Education

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Why is Labour so timid on education? It makes the Lib Dems look radical

Holly Rigby

By Holly Rigby

As a party member I want to see Angela Rayner bringing forward election-winning ideas, not more of the same

I’ve been a teacher for the past five years at an inner London academy, and I’ve seen the injustices that education professionals, students and their parents face first-hand. State schools are chronically underfunded, while elite private school fees cost up to £30,000 a year. Ofsted and school league tables are used to enforce a narrow vision of education, and an Institute of Education report this week has found that teachers in England have the lowest job satisfaction of all English-speaking countries.

Perhaps most importantly, students are suffering: the OECD has reportedthat young people in the UK are among the unhappiest in the world. This is the result of 40 years of education “reforms” driven by a rightwing political agenda, favouring privatisation, obsessive testing and endless competition between students and between schools – as if these were things to be celebrated in themselves.

As an active Labour member I want to see radical ideas coming from shadow secretary of state Angela Rayner aimed at tackling these challenges. Labour’s flagship education policy, the National Education Service (NES), contains the seeds of this radical potential. But the idea remains an empty shell: there hasn’t been a single education policy announcement from Rayner since the NES idea was launched 18 months ago.

Layla Moran, education spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats and a former teacher, on the other hand, made a powerful speech to the Liberal Democrat conference this week.She promised to abolish Ofsted, league tables and SATs, to remove private school charity tax status, and subtly hinted at abolishing the 11-plus test for grammar schools, because they perpetuate “state-sponsored segregation”.

I have never voted for the Liberal Democracts and never will. But there’s no denying that they currently have the most radical offer on the table when it comes to education.

By contrast, Rayner in her Guardian interview this week insisted that her party’s policymaking on education would not be “ideologically driven”.

The trouble is, education policy has always been ideologically driven. So either Labour is going to challenge the particular neoliberal ideology that has created the current mess or it isn’t. And if it doesn’t, it won’t fix it.

Rayner claims that academies as such are not a problem. But academisation has led to a situation in which we now have a competitive market in education that pits desperate schools against each other to retain their “market position”. This has led to terrible examples of gaming the system and outright corruption, at the expense of the most vulnerable children. The recent education select committee report showed that disproportionately high numbers of special educational needs students are being “off-rolled” to improve league tables positions. The academy revolution promised that the market would improve schools for all our children, and yet the gap in attainment between working class children and the rest stubbornly persists.

Rayner is right, of course, when she says that many vulnerable, working-class young people are being failed. And everyone agrees that practical education should be more highly valued than it is by our elitist system. But simply saying that we need more “technical” or “vocational” training, as Rayner does in her interview, is not enough. Her suggestion that the study of history is too “abstract” suggests a dangerous anti-intellectualism. It also reproduces the snobbish belief that working-class children shouldn’t have access to high-status knowledge. The 2011 Wolf report made clear that vocational qualifications under New Labour were an abject failure. Not only did they not prepare young people for skilled work, but they also created a narrow, technical curriculum that meant students continued to be locked out of the powerful knowledge that teachers know can enable them to understand the social, economic – and dare I say it, historical – forces that shape their worlds.

When asked about private schools Rayner rules out abolishing them, saying that if we only make “the state sector good enough” then private schools will wither on the vine. She forgets the main reason many people choose private education is snobbery – they don’t want their children being educated with the “great unwashed”. Labour’s plans to impose VAT on private school fees was a step in the right direction.

But why not suggest that university admission departments must only accept 7% of their undergraduates from private schools, given that this is the proportion of students they represent in the country as a whole? Then you really would see parents flock to the state sector, and perhaps have a greater investment in improving it.

So while the NES remains a potentially radical idea, that potential is currently going to waste.

The Lib Dem policies don’t go far enough for me. They would only roll back the worst of the education reforms adopted under Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair. But Labour should be offering a great deal more than that. Labour must have an exciting vision for the future, a vision for the NES inspired perhaps by Finland, where schools promote collaborative, creative and emancipatory learning, rather than endless competition for exam results.

