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Sobre el Fracaso de la Reforma Educativa: Entrevista a Manuel Gil Antón

México/ 09 junio 2016/ Autor: Horizontal/ Fuente: Insurgencia Magisterial.

La reforma educativa culpó al magisterio de todos los problemas del sistema. En este proyecto laboral se desperdició un impulso histórico para transformar verdaderamente la educación en México. 

A propósito de las últimas tensiones entre el magisterio y el gobierno, entrevistamos a Manuel Gil Antón, profesor investigador del Colegio de México, sobre el contexto actual del sistema educativo mexicano, los saldos de las evaluaciones, la relación entre el sindicato y el Estado y los prejuicios que acompañan la percepción social del maestro.

¿Nuestro sistema educativo en lugar de contribuir a la equidad social es impulsor de la desigualdad?

Aprendí de un colega que una mirada hacia el sistema educativo podía ser por el lado de la equidad. Este enfoque tiene dos objetivos fundamentales: que nadie tenga obstáculos para acceder a la educación obligatoria y, segundo, que se rompa la distancia entre origen y destino. Por el lado del acceso estamos terriblemente mal: hay seis millones de analfabetas, 10 millones sin primaria, 16 millones sin secundaria –y estos 32 millones son el 43% del grupo de 15 a 64 años de México. Entonces por el lado del acceso tenemos un acceso muy sesgado por las condiciones económicas. Y, por el otro lado, el que pretende que la educación rompa la determinación del origen social sobre el destino laboral y el avance cognitivo, pues no podríamos estar peor: padres con posgrado tienen hijos en licenciatura, padres sin instrucción tienen hijos que no terminan primaria. En este contexto, si nosotros tenemos una desigualdad social tan aguda, la escuela para propiciar igualdad tendría que dar la mejor educación a los que más lo necesitan y creo que el país está dando la peor educación a los que más lo necesitan (en términos de infraestructura, de condiciones y riqueza de materiales y recursos pedagógicos). A los que más tienen se les da la mejor educación –o la pueden pagar–, y a los que menos tienen se les da la peor educación (por ejemplo, el 40% de las escuelas primarias en México son multigrado: un profesor o dos atienden a todos los grupos). En consecuencia, el abandono escolar está concentrándose en los sectores más desfavorecidos, a los cuales el título de “certificado” les podría significar avance. Si esto es así –y la investigación apunta a ello– el sistema educativo no está promoviendo un proceso mediante el cual tú puedas tener credenciales con las que aspires a una movilidad social –sobre todo cuando dejas la educación en una etapa temprana–, sino que te coloca otra vez en desventaja. En este sentido, el sistema educativo no solamente sigue la curva de la desigualdad sino que la incrementa, la potencia.

¿Qué otros elementos complementan tu diagnóstico del sistema educativo?

Si lo ves desde el punto de la equidad, el anterior sería el problema principal. Si lo ves desde el punto del aprendizaje, de nuevo, los que no se van de la escuela y que permanecen en ella hasta el bachillerato, más o menos el sesenta por ciento, no tienen capacidad ni de lectura ni de escritura después de 12 años, y si te fijas en quiénes son esos que, a pesar de haberse sostenido en una escuela que es expulsora, terminan, notas también un sesgo, un impacto de la clase de origen. De tal manera que si la promesa de toda escuela en una sociedad moderna es contribuir a pasar de una dinámica de roles adscritos por nacimiento a una de roles adquiridos por mérito, en México parece ser mucho más explicativo del futuro de una persona su origen social (“origen es destino”). Por otro lado, más vale tener conocidos que conocimiento porque, aun los que terminan y tienen certificados, van a tener más dificultades para encontrar un empleo, pues no tienen redes de contacto en un país que, a su vez, no tiene empleo. Por el lado de la equidad pero también por el lado del aprendizaje se ha despreciado el impacto que tienen pésimos planes y programas de estudio, que son extraordinariamente ricos en información a repetir y poco profundos en la consolidación de estructuras cognitivas que permitan preguntar. Entonces, el sistema educativo, creo, está generando con mucha frecuencia repetidores (porque además ese es el modo de evaluar) y no gente que sepa plantear una pregunta (para plantear una pregunta tienes que comprender, que tener otros insumos). Un sistema así lo que genera es una suerte de carrera de obstáculos para seguir pasando la escuela.

En breve, ¿cuál es tu tesis sobre la reforma educativa?

En general, lo que yo pienso es que la reforma educativa simplificó el problema en el magisterio y supuso que un magisterio mejor preparado (o mejor evaluado), por ese hecho, iba a mejorar la calidad de todo el sistema. El factor que aporta el profesor en el aprendizaje no es menor pero es muchísimo menor que el que aportan, por ejemplo, la desigualdad, el desastre en los planes y programas de estudio y la centralización del proceso.

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¿Qué detalles específicos te preocupan de la reforma educativa?

Hablaré para empezar de dos, uno menor y otro grave: la alteración del artículo 3 de la Constitución y, segundo, la alteración del artículo 73 y su subsiguiente traducción en la Ley General de Servicio Profesional Docente.

Con la reforma educativa los legisladores incluyeron el adjetivo “calidad” en el artículo 3 de la Constitución, en lo que es un claro pleonasmo. Según el adagio jurídico de “justificación no pedida, acusación manifiesta”, el hecho de que en el texto constitucional se diga que la educación que imparte el Estado tenga que ser de calidad es muy desalentador, porque no tendría que tener ese calificativo: que sea obligatoria, gratuita, laica, etcétera, son calificativos, en efecto, del tipo de educación que el Estado hace cuando es un Estado moderno, no confesional, pero si se tiene que repetir que es de “calidad” y que esto es necesario que esté en la Constitución significa que no lo era –o hay que decir que lo sea. Probablemente sea más un lapsus para interpretación de los psicoanalistas que de los sociólogos.

La segunda cuestión la considero aguda. En el artículo 123, que regula la cuestión laboral, tenemos un apartado “A” y un apartado “B”. El apartado “A” es para los trabajadores de la industria y el apartado “B” para los trabajadores al servicio del Estado. Al reformar el artículo 73, es decir, el artículo sobre las facultades del Congreso, quedó, en la fracción XXV, que el Congreso de la Unión es el encargado de regular los términos de ingreso, promoción y permanencia del personal docente. Esto quiere decir que los docentes están fuera de la regulación laboral: están en un régimen laboral de excepción. Por poner un caso histórico, durante mucho tiempo el doctor Guillermo Soberón, de la UNAM, propuso que para los trabajadores universitarios debería haber un apartado “C” (por la naturaleza de su trabajo, etc.), cosa que no se logró. En este caso, sin decirlo, hoy el magisterio mexicano está en un régimen laboral de excepción porque cuando se fracase las veces que estipula la ley, por ejemplo, en aprobar un examen, se termina la relación laboral sin ninguna responsabilidad para la autoridad –y no hay ni siquiera liquidación. Creo que no se ha pensado lo suficiente qué significa tener al magisterio en un apartado específico.

