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Thompson hosts northernmost March For Our Lives event in Canada

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Por: thompsoncitizen.net/Kyle Darbyson-Thompson Citizen/28-03-2018

While the crowd size didn’t compare to the hundreds of thousands who converged on Washington, D.C., Thompson’s March For Our Lives event still managed to attract a small but dedicated group of participants.

Just like the other 845 sibling marchers that took place throughout the globe March 24, this local walk, which began at R.D. Parker Collegiate, was designed to stand in solidarity with victims of gun violence in the United States.

Given that this was the northernmost March For Our Lives event to take place in Canada, the three-kilometre loop around Thompson Drive and Cree Road was littered with ice and snow.

Thankfully, the over 50 students, parents, teachers and volunteers who showed up for this event all dressed appropriately for the weather and completed the route without any traffic-related incidents.

Of course, this worldwide movement against gun violence in the U.S. largely kicked off in the wake of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida on Feb. 14, which left 17 dead.

Much like the how the Stoneman Douglas students spearheaded the central rally in the American capital, a local high school group from RDPC was responsible for organizing the only March For Our Lives event to take place in Manitoba.

Even though this group, Students Offering Support (SOS), normally focus their mental health awareness campaigns on their own school, on Saturday they shone a light on the struggles of students south of the border.

“The students in the U.S. are exhausted, and they do not want one more child to be shot at school,” said SOS member Hayley Jenkins just before the start of Saturday’s march.

“They do not one more teacher to make the choice to jump in front of a firing assault rifle to save the lives of students … they are taking charge and we are supporting them because we must stop letting this become the normal.”

While some have been quick to dismiss a movement that is largely lead by teenagers, SOS member Rishwan Dherdi reminded everybody at the March 24 rally that this campaign has already managed to garner some results.

Not only did the Florida State Senate recently raise the legal age to buy a firearm from 18 to 21, but they’ve also banned the sale or possession of bump stocks, attachments that allow a semi-automatic rifle to fire at a quicker rate.

Fellow SOS member Lala Rukh also mentioned that these students who are marching in the U.S. will be able to transform all this rhetoric into votes in a very short time.

“Those students, who will be 18 as of November of this year, are registering right now to be able to vote for the mid-term election and select their members of Congress,” said Rukh. ”These students are also reminding President Trump and his government that they will be the ones selecting the new [president] in 2020 in the new election.”

After finishing the march on Saturday, School District of Mystery Lake trustee Leslie Tucker echoed her comments from a March 13 school board meeting by saying that she was immensely proud of the youth activism on display here in Thompson and around the world.

In fact, Tucker said that the last time she witnessed student-led activism on this scale was during the South African Anti-Apartheid Movement.

“I remember being much younger, because that was a long time ago, and just fighting and fighting and fighting and eventually it changed,” she said. “So that’s what we do here. It might not change overnight for Americans with respect to gun control, but the pressure has to be put on.”

*Fuente: http://www.thompsoncitizen.net/news/thompson/thompson-hosts-northernmost-march-for-our-lives-event-in-canada-1.23214050

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Need to give quality education in India to students who fly overseas: Rajan

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India/March 27, 2018/By: Anup Roy & Nikhat Hetavkar/Source: http://www.business-standard.com

We have fantastic institutions. But remember, we have so many young children coming in now, looking for admission into colleges, says Rajan.

Eminent economist and former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan is part of an elite group that launched a unique undergraduate liberal arts private university. In an exclusive chat with Anup Roy and Nikhat Hetavkar, Rajan says there is a need to give quality education in India to students who fly overseas every year. Edited excerpts:You are on the advisory council of KREA University. Will you be teaching also? Just like I was previously associated with ISB (Indian School of Business), I go there once in a while, I taught a course there, and I visit classes. My wife teaches there now. So, there will be an engagement of course. I am working with the academic council and the board. It’s a bunch of people who have come together. I don’t want to occupy any bigger position than I am holding now. I am merely helping, along with a large group of very dedicated people.You are a product of an Indian education system.What do you think the system is lacking now? We have fantastic institutions. But remember, we have so many young children coming in now, looking for admission into colleges. And our system is inadequate in terms of numbers to serve all of them with high-quality education. And of course, every time there is an opportunity to rethink what the old institutions are doing. Can we do things differently? Is there room for something new even when the old continues? We need more institutions to meet the demand. We have 100,000 students going abroad every year. So, we have room for at least 100 universities of very high quality to service those 100,000 students. We have the freedom to create a new model and that’s what is exciting.Why is Dr Rajan, who is very much a public figure, not engaged in the public education system, and why do you have to branch out to the private sphere? It’s not much of private. The intention is to make it available to those who qualify. There will be scholarships for those who can’t afford to pay. There is far more flexibility in creating a new institution when you come together without the existing structures.

