Teachers

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United Kingdom: Holy Trinity Gravesend school to fine late parents

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Europe/United Kingdom/19-01-2020/Author(a) and Source: www.bbc.com

A primary school is to fine parents who are late to pick up their children.

Holy Trinity in Gravesend, Kent, will issue a £1 charge per pupil every five minutes after 15:40.

Social services will be contacted if a child remains uncollected at 16:00, according to a policy that was introduced earlier this month.

The National Education Union fears «punitive» fines and «threats» of social services would «undermine positive relationships with parents».

The school said paying staff overtime to care for uncollected children had become unsustainable and would impact other aspects of school funding.

Head teacher Denise Gibbs-Naguar said it was increasingly common for a «significant number» of pupils to remain uncollected 30 minutes after the school finished at 15:30.

She said pupils who are collected late often «exhibit signs of anxiety and distress» and «worry that something may have happened» to their parents, adding: «Clearly this is not something anyone wants a child to experience.»

Parents at the school gate had mixed views of the fines, with one mother-of-four saying she understood the school’s move when it came to persistent offenders.

A father said he did not understand why people would be that late to pick up their children but another parent she said thought the move was «a bit petty».

‘Unnecessary threat’

The school’s new policy says fines will not be issued when there are «reasonable circumstances» for lateness, such as car accidents, illness and flooding.

Parents will be given three warnings, but thereafter will be charged £1 every five minutes per child.

Jerry Glazier, of the NEU, said the union did not think «fining parents is the right way to engage in the issue».

He said it was important «parents understand why particular actions are detrimental to the school, but the best way of doing that is through proper meaningful engagement, not by punitive actions like fining».

He added: «I don’t think there’s any legal power that enables a school to fine parents and that’s probably the end of it.»

Mr Glazier said the «unnecessary threat» of contacting social services would potentially antagonise people.

The school said a letter would be sent to parents requesting the amount due, which will be followed up with a phone call.

It is not clear what action the school would take if a parent refuses to pay.

Source and Image: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-kent-51126559

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Kenya: Quality education dependent on competence and motivation of teachers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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United States of America: Meta-analysis: reading on paper improves reading comprehension

Paulette Delgado

North America/United States of America/29-09-2019/Author: Paulette Delgado/Source: observatory.tec.mx

By: Paulette Delgado

A professor at the University of North Dakota analyzed 33 studies to find an answer to the long debate about whether it is better to read on paper or on a screen.

Since 2008, numerous studies have compared reading from paper and electronic sources. To find out which method provides the best comprehension, Virginia Clinton, an assistant professor of education at the University of North Dakota, conducted a meta-analysis of 33 high-quality studies.

Out of all the studies, 29 of them find out students tend to absorb more information when they read on paper, especially if it’s a long read. These findings differ with the recent emphasis on digital texts from publishers like Pearson, the largest textbook publisher in North America, who announced in July a focus on a digital strategy.

The results are also problematic because, according to a report from the National Association of College Stores, in 2019 22% of college students are using free online texts and materials, compared to 3% registered in 2015.

The different studies did not include the supplements that give advantages to the digital format. These elements range from whistles, quizzes, questionnaires and the option to instantly search for unknown words. Without a reliable study that analyzes the impact of add-ons, it’s hard to tell if they would’ve made any difference. Clinton is determined to study them in her laboratory to find answers.

Experts have different explanations about why reading in print helps students. Some argue that it is easier for them to remember what they read because they recognize the location of a passage on a physical paper.

Another disadvantage of digital format found in the study is that digital readers usually overestimate their reading comprehension, thinking that they performed better than actual results. On the other hand, readers who read printed texts were more precise in their self-analysis. The difference may be in excessive confidence because it can affect the student by putting less effort into their reading.

The genre also matters. According to several studies, there is a considerable advantage in reading nonfiction texts in print but almost no difference in narrative fiction, like a Jane Austen book, for example.

Due to the high cost of printed books, it is easy to understand why companies like Pearson are becoming digital. Even so, Clinton recommends that teachers, if using screens, take extra time to show students how to read better online. One example could be to implement reading comprehension exercises to ensure that they do not miscalculate their understanding.