Esto es un problema porque luego, traducido en la Ley de Servicio Profesional Docente, propone que los profesores que antes gozaban de la estabilidad en el empleo ahora cada cuatro años tendrán que refrendar su posibilidad de seguir siendo profesores. Esta es una renovación cuyos incentivos no están orientados a ver en qué podría mejorar el profesor, sino a ver cómo podría conservar el empleo. Es una precarización de las condiciones laborales hasta el infinito. En la educación superior, por ejemplo, cuando tienes una base, pues tienes estabilidad en el empleo. Si faltas tres veces te pueden correr pero, vamos, no se necesitaba hacer una reforma educativa para aplicar las sanciones que corresponden a la ley de trabajo. A mí me parece grave, como un signo de los tiempos, que se precarice el trabajo. Por esto, ligo esta reforma educativa con la reforma laboral que hicieron en el interregno entre Calderón y Peña Nieto para facilitar el despido.

Entonces, el fracaso de la reforma educativa se debe a que se enfoca exclusivamente en los maestros.

Sí: los implica al culparlos, como si fueran un factor único o el principal. La reforma supone que por evaluarlos va a subir la calidad de sus clases. Y aquí la propuesta que hemos hecho muchos es que si la evaluación tiene como efecto perder el empleo, entonces las personas se van a preparar para la evaluación sin que esto tenga un correlato en el cambio de la práctica pedagógica. En sociología existe la famosa ley de Campbell, que dice: mientras más precisa sea una métrica para evaluar algo, mientras más consecuencias fuertes tenga, esta métrica va a ser, al mismo tiempo, cumplida y, en la misma proporción, simulada. Entonces lo que estamos viendo ahora es la proliferación de un montón de entidades y empresas que te preparan para la evaluación, pero que no son espacios para mejorar la actividad en el aula, sino para ayudarte a sobrevivir en el empleo.

¿Cómo llegamos a este punto? ¿Por qué la reforma solamente se enfocó en los profesores?

Me parece que en los años previos a la reforma educativa se fue construyendo una generalización muy injusta, un prejuicio, de que todo el magisterio eran un grupo de golpeadores, ignorantes, ineptos, una generalización incluso con notas clasistas y racistas. Recuerdo a varios personajes de los medios de comunicación diciendo “¿Usted dejaría a sus hijos con esa persona?” –cuando “esa persona” tenía el fenotipo de las personas de Oaxaca y Chiapas. También está la simplificación del convenio corporativo entre el Estado y el sindicato, del cual se culpa solo al sindicato, como si en el caso de Oaxaca Ulises Ruiz o Diódoro Carrasco no tuvieran nada que ver en esa convivencia –o los secretarios de estado o Elba Esther. Entonces, el traslado de la culpa del acuerdo a un solo polo, sumado a la construcción de una imagen de los maestros como unas personas muy mal preparadas, incapaces e ignorantes, generó en la opinión pública la idea de que bastaba con evaluarlos, para que se pusieran a estudiar y que todo el sistema mejorara. Creo que esta no es la solución. Y ese estigma, esa forma de generalizar, por lo menos, con un conjunto de un millón doscientas mil personas, diciendo que todos son ignorantes, que todos son unos provocadores, que todos son violentos, etcétera, permitió que la reforma pasase con facilidad y que su objetivo único sea controlar al magisterio.

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Caricatura de Paco Calderón.

Se desperdició un impulso histórico en una reforma educativa limitada.

Lo más triste es que la reforma educativa es necesaria, pero concibiéndola como la transformación de las condiciones en las que ocurre el aprendizaje, que rebasan al profesor aunque lo incluyen. Por un lado, hay una resistencia fuerte, muy localizada, que incluso ha llegado a niveles de mucha polarización. Por el otro, hay una resignación: si tengo que conservar el empleo, hago la evaluación y me preparo para la evaluación, pero que me prepare para la evaluación no tiene consecuencias en lo que hago como maestro. Por lo tanto, nuestros déficits en el aprendizaje no van a subsanarse por evaluar cada cuatro años a doscientas cincuenta mil personas.

Además, los profesores salieron bien en las evaluaciones.

Esa es una cuestión de la que vale sospechar. Algunos evaluadores con los que he podido hablar me han dicho que los resultados eran malos, pero que la calificación de corte de lo que se consideraba satisfactorio o insatisfactorio se ajustó a lo que podía aguantarse políticamente. En cierto modo, cuando la reforma culpa al magisterio y luego el ochenta y cinco por ciento de los resultados de las evaluaciones son buenos o destacables, pues se contradice. Pero hay quienes opinan que se fue demasiado generoso en la calificación de satisfactorio en adelante para evitar un problema político fuerte.

Independientemente de los resultados, nos tendríamos que preguntar si es idónea la evaluación. Cuando a un profesor le piden que suba cuatro evidencias de su trabajo, luego que haga un examen de conocimientos y luego que haga una planeación pedagógica en la mañana, lo recopilado nos puede decir cosas: puede decir cuánto domina del conocimiento, puede darnos una idea de qué tan capaz es didácticamente, pero con eso no puedes decir que durante 16 años ese profesor ha tenido un desempeño “excelente” o “destacado” o “insatisfactorio”. No se puede: a veces he dicho que es tratar de medir la presión arterial con un martillo. Porque esa evaluación sí diría cosas que podemos mejorar, pero predicar que ella nos puede calificar el desempeño de años de trabajo no es adecuado. Y esto es lo que se está viviendo.

¿Cuál es el escenario próximo?

Me parece que la reforma va a ser exitosa en términos de la renovación del pacto corporativo del gobierno federal con el sindicato. Es impresionante como cada que sale en imagen Aurelio Nuño, el secretario de educación pública, sale también Juan Díaz de la Torre, el secretario general del Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (SNTE). Que este último haya visto cómo todo su gremio ha perdido la estabilidad en el empleo y que el sindicato no haya hecho ninguna objeción, me parece que indica la reconstrucción del pacto corporativo que se había roto, que se había roto porque Elba Esther se había ido, digamos, a vender al mejor postor sus servicios políticos. La posición del SNTE ha sido la de decir: “nosotros le aseguramos al profesor que lo preparamos para que vea que no va a perder su empleo”. Nunca se ha pronunciado sobre la pérdida de la estabilidad laboral del gremio. Ni siquiera ha propuesto que después de tres o cuatro evaluaciones se gane la estabilidad. En sentido estricto, si cada cuatro años no tienes seguro el empleo y tienes que ser revisado, no podrías obtener, por ejemplo, un préstamo del ISSTE. Entonces, me parece que la reforma va a producir una reorganización política en la relación entre el Estado y el sindicato y no va a tener consecuencias significativas en el aprendizaje y, por otro lado, está generando una polarización importante (como vimos en el caso de Chiapas); las evaluaciones están siendo casi militarizadas: tienen que meter un montón de policías para que se puedan llevar a cabo y la vejación que sufrieron los profesores en Chiapas, en días pasados, nos habla de un nivel de encono muy grande. En cierta medida, me parece que los profesores van, en general, a aceptar como una forma de adaptación a nuevas reglas para conservar el empleo, sin estar convencidos que esa evaluación es significativa en su desarrollo, como lo han hecho tantas veces: de repente la SEP dice “vamos a ser constructivistas” y son constructivistas; dos años después dice “vamos a ser ahora por competencias” y son por competencias. Y, en realidad, está pasando lo mismo.