That’s why it’s important to try and experiment outside the formal public structure.But even then the fee is Rs 700,000-800,000 per annum for a four-year course. This is what it costs. When we talk about IITs, you will have to look at what the true cost per student the country is paying. Now that is buried somewhere in the government budget. And students are paying only a fraction of it. I paid a fraction of the cost it took the country to educate me. With private institutions, the cost is all out there. If you want quality, you want to pay your faculty a reasonable amount, you want buildings as places in which you feel like learning, you have to spend money. What we are trying to say is that we will try and ensure that anybody who is admitted can afford to pay. Certainly in this country we can’t subsidise education too much.

Education inflation was always a worrying factor for you. Now that if you have such a high fee structure for a premier institute, there is a good chance that other private institutions will hike their fees. I don’t think the intention is to make enormous amounts of money here. This is a not-for-profit institute. What we will try to do is to keep it as affordable as possible. But you have to ensure a certain quality of education. Now if this institution turns out to be overly expensive, alternatives will come up. Competition will always work, even in the education market. We have lots of entities that can provide quantity, but we need to ensure that we have at least some that can provide quality. As I said, there are institutions that are very respectable out there.

Will it have courses like monetary economics etc, where you could be engaged? I think there would be a course in economics. Any course in economics will certainly teach undergrads micro economics, macro-economics and so on. The extent to which it specializes into master’s level courses that will have to stage two or three down the line. Initially what we want to give is strong undergrad curriculum for the students who are coming in.

Source:

http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/need-to-give-quality-education-in-india-to-students-who-fly-overseas-rajan-118032400010_1.html

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EEUU: Baltimore city is suing Trump administration over cuts to teen pregnancy prevention education

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EEUU/March 27, 2018/BY DR. LEANA S. WEN/Source: http://thehill.com

Baltimore City joined a lawsuit brought by Healthy Teen Network against President Trump, challenging a decision by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to cut funding from evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention education.

In June 2015, the Baltimore City Health Department (BCHD) was awarded an $8.6 million grant to implement comprehensive, evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention education in all of the City’s more than 120 middle schools and high schools.

In July 2017, BCHD received notice from HHS that the grant period would be terminated two years early. This termination amounts to a reduction in overall grant funding to $5.1 million — a funding cut of $3.5 million. Despite multiple phone and written requests for explanation, Baltimore City has not received a response from HHS as to why our program is being terminated.

This cut is not just cruel — it’s unprecedented. Funding for Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiatives (TPPI) was appropriated by an act of Congress — a statutory mandate — specifically dictating to HHS the parameters under which the funding was to be distributed. The funding appropriated is still available for the five-year grant period.

There is no reason to terminate it early. HHS made its decision despite the early success of the program and strong evidential foundation, violating the Administrative Procedure Act’s requirements that agency decision making not be arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or contrary to law.

The funding cut means that 20,000 students in Baltimore will no longer have evidence-based curricula, creating a vacuum of critical health education for vulnerable youth. In addition to eliminating education on physiology, as well as STD and HIV prevention, the funding cut also removes the financial support necessary to train teachers and build capacity for health education. Last year, BCHD trained 115 teachers to deliver evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention programs. These facilitators ensured that more than 10,000 Baltimore City teens received this valuable education during the 2016-2017 academic year alone.

The Trump administration’s actions also jeopardize the newly-formed Youth Advisory Council, which is comprised of Baltimore City teens who serve as peer health advocates and share information about reproductive health. For the participants in this program, their education goes well beyond health: the program gives them control over their lives and empowers them to make the best choices for themselves. One participant told us, “Without this education, I likely would have been a teen mom and my future would have been very different.”