Labour galvanised people with its manifesto in 2017 because it promised something genuinely different, yet this has not been reflected in Labour’s education policy to date. As a teacher, I know that my students and their parents deserve more from Labour: otherwise, the deep inequality that blights our education system is set to continue.

Source of the article: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/21/labour-timid-education-lib-dems-look-radical

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The Jump Start: Transforming Lives, Creating Value for People

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Por: igitallearning.eletsonline.com/09-01-2019

The Jump Start imparts quintessential knowledge and skills to the graduate talent making them employable and organisations future ready and competitive, says Mahesh Iyer, Co-Founder & Curator, The Jump Start, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

The Jump Start is a skill formation and an employability enrichment venture curated by industry professionals who possess extensive experience in the field of human capital formation through talent identification and development, academia affiliations, training and consulting.Please describe briefly about the solutions developed by the organisation to help education institutes?

How does the solutions provided by your organization help in promoting effective learning among students?

The Jump Start team is committed to improve the employability quotient in the society by inducing a skill and value-based learning methodology which is industry-recognised and are aligned to the national occupational Standards prescribed by the MSDe. We believe that the inclusion of Tier 3 and 4 graduate talent and the unemployed workforce to the mainstream will address a larger socio-economic challenge of our country.

Industrial Revolution 4.0 is much talked about term nowadays, how important is the skill and training for students?

Researches revealed that the graduates lack the fundamental skills required by businesses. Further, formal training of employees in basic business frameworks and concepts is relatively missing. It is imperative that we demystify the gap. The missing threads are confidence building, application of concept into practice and the efforts from the institutes to fulfil the requisites for helping students to sustain in this dynamic and volatile job market.

*Fuente: https://digitallearning.eletsonline.com/2019/01/the-jump-start-transforming-lives-creating-value-for-people/

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How matric results reflect the inequalities of public and private education

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Por: News24.com/09-01-2019

Quality education should not become a good that can only be enjoyed by those who have money, writes Mcebo Dlamini.

There is no doubt that a country that does not invest in its education has a bleak future. It is therefore important that we invest our resources into education if we are to have prosperity as a country. Matric results for the year 2018 have recently been published and although there has been great improvement there is still a lot that needs to be done, particularly in the National Senior Certificate (NSC).

The discrepancies between the Independent Examinations Board (IEB) results and the NSC results are reflective of the inequalities that still permeate our country. They are testament of the fact that education remains a commodity, not just in tertiary education but also in basic education. The discrepancies make it clear that the children of the rich are most likely to succeed compared to the children of those who are poor. This should not continue; quality education should not become a good that can only be enjoyed by those who have money.

The matric pass rate for the class of 2018 NSC was 78.2% which was a slight improvement from the 2017 75.1%. The IEB matric pass rate for 2018 sat at 98.92% with 90.65% of those students qualifying for entry to study for a degree. It is also worth mentioning that the IEB matric maths marks were adjusted. This was supposedly done to ‘standardise the results, with the aim to achieve equivalence in the standard of examinations across the years, subjects and assessment bodies’.

One does not need to think hard about why there is such a wide gap between the NSC results and the IEB results. It is precisely because government schools are overcrowded, understaffed and under resourced while private schools have better facilities, staff and learner support systems. What is shocking about these parallels between private and public schools is how they have remained intact 25 years after the end of apartheid.

However way one decides to look at it, the government has much to do with the somewhat mediocre performance of public schools. There has not been a concerted effort by various departments to ensure that public schools are equipped for success. Although there have been strides made by our government, such as the implementation of fee-free basic education, so much more needs to be done. The curriculum in the schools need to cater for the needs of our society.

The resources in the schools need to prepare learners for institutions of higher learning. These things will only be possible through commitment by the department of basic education and through channelling of resources by the treasury. This commitment must not only be towards those who are about to complete their basic education but also those who are in foundation phase. This is because statistics show that a large number of learners who begin grade one do not necessarily make it to matric. The government has a responsibility of looking at the causes of this and addressing them. It makes little sense to commend the government for an increase of pass rates, yet a large contingent of learners continue to drop out year after year.