¿Cómo ves el contexto de Chiapas y Oaxaca?

A mí me parece que ahí –en Chiapas, Oaxaca, Guerrero y Michoacán, donde la Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (CNTE) es muy fuerte– la labor del profesor es una labor que incluye, además de la enseñanza (con sus fallas, sin duda), una especie de liderazgo social ante la miseria y la injusticia. Casi siempre confundimos a los profesores con la cúpula de la coordinadora o a los profesores con la cúpula del sindicato –me parece que esto es un error. Cuando el gobierno actual dice, por ejemplo, que en Chiapas o Oaxaca el profesorado tenía condiciones de privilegio, habla como si esas condiciones hayan sido arrebatadas por el sindicato y no pactadas por el gobierno; ninguna plaza o prestación que le dieron al Instituto Estatal de Educación Pública de Oaxaca (IEEPO), cuando tenía bastante influencia en él la sección 22 del sindicato, careció del acuerdo con el gobernador; entonces si para obtener un préstamo a la vivienda la sección 22 pedía ser activo políticamente en las manifestaciones, pues en las otras secciones también para obtener prestaciones se tenía que tener una cierta disciplina con la vida sindical. Yo creo que tenemos un magisterio sumamente atrapado en el sindicalismo, ya sea el sindicalismo al servicio del poder o un sindicalismo que propone desde la escuela la transformación social de toda la sociedad, lo cual creo que es un exceso. Entonces, la coordinadora que surge para democratizar la forma de elección de la secretaría general del SNTE, poco a poco, se ha convertido en una instancia que tiene un proyecto de educación que incluye la transformación social. Quizás arriba, los dirigentes puedan tener pactos y acuerdos y privilegios, pero creo que estamos desperdiciando que muchos profesores de base sostienen eso –educar para lograr la transformación la sociedad– como convicción genuina. Y ante esto, hay que tener más habilidad política; no basta con simplemente exigirles una evaluación.

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En 2013, Claudio Lomnitz propuso renovar las formas de resistencia magisterial. Una de sus propuestas era librar, con argumentos y propuestas, una batalla de inteligencia en la opinión pública. ¿Crees que se ha librado esta batalla? 

A nivel de opinión pública, me parece, lo que ha ocurrido es que fue tan fuerte la desacreditación del magisterio que la posibilidad de que el propio magisterio mostrara que había muchos profesores que han hecho un trabajo diferente no ha sido posible. Doy un caso. Varias veces fui el programa de Leo Zuckermann, Es la hora de opinar, y cada que terminaba el programa terminaba él diciendo: “Oye, a ver, Manuel, por qué no la próxima vez traemos a profesores para que ellos digan cómo están viviendo la reforma”. En varias ocasiones se propuso. A mí me dijo: “¿Tú puedes conseguir que vengan profesores?” Le dije que “sí” y lo mismo le preguntó a David Calderón, de Mexicanos Primero, que también accedió. Está bien, quedamos en escuchar a los profesores, en vez de escuchar a los “intelectuales” que disque sabemos de esas cosas. Pero ese programa nunca ocurrió. Yo no he visto a profesores de base decir cómo están viviendo la reforma. Por eso, me parece que lo que propone Claudio de ir a ganar en la opinión pública la percepción de una reforma necesaria no ha ocurrido porque, en general, los medios se han comprado y contribuyeron a crear la imagen de que del magisterio no se puede esperar nada y que, por eso, hay que someterlo. Ese es el verbo que utiliza el secretario Nuño: “aquel que no se someta a la evaluación, perderá el empleo”. Entonces, me parece que esa batalla en los medios está perdida. Hay –en La Jornada y en algunas otras columnas– personas que tratamos de decir, bueno, aquí hay carencias, esta evaluación no es idónea, que es cierto, es constitucional, es legal, pero hay problemas, hay que discutirla. Son voces minoritarias; en la mayoría de los canales de televisión, en la mayoría de los medios, han difundido la otra versión.

Con los hechos de Chiapas y Oaxaca, ¿los medios están volviendo a difundir los prejuicios que citas?

También hay que reconocer que la coordinadora no ha sido creativa en sus modalidades de protesta, por lo que está perdiendo apoyo social. Curiosamente, con sus acciones fortalece la idea de que todos los profesores son una bola de violentos. Cuando hablas con algunos de ellos te dicen: “A ver, si no cerramos las calles, nadie nos hace caso. Si no hacemos los bloqueos, ¿quién hubiera discutido la reforma?” La reforma educativa la aprobaron todos los partidos por unanimidad. ¿Qué partido en el Congreso dijo “oigan, perdón, esta es una simplificación enorme”? En ese momento no había Congreso en México: estaba sustituido por el Pacto por México. Y ahí la reforma surge y luego llega a las cámaras a ser aprobada. Hay una especie de ajuste que el PRD procura sobre la cuestión de la estabilidad pero es algo menor (y además suscitado por la movilización del magisterio). Es curioso: la reforma que tuvo más resistencia fue la educativa, no la energética (cuando se pensaba que esta iba a despertar un resurgimiento del sentimiento nacionalista), principalmente porque la educativa tocó a un sector organizado. Pues sí, en los medios uno siempre ve la fotografía del profesor violento –nunca ves la fotografía, por ejemplo, de una profesora que va marchando inconforme. Hay toda una construcción imaginaria del magisterio como un sector violento.

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¿Cómo explicar el aumento de la popularidad de Aurelio Nuño?

Si nosotros hacemos el seguimiento de la estigmatización del magisterio y luego aceptamos que se ganó en la opinión pública la idea de que la evaluación es el único camino, entonces el secretario Nuño está siendo visto como un tipo que no negocia la ley, cuando durante años con el CNTE y la SNTE se negoció cualquier cosa: no solo la ley, se negociaban elecciones. Me parece que el secretario Nuño está siendo mirado como un político que hace cumplir la ley, un político que no negocia la ley, y esto está teniendo un impacto en la apreciación de su gestión. No me extraña la satisfacción que generó entre algunos sectores el proceso a Elba Esther. Si haz construido al diablo durante años y luego lo metes a la cárcel, pues claro que te ganas adeptos; si haz concebido al magisterio como el diablo –porque son burros, ignorantes, desgraciados y toman casetas– pues evalúalos, somételos, y el que no se deje someter, córrelo.

