Vice Premier Sun Chunlan has stressed the importance of tapping into the strength of education to serve the revitalization of northeast China during a recent inspection to the region.
The remarks were given when Sun made a research tour to Liaoning from Thursday to Saturday. She said it was important to boost the capability of serving economic and social development via education and lay a solid foundation for the revitalization of the northeast through modernizing the sector.
During her stay in Liaoning, Sun visited primary and middle schools, vocational and technical schools, as well as key labs and research and development institutions at universities, to get first-hand information about aspects, including training of personnel with technical skills, application of scientific and technological achievements.
She also presided over a symposium to discuss how to serve the revitalization of northeast China via education.
While urging government departments to spend more resources in education, Sun said education, closely linked to the development of science and technology as well as the supply of high-level work force, is vital for revitalizing the old industrial bases.
She also asked local governments to prioritize education and address the difficulties concerning application of advances in science and technology and construction of normal universities.
Enterprises should be encouraged to finance vocational education and great efforts should be made to train personnel with specific skills for service sectors, such as tourism, healthcare, and elderly care, she said.
Source of the notice: http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-10/27/c_137562873.htm
The number of bullying cases at schools has reached a record high, according to a survey released by the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry.
Efforts are being made to detect bullying at an early stage. However, the number of serious cases, which includes cases that result in suicide, increased compared to the previous academic year, underscoring the challenges schools face in addressing bullying.
At Miyagino Junior High School in Sendai, students are asked to fill out a «worksheet» every month about their daily behaviour, including questions about whether they know of any bullying cases.
The teachers received a sheet this year in which a student had written, «My classmate’s attitude hurt me.»
Teachers talked to both the student and the classmate and found that the classmate had jokingly taken a cold attitude towards the student. The classmate later apologised to the student and their relationship improved.
This school year, the school confirmed 14 bullying cases by the end of September, such as incidents in which a particular student is ignored.
«We frequently discuss cases with other teachers, including the head teacher of a grade,» said a teacher in charge of student guidance at the school. «Now we more stringently address cases, even smaller ones.»
The Sendai city government and individual schools are taking various measures to detect bullying cases, such as conducting questionnaire surveys themselves. The city government also increased the number of school counsellors from this school year.
In Sendai, the number of students in first- and second-grade elementary school classes and first-year junior high school classes is capped at 35. The city has expanded the smaller class sizes to second-year junior high school classes, aiming to monitor even subtle behavioural changes among students.
Efforts to detect bullying are being implemented throughout the country.
To counter bullying online, the Miyazaki prefectural government has set up a website through which it offers consultations to students. Since August, images can be posted to the website, which helps students receive support for bullying via social media.
In Osaka city, the city sometimes instructs schools to conduct a re-examination if the schools say there were no reports of bullying.
There are also large gaps in the number of recognised cases among local governments. According to the ministry survey, only 8.4 recognised cases of bullying were reported per 1,000 students in Saga Prefecture, the lowest among all 47 prefectures.
«We’d like to encourage local governments to more actively recognise (bullying cases),» a ministry official said.
The number of serious bullying cases is not declining nationwide. According to the survey conducted by the education ministry, among 474 «grave incidents» in which children’s safety was endangered by bullying, 55 cases involved life-threatening harm that could trigger suicides, among other dangerous outcomes.
In the 2017 academic year, the Niigata city government began conducting a mandatory questionnaire survey on bullying at least three times per year at all municipal schools to address the problem.
When bullying is discovered, the city government requires schools to hold internal school meetings involving staff in managerial positions other than homeroom teachers and student guidance teachers.
In Niigata Prefecture, a first-year student at a prefectural high school who had been bullied killed himself in November 2016.
It was noted as problematic that information about the bullying was shared with only some teachers and that the boy’s claims of victimisation were not broadly shared with other teachers and school officials.
«In some cases, teachers may try to only address problems themselves. Therefore, we’ll take thorough measures so these problems don’t lead to serious bullying,» an official of the city’s board of education said.
«At schools nowadays, teachers are so busy that they don’t have enough time for their students,» said Kwansei Gakuin University Professor Chieko Saku-rai, who specialises in pedagogy.
«It’s important to create an environment in which children can easily consult (teachers), and a system in which schools as a whole tackle bullying.»
