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Kenya: 99 students, 4 teachers at Muruku school, Laikipia contract Covid

99 students and four teachers at Muruku secondary school in Laikipia County have tested positive for Covid-19.

The number is the highest to be recorded in a learning institution in Kenya.

According to Laikipia county Chief officer of health Dr Donald Moghoi, the cases were confirmed from 264 samples tested at the school last Friday after a number of students started showing coronavirus related symptoms.

Those affected have since been quarantined at the institution under the care of Ministry of Health officials.

Of the 99 cases, 40 are male while 59 are female. Dr Moghoi said all of the 17 teachers who were tested, three are female and one male who are currently receiving treatment at Ol jabet and Benedict Catholic hospitals in Nyahururu respectively.

Learning for other students at the institution is still going on. Most schools are administering third term exams and are set to close this Friday, according to the school calendar issued by the Ministry of Education.

Since the pandemic struck the country last year, several schools have been affected, with some being closed indefinitely as others put their students, teachers and workers under quarantine.

Kenya continues to record more COVID-19 positive cases in recent weeks, with experts warning of a looming fourth wave.

But the ministry of education insists that children are safe in schools and that learning will go uninterrupted.

Covid cases

As of Monday, June 12, the country’s caseload stood at  188,942 after 188 new cases were reported.

The positivity rate is now 8.0% while cumulative tests so far conducted are 2,018,013.

Source and Image: https://www.kbc.co.ke/99-students-4-teachers-at-muruku-school-laikipia-contract-covid/

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Kenya: Online learning resources for kids

Africa/Kenya/29-03-2020/Author and Source: www.kbc.co.ke

As the Coronavirus pandemic keeps kids away from classrooms, parents are opting for online learning tools and resources for their children.

Children in Kenyan learning institutions were sent home about one and half weeks ago in a bid to protect them from and curb the spread of Coronavirus. It was an unprecedented move that almost left parents’ heads spinning. So since your kids have been home has their learning and studying stopped? Most schools simply sent them home with assignments but syllabus learning has basically halted. Kenyan parents are now realizing that home and online schooling are a thing and discovering its importance.

We’ve therefore compiled a short list of digital platforms that can benefit your kids’ learning journey and give you as a parent, peace of mind.

1. Longhorn eLearning

Longhorn eLearning is a digital product of Longhorn Publishers Limited. It gives access to primary and secondary school courses, including CBC. So far, over 200,000 learners have signed up to study the variety of 100 courses.

2. Wolsey Hall Oxford

Wolsey Hall Oxford offers homeschooling for kids aged 7 to 18. It has cademically rigorous Primary and Secondary courses, including IGCSE and A Level in a wide range of subjects designed specifically for home-schoolers. Its Online system allows parents to login and monitor their child’s progress and its Tutors are always available when extra help is needed.

3. Google Classroom

Google Classroom is free and offers a paperless way to create, distribute, and grade assignments. It’s available on your computer and as an app on your mobile phone. It’s free for anyone with a google account.

4. Discovery Education

Discovery Education helps you maintain virtual learning especially away from the classroom. It serves more than 50 million earners around the globe.

5. BrainPOP

BrainPOP is a digital platform and perfect solution for distance learning for children. As a parent/guardian, you can keep your kids on track with their learning by joining in (it’s free) and keeping up with the courses offered. The courses offered include science, social studies, math, English, engineering & tech, and arts & music.

6. Beast Academy

Beast Academy offers a rigorous mathematics curriculum, learnt in a fun way. Your kids will grasp math concepts through engaging, comic-book style illustrations.

7. Creative Bug

Creative Bug is especially for the kids with a creative side. It offers art and craft education. Let your kids learn how to paint, knit, crotchet and sculpt.

Source and Image: https://www.kbc.co.ke/online-learning-resources-for-kids/

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Kenya: Quality education dependent on competence and motivation of teachers

Africa/Kenya/01-12-2019/Author(a): Claire Wanja/Source: www.kbc.co.ke

Quality education outcomes depend on the competence and motivation of teachers, the Country Manager of Twaweza East Africa, Dr. Emmanuel Manyasa has said.

“I would rather have children under a tree with a competent and motivated teacher than in well-constructed classrooms without such a teacher,” Manyasa.

Manyasa was speaking on the sidelines of two day Conference on the place of evidence in reforming education Reforms for Sustainable National Transformation at a Machakos hotel yesterday. The event attracted education policymakers, policy practitioners, researchers, Development partners in the Education.