Entonces el secretario está personificando, a mi juicio, lo que muchos considerarían el Estado de derecho. Y eso le va a dar rendimientos, salvo que la represión que se suscite haga inviable su continuidad. Pero sí: está teniendo el aprecio de muchos sectores de clase media, de muchas personas que dicen “que se evalúe y el que no se evalúe que se vaya”. En este sentido, el riesgo que puede ocurrirle es que abandone una de las cuestiones más preciadas de la política que es la capacidad para abrir espacios de diálogo. Pero, bueno, él ha jugado a la lógica de hacer cumplir la ley y las amenazas de despidos se han cumplido. Vamos a ver qué pasa en Chiapas, qué pasa en Oaxaca, cuando en efecto se despidan a los profesores, vamos a ver cómo reacciona el gremio, porque hasta ahorita solo hemos visto las reacciones del gremio ante la evaluación. Ayer me decía una profesora que es supervisora: “El problema, Manuel, de esta reforma es que no se pone la autoridad en nuestro pellejo; yo soy profesora y yo tengo la obligación de parte de SEP de señalar qué profesores no fueron a trabajar, a quienes van a despedir; y yo voy a seguir viviendo ahí con mi familia; Nuño y Peña se van a ir”. Entonces, la situación abajo, entre quienes efectivamente despiden a los profesores, pues la están viviendo los supervisores y los directores y yo creo que eso va a generar mucho encono. Por otro lado, también decir que este profesor es “destacado”, que este es “bueno”, que este no, está estratificando al magisterio. Son muchas aristas las que tiene la implementación de la reforma. Y yo sí pienso que para muchas personas una persona de mano firme como Aurelio Nuño está siendo muy bien recibido por sectores que consideran que lo que necesita este país es “mano firme” (Chong dice “firme”, no “dura”).

Una de los aspectos que no se han tocado en la reforma es este: ¿cómo puede un gobierno con tal nivel de corrupción conducir una reforma educativa que, en el fondo, tiene que ser una reforma ética? Yo no conozco –y te lo dicen los empresarios y te lo dice todo mundo– un nivel de impunidad y de corrupción más grande como el de esta administración y, sin embargo, son los que impulsan la reforma educativa. ¿Con qué autoridad moral?

Has hablado en otras ocasiones que la reforma debió buscar descentralizar el sistema. ¿Podrías desarrollar esta idea?

Aprendí esto de la profesora Coral, la directora de una Telesecundaria de la sierra, que termino en uno de los foros diciendo: “Miren, si de veras quieren que progrese la educación, no le hagan caso a la SEP”. Es algo más que una anécdota la idea de que las reformas educativas que han resultado fuertes y relevantes en las experiencias en el mundo han sido las que han confiado en el magisterio y han descentralizado los esfuerzos para que sean las comunidades –de profesores, alumnos y padres de familias– las que decidan y tengan proyectos escolares. Creo que esta reforma es muy centralista, muy uniformadora. El Instituto Nacional para la Evaluación de la Educación (INEE) está haciendo parámetros generales que quiere hacer valer, pues, en escuelas multigrado y en escuelas urbanas, cuando son contextos diferentes (no quiero decir que a las escuelas multigrado no se les tenga que exigir que sean buenas, pero sí tienen circunstancias de trabajo diferentes). El problema es complejo. Pero yo remataría diciendo que no hay reforma educativa que haya prosperado si consideran que el magisterio es un objeto a transformar y no un sujeto aliado de la reforma; y como esta reforma lo considera un objeto, un insumo a calificar y evaluar, me parece que el magisterio o se va a resistir o va a adaptarse a la evaluación, sin comprometerse a un cambio. Por eso, la idea era tratar de ver si podíamos hacer una reforma más descentralizada; por ejemplo, pidiendo a zonas y regiones escolares que hicieran un compromiso con unos objetivos a cumplir en seis años, con sus propios medios pedagógicos, como que después de ese periodo en su zona no haya ningún niño que no sepa leer y escribir. Esa idea de una reforma que confíe más en el magisterio tendría, sí, que vigilar las zonas donde esa libertad se convirtiera en el apoyo a la desidia. Pero me parece que tendría más impacto en la vida cotidiana de las escuelas si se confiara y se corrigieran las desviaciones, en lugar de tratar que todo cambie desde arriba. Esa era la idea –no veo que venga.


Manuel Gil Antón es profesor investigador del Colegio de México. Se puede consultar su trabajo académico aquí y sus artículos de opinión aquí.

Fotos: cortesía de Galo Naranjo, alisa, Eneas De Troya y Malova Gobernador.

Fuente: http://horizontal.mx/sobre-el-fracaso-de-la-reforma-educativa-entrevista-a-manuel-gil-anton/

Fotografía: boisestatepublicradio

Fuente de la Entrevista:

http://insurgenciamagisterial.com/sobre-el-fracaso-de-la-reforma-educativa-entrevista-a-manuel-gil-anton/

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Global Partnership: Welcome to GPE 2020 GPE launches new strategic plan 2016 to 2020

Fuente: Global Partnership / 9 de junio de 2016

The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) is the only multilateral organization exclusively dedicated to ensuring that all children in the poorest countries have access to quality education.

Our GPE partnership includes 65 developing countries, over 20 donor governments, civil society organizations, private foundations and companies, teacher organizations and international organizations.

GPE 2020, our new strategic plan guiding us over the next five years, was developed in direct response to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals which were unanimously adopted by the world community in September 2015.

Global Goal 4 commits us to ensuring equitable, quality education for all.

Focus on quality education and equity for all children

We at GPE are determined to embrace this goal and its mandate and enhance our organization to pursue and fulfill these critical objectives.

GPE 2020 requires GPE to embrace a step-change in its focus to ensure quality and equity in education – not just access to education.  To strengthen our systems both internally and in the delivery of our programs.  To be data-based and results-driven in everything we do. It is pegged to a solid results framework through which we will track our progress.

GPE’s vision is to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

 

GPE’s mission is to mobilize global and national efforts to contribute to the achievement of equitable, quality education and learning for all, through inclusive partnership, a focus on effective and efficient education systems and increased financing.

 

GPE’s goals are:

  • Improved and more equitable learning outcomes
  • Increased equity, gender equality and inclusion, and
  • Effective and efficient education systems

Supporting the poorest countries

GPE supports the poorest countries with the greatest education needs. This includes countries with high numbers of out-of-school children and low school completion rates. 43% of GPE’s 65 developing country partners are considered fragile or conflict-ridden.

The core work that we do is to help these countries address their challenges by strengthening their education systems.

We use results-based financing with the release of 30% of each education grant contingent upon countries achieving agreed-upon results in equity, learning and system efficiency.

Since 2002, GPE has allocated $US4.4 billion to support education in developing countries. Today, we are one of the largest international funders of basic education in low- and lower-middle income countries.