The number of truant students at elementary and junior high schools hit a record high of about 144,000.
«Children and their parents increasingly believe that there is no need to go to school if it causes great pain,» an education ministry official said.
In February 2017, the law to ensure educational opportunities came into force, stipulating that the central and local governments support truant students by providing opportunities for them to study at alternative schools and other venues outside regular schools.
In Komae, Tokyo, the city government has dispatched clinical psychologists to the homes of truant students, and the city helps them build relationships of trust with others through overnight nature excursions and other initiatives.
«There have been many cases in which students return to school after receiving long-term support and not being pressured,» an official of the city’s board of education said.
Source of the notice: https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/bullying-cases-reach-record-high-in-japan-education-ministry-says
In this first of a five-part series on the state of education in South Africa, six activists from Equal Education discuss how our current education system severely prejudices the black working class and keeps them stuck in the poverty trap.
Street Talk is a groundbreaking television series aired weekly on community television. From grassroots to the establishment, our engaging programmes expose the lived realities and uncensored views of ordinary South Africans. DM
Street Talk was launched in 2008 and is a non-profit organisation – visit us www.streettalktv.com
Source of the notice: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2018-10-26-the-segregation-in-our-education-system-part-1-video/
You are 15, your school building is falling apart, your teachers long ago lost faith in the power of aspiration, and you learned early on that you are considered a loser in life’s game of snakes and ladders, so how do you feel? Grim, obviously– but, as we learned last week, not as grim as your peer in Turkey. That is little cause for cheer.
In its latest social mobility report, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said that the poorest pupils in this country were more unhappy and discouraged than in any other developed country bar Turkey. Fewer than one in six feel resilient, satisfied with their lives and integrated at school, compared with an OECD average of one in four – one in two in the Netherlands.
One in six represents a huge swathe of our future. The OECD report also said that disadvantaged children in the UK who are educated together are two years behind those in schools with middle-class pupils.
At the current rate of “progress”, it will take 50 years to reach an equitable education system. Something is going badly wrong. It impacts on hundreds of thousands of children and young people. Yet, so far, across the political parties, and for decades, there has been a lack of imagination about what needs to be done to tackle such profound levels of misery, class division and wasted human capital.
At least in the 1940s we made no bones about it. The Education Act 1944estimated the country would need 80% manual workers and 20% clerical and professional staff for the postwar industrial economy. Now technology rules – the robots are coming. Even the middle classes are in peril of sliding down the snake, while those anchored to the bottom will continue to have little money, poor health and shocking housing.
For Labour, social mobility has traditionally meant focusing on the cleverest poorer children, measured in non-vocational terms. In 1959, the arrival of the 11 plus incensed the social entrepreneur Michael Young, Lord Young of Dartington, co-creator of the Open University among other ventures. He saw too many children prematurely branded failures.
Sixty years ago he published The Rise of the Meritocracy, a dystopian satire in which he presciently detailed the rise of women and national populism. The narrator, a sociologist, describes the negative outcomes of a system in which the elitist hereditary principle has been replaced by a society based on the formula, IQ + Effort = Merit. This system ossifies into yet another self-serving oligarchy. What Young believed is this “merit” – genes dictating the ability to pass exams, – fails to take into account the value to society of virtues such as kindness, courage, imagination, sympathy and generosity.
Education in the UK has always been a middle-class mincing machine in which too many poorer children are written off too soon because they don’t display certain habits of mind. “Effort” is very much harder in a damp, overcrowded, unheated home. Andreas Schleicher, OECD director of education and skills, said last week that, in the UK, poorer children did better in schools with a good disciplinary regime, by which he meant an environment for learning in which pupils respected and trusted teachers, and teachers had high expectations of pupils.
Arguably, what fosters that mutual respect is an understanding of the influences on children in all their diversity. For instance, a 10-year American study showed that parents of children from a low socio-economic group valued obedience, neatness and honesty, while middle class parents emphasised curiosity, self-control and consideration. We know that early years and schools can do much to compensate for this when a child does not come from a home bursting with social skills, activities, tutoring, self-discipline and ambition – so why do we still do so little?