Many have suggested that one of the solutions to some of the problems that are faced by public institutions would be to make it mandatory that public servants and senior government officials use public services. This is logical because it makes little sense why the ministers should use private schools for their children. If they used public schools it would confirm their commitment to improving the quality of public education and their confidence in the work that they do. Unfortunately, this is not the case as many of them still use private services and this speaks volumes.

This might be a temporary solution but in time the government has to do away with the public and private schools distinction. This is because it does nothing more than re-enact the Bantu education system that made quality education a sole preserve of white people and in the current situation the rich who by the majority are still white. I reiterate quality education should never become a commodity that is only enjoyed by the elite few.

Critique is a work of love and it signals a desire for improvement. When one highlights the inadequacies of basic education one does not seek to take away from the strides made by the officials, teachers and learners but it is to say there is a lot that needs to be done so that we get to where we want to be.

I would like to congratulate all those who made it to matric despite all the odds they were facing, your relentlessness reminds us of the heights that one could achieve if determined. I hope that you prosper in your endeavours and always remember Robert Sobukwe’s teachings that education is not just a personal achievement but it means service to Africa.

– Dlamini is a former Wits SRC leader and student activist. He writes in his personal capacity.

Disclaimer: News24 encourages freedom of speech and the expression of diverse views. The views of columnists published on News24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of News24.

*Fuente: https://www.news24.com/Columnists/GuestColumn/how-matric-results-reflect-the-inequalities-of-public-and-private-education-20190108
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Nearly 5,000 schools in England not given promised cash – union

Sally Weale

By: Seally Weale. 

 

England’s biggest teaching union has accused the government of breaking its promise to provide a modest cash boost to every school in England, claiming figures reveal that nearly 5,000 schools have received no extra funds or have even had their funding cut.

In the wake of mounting concern among teachers and parents about a school budget crisis, the education secretary, Damian Hinds, told MPs last year that a new national funding formula would guarantee each school “at least a small cash increase”, a pledge repeated by the prime minister in the Commons last May.

The National Education Union argued the offer was inadequate given the scale of the school funding squeeze, but its analysis of recent government figures subsequently revealed that 4,819 schools had either received no extra funds or had had their budget cut.

“This is yet another failure and another broken promise by government on school funding,” said Kevin Courtney, NEU joint general secretary. “The fact remains that schools were never going to manage on the money promised by government.

“However, headteachers, teachers, school staff and parents will be dismayed that even the meagre amounts of funds supposedly allocated to schools will not be received by everyone. Parents and school staff simply cannot trust what the government says on education funding.”

The NEU compared the schools block funding allocations for 2017-18 and 2018-19 and found that a quarter of primary schools (25%) and one in six secondary schools (17%) either received no cash increase or suffered an actual cut to their funding.

Responding to the NEU analysis, a Department for Education (DfE) spokesperson said that since 2017 the government had given every local authority more money for every pupil in every school in order to ensure fairer funding across the country.

“Government provides this money to local authorities and they have the freedom to work with schools to allocate their budgets in a way that best suits local needs,” the spokesperson said.

“While there is more money going into our schools than ever before, we do recognise the budgeting challenges schools face and that we are asking them to do more. That’s why we’re supporting schools and headteachers, and their local authorities, to make the most of every pound.”

According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, total school spending per pupil in England has fallen by about 8% in real terms between 2009-10 and 2017-18.

While schools have been struggling to meet rising costs, many local authorities have been forced to divert money from the main schools funding block they receive from the government to their high needs budget in order to meet growing demand for special educational needs support – a move that has to be sanctioned by the DfE.

The shadow education secretary, Angela Rayner, said Labour would end funding cuts and increase per-pupil funding. “The Tories have cut billions of pounds from our schools, which have seen their budgets falling for the first time in a generation,” she said.

“With rising pressure on class sizes and teachers leaving in droves, a generation of children is paying the price for Tory failure.”

Source of the article: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/jan/07/nearly-5000-schools-in-england-not-given-promised-cash-union

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Understanding the teaching crisis facing South Africa

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Africa/ South Africa/ 07.01.2018/By: Natasha Robinson/ Source: www.thesouthafrican.com.