Building on solid results

GPE 2020 builds on a solid record of success. GPE’s and our partner countries’ investments in education has delivered substantial gains:

  • In GPE-supported developing countries, the number of out-of- school children of primary school age fell by 13 million between 2002 and 2013.
  • The primary school completion rate in GPE-supported developing countries has increased from 63% in 2002 to 72% in 2013, with the increase mainly occurring in fragile and conflict-affected states.
  • 31 GPE developing country partners have achieved gender parity in primary education or have more girls than boys in school.
  • 69% of girls in GPE-supported countries completed primary school in 2013, up from 56% in 2002.

Our financial support for the world’s poorest countries is contingent on measurable, demonstrable results: education systems that are effective and educate their children.

Our commitment to the children of the world

We are on the right track. But there is so much more to do, which is why our Board of Directors, following a year of intensive discussion and consultations with all of our constituencies, has embraced this strategic plan to guide us for the next five years.

GPE 2020 is our path forward to ensuring that every child can fulfill their right to a quality education.

In the spirit of the UN’s Global Goals, GPE 2020 is our commitment to ourselves, our partners and the world community.

We invite you to join us in the cause of ensuring quality education for all.

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EU referendum: scholars weigh case for and against Brexit

Fuente .Times Higher Education  / 9 de Junio de 2016

Public debate in the UK over whether to remain in the EU has been criticised for casting little light. Here, seven academics probe the arguments

‘Our problems are not created by EU membership. Many of our benefits are’

Life is not a bed of roses for many in the UK, but that is not because of the European Union. If the UK were a far more progressive state, at the forefront of social progress on this continent, we might have cause to grumble that Brussels was holding us back. But we are the social laggards.

We need EU legislation to stop us exploiting workers over holiday pay, working hours and redundancy payments. Our political establishment would happily tolerate levels of air pollution far above those that currently incur fines from the European Commission. And we would not know about our extraordinary levels of economic inequality were it not for European legislation that forces our highest paid bankers to release details of their salaries and bonuses.

That information reveals that 2,926 of them are paid more than €1 million (£800,000) a year, compared with just 939 in the rest of the EU combined. The chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, tried to stop these figures being collected and released. He will have known that, between 2012‑13 and 2013‑14, the number of bankers in the UK who received more than €1 million rose by 840 while it dropped by 153 in the rest of the EU. Presumably even George was embarrassed by their ever more stratospheric greed. And despite David Cameron’s success inwatering down related EU transparency laws concerning family trusts, the regulations are better than we would have had otherwise.

It is sometimes claimed that we can fund the NHS only because of the taxes imposed on our financial services industry, or that it is the contributions that we pay to the EU that result in the NHS being so underfunded. However, of all affluent European nations, the UK is among the lowest in its spending on health. Only Greece and Italy spend slightly less per person, and only then in very recent years. Elsewhere in Europe, health spending per person is twice as much in Switzerland as it is in the UK, 81 per cent higher in Norway, 59 per cent higher in the Netherlands, 49 per cent higher in Germany and 27 per cent higher in France. The EU is not the reason.

Norway and Switzerland are often cited as successful European countries that are not fully integrated into the EU. What is often forgotten is that they are also remarkably economically equitable countries. The best-paid 1 per cent in Switzerland take half the proportion of total income that their equivalent in the UK take, so the poorest tenth of households in Switzerland enjoy three times as much (in real terms) as the poorest tenth in the UK. In Norway, inequalities are even less pronounced. Both countries are prosperous largely because of their social solidarity, not because of their autonomy from a few EU regulations.

I could go on. I could cite the UK’s risible educational performance compared with other EU countries. I could mention the high cost and poor quality of our housing – no fault of the EU. Or how we benefit from exporting millions of pensioners to the European mainland and importing fit young people we have not paid to educate. Our problems are not created by EU membership. Many of our benefits are.

We are so unusual in Europe because our past was so different. We relied on an empire. Leaving the EU will not bring it back.

Danny Dorling is Halford Mackinder professor of geography at the University of Oxford. His latest book, A Better Politics, from which most of the statistics in this article are taken, can be downloaded for free.

Winston Churchill statue and Big Ben, London

Source:
Alamy

‘Conservative Euroscepticism has a far longer history than is realised’

The Bagehot column in the 5 March edition of The Economist began with a description of Margaret Thatcher’s return from a European summit in Rome in October 1990, and her defiant “No. No. No.” to the House of Commons. It is now part of national folklore that this precipitated the resignation of Sir Geoffrey Howe as foreign secretary and the subsequent leadership contest that led to Thatcher’s downfall. “Partly because of the drama of those days, Europe has since transfixed and sundered the Conservative Party,” Bagehot mused.

Yes, in part. But Conservative Euroscepticism has a far longer history than is currently realised. With the emerging debate around European integration in the post-war era, many Conservatives felt that the UK would be better off without the Continent “on its back”. After all, the UK was still a world leader in heavy industry and manufacturing productivity, and its problems in adjusting to a post-war economy were thought to be short term. This enduring sense of the UK being “held back” by Europe is explicit in the current Brexit arguments.

But if Bagehot is a bit shaky on his history, so too are many of the Conservative Brexiteers themselves. For instance, their complaints that their party supported the UK’s entry into the European Economic Community in 1972 only because they thought they were joining a “trading bloc” is belied by the fact that it was Thatcher’s support for the Single European Act of 1986 that dramatically accelerated European integration.

Tory Brexiteers also appear to be unaware that their political idol, Sir Winston Churchill, was in very large part responsible for the birth of the post-war European project. Churchill and his fellow Europhile Conservatives were preoccupied with security: how to counter aggressive nationalism within European states, and how to bolster Europe from external threats.

Churchill saw the UK as being at the intersection of three circles: the Atlantic world, the European world and the world of Empire/Commonwealth. By 1953, his more sceptical foreign secretary, Sir Anthony Eden, believed that he had secured the best of all worlds: close affiliation with the Continent, stopping short of treaty-bound involvement. The trouble was that European diplomacy did not stand still. By pulling out of the Messina talks in December 1955, the UK removed itself from influencing the negotiations that led to the creation of the EEC in 1957.

Conservatives sceptics would also do well to remember the economic and political realities that prompted the UK’s original “shift” to Europe. The idea of a trading bloc founded on empire dates back to the early 20th century, but by the end of the 1950s, this had been discredited. Furthermore, trade with Commonwealth countries was declining in relative terms.

The expanded 53-member modern Commonwealth is the very antithesis of the EU. It has minimal institutional structure, loose commercial, financial and professional ties and infrequent high-level summitry. In other words, it is not a power bloc in economic and political terms, and it does not aspire to be. Indeed, the association’s other primarily small nations are very sensitive to any semblance of the UK throwing its weight around.

Furthermore, negotiations over reconfiguring the UK’s trading links with Commonwealth countries – especially Australia, New Zealand and the sugar-dependent economies of the Caribbean and the Pacific – were drawn out over a decade, ultimately drawing to a hard-fought conclusion in 1973. So although Commonwealth countries, with their shared legal, commercial and linguistic traditions, certainly offer trading opportunities, these should not be overplayed.

