide with the children’s level of development, but the Adachi Board of Education refuted this claim. Against this background, the revised Tokyo Board of Education guidelines for sex education issued this year for the first time concede that sex education going beyond the National Curriculum Standards may be implemented with the approval of the parents. Still, Hashimoto sees a problem in the numerous examples given in the guidelines of sex education being implemented within ethics classes.

“I see problems with every one of the eight publishers of government-approved junior high school ethics textbooks,” says Hashimoto. “Take for example, the ethics textbook for public junior high schools published by Nihon Kyōkasho, a textbook publisher with close ties to Nippon Kaigi, an ultranationalist group. This ethics textbook—which, by the way, Tokyo decided not to use in its schools—has a section titled ‘Life Roles,’ which tells the story of a mother on the day she is to be interviewed for a promotion at work. Both parents work in this family, and they usually have the grandmother who lives nearby take care of their youngest elementary school child during the day. On this important day, however, the grandmother falls ill and needs to be taken to the hospital. The father says he must go to work, and the elder daughter, a university student, says she has to go to school to make a presentation. The mother phones her company to cancel the promotion interview saying, ‘It appears I have another role to play.’ The family’s junior high school daughter is left to wonder what this ‘other role’ might be. The message is: Housework, childcare, and nursing care of elderly parents take precedent over a woman’s career. This is completely out of line with the concepts of gender equality and diversity in UNESCO’s International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education.”

The Impact of the Failure to Teach About Sex

The biological, scientific facts of sex, noted earlier, and the concept of gender equality are missing in Japan’s sex education, says Hashimoto. Gender equality is a core concept in the global standard set by UNESCO’s Guidance. Japan’s failure to teach this concept is evident in a number of areas.

“Some years ago Thailand introduced a policy allowing married couples to choose to have different surnames. This is still not allowed in Japan. As with the approval of oral contraceptive pills, Japan is once again the last holdout in the United Nations to approve such policy. The virility drug Viagra was promptly approved to treat erectile dysfunction in men, but it took a long time before contraceptive pills were approved. As can be seen in the ethics textbook example cited earlier, there is a neoconservatism, which first appeared in the 1970s, that blames Japan’s economic ills on a decline in morals and advocates a return to traditional conservative values. This dovetails nicely with the neoliberal interest in the pursuit of profit.”

Hashimoto goes on: “These people want to cut back on social security. The family should be the safety net, they say, and women should sacrifice themselves for the family. But this perception of society goes completely against the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women which calls for the elimination of gender-based roles.”

The CEDAW was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1979, took effect in 1981, and was ratified by Japan in 1985. Later, in 1999, an amendment was added that allowed for individuals to directly appeal to the UN’s Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women when their rights as stipulated by this treaty were violated and they were unable to find recourse within their own country. Hashimoto notes, though: “This is an optional protocol, and Japan is the only developed country that has yet to ratify it. If Japan had ratified this protocol, it would be possible to appeal to the United Nations to make Japan give couples the option to each retain their respective surnames after marriage.”

What does this kind of delay in promoting human rights mean for Japan?

“The UNESCO Guidance asserts that sex education from early childhood through adulthood can determine a person’s happiness throughout life. The failure to provide proper sex education hinders individual development and happiness. If things continue here as they are now, Japan is going to find itself isolated within the international community.”

Source of the notice: https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-topics/c06603/misplaced-modesty-hampers-sex-education-in-japan%E2%80%99s-schools.html

Comparte este contenido:
Leer más »

China: Tsinghua University unveils research center on big data intelligence

Noticias

Asia/China/Author: Xinhua/Source: spanish.xinhuanet.com

China’s prestigious Tsinghua University has unveiled its Big Data Intelligence Research Center as part of efforts to push forward the development of artificial intelligence (AI).

The research center, which is coordinated by the university’s Institute of Artificial Intelligence, will focus on the improvement of AI’s theoretical research and big data computing method. Through the interdisciplinary research of data science, cognitive science and social science, the center aims to develop a new generation of people-oriented big data intelligent computing.

Zhang Bo, director of Tsinghua’s Institute of Artificial Intelligence, said the center will improve basic theoretical research of data intelligence as well as promoting integration with industries and fostering international cooperation.

You Zheng, vice president of Tsinghua University, said the center hopes to pool wisdom in AI research and generate theoretical achievements with international influence, contributing to China’s AI development.

Information reference: http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-09/25/c_138421861.htm

Comparte este contenido:
Leer más »
Page 26 of 144
1 … 24 25 26 27 28 … 144