Still, each format has its benefits. It is a matter of knowing how to take advantage of each one. For example, digital books are excellent for younger students since the digital medium is usually more practical and affordable, which can help encourage reading. On the other hand, texts printed on paper are better for those who are easily distracted and need to pay more attention.

What is your preferred reading media? Share with us your reading habits.

Information reference: https://observatory.tec.mx/edu-news/meta-analysis-reading-onpaper-improves-reading-comprehension

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Our teachers and schools aren’t fit for sex education

Martin Williams

By: Martin Williams.

 

Studies have found South African teachers unable to understand what they teach, including simple arithmetic and language.

Despite an unconvincing denial by the basic education department, there are plans to spruce up sex education for pre-adolescent children.

At what age that includes masturbation lessons remains unclear. Unsurprisingly the Sunday Times report, “Sex lessons for modern Grade 4s …” provoked outrage, ridicule and a touch of humour.

In a variation of an old Smirnoff advertisement, one nine-year-old says to another: “I thought Wankeng was a place in China, before I started Grade 4.”

How shocking that a child of that age would know anything about China.

After all, South African kids are among the world’s dunces. A Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (Pirls) report in 2016 showed 78% of South African Grade 4 children cannot read for meaning in any language. Bottom of the class, internationally.

We also specialise in pit latrines and teenage pregnancies. At last count there were 3,898 pit latrines in SA schools. Some have proved fatal. In 2017 there were more than 97,000 births to teenage mothers in South Africa, according to StatsSA. More than 3,000 of these girls were aged between 10 and 14. The number of abortions for teenage mothers is unclear, but there is much sexual activity among schoolchildren.

Not all the biological fathers in these instances are schoolboys. There are reports of teachers impregnating schoolgirls.

Now Life Orientation textbooks have been overhauled to be more relevant for pupils. The basic education department reportedly hired “celebrity sex therapist” Dr Marlene Wasserman (Dr Eve), among others, to help develop a “cutting-edge” life orientation curriculum for grades 4 to 12.

Not everyone agrees that young children should be taught at school about masturbation. Even supporters of sex education must concede that priorities seem skewed when kids aren’t learning to read properly.

The hype about a cutting-edge curriculum ignores the quality of teaching. While many teachers are of the highest calibre, there are problems, including sexual abuse, absenteeism and alcohol consumption.

Last month Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga expressed concern that the trend of teacher absenteeism is growing. Studies have found teachers unable to understand what they teach, including simple arithmetic and language. Yet the SA Democratic Teachers’ Union consistently refuses competency tests for members.

So the question arises, are SA teachers in general capable of implementing cutting-edge sex education? If neither the teachers nor the children are up to scratch, how will they interpret lessons that begin with a yoga pose and a “mindfulness exercise” and proceed to masturbation.

Crime in schools is part of the mix and this insecure environment is an obstacle to the fourth industrial revolution. It’s not conducive to healthy sex education. The combination proposed free tablet devices and masturbation classes prompted this tweet: “Result? Kids wank to internet porn. Such progressive thinking”.

Is a cutting-edge curriculum designed by celebrity sex therapists appropriate here, given the state of SA schools?

Source of the article: https://citizen.co.za/news/opinion/opinion-columns/2130702/our-teachers-and-schools-arent-fit-for-sex-education/

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Five things parents can do to support the teachers

Emily Writes

By:  . 

 

The biggest education strike in New Zealand history, including primary and secondary school teachers, and principals, will take place on May 29. But what can parents do to help? Emily Writes has some advice.

On Sunday it was announced that teachers in primary and secondary schools would strike for more funding, lower class ratios, support for children with additional needs and a pay jolt to address the teacher shortage. I have long supported the teachers in their efforts and I’ll continue to do so.

One of the reasons why I voted for, and encouraged others to vote for the Labour Party or the Green Party was because they both campaigned on a promise to support New Zealand’s children – this includes education.