In terms of exercising influence, history teaches us that it is better to be on the inside arguing for change, than on the outside knocking plaintively on the door.

Sue Onslow is a senior research fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London.

Hand holding Brexit sign, EU referendum

Source:
iStock

‘Brexit would mean that Parliament would have been undermined, not by Brussels but by British voters’

“Once you open that Pandora’s box, all sorts of Trojan horses will fly out.” That was the warning given in 1950 by foreign secretary Ernest Bevin when it was proposed that the UK participate in the European Coal and Steel Community, the precursor of the EU.

But Brexit would present the government and Parliament with a new Pandora’s box. Its advocates want to restore the sovereignty of Parliament. But if they succeed, the sovereignty of Parliament would have been undermined, not by Brussels but by British voters.

It would be an event without precedent in the long history of Parliament for MPs to support a policy – withdrawal from the EU – to which the majority of them are opposed. The people would have become, in effect, a third chamber of the legislature.

Referendums have a twofold constitutional purpose. The first is to allow the voice of the people to be heard when the party system is not working effectively. As in 1970, the last year before the UK entered the European Communities, all three parties favour British membership. So there was no way a voter in last year’s general election could have indicated that she wanted to leave the EU except by voting for the UK Independence Party.

But referendums have a second purpose: to insulate the issue in question from party and electoral politics. In theory at least, voters will be able to support Brexit without affecting the fortunes of the government or the prime minister. That is why, as in the 1975 referendum, the convention of collective responsibility has been suspended during campaigning. But, in reality, Brexit would probably lead to a crisis of confidence in the government. For the people would have said: “We reject its advice on a key issue of its programme.”

In 1979, the failure of the Welsh and Scottish devolution referendums led to the resignation of the Callaghan government and an early general election, at which the government was defeated. In France in 1969, the failure of a referendum on constitutional reform led to the immediate resignation of President de Gaulle. In 1972, Norwegians’ rejection of the advice of their government to join the European Communities prompted its prime minister to resign and the opposition parties to form a new government. In the wake of the Scottish referendum in 2014, David Cameron confessed that he would have resigned if the vote had been for independence. Could he survive a vote for Brexit? Would the Conservative Party be able to reunite in amity, or would it split over Europe, as Labour did in 1981?

If there is a vote for Brexit, Parliament must decide which EU laws it intends to preserve, which should be modified and which should be repealed. Brexiteers might well argue that this exercise is best carried out by those who believe in Brexit, and press for a general election to produce a Parliament more representative of their views. That case would no doubt be pressed particularly hard by Ukip. In 2015, it secured one-eighth of the popular vote but was rewarded with just one MP.

No wonder, then, that those opening the ballot boxes at 10pm on 23 June may well feel as if they are opening a Pandora’s box, from which new Trojan horses may fly out.

Vernon Bogdanor is professor of government at King’s College London. His books includeThe New British Constitution (2009) and The Coalition and the Constitution (2011).

Anti-Brexit supporters dressed as bananas, Vote Leave rally, England

Source:
Getty

‘What I see on campus suggests that students are discovering a renewed passion to engage with current affairs and politics’

In our students’ union’s recent mock Brexit referendum, four times as many students said that they wanted the UK to remain in the EU as said they wished it to leave. This bears out national polling suggesting that young people are heavily in favour of remaining in the EU.

This is no wonder. This generation is less insular and more willing to engage globally than any previous one. Young people hate racism not because they feel that they ought to but because they are genuinely interested in different countries and cultures, and are in constant communication with them.

They also have very pragmatic reasons for wanting to travel and work abroad: their CVs are enhanced by global engagements. In a world opened up by technology, employers want people fluent in as many cultures as possible. The popularity of our #DMUglobal initiative reflects this. This project contributes to the travel costs of as many students as possible who are interested in an overseas experience as part of their course. Last year saw 1,196 students participate, and this year we are expecting 2,000.

But the general perception is that modern students are a shadow of their forthright, politicised ancestors of the 1960s and 1970s. And polling suggests that 18- to 34-year-olds are significantly less likely to vote in the referendum than older people. But in my experience, the apathetic label frustrates our students, and what I see on campus suggests that they are discovering a renewed passion to engage with current affairs and politics.

There was no shortage of students keen to meet the education secretary, Nicky Morgan, when the Britain Stronger in Europe campaign brought its tour bus to our campus recently. And our Q&A with pro-EU campaigner Alan Charlton, former British ambassador to Brazil, also attracted a capacity crowd.

As a university, we have made a business decision to support the UK’s remaining in the EU, but in our wish to be even-handed, we have said that we would also be happy to host a pro-Brexit speaker if asked. While I would never tell our students how to vote, I’m losing no opportunity to help them make their enthusiasm count at the ballot box. At the end of last year, following the abolition of the right for universities to mass-register their students, we introduced an online tool to help them register to vote. It was a great success, with 97 per cent of students eligible to vote responding, resulting in an extra 2,774 joining the electoral register. This year, we are having a second drive to add yet more.

For the referendum, as for other elections, we are hosting two polling stations on campus, and we are giving out very specific advice on how to vote by post, mindful that most students will be away from Leicester on 23 June.

Early polling before the equal marriage referendum in the Republic of Ireland last year – which paved the way to the legalisation of same-sex marriage – suggested that older voters were overwhelmingly opposed to change. So the “yes” campaign urged the young to speak to their parents and grandparents and win them over. I hope that Britain Stronger in Europe learns from the success of this tactic, even at this late stage.

This referendum is the most important question asked of the UK in years. Ask any group of students and you will get a very clear idea of what the answer should be. Put simply, they are thinking big – and leaving Europe is the very definition of thinking small.

Dominic Shellard is vice-chancellor of De Montfort University.

Man on ladder pasting advertising poster on billboard

Source:
Alamy

‘If some elementary questions are asked, UUK’s conclusions look intellectually tenuous’

Are universities facing disaster if the UK leaves the EU? Universities UK thinks so, and it makes the case on its Universities for Europe website. It quickly becomes clear what its main concern is: money. This is thinly disguised as a concern for student diversity and mobility and research collaboration.

As anyone who has been in senior management knows, cash cows are the beating heart of UK higher education. Leave the EU and the money will dry up, we are told, and – in an unusual departure for a debate in which facts are as rare as rocking horse manure – we are provided with a lot of numbers to persuade us. But the same numbers also show why the EU can’t afford to take its money away.

For instance, we know that in 2013‑14, 15,610 British students studied abroad on the Erasmus student exchange programme. But, in the same year, 27,401 European students came to the UK – including many from non-EU countries, from Iceland to Turkey (which sent out 15,060 students). There is no reason to suppose that a post-Brexit UK would be excluded from all this, especially when so many continental European students want to come to the UK’s world-class universities, lured by the individual attention and quality of teaching they will receive, as well as by the opportunity to improve their command of the world’s most international language.