Manyasa said the teacher is the most important actor in curriculum management and delivery, noting that they should be retooled and motivated at all times.

He underscored the importance of rigorous and reliable evidence as a basis for decision making.

A senior lecturer at the University of Nairobi, School of Education, Dr Andrew Riechi similarly underscored the importance of well-educated and trained teacher in ensuring quality learning outcomes in schools.

The conference aimed to provide a platform for sharing of knowledge and policy-relevant findings of high-quality research from MOE and various practitioners, researchers and academics working in the education fieldin Kenya.

It was sought to initiate discussions to promote evidence-based solutions and adoption of practices that target transformative education in Kenya; and to provide input towards the creation of an ‘evidence gap map’ that would help shape the future research agenda in the education sector.

Source and Image: https://www.kbc.co.ke/quality-education-dependent-on-competence-and-motivation-of-teachers/

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Zombie-based Learning?

North America/USA/27-10-2019/Author(a): Sofía García-Bullé/Source: observatory.tec.mx

By: Sofía García-Bullé

To escape a zombie apocalypse, one has to have notions of geography.

Teaching geography is not easy. In previous articles we have covered the issue of the silent crisis of geographic illiteracy, especially when there is a growing need for professionals who can perform in fields of work where geographic knowledge is important. Geographic educational programs face a major challenge in keeping students motivated to learn hard data like country names, states, capitals, and resources that each has.

David Hunter, a geography teacher in Seattle, Washington (USA), might have found the key to capturing the interest of the students in the subject through a survival game. Hunter’s two greatest passions are things that would not normally come together, but with the right approach, they could become a creative educational strategy never before seen.

Outside the classroom, the teacher is a loyal follower of zombie fiction. Movies, series, video games, anything that has any version of the undead in its content is eagerly consumed by the professor. However, his pastime never mingled with his teaching side until he wondered, for fun, where he would flee in the event of a zombie apocalypse and why. How would it be located? What resources would the places have for them to be attractive to a group of people fleeing monsters in search of their brains?

«When I started with zombie-based learning, I wanted to create a meaningful example of how you can teach creatively still using established standards,»

It was then that he realized that the narrative of a zombie epidemic would be an excellent platform for teaching his students the value of a sense of direction and the places they can discover and map with it. «When I started with zombie-based learning, I wanted to create a meaningful example of how you can teach creatively still using established standards,» explains Hunter.

Hunter’s main goal was to get the attention and motivation of typically apathetic students. He used gamification elements to challenge his students to develop escape strategies, contingencies, and selections of places for possible refuge and reconstruction under a fictional narrative about a zombie apocalypse.

This narrative is developed in a graphic novel written by Hunter himself to fulfill the purpose of a friendlier textbook. The teacher was concerned about having written documents and resources that he could share with other teachers who might like to apply this method to revitalize geography classes or adapt it to other environments of gamification and project-based learning.

The principal advantage of Hunter’s project is that it allows students to apply geographic knowledge in a practical situation. Not only are they memorizing data, they are applying what they have learned to solve problems that are fictional, but also concrete and which provide an element of entertainment. Importantly, an intriguing scheme of gamification is one that provides immediate feedback and gratification while the narrative or storytelling behind it keeps students interested. This lengthens the useful life of the project, allowing it to be used throughout its time or with different classes, without losing its effectiveness.

If you want to know more about the bases and applications of gamification, check out our Edu Trends report that delves into this attractive educational trend.

Source of information: https://observatory.tec.mx/edu-news/zombie-based-learning

Image:  ahmadreza heidaripoor en Pixabay

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Pakistan: Political parties commit to increase education spending to 4pc of GDP

Pakistan/May 15, 2018/BY HAMID KHAN WAZIR/ Source: https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk

The leadership of almost all major political parties have signed reform agenda called “Charter for Education”, committing to increase the provincial and federal education spending to 4 per cent of the GDP, supported by substantial governance reforms to ensure that the allocated funds are spent effectively and transparently.

The leadership of almost all major political parties made the commitment in a landmark education conference titled Ailaan-e- Amal hosted by education campaign Alif Ailaan here on Monday.

All the parties have committed to ensuring that the agreed charter will be adopted into their respective election manifestos, besides committing to developing a plan of implementation within 100 days of the oath-taking of the future chief ministers after the upcoming elections.