Young, in his own patriarchal way, was trying to redefine what is meant by social mobility and “success”. How do we create a fair society in which every individual is able to develop what economist Amartya Sen called “capabilities” – the right to feel of value, to engage in society, to have the resources to live a thriving life, not merely survive? The aim, for all our sakes, ought to be that six out of six poorer pupils have the knowledge that life offers promise.
Fuente del artículo: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/oct/27/education-inequality-uk-schools-failure-of-meritocracy
Many students across the country are missing out on specialised subjects due to a shortage of teachers.
Finding teachers to teach STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) has become increasingly hard for many secondary schools resulting in teachers trained in other subjects stepping in or subjects being cut from the curriculum.
Fawziyyah Khan is a science teacher at Auckland’s Zayed College for Girls, in Mangere, who specialises in biology, but due to the shortage, she now teaches maths and physics.
Having teachers dealing with subjects outside of their speciality has a lot of implications for both students and teachers,» she said.
Khan said she felt she didn’t initially have the skills to effectively teach her students maths so she ended up spending countless hours researching and studying.
«I took up a scholarship from Auckland Airport to help me upskill in maths, in the meantime I was planning my classes, doing my own research and having to report on National Standards.
«The only thing that kept me going was the commitment to my students to help them improve, even though I would rather teach biology which is my passion.»
The first year of maths teaching was purely «survival» for Khan.
SUPPLIED
Vacancies for roles as maths and science teachers are not being filled.
«I really felt for those students because I felt like we had failed them through not being able to provide them with a maths specialist.»
Schools are «struggling», Auckland Secondary Schools Principals’ Association (ASSPA) spokesman and principal of Glendowie College Richard Dykes said, and it was getting harder to replace teachers.
At Glendowie College Dykes said they had been lucky so far but there had been trouble when one of their two physics teachers left.
SUPPLIED
Auckland Secondary Schools Principals’ Association (ASSPA) spokesman and principal of Glendowie College Richard Dykes said many schools are just one resignation away from being unable to fill positions.
«We couldn’t fill the position – we ended up having to get a teacher in from overseas.»
Te Reo Māori was another subject that was hard to fill positions in, Dykes said.
«We came very close to having to cancel the subject altogether we couldn’t find any teachers – we advertised and got no applications.»
DOMINICO ZAPATA/STUFF
Teachers and principals have been striking around the country in recent months for better working conditions and pay.
New Zealand Post Primary Teachers’ Association spokeswoman Liz Robinson said the shortage of teachers in STEM was something that concerned the Association «all day, everyday».
A secondary school staffing survey by the association identified 7000 students who were affected by the teaching of subjects by non-specialists in the responding schools.
One principal involved in the survey said hard materials courses were hard to staff.
STUFF
Over 200 extra secondary teachers are needed for 2019.
«I would have to say there is a lack of depth in the number of applicants. We were lucky that for most positions we had one quality applicant who accepted the position.»
Another principal said it was «almost impossible» to find technology staff at a rural area school.
«Most of the teachers in this curriculum area are close to retirement and no one is being trained to take their place.
SUPPLIED
Whetu Cormick, president of the New Zealand Principals’ Federation, said schools were struggling to fill vacancies.
«Recruitment is now my most pressing source of stress and anxiety.»
Stress has been mounting for principals around the country in regards to the on-going teacher shortage, and many are worried vacancies for 2019 won’t be covered.
«There’s more and more stress for principals as they try to secure teachers for vacancies in their schools,» New Zealand Principals’ Federation (NZPF) President, Whetu Cormick, said.
SUPPLIED
Ministry of Education’s Deputy Secretary Early Learning and Student Achievement, Ellen MacGregor-Reid, said a number of new initiatives would deal with the shortage.
Cormick said a number of factors needed addressing in the industry to entice teachers to work in New Zealand, including reducing work loads, substantial pay increases, and increased support, especially for severe behavioural issues.
«The ministry has not had a workforce strategy in the past to monitor and plan so that we could be assured of a sustainable workforce for the future.
«We had no data on which to predict the shortages we are now facing,» he said.
The Ministry of Education said new initiatives were in place to recruit teachers for 2019.
Up to an extra 650 primary teachers and 200 or so secondary teachers would be needed for 2019 – adding to the country’s pool of around 70,000 teachers.
The Government has made available an extra $10.5 million funding in the past week, on top of the $29.5 million already allocated since late last year to increase teacher supply.