What will it take to improve teacher quality and professionalism in the country?

Half of all South African pupils who attended school for five years can’t do basic calculations. This is according to a 2015 TIMMS report on mathematics achievements among Grade 5 learners in South Africa.

At the same time, it’s calculated that 10% of the country’s teachers are absent from school each day, while researchfound that 79% of South African Grade 6 mathematics teachers were classified as having content knowledge levels below the level at which they were teaching.

Given that teacher quality is one of the biggest factors determining the learning outcomes of students, what will it take to improve teacher quality and professionalism in the country?

Numerous suggestions have been floated. But one idea has recently generated particular interest among education departments, statutory bodies, and academia – the introduction of “teacher professional standards”. These can be broadly defined as a set of common standards that include the professional knowledge, skills and conduct that characterise good teaching.

Their development began in the US in the late 1980s. It was stimulated by the view that higher expectations for student learning could be accomplished only by higher expectations of teaching quality. In the South African context, teacher standards are a response to a lack of teacher accountability. This has been identified as a cause of the poor quality of South African education.

The basic premise of teacher standards is that if you expect more from teachers, don’t allow them into the classroom until they’ve met a basic set of criteria, and hold them to account if they fall short, then the quality of teachers will improve.

But introducing teacher standards in South Africa also comes with a caveat. Research into the value of teacher standards for South Africa warns that this approach could serve to de-professionalise the country’s teaching force if not approached carefully.

This is because there are effectively two types of teacher standards, and it’s important not to conflate the two. There are standards that professionalise teaching and standards that simply manage teachers. While standards which professionalise create cultures of collegiality, expertise and pride among teachers, standards that manage can leave them feeling brow-beaten, untrusted, and demotivated.

Yet management standards are often mistaken for professional standards. When this happens, teacher morale drops. This is a common trend in countries like South Africa which have a “vicious” rather than “virtuous” schooling cycle.

How the schooling cycle works

The quality of a nation’s teachers cannot be divorced from the quality of its learners exiting schools. This is because successive cohorts of learners progress through school, enter university as student teachers, and graduate as teachers where they nurture the next cohort through the cycle. The end of school is therefore the beginning of higher education.

In a virtuous schooling cycle, such as Finland, education is a desirable career choice for top graduates. This allows for competitive entry requirements for teacher education programmes, which in turn allows for rigorous and challenging courses. This, in turn, produces high quality teachers who improve learner outcomes. The quality and professionalism of the teachers nurtures the next generation of high-quality teacher trainees.

In a virtuous cycle the system can afford to set standards that reflect the best professional knowledge internationally. Initial teacher education is intensive and teachers exit the programmes with high levels of subject and pedagogical knowledge. As a result, their learners perform well and the school system enjoys a high level of public esteem.

Consequently teaching is a prestigious and attractive profession which recruits the brightest and most motivated school graduates, who don’t require continual monitoring and oversight. Teachers instead enjoy professional autonomy; they are trusted in key decisions about their teaching and professional development.

Compare this to South Africa, which has a vicious schooling cycle. Initial teacher education is highly variable but generally insufficient. For example, a study found that three out of five of the Higher Education Institutions that were sampled provided no English language, literature, or linguistic education for teacher trainees not specialising in this subject, despite poor English language proficiency among teacher trainees being a ubiquitous concern.

Unsurprisingly then, research on newly qualified teachers indicates that students enter their studies with very poor skills, and leave with little more. Consequently, their learners do very poorly and teaching is perceived as a low status career. Teacher education programmes are therefore in general unable to reliably attract high quality graduates, and so tend to be less demanding. The vicious cycle repeats itself.

In vicious schooling cycles governments take it upon themselves to hold teachers accountable. Standards are used to manage teachers, and to protect students from the worst educators through supervisory surveillance and control. Invariably, the relationship between teacher unions and governments becomes antagonistic and generates feelings of fear and mistrust. This, in turn, alienates the best school graduates who frankly have better career options.