Political parties including Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), National Party (NP), Awami National Party (ANP), Jamat-e- Islami (JI), Qaumi Watan Party (QWP), Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP), Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F), PkMAP and BNP-M pledged to go beyond political differences and proceed with national reform agenda for education.

Punjab School Education Minister Rana Mashood, KP Education Minister Muhammad Atif Khan, ANP’s Afrasiab Khattak and Sardar Hussain Babak, PTI’s Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar and PPP MNA Dr Azra Pechuho among others attended the conference.

The conference discussed improving learning outcomes in schools and delivering on the state’s obligation to provide compulsory and free education for all children between the ages of 5-16 and continue support for the provision of quality education to all Pakistani children. Besides that, all provinces were also asked to commit a minimum of 20 per cent of their budget for education annually.

The conference also agreed on a standard career plan for all recruited teachers and clear distinction between teaching paths and management paths, besides reaffirming merit-based recruitment.

Speaking on the occasion, Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar stated that in a country like Pakistan, where 23 million children were still out of school, a national emergency must be declared after the general elections. “We will need to set strict targets to get them all in school and get them learning.”

Dr Azra Pechuho was of the view that there is a need for legislation extending beyond the provision of free and compulsory education to legislation on quality, teacher availability and budget utilization.

Punjab School Education Minister Rana Mashhood stated that it was heartening to see that all provincial governments have prioritized education since 2013 and Punjab, specifically, focused on providing quality education.

Speaking on the occasion, Ajmal Khan Wazir said that it was shocking to know that FATA was even not included in the draft despite having many out of school children. He added that the long-deprived area must be included and all political parties should play their part to develop the area.

Source:

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/05/14/political-parties-commit-to-increase-education-spending-to-4pc-of-gdp/

 

 

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How A People-First Culture Is Transforming Education In India

India/May 08, 2018/By: Laura Garnett /Source: https://www.forbes.com

Since 2005, when he became president and later CEO of HCL Technologies, Vineet Nayar has led a remarkable turnaround that saw the company triple its revenues and income growth. He wrote about this in his book, Employees First, Customer Second. The value-based leadership simultaneously resulted in the company being ranked by Hewitt Associates as the Best Employer in India and by BusinessWeek among the top five most influential companies in the world.

Nayar is now trying to transform the education of India’s children. He’s taking on a huge goal, and I’ve always admired his focus on people. I wanted to sit down with him and talk about his current work with his own fund and figure out how he plans to transform education.

Laura Garnett: What is the problem that you’re trying to solve and what is your goal?

Vineet Nayar: In India, government-led primary school education systems suffer from a myriad of issues, not only preventing families from sending their children to these schools but also affecting the learning outcomes for those 144 million children who attend. Most children in grade 5 can’t do basic math or construct simple sentences in English.

Sampark Foundation was founded with a belief that “frugal innovation,” along with relentless execution in partnership with the government, can drive large scale change in learning outcomes. Our goal is to design and implement frugal innovation ideas that will transform learning outcomes for 20 million children studying in 200,000 rural government schools by 2025, at less than $1 per child per annum. As of today, we have touched the lives of 7 million children across 76,000 schools.

Garnett: How did you come up with the Innovative ideas that you speak about?

Nayar: While many educational change initiatives are in-flight in India currently, we realized they have not been able to deliver impact because they are either sub scale or resource intensive, or they ignore the ground realities surrounding these kids. For example, you can’t just solve this problem by giving away iPads to children in an environment that lacks electricity.

We believe that for any long-lasting change to happen it has to be driven by practical and sustainable solutions that are frugal but at a large scale. Our area of investment and focus was on design thinking and coming up with frugal innovation ideas (low on resources, high on impact) and leveraging them to deliver a comprehensive, multi-fold improvement in learning outcomes that can be sustained.

This led to Sampark Smart Shala: a learning-outcome focused, frugal innovation-led initiative that uses audio technology, a voice mascot called “Sampark Didi,” toys, folklore, board games and teacher training modules combined with rigorous monitoring in collaboration with state governments.

Garnett: What allowed you to have these innovative ideas?

Nayar: Our design thinking was inspired by three ideas. The first came from an unlikely source: Bollywood! Going to a movie in an Indian village is an open-air three-hour deeply immersive experience of life enacted through dance, songs and dramatic scripts. We asked ourselves – could we bring that experience to the classroom too?