The same goes for recruitment. Universities for Europe says that there are currently more than 125,000 EU students at UK universities. That adds up to a lot of fee income, but not all EU undergraduates pay. They study for free in Scotland (which, at 9 per cent, has the highest proportion of European students in the UK), and in England, they are entitled to student loans – on the repayment of which many default. All that adds up to an expensive subsidy from the UK taxpayer.

Postgraduates from the EU pay what UK students pay. As graduate fees are unregulated, that need not change post-Brexit. But, according to Ucas, EU nationals in 2015‑16 are vastly outnumbered by overseas students, despite the higher fees the latter are obliged to pay. So it would not be hard for UK universities to make up the lost income from EU students by recruiting more non-EU students. That fewer of them would be needed to raise the same amount could enhance the learning experience and environment for home students by easing the overcrowding.

As for research, the funding available from Brussels is certainly an incentive for UK universities to work with EU partners. But consider this: the top 30 of the latest Times Higher Education World University Rankings contains seven UK universities and only two from elsewhere in the EU (at numbers 28 and 29). Brussels would clearly be very foolish to cut EU universities off from Europe’s research powerhouse – although, admittedly, nobody can predict quite how foolish it might choose to be.

UUK is certainly not the only lobby group proclaiming that Armageddon is just around the corner if the UK votes for independence. But, if some elementary questions are asked, the conclusions they draw – or rather, infer – about the preferability of the status quo look intellectually tenuous and distinctly lacking in product confidence.

Michael Liversidge is a former dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Bristol. He voted in favour of European Community membership in the 1975 referendum.

London taxi cab driver pulling into traffic

Source:
Getty

‘The views of a quarter or less of the electorate could decide the UK’s future relationship with Europe’

In theory, everyone has a civic duty to vote. However, the EU referendum campaign challenges this belief because many citizens are uninformed or confused about the issues. This leaves them with a choice of relying on their heart or their gut, flipping a coin or staying at home.

The EU’s own polls consistently find that about half the British electorate has little or no understanding of the EU. For decades, British political leaders have done nothing to alleviate that ignorance. Tony Blair quickly lost interest in the EU when he found that he could satisfy his international ambitions more profitably by allying himself with Washington and Wall Street. And David Cameron’s doomed attempt to get Brussels to repatriate major powers to Westminster shows that he was not interested in learning how Brussels works.

Because the referendum vote is about the future, it is impossible to provide “facts”. Any forecast about what the EU or the UK will be like in 2020 is speculative. The remain camp raises fears of economic and security losses, while the exit camp has a vision of a better future if the UK leaves. The remain forecast assumes that all other conditions will remain equal, while the exit forecast is a unicorn scenario because no one has ever seen what happens to a country that leaves the EU.

For the remain camp, “trust me” will not be a winning appeal to confused voters. A big majority distrusts politicians. Among Ukip supporters, virtually all of whom will vote for Brexit, 71 per cent distrust all politicians. Economists who failed to foresee the 2008 financial crisis face scepticism about their forecasts of the consequences of leaving or remaining. And bankers who claim that it would be bad for the City of London to leave the EU command few votes and even less sympathy.

Neither major party is seeking to mobilise its supporters to vote. Because the party is split, the Conservative organisation is neutral and the consequence of the conflicting signals is likely to be reduced turnout among Conservative voters. The Labour Party is keeping a low profile because it does not want to be associated with the cause of a Conservative prime minister.

At last year’s general election, one-third of the electorate did not vote, and in the 2014 European Parliament ballot, more than five in eight did not do so. If the referendum turnout falls halfway between these two figures, it will be 51 per cent. Uncertainty, confusion and distrust could even push it down to below half the electorate. This is less than opinion polls currently suggest, but polls invariably underestimate the number of non-voters.

The lower the turnout, the greater the chances of Brexit winning a majority, for opponents of the EU are full of passionate intensity while campaigners for remaining are full of qualified convictions. The government ignored requests in the House of Lords to set a 50 per cent threshold for the result to be binding. Thus, the views of a quarter or less of the electorate could decide the UK’s future relationship with Europe.

If the outcome of a low turnout is for the UK to withdraw, the prime minister has pledged to accept the verdict. If only a narrow majority of a low-turnout ballot confirms EU membership, opponents will not consent. Instead, it will be just one more stage in their “neverendum” campaign to minimise the influence of the EU on Britain’s governance.

Richard Rose is a professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde.

Street performers dressed in Sherlock Holmes and Union Jack costumes, London

Source:
Alamy

‘Those arguing for Brexit often do not appear to understand how global trade is conducted’

The underpinning rationale for the EU is cooperation to deliver benefits to all members. But cooperation is fragile and not easy to achieve. Individuals (whether people, corporations or countries) have incentives to cheat or free-ride, so consolidation requires rules, agreements and treaties. The cost of joining the club is paying the fee and accepting the rules.

The economic, political and social rewards of the EU have accrued over a long time. But members differ in characteristics and, therefore, derive differing net benefits, so at any point in time certain members may feel dissatisfied. Is the best response to leave the club? In general, the answer is “no” because any departing nation would be sacrificing benefits, incurring costs and creating uncertainty.

The information provided to UK voters will determine the outcome of the country’s referendum, so it is very unfortunate that the quality of the debate has been so poor, with both sides making mostly exaggerated and often misleading claims. The consequences for UK trade of leaving the EU are an area where misinformation is particularly rife, especially among those arguing for Brexit – who often do not appear to understand how global trade is conducted.

Those in the “remain” camp point to the costs of leaving the single market and losing the right to trade freely with the EU. One can argue over the magnitude, but these costs are real and would be incurred. Proponents of Brexit counter that the regulations required to be in the single market impose a high burden on UK firms and that EU exit would permit trade agreements to be negotiated with more dynamic global partners. These arguments are misguided at best: international trade is best described as a rules-based system, with those rules agreed among members of various clubs. The global club is the World Trade Organisation; the EU is one of several regional clubs. Then there are mini-clubs where two or more partners negotiate trade agreements. But in all such cases, the agreements have to be compatible with WTO rules. The majority of the “EU regulations” that UK businesses complain about (while rarely if ever giving specific examples) relate to standards that have to be met in any trade with any partner.

All the existing agreements under which the UK trades apply by virtue of the UK’s membership of the EU (in the negotiation of which the UK was fully represented). If the UK left, it would have to negotiate a new deal not only with the EU but also with every other trading partner. Even if it did not go to the back of the queue, as US President Barack Obama recently warned, it would have less negotiating power on its own than it had as part of the EU.

Moreover, a post-Brexit UK, negotiating multiple new treaties simultaneously, would be under pressure to make concessions to expedite agreements (as delay increases uncertainty). This would be true not only as regards trading giants such as the US and China, but also with respect to smaller trading partners, which tend to negotiate as blocs.

The EU is far from perfect, but that is not the issue voters should consider. Globally, the UK alone would be in a weaker bargaining position than the EU is. Hence, it is only reasonable to predict that a future outside the EU would be less favourable to the UK public than a future within it.