As a doctor and public health official, I have seen how much this evidence- and science-based grant has helped Baltimore. In particular, I am deeply concerned about three major areas if funding is curtailed.

First, this will slash educational attainment and economic opportunities for our youth. This cut comes at a time when Baltimore City has made remarkable progress, reducing teen pregnancy by 61 percent since 2000. Numerous studies show us that reducing teen birth rates increases young girls’ ability to graduate from high school and to have economic stability for themselves and their families.

Second, these funding cuts will increase costs for our City and for our country. In 2010, teen pregnancy and childbirth accounted for nearly $10 billion in costs nationwide. We should be doing everything we can to empower our youth to succeed and to thrive.

The devastating impacts of these cuts extend beyond Baltimore City: These cuts will affect 81 grantees across the country, totaling $213.6 million. As a result, it is estimated that 580,000 students will no longer be provided with essential evidence-based reproductive health education.

Third, these cuts will adversely affect health outcomes for our most vulnerable mothers and children. Teen mothers give birth at higher rates to preterm, low birth-weight babies, who are more likely to have worse health outcomes. Adolescent and teen pregnancy is also associated with increased risk of infant mortality.

There are also poorer long-term health outcomes for the mothers themselves. I voice my concern not just as a doctor, but as a new mother to a seven-month-old son. Parents want nothing more than to have a healthy child. If we have a strategy that will improve health outcomes for our women and children, then the last thing we should do is cut funding that could hurt generations to come.

In Baltimore, we do not see this funding cut as a number. We see the faces of 20,000 teens who will not receive critical pregnancy prevention education. We see the effect on their futures and on their children’s futures. We see the impact on our communities. We fear what this means for valuing science and evidence, and for how we can continue to fulfill our responsibility of protecting health and ensuring well-being.

Leana S. Wen M.D. is the health commissioner of Baltimore City. Follow her on Twitter @DrLeanaWen.

Source:

http://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/379869-baltimore-city-is-suing-trump-administration-over-cuts-to-teen-pregnancy

 

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EEUU: Martin addresses special education advocates

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EEUU/March 21, 2018/Source: http://bristolobserver.com

State Senator Henri Martin (R-31) March 14 addressed special education teachers, administrators, students, and supporters at the state capitol.

“I am happy to say that society has recognized the value of education for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities. We now know that the right education can help these students live productive, fulfilling lives. We recognize the tremendously positive impact that people with intellectual and developmental disabilities have on society and in our own lives,” Martin said according to a press release from Senate Republicans.

“Every person in this room has value,” he continued, according to the press release. “Intellectually and developmentally disabled children, like all children, have a right to an education that will help them live as productive and independent a life as possible.”

Sen. Martin represents the communities of Bristol, Harwinton, Plainville, Plymouth, and Thomaston.

Martin is also running for reelection.

Source:

http://bristolobserver.com/2018/03/15/martin-addresses-special-education-advocates/

 

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EEUU: Region’s options bring variety, choice in early childhood education

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EEUU/March 13, 2018/By Stacy Ryburn/Source: http://www.nwaonline.com

Pre-K options are steadily increasing as Northwest Arkansas’ population grows and parents want more choices, early childhood education professionals say.

About 300 licensed preschools or day cares in the region are licensed with the state Division of Child Care and Early Education. Facilities run the gamut of public, private, nonprofit, home and faith-based.

 

 

Parents often face tough decisions when it comes to balancing work schedules with finding the right day care or preschool, said Doug Walsh, executive director for business and operations at the Jean Tyson Childhood Development Center at the University of Arkansas. The difficulty compounds for lower-income families who can’t afford a traditional preschool and need a place for their children to go during the day, he said.

«The private sector, both nonprofit and for-profit, is certainly popping up to try to fill in the gap,» Walsh said. «You see the variety across the board.»

Greater investment and variety in pre-K education equates to a net positive effect on the community, Walsh said.

Studies show children who attend preschool are better prepared academically by age 5, remain committed to school at 14 and have higher high school graduation rates than those who don’t, according to the Center for Public Education, a national database on public education.