I’ve watched in horror over the last few weeks as Education Minister Chris Hipkins has made juvenile, pouty comments about teachers not respecting him enough (and therefore I suppose making them unworthy of a fair deal?). I’ve been amazed by the lack of action by the government and the vulgar spin painting teachers as greedy or laughably “the top income earners in the country”. It’s like they think we’re idiots. Chris honey, our kids were born yesterday – we weren’t!

Parents around New Zealand contacted me after the strike announcement to ask how we can support teachers. Everywhere I look, parents want to mobilise and they want to make sure the government knows that they back the teachers.

So I decided to make a list of five easy things we can do to encourage the government to address New Zealand’s education crisis and show solidarity for our wonderful teachers.

Talk to a teacher

Ask your child’s teacher how you can support them with their strike action. Thank them for their work and let them know that you appreciate that this was a really hard decision for them to make. Teachers are exhausted. They’re being beaten up by the government after being beaten up by the previous government and they’re demoralised. They need our support.

Go to a rally

Grab the fam and get to a local rally on 29 May. The rallies will hopefully be huge. They need to be big enough to show the government how important our children are to us. I took my kids to the last strike back in August and they had a great time – they’re always lovely events and they give us a chance to teach our children how democracy works.

Join a group and organise!

Almost immediately after the strike announcement parents started setting up Facebook groups to talk about supporting the teachers. This is an excellent thing to do. Start a local group or join a bigger group. Make signs together, write to MPs together, write thank you letters to your teachers or make posters. Involve the kids! Your kids are never too young to make themselves heard and to see their parents and loved ones fighting for their future.

Strike back at the BS

The government seems to be on a misinformation campaign – correct the BS wherever you see it. Teachers are not being offered a 10k pay raise in a year. Though let’s be clear they should be – teaching is an incredibly difficult role which requires a lot of emotional maturity as well as skill and expertise. I have all of the side-eyes in the world for people, mostly men, who think teaching isn’t a skilled profession given it’s mostly women who are in this profession. Talk to a teacher before you swallow comments by Chris Hipkins that teachers are rolling in cash like Scrooge McDuck. Tell your friends, tell your whānau, tell everyone you know that the truth is that what teachers are asking for isn’t unreasonable. We really do need smaller classrooms, we need more support for children with additional needs, and teachers need more time to plan their lessons. That isn’t a crazed and wild request! It makes perfect sense.

Talk! Talk! Talk!

Contact your board of trustees and ask them if they support the strike action. Before you vote in board elections, ask the candidates what they’re doing to help with teacher and principal workloads. What are they publicly doing to support striking teachers? Email your local MP. Contact Chris Hipkins and tell him to listen to the people who voted for his party and stop being a damn walnut (kids might be reading so I can’t say what I’d like to say to him). If you’re a Labour or Greens voter, remind Labour and the Greens they made election promises and if we wanted National in government we would have voted for National. If for some unknown reason you voted for Winston Peters – I don’t know. Put down your sherry and think about your great grandchildren and their future.

Getting political isn’t a natural state for a lot of us. I get that. But this issue is beyond politics. Yes, National did this. They fucked our education system. But what’s done is done and we have to fix it – there’s no other option. We just HAVE to fix it. Yes, seeing National MPs putting out press releases saying they’re astonished Labour MPs won’t fix the problems they made is pretty excruciating (a bit like when a child shits in the bath then gets angry that there’s shit in the bath) but we can’t get drawn into all that muck. It’s a diversion. This is beyond political allegiances – this is about our kids and their right to an education. It’s about our wonderful teachers who have been dumped on for so long it’s no wonder so many have given up on the profession.

A recent poll surveyed a bunch of New Zealanders and found 89% wanted money to be spent on fixing problems in education, rather than in other areas.

The survey found 83% agreed that primary and secondary teachers needed a pay rise, about 80% agreed teachers were bogged down in administration that was getting in the way of teaching, and more than 70% said class sizes should be reduced.

There’s massive support for fixing this problem. And what teachers have asked for is fair and reasonable. We just need the government to listen. This is our chance to really make our education system world-class.

We can do it. We just need to do it together. Everyone together.