The second came from watching people in villages charge cell phones using their bicycles. Could this battery drive an audio device with a big speaker that could be used in a class? And the third inspiration came from Teaching Learning Materials (TLM’s). Students retain 70% of what is said in the first 10 minutes of class and only 20% of what is said in last 10 minutes. Adding visual aids and stories increases retention by 250% even in the last 10 minutes.

Garnett: How are these ideas making an impact on your goal?

Nayar: The results have been nothing short of magical – a 56% increase in learning outcomes measured through an independent assessment study. This is also now a case study at the Harvard Business School, showcasing how frugal innovation can create large scale social impact.

Garnett: How are you bringing people first customer second to your foundation and how does it operate?

Nayar: Since Sampark Foundation is a small not-for-profit organization, it has barely 100 people, or ‘Sparks’ as we call them. In this model, it is the government schoolteachers who are the front-line workers in the value zone, the classroom. Therefore, following the EFCS principles, our role is to enthuse, encourage and empower them. So, we set our eyes on enhancing the teacher’s power to teach and bring excitement into the classroom through Sampark Smart Shala.

Our 100 Sparks travelled over 15,000 kilometers within 100 days into remote interiors of the country to help train 100,000 teachers each year on the use of Sampark Smart Shala teaching aids to bring excitement back into the classroom and drive significant transformation in learning outcomes. The one thing that brings a smile to my face is the fact that the impact and learning outcome has been achieved by enthusing the teachers, empowering them with the teaching aids, encouraging and mentoring them through helplines and periodic training sessions – and most importantly, by transferring the ownership of change to them. This is employee-first at its best.

Garnett: What is your biggest challenge now and how can people that read this that want to help, get involved?

Nayar: The biggest challenge now for us is if we should focus on higher grade levels with the 7 million children already in the program in the existing four states, or should we add more children to the grade 1-3 program by scaling up to more states. Doing both could break the back of operations, and there is a limit to how far our resources can take us. Our foundation is inviting new ideas, new approaches, new and frugal ways to improve learning levels which will help us go the extra mile and provide a path for millions of children studying in government-funded primary schools to see the light at the end of the dark tunnel.

Source:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lauragarnett/2018/05/08/how-a-people-first-culture-is-transforming-education-in-india/2/#2898c849303d

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Interview: 3 vital ways to measure how much a university education is worth

By The Associated Press

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

Mark S. Schlissel, University of Michigan; Michael H. Schill, University of Oregon, and Michael V. Drake, The Ohio State University

(THE CONVERSATION) Editor’s note: Today we begin a new series in which we ask the leaders of our country’s colleges and universities to address some of the most pressing issues in higher education.

The past several years have seen increased calls for colleges and universities to demonstrate their value to students, families and taxpayers. And the pressure has come from both sides of the political spectrum. Barack Obama, for example, didn’t mince his words when he spoke a few years ago on the University of Michigan campus: “We are putting colleges on notice…you can’t assume that you’ll just jack up tuition every single year. If you can’t stop tuition from going up, then the funding you get from taxpayers each year will go down. We should push colleges to do better.”

So how is a would-be student or a tax-paying citizen to decide the value of a given university or degree? There is certainly no shortage of tools that have been developed to help in this regard.

The federal College Scorecard, for example, is meant to “help students choose a school that is well-suited to meet their needs, priced affordably, and is consistent with their educational and career goals.”

Various magazines put together college rankings. There have been efforts at the state level to show what graduates of a given institution or program can expect to earn. And some colleges and universities are working to provide those data themselves.

So we asked our panel of presidents – from the University of Michigan, University of Oregon and The Ohio State University: If you had to devise just one tool or metric to help the general public assess the value of a particular college or degree, what would it be and why?

Michael Drake, president of The Ohio State University

When I ask individuals if they want their own children to attend college, the answer is, overwhelmingly, yes. The evidence is clear. College graduates are more likely to be employed and more likely to earn more than those without degrees. Studies also indicate that people with college degrees have higher levels of happiness and engagement, better health and longer lives.

Wow.

If living a longer, healthier and happier life is a good thing, then, yes, college is worth it.

A four-year degree is not necessarily the best path for everyone, of course. Many people find their lives are enhanced by earning a two-year or technical degree. For others, none of these options is the perfect choice. But if there is one data point I want to highlight, it is the correlation between a college education and greater life expectancy. In fact, one study suggests that those who attend college live, on average, seven years longer.