Early education can make a huge difference in a child’s life, especially those who don’t speak English in a primarily English-speaking community, said Darlene Fleeman, director of Springdale’s pre-K program.

Springdale children entering school often haven’t experienced group care where they can hone English language skills, which better prepares them for kindergarten and onward, she said. Of the district’s 21,516 students, 46 percent come from a Spanish-speaking home, 12 percent come from a Marshallese home and 3 percent speak a language other than English, according to Springdale Public Schools spokesman Rick Schaeffer. That doesn’t mean the students aren’t proficient in English; it’s just not the primary language spoken in the home, he said.

State money has played a key role in increasing the quality of early childhood education, Fleeman said. Springdale pre-K is paid for through grants and follows the Arkansas Better Chance program rules and regulations under the state Department of Human Services.

Early child care providers can become accredited through the state’s Better Beginnings program, which is based on a three-star system. One star means the provider is ready to pursue accreditation. Two stars mean written plans have been put in place and three stars mean those plans have been implemented, said Sunny Lane, director of development with the Helen R. Walton Children’s Enrichment Center in Bentonville. The center is a nonprofit organization dedicated to high-quality care and education for children six weeks through pre-K. It also has a training wing called the Early Childhood Initiative Center.

Just more than 60 percent of the licensed early child care providers in the region are accredited, Lane said. Next year, the Children’s Enrichment Center will expand its training and resource wing when it moves into a new building on J Street near the Amazeum and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

With its current capacity the center can work with about 150 early child care providers, effectively training about 1,400 service professionals affecting more than 12,000 children, Lane said.

Accredited centers have a higher demand than those that don’t and almost always have a significant waiting list. The more and better training preschool teachers receive, the more accredited schools will emerge and the waiting lists will get shorter, Lane said.

«We’re helping them lay the groundwork,» Lane said.

Access is the biggest barrier to families seeking pre-K opportunities, said Candice Sisemore, founder of Teeny Tiny Preschool in Fayetteville. The school opened in October at the former community building of the Willow Heights public housing complex.

Teeny Tiny Preschool has scholarship opportunities for lower-income families and uses the Reggio Emilia approach to learning. The style respects a child’s sense of self and encourages expression through painting, sculpting, acting and other self-guided methods.

Finding the right preschool can be difficult enough, but the wait can last even longer for a lower-income family. It becomes a matter of what’s available, as opposed to which early education method is right for a child, Sisemore said.

However, the trend in Northwest Arkansas seems to be headed in the right direction, Sisemore said.

«There are lots of options,» she said. «It’s getting those to be accessible for all families that is the trick.»

Source:

http://www.nwaonline.com/news/2018/mar/11/region-s-options-bring-variety-choice-i/?news-arkansas-nwa

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Pakistan: Quality education vital for progress: Tirmzi

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Pakistan/ March 13, 2018/Source: https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/

Federal Minister for Norcotics Control General (r) Salahud Din Tirmzi said that education played a vital role in economic development of the country and urged the students to get quality education so that they could contribute towards national progress and stability.

Addressing the annual prize distribution ceremony of Jinnah Preparatory School held at the auditorium of Rawalpindi Arts Council on Sunday, Salahud Din Tirmzi said that education was the only way to overcome poverty, ignorance, unemployment and extremism.

He said, “It is the need of hour that we invest in education and provide a conductive environment to the kids for education to enable them to combat the challenges of the future.”

He appreciated the high standard of education at Jinnah Preparatory School, which had provided opportunities to the students to express their capabilities and talents in an efficient manner. He congratulated the parents of students who secured positions in the annual examinations.

Jinnah Preparatory School Head Abdul Qadir Hai said that no society could progress without education and mutual cooperation of parents and teachers.

Later, the chief guest awarded prizes and certificates among the students who showed outstanding performance in different categories.

The ceremony was also attended by parents, faculty members and students. The well prepared kids of Jinnah Preparatory School presented beautiful tableaus, dramas, skits, a fancy dress show and a cultural show.