While in-service training programmes attempt to make up the backlog, and some are succeeding in achieving small learning gains, they cannot fully compensate for the lack of teacher skills resulting from poor initial teacher education and generally unskilled matriculants.

Not all standards professionalise teaching

Given its vicious cycle, management standards may be more likely than professional standards in South Africa. Does this mean that South African teachers are damned to the stick, rather than the carrot? Not necessarily. There are many excellent teachers who are hungry for opportunities to develop in ways that nurture autonomy and collegiality.

South Africa should not shy away from developing and promoting professional best practice, and providing the opportunities for teachers to reach them.

At the same time, management standards must be considered carefully. While they may prevent the worst teaching, they’re unlikely to create the professional culture that promotes the best teaching and attracts the best candidates.

Source of the notice: https://www.thesouthafrican.com/south-africa-school-teacher-crisis/

 

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Why we need to take food education in Australian schools more seriously

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Oceania/ Australia/ 07.01.2018/ Source: theconversation.com.

Schools are expected to do a lot of important things. We frequently hear calls for schools to make children job-ready, help drive economic innovation, provide them with greater literacy and numeracy skills, maintain social cohesion and fairness through anti-bullying and gender equity programs, prevent obesity and promote students’ mental health. And much more. So what is happening about food in secondary schools?

The renewal of interest in food issues

In recent years, there has been a renewal of interest in food education, particularly in secondary schools. This is partly encouraged by celebrity chef television shows, the surge in obesity, growing unease about our environmental impacts, and the diverse, multicultural nature of contemporary Australian food. This range of interests is reflected in what is being taught in Australian schools.

The renewed interest is seen among various international innovations. One example is compulsory cooking programs in English and Welsh schools. These programs require students to develop an enjoyable meal repertoire consistent with the UK dietary recommendations, and sustainably source school food.

An associated venture is the Food Teachers’ Centre in London. This provides in-school professional development for food teachers.

How is food education taught in Australian secondary schools?

The current Australian curriculum splits food education into two streams: the health and physical education (HPE) stream and the design and technologies stream. Nutrition principles are taught in the HPE stream and food skills (such as cooking) are taught in the technologies stream. If a school is fortunate enough to have a year 7 or year 8 home economics course, the two streams may be combined in the one course.

The duration of food education courses in secondary schools varies a lot, from none to one or two hours a week, often for a year or less. At senior levels (years 11 and 12) elective subjects are offered in the various states and territories such as Food Technology or the new food studies curriculum in Victoria.

Research with home economics teachers in Queensland and elsewhere in Australia suggests time and resources are often inadequate for teaching the diverse knowledge and skills associated with food.

 

Aspects of food may be taught in science (such as food chemistry) or in humanities (such as cultural foods and environmental issues) or in PE. But most food education happens in home economics, and contrary to many people’s opinions, it is alive and well in many parts of Australia.

Food education takes place in preschools, primary schools and secondary schools, though in different ways and to different degrees. Programs like the kitchen garden scheme have been well received.

Many teachers deal with food, in all its aspects, across the school years. These include activities like growing food in school gardens, cooking it, analysing its nutritional properties and environmental impacts, exploring local farms, shops and food markets, taking part in BBQ or Masterchef style competitions and catering for schools and Fair Food Universities.

Research in secondary food education

A growing evidence base, mainly in the US, Canada, western Europe and Australia suggests food literacy and skills education programs lead to greater confidence in performing practical food skills, such as planning and preparing meals, interpreting food labels, basic food safety, food regulations. This, in turn, is associated with healthier dietary choices.

Australian research in this area has grown strongly over the past ten years. It has provided evidence for the establishment of several food literacy frameworks with focuses on food gatekeepers and families as well as broader environmental aspects of food systems.

Understanding how to read food labels can help people make healthier choices. from www.shutterstock.com

Recent research has shown many secondary school food teachers tend to favour practical domestic skills and associated knowledge. They express less interest in broader historic, social, environmental and ethical issues. Food and health professionals remain strongly supportive of food education – especially for acquiring practical skills – as does the general public.