Oliver Morrissey is professor of development economics at the University of Nottingham.

 

Link original: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/european-union-eu-referendum-scholars-weigh-case-for-and-against-brexit

 

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Why we must move away from an industrial model of schooling that just grades and sorts students

Fuente TES / 9 mde junio de 2016

An education system focuses on the average is flawed and leaves many unsupported, says former schools minister Jim Knight

Reflecting on a great week in Australia, I detect a new education debate opening up to replace the false dichotomy between knowledge and skills. Across three continents I hear more thought leaders arguing that we should now focus on individualised education rather than standardised schooling.

I spent almost a whole day at the University of Melbourne’s Graduate School of Education. This is the home of Professor John Hattie, and I was the guest of the distinguished dean, Professor Field Rickards. Both were fresh from collaborating on a new series for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation called Revolution School. This is set in a school that has moved from the bottom 10 per cent to the top 10 per cent. It is authentic but hopeful. It shows off the university’s clinical approach to education, with evidence of impact on individual learners rather than a class average.

Professor Field impressed on me that producing impact for every learner demonstrates the complexity and challenge of teaching. It shows the need for professionalism, accepting that every teacher has different strengths and weaknesses and that collaboration is crucial in tackling different effectiveness.

A long way from ‘factory schooling

This approach, based on evidence of individual impact, is a long way from the «factory schooling» promoted in TES by Jonathan Simons (article free to subscribers).

His advocacy of a system that raises standards for the average is logical but flawed, especially in the light of an insightful book I read last week on my travels: The End of Average by Todd Rose. It made me much more hopeful that the approaches of Dame Alison Peacock or the Dalton system, also featured in last week’s TES, are more likely to be enduring.

Todd Rose is the director of the Mind, Brain, and Education programme at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he also leads the Laboratory for the Science of the Individual. His book starts by demonstrating that designing for the average person can fail because no one is completely average – we are all unique. Testing, ranking and grading is common to factories, and is convenient for sorting people at a cost to individual talent.

The labour market of the post-industrial world is changing. Technology and globalisation will remove the need for many lower- and medium-skilled jobs and makes the waste of talent in schooling for the average unsustainable. Without factories to utilise the work of those that are failed by factory schooling, how are those people supported? What is more, the attempts to rank people based on qualification, or things like IQ tests, are being abandoned by some employers.

Google, Deloitte and Microsoft have all dropped single-score employee evaluation systems. The correlation between performance in work and grade point average just wasn’t there. Employers are now looking for a more complete picture of candidates, which the data can now start to offer.

Individual focus

The consequences for education are significant if employers stop sifting on the basis of grades or going to the «right» university. The opportunity is for education to focus entirely on helping individuals to develop relative to their own performance rather than their peers. In his report The Problem Solvers, Charles Leadbeater argues that this requires education being more dynamic. This is a «combination of cognitive and non-cognitive skills, hard and soft, explicit and tacit, academic knowledge and entrepreneurial ambition». This in turn will require assessment to «go beyond testing routine recall of facts to test higher-order thinking, problem-solving and creativity; and will deliver qualitative descriptions and expert judgments of how well a student performs, as well as test results and grades».

I also met another Harvard professor while I was in Melbourne. Professor Richard Elmore argued for similar change but warned that there were plenty of vested interests that would try to shout it down. A move from industrial schooling of grading and sorting people is very threatening to some. But I see no alternative as the world changes around us. The challenge is to take measured steps in the right direction of individualised education while we wait for policymakers to catch up.

Jim Knight is chief education adviser to TES’ parent company, TES Global, and a former Labour schools minister. He tweets as @jimpknight

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A poor quality education is almost like no education

Fuente: globalpartnership.org / 9 de junio de 2016

Once children are in school, the next challenge is to ensure that they are learning to read, write and count, and acquire the skills they will need to become productive members of society.

Since 2000 significant gains have been achieved in access to primary education globally, however, the quality of learning remains a major challenge.

According to UNESCO, an estimated 250 million children either don’t make it to grade 4 or reach grade 4 without basic skills in reading, writing and math.

Factors such as poverty and extreme inequality put children at greater risk of not learning the basics. Living in rural areas or in remote parts of a country also reinforces disadvantages.

Schools in remote areas frequently lack trained teachers, and instructional materials are inadequate and often in short supply. These factors make it difficult for children and youth from marginalized groups to develop strong foundational skills in reading, writing and numeracy.

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UCU report: ‘academics work two days a week unpaid’

Fuente Times Higher Education / 9 de junio de 2016

The average academic is working unpaid for the equivalent of two days every week, says a new study on the growth of “unreasonable, unsafe and excessive” workloads.

Academic staff work an average of 50.9 hours per week, according to the latest University and College Union workload survey, Workload is an Education Issue. The study is based on responses from about 12,100 university staff, most of whom work full time.

This means that academics work on average 13.4 hours – almost two days – more than the normal 37.5 hour working week, and work in excess of the 48 hour maximum recommended by the European Working Time Directive.

Senior academic staff work even longer hours on average, says the report, which was published at the UCU’s congress, held in Liverpool from 1 to 3 June.

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Professors work 56.1 hours on average and principal research fellows 55.7 hours, although there is also a culture of long hours, often unpaid, among many early career academics, says the report.

One in six academics aged 25 or under work 100 or more hours each week when part-time appointments are adjusted to their full-time equivalent, it adds.

The vast majority of staff (83 per cent) also say that the pace or intensity of workload has increased over the past three years, with only 14 per cent reporting that their workload is not heavier.

Adam Price, professor in the University of Aberdeen’s Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, told congress that the UCU’s findings were borne out by studies of official timesheet data at his university compiled by the local branch.

“I work 55 hours a week and began to think ‘this is not normal’, but it is normal,” said Professor Price.

Other delegates said that the introduction of new technology has increased their workload as they are now expected to put together packages of online materials for students in addition to their existing duties.

Ron Mendel, senior lecturer in sociology at the University of Northampton, said the extra work generated by this type of technologically enhanced teaching has a “deleterious effect on workload, professional well-being and [staff’s] professional lives”.

According to the workload survey, some 13 per cent – about one in eight respondents – feel they work “unreasonable, unsafe and excessive hours”, while 29 per cent say their workload is “unmanageable” all or most of the time. Two-thirds (66 per cent) say it is unmanageable at least half the time.

On the activities that now consume much more of their time than three years ago, teaching and research staff most often cite departmental administration (51 per cent), while student-related administration is mentioned by 45 per cent and departmental meetings by 31 per cent.

Some 28 per cent of academics say their marking load has increased significantly, while 26 per cent say they carry out much more pastoral care for students than in 2013.

The long hours culture is far less prevalent among professional and support staff, although the average 42.4 hour working week reported indicates these employees also undertake significant amounts of unpaid overtime, the report suggests.

jack.grove@tesglobal.com

Enlace original:  https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/ucu-report-academics-work-two-days-week-unpaid

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