Source:

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/03/11/quality-education-vital-for-progress-tirmzi/

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EEUU: Portland Commissioner Eudaly blasts Portland Public Schools for ousting special education program

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EEUU/March 06, 2018/By Bethany Barnes bbarnes@oregonian.com/Source: http://www.oregonlive.com

Portland City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly weighed in over the weekend on a Portland Public Schools plan that’s been generating opposition for months: oust a program for special education students from its building in favor of a larger program for gifted students.

Since the announcement of the change in November, parents and staff from the special education program, Pioneer, have regularly protested at school board meetings and even shown up at board members’ workplaces to protest. The optics have been awkward for the district from the beginning. Officials botched announcement of the change by accidentally telling families in the gifted program before Pioneer families about the move.

Time hasn’t soothed tensions.

School board members have said the decision is a done deal. Access Academy, which serves more than 350 highly gifted students, is being ejected from the former Rose City Park Elementary building because that facility is needed to reopen as a neighborhood school. So, the 120-plus students now served at Pioneer will be moved to two smaller sites over the summer, they say, reinforcing Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero’s choice.

Board members have indicated that, while the move was spurred by a building shortage, they feel it is also a change needed to improve service for some of the most vulnerable students in the district.

Many Pioneer parents and teachers are skeptical that the change will lead toward anything resembling improvement. Oregon’s largest school district, critics argue, has a poor track record. The fast timeline to split up and relocate the special education students is a setup for failure not success, they say.

Eudaly, whose own child is in special education at a Portland school, wrote a lengthy Facebook post that decried the decision. In response to comments questioning if Pioneer is currently serving these students well she wrote:

«I’m well aware of what Pioneer is and I have issues with it but that’s not relevant to this conversation. It’s not like the school district is offering an improvement.»

Read Eudaly’s entire post below:

«I had a couple brief encounters yesterday that left me feeling very sad about the general lack of understanding and support for students with disabilities. As an accelerated learner who struggled in school and ultimately dropped out, and the parent of a child with multiple disabilities, I understand how our public schools often fail learners who deviate from the ‘norm.’ I empathize with parents desperate to see their children achieve their potential when their educational needs are not being met. (Talented and gifted) and special education students have something in common in this regard (sometimes a student qualifies for both). However, their standing in our district, community, and society are not the same. Their struggle is not the same. Their outcomes are not the same.

Chances are your accelerated learner is white, and/or middle class, and/or does not have a disability. I mention this not to shame or guilt trip but to point out relative advantage. I bet you tell them they can do and be anything they set their mind to and you believe it. There are numerous programs, resources, and opportunities inside and outside of school available to them that many students with disabilities cannot access. In fact, many parents of children with disabilities are too busy fighting to protect their children’s civil rights and get their most basic needs met to even think about extracurriculars (even if they were welcomed and included, which they are often not). And many of us have been denied the basic experience that most families take for granted — getting to choose and remain at a school and be a part of a community.

I am deeply disappointed to see our school district continue to treat students with disabilities and their families like second-class citizens and not full members of the community. Our children belong as much as anyone’s and should not be shuffled around like surplus furniture. We know that changing schools can have detrimental effects for any student. How can we justify repeated moves for our most vulnerable students?

I spent years feeling cheated by my public school experience, where I was literally stuck in a corner and given busy work while other students received instruction. Could I have gone further, faster given a more appropriate education? Absolutely. But you know what? Things worked out for me. I can’t say the same for many of my classmates with disabilities, or the students who followed them over the next 30 years, or most painfully, my own son.

This Pioneer/Access debate reminds me of an encounter I had years ago at Chapman Park (ironically attached to our neighborhood school, which Henry would later be denied access to). I was pushing Henry on the single adapted swing (the only accessible feature) when a mother and her able bodied child expressed their impatience for their turn. I looked at them and said, ‘You’ve got the entire park and playground to explore. This is the only thing my son can enjoy.’ And I turned back around and kept pushing. I’m going to keep pushing for the students who are getting the short end of the stick — students with disabilities, students of color, students from low income households, (English language learner) students — in our shamefully inequitable system. Please stand with me for all students beginning with the ones who are most in need.»

 Source:
http://www.oregonlive.com/education/index.ssf/2018/03/portland_commissioner_eudaly_b.html

 

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