Our recent work has also examined the views of parents and recent school leavers who live independently. Although they hold a broad spectrum of opinions, around two thirds see food education as an important life skills subject. Most think it should be compulsory for between one and three hours per week in each of years 7 to 10. These views contrast sharply with the priorities of most secondary schools.

Current and future challenges

Food education in Australian secondary schools is now facing several challenges. These challenges are related to changes in population health status, changing food patterns, food technologies, food and beverage marketing and environmental impacts.

The fundamental question is: Does it meet the present and future life needs of students and their families? At present, food education tends to be patchy, with some emphasis on students’ acquisition of food preparation skills but lesser coverage of environmental and social issues, marketing practices or family dynamics.

Possible solutions include providing more intensive education about food in university teacher education programs and continuing professional education for food teachers. These teachers also need more adequate timetable allocations and resources.

A comprehensive food education framework from pre-school to senior secondary school is required to prevent repetition and reinforce skills learned in the early years. This has begun in the UK and in the RefreshED program in Western Australia. A more focused curriculum across all years of education is required. This should be accompanied by continuing evaluation of the impact of food education on students, their families and the wider population.

Source of the notice: https://theconversation.com/why-we-need-to-take-food-education-in-australian-schools-more-seriously-106849

 

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Top Latest Japan World Business Sports Entertainment Opinion Lifestyle Features Photos Videos School attendance of 16,000 foreign children across Japan unknown: Mainichi survey

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Asia/ Japan/ 07.01.2018/ Source: mainichi.jp.

It is unknown if as many as 16,000 children of foreign nationality across Japan are attending elementary or junior high schools, which are compulsory for Japanese children, a Mainichi Shimbun survey has found.

This number makes up for at least some 20 percent of all children of foreign nationalities who have their residency registered with local governments and are aged 6 to 14. Some may have already returned to their home countries, but as no compulsory education requirements exist for foreign children in Japan, many could simply not be receiving education.

The survey covered 100 municipalities with higher numbers of foreign children of school age from September through November 2018, and asked how many such juvenile residents are attending public schools as of May 2018, the month after the beginning of the academic year in April. For municipalities that lacked data for that time, enrollment data around that month was requested. Using this method, answers were gathered from all 100 municipalities that were the target of the survey.

According to the survey results, those municipalities had some 77,500 non-Japanese children registered as residents. Of them, 57,013, or more than 73 percent, were attending public elementary and junior high schools. Another 3,977 were attending international or ethnic schools or private «free schools.»

Of the roughly 20 percent or so remaining, whose attendance status is unknown, appears to include those living in the municipality but not enrolled in a school, those whose whereabouts are unknown, children who moved to other parts of Japan or went home without their guardians going through the procedures to cancel their residency, or children who are attending private schools or international or ethic schools outside the local governments’ knowledge.

By municipality, the Kanagawa prefectural capital of Yokohama, south of Tokyo, with the highest number of registered foreign children, did not know if some 30 percent of the total, or roughly 1,400 kids, were going to school. The number was 1,307 or 30 percent in the western city of Osaka, which has the second largest population of registered children with foreign backgrounds. In Tokyo’s Edogawa Ward, the status of 1,030 children — or half of the total — was unknown.

Meanwhile, the central Japanese city of Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, which was ranked fifth with 2,034 registered foreign children, had only two children whose educational status was not known to the municipal government. The city of Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo, which was ranked sixth, also had only six such children out of 1,680 registered. The two cities check in on all children registered as residents who are not attending public elementary or junior high schools.

Many municipalities that did not keep track of the status of foreign children of school age answered that they do not perform the checks because the children are not required to receive compulsory education under Japanese law, unlike their Japanese counterparts.

Associate professor Yoshimi Kojima of Aichi Shukutoku University, an expert on the schooling of foreign children in Japan, warned that some of the kids whose educational status is unknown are left out without a chance to go to school at all.

«The central government should no longer leave the matter up to local municipalities, and introduce national standards on the issue,» he said.

Source of the notice: https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20190107/p2a/00m/0na/002000c

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