The Ministry’s Deputy Secretary of Early Learning and Student Achievement, Ellen MacGregor-Reid, says «we’re expanding our marketing and recruitment drive, and introducing new initiatives – such as a $10,000 grant for schools to help with mentoring and training costs for new graduate teachers».
Over 6000 overseas-based teachers are also being targeted in a new campaign to attract them to New Zealand.
Source of the article: https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/107901288/It-concerns-us-all-day-everyday-Lack-of-STEM-teachers-hitting-hard-at-schools
Protesters, mainly women, attired in black outfit have presented petitions to international organizations calling for justice for under-aged girls that were reportedly raped by a co-founder of More Than Me charity foundation.
The petitioners are also calling on the government to revoke the license of the American charity organization, which opened in Liberia 2011 to protect girls from sexual exploitations by offering them education.
The protest dubbed #UNPROTECTED is a reaction to a recent documentary by ProPublica also titled Unprotected. The investigative report recounts the alleged raping and cover-up of over a dozen teenagers attending the MTM funded school in Monrovia.
Thursday’s protest begin early in the morning when protesters gathered in Sinkor at the Vamoma House carrying placards and chanting anti-rape slogans like: “Uncle turn to a rapist, no more uncle, do not rape, we tired with an uncle, let uncle face justice, where is Ministry of Justice, Women and Children protection section, don’t touch my butt, don’t touch my breast I am a minor.”
The first copies of the petition were presented to Ministries of Justice, Education, and Gender and later to the Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor, who was attending an international women forum happening in Monrovia.
They also called on the Ministry of Gender Social Children Protection, House speaker Bhofal Chambers and the Vice President to take charge of the case in ensuring that the girls be tested for HIV/AIDS. They also want funds raised by MTM used to directly compensate the survivors.
The protesters then moved to the headquarters of the United Nations and also petitioned the UNDP and UN Women.
“We will appreciate that appropriate measures are taken by the Government of Liberia to prioritize and ensure the safety and well-being of these girls, which may or may not include their temporary relocation,” said Facia Harris, who read the petition on behalf of the protesters, comprising over 26 women and CSO groups.
“The prevalence of violence against women and girls in our society is enabled by the culture of impunity which continues to prevent women and girls from accessing justice,” added Harris.
“We, therefore, remind the Liberian government to use this as an opportunity to advance its commitment to Liberian women and girls and ensure adequate laws and mechanisms are in place to protect Liberian women and girls from these horrifying and inhumane experiences.”
Several men also joined in the protest to show solidarity for the survivors
The protesters have also slammed moves to amend the New Rape Law and call on the Legislature to expedite the passage the Domestic Violence Bill, stressing that the MTM rape scandal “highlights the critical need for improving the justice system and strengthening the legal framework to protect Liberian women and girls from violations”.
The protest comes on the second day of the SHEHERO international women forum aimed at increasing women participation and advancement in Liberia. Former president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former Uganda President Joyce Binda and First Lady Clar Weah are all attending along with an array of international guests.
Respond to Petition
The United Nations Development Program Pa Lamin Beyai received the petition while Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor said that President George Weah is a He for She and will address issues affecting women in the country.
At the Ministry of Justice, the Minster of codification Cllr. Nyenatee Tuan received the petition promising that his ministry will review the case file relying on recent press statement issued.
Education Minister Ansu Sonii received the ministry’s petition as he also promised to look into the petition.
Protesters were furious when Deputy Minister for Children Protection, Lydia Sherman told protesters that she has no knowledge of the case.
She was seen calling for sexual and Gender-Based violence Director Deddeh Kwekwe who was nowhere to be found.
“When this case came I was at the Ministry of Health, and later got appointed in 2014, but Ebola came I was in America.” According to her, she started work in 2015.
But MTM case was heard in 2015 when she started work and has been serving the position for three years.
Protesters described the statement by Sherman as shifting blame and failure to follow cases involving children.
“She cannot be serving as minister for children protection and up to now, she has no knowledge of the entire case. This is sheer incompetence,” said Siatta Freeman, who also expressed regret in the statement made by Minister Sherman.
Protesters: Charity should not Abuse Girls
Georgina Dahn said she joined the protest because she’s a mother of three adding that the next generation rests on their shoulders and the decision to protest determines their tomorrow.