Last year was the second year in a row that average life expectancy in the U.S. went down. But greater mortality didn’t affect all Americans equally. Studies point to a growing gap in life expectancy between rich and poor. Higher education may, in other words, be part of the solution to this problem.

This is just one of the reasons that so many of our country’s institutions of higher learning are focused on the question of how to make sure more Americans have access to a quality – and affordable – college education.

Since December 2016, the American Talent Initiative, a coalition of 100 (and counting) colleges and universities, has been working to educate 50,000 additional lower-income students by 2025. In another initiative, the 11 public universities in the University Innovation Alliance are committed to producing more U.S. graduates and have, over the past three years, increased their number of low-income graduates by 24.7 percent.

As educators, we must continue to increase pathways to the American Dream — a journey that includes health, happiness, long life and, very often, a college degree.

Michael Schill, president of the University of Oregon

While it is impossible to devise only one indicator to describe the value of a university, I would suggest that a good place to begin would be the number of first-generation students it admits and the rate at which they graduate.

As a first-generation college student myself, I may be somewhat biased, but I believe that our generation will be judged by how well we enhance the opportunities for social mobility among our citizens. And despite some skepticism about the value of higher education on the part of pundits and politicians, it is well-documented that there is no better way for young people to achieve the “American Dream” than by getting a college degree.

Note that my metric is really two – first-generation enrollment numbers and graduation rates. The simple fact is that students who go to college and don’t receive a degree may well be in worse shape economically than those who don’t go at all. They will have invested time and money, yet without a diploma will not achieve the economic returns from that investment. Moreover, many are hobbled by student loans without the economic wherewithal to repay them.

It is easy for universities, colleges and community colleges to admit large numbers of students from modest backgrounds. That happened in the for-profit sector. However, the graduation rate at for-profit institutions is only 23 percent, compared to the 59 percent rate overall. The hard part is to support students so that they can succeed.

First-generation students make up a third of college undergraduates in the United States. They are more likely to be minorities and to come from low-income households, and are far less likely to graduate than their peers who had one or more parent attend college. We can do better.

Part of the solution is for more universities to provide more adequate need-based financial assistance, but even that isn’t enough. College can be a confusing experience for first-generation kids, both in terms of learning how to succeed academically and “fitting in” socially. Real value will accrue to students and American society only if we can provide them with appropriate advising and counseling so that they not only get in, but persist and flourish.

Mark Schlissel, president of the University of Michigan

To devise one metric to help the public assess our value, we need to challenge ourselves the same way we challenge students in our classrooms and labs. Let’s first determine the right question to ask. What are our students looking for in life and how can a college degree change the quality and trajectory of their lives?

Higher education gives graduates the best opportunity to pursue their ambitions, change careers, define and solve complex problems, and persuade and lead others. College graduates enjoy higher salaries, qualify for further levels of education and are at a lower risk of ending up in jobs that become obsolete. Moreover, they lead richer and fuller lives – happier, healthier, wealthier and longer.

Each of these outcomes is a component of the value of a college education, yet none of them alone fairly captures its full value. In considering these metrics together, in the context of our question, I believe that one very important concept emerges.

That concept is freedom.

Freedom’s link to education has long been a quintessential American value. As the educator and philosopher John Dewey wrote at the beginning of the 20th century, “We naturally associate democracy, to be sure, with freedom of action, but freedom of action without freed capacity of thought behind it is only chaos.”

At its best, higher education gives us the freedom to make decisions based on our values, desires, human talents and willingness to work hard. We are free to choose our own path.

Education takes freedom beyond its status as a legal right and elevates it into a lifetime of choices. It’s the trajectory of those lives, changed by the opportunities available through a college education, that I am most interested in measuring.

The American public rightfully expects higher education to serve as an enabler of prosperity and equality. I would devise a metric that captures higher education’s greatest potential: to enhance the freedom of an individual graduate in a nation founded on constitutionally guaranteed rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Editor’s note: The Ohio State University is a member of the University Innovation Alliance. The University of Michigan and The Ohio State University are members of the American Talent Initiative.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article here: http://theconversation.com/3-vital-ways-to-measure-how-much-a-university-education-is-worth-94208.

Source:

3 vital ways to measure how much a university education is worth

 

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