Korte Bazzie alias Kobazzie, Liberian musician was seen with placards, he said the protest is to show to the international community that Liberia accepts charity but charity should not use their works to abuse underprivileged girls.
The petition also highlights the following concerns:
• To appoint a Trustee(s) to take More Than Me (MTM) Academy inaugural school on Ashmun Street which is at the center of these allegations. This should include relocation of the school given circumstance around ownership and the stigma associated with the current coverage.
• To re-assign all nineteen (19) public schools under the management of MTM Academy in the LEAP program.
•To demand the establishment of an Independent Trust of funds raised by MTM to cover school fees, uniforms, feeding, transportation, stipend, and or medical costs for all the students at MTM Inaugural School through their graduation from high school. A selected Liberian Woman Organisation should administer the fund with oversight from the trustee(s).
• The release of the selection process for the contracting of MTM under the “Partnership for School” Program (and now as LEAP) with the Ministry of Education in 2016 and 2018, respectively.
• To institute healthcare and psychosocial counseling for all the students under More Than Me (MTM) from its After School Program to the establishment of its inaugural school up to present, fully covered by MTM.
•An independent audit report of MTM financial activities in Liberia since 2013.
•An independent investigation to review the activities of More Than Me (MTM) in Liberia, from its After School program in 2011 to present, in order to determine the full scope and magnitude of the organization’s activities in regards to the safety, security, and welfare of these girls under their care.
• To demand that More Than Me (MTM) makes available key documentation as part of an investigation to ascertain what actions were taken by MTM and its Board to curb further exposure of these girls to danger. The documentation should include but not limited to:
• To institute an Oversight Committee to ensure the roll-out and the implementation of the Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Policy (SEA) for NGOs, INGOs and all public and private education institutions.
• The resignation of the Director of the SGBV Crimes Unit of the Ministry of Justice, Cllr. John A.A. Gabriel and Tenneh Johnson, a staff of the said unit. We no longer have the confidence and trust that they will and can continue to enact their duties in a fair, objective and committed manner.
Source of the notice: https://frontpageafricaonline.com/news/liberian-women-lead-protest-against-reported-serial-rape-of-teenage-girls/
North America/ United States/ 23.10.2018/ Source: www.thv11.com.
Hundreds of educators, parents and teachers marched to the Arkansas State Capitol Saturday, Oct. 20 for the Stand with our Students Rally, hosted by the Arkansas Educators Association.
Hundreds of educators, parents and teachers marched to the Arkansas State Capitol Saturday, Oct. 20 for the Stand with our Students Rally, hosted by the Arkansas Educators Association. Their message to voters and politicians is to make education a priority.
“We are fighting for our students and we are fighting for public education,” said Anna Beaulieu, President of the Fayetteville Education Association.
Many educators holding signs and expressing concern that their retirement could be in jeopardy.
“We must be clear. Hands off our retirement,” chanted Cathy Koehler, President of the Arkansas Education Association.
Governor Asa Hutchinson’s office in a statement Saturday morning ahead of the rally said,” Under the Governor’s plan to reorganize state government, the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System (ATRS) will remain a constitutionally separate and independent agency.
“I trust the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System board and support its independence and the long term health and viability of our teacher retirement system,” Governor Hutchinson said. “I value the teachers of our state and am committed to supporting a strong and stable retirement for them.”
Koehler expressed support for Arkansas governor democratic candidate, Jared Henderson.
“Our single, defining most important goal must be that in 10 years, Arkansas is the best state in the United State to be a public school teacher,” said Henderson.
Governor Hutchinson’s office, defending his stance on education, included in their statement:
“Since Governor Hutchinson came into office in 2015, he has been committed to supporting teachers. Under the Governor’s leadership, the minimum teacher salary has increased by 5.57 percent, and the Governor recently announced that he will propose legislation during the 2019 session that raises the minimum salary for teachers by $1,000 a year over four years ($4,000 total) to reach $36,000, a 13 percent increase over the current minimum. If the General Assembly passes this proposal, Arkansas would then offer the highest minimum teacher salary of all the surrounding states, giving Arkansas a competitive edge.”
Source of the notice: https://www.thv11.com/article/news/education/stand-with-our-students-rally-hundreds-march-to-state-capitol-fighting-for-education/91-606355132
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