 

 

Source of the article: https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/17-05-2019/five-things-parents-can-do-to-support-the-teachers/

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Teachers vote to stage largest-ever strike as negotiations with ministry stall

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Oceania/ New Zealand/ 20.05.2019/ Source: www.stuff.co.nz.

School teachers and principals across the country have agreed to stage New Zealand’s largest-ever strike as negotiations with the Ministry of Education continue to stall.

The Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) and New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Rui Roa announced the move on Sunday, and said rolling strike action was also possible.

Ths strike, on May 29, will involve almost 50,000 primary and secondary teachers and primary principals, and will affect hundreds of thousands of students in more than 2000 schools.

PPTA members had also given authority for a five-week rolling strike across the country if the impasse was not resolved, although they hoped that would not eventuate.

The announcement came after teachers and principals voted in secret ballots over the past week, with both unions having each rejected four pay offers to date from the ministry.

The latest offer from the Government is for a $698 million pay improvement package for primary teachers and principals, and a $500m package for secondary teachers.

NZEI president Lynda Stuart said the teaching profession was not going to give up on achieving fair pay and sustainable working conditions.

«What do we want? It’s quite simple really. We want the time to teach, we want a significant pay jolt, and we want better support for those children who have additional learning needs.

«Giving teachers the time to teach and lead, and ensuring that teaching is a viable long-term career, is absolutely essential if our children in this nation are to get the future that they deserve and need.»

It will be the third time primary teachers and principals had staged a strike during the standoff, but the first time secondary teachers had done so.

Secondary school principals were in separate negotiations.

PPTA president Jack Boyle said he hoped the strike would make the Government sit up and take notice.

«Unfortunately, we have got to a point where our bargaining team has said. ‘We do not believe that a settlement is possible through negotiation at this point’.»

Wellington Girls’ College teacher Cameron Stewart said the current school system was failing students. «We have students who will go through school without a specialist maths teacher.

«It is important that all students throughout the country get the benefit of someone who is a subject expert and is passionate about their subject.

«We don’t want people who are teaching their third or fourth [specialist] subject who have no particular experience and no training in it.»

Teaching needed to be seen as a desirable profession, with a salary which kept up with professions requiring similar qualifications, Stewart said.

Wainuiomata Primary School deputy principal Tute Porter-Samuels said many staff could not afford to strike, but neither could they afford «propping up an undervalued, underfunded system at the cost of our own health and wellbeing».

Teachers did not have enough time outside of the classroom to plan programmes for children with extra needs, call or meet parents, or collaborate on school programmes, she said.

Education Minister Chris Hipkins said the $1.2 billion pay offer was one of the largest on offer across the public sector.

It would result in an extra $10,000 for most primary school teachers, and almost as much for secondary teachers, he said.

«I certainly don’t think a strike is justified.»

Hipkins also acknowledged teachers were not just after more pay, and noted the Government had invested $95m in teacher recruitment and $217m in employing more learning support coordinators.

He wanted the unions to enter facilitated bargaining, and hoped they would take up the offer.

«We’re getting serious about the issues that they’re raising, but we’re never going to be able to solve every problem overnight. These problems have been over a decade in the making.»

Source of the notice: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/112655087/teachers-have-voted-to-strike-on-may-29

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Iran: Student Day commemorated across Iran by students, teachers

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Asia/ Iran/ 12.12.2018/ Source: women.ncr-iran.org.

Iranian students held gatherings in Tehran, Tabriz, Semnan, Babol, and other cities across the country on Saturday, December 8, 2018, to honor and observe the Student Day in Iran.

young women of Tehran University observe the Student Day

In Tehran, students of Tehran University, held a gathering and sit-in by the entrance gates of the university to observe the Student Day. When the State Security Force intended to disperse the participants,girl students stood up to them. One of the girl students called on other students to come to their aid.

On the same day, students of the Teachers’ Training University in Tehran also held a gathering on the occasion of the Student Day.

Students of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the Noshirvani University of Babol, Mazandaran Province in northern Iran, held a gathering on their campus while holding pictures of the students killed on December 7, 1953. They called for the release of imprisoned teachers and students.

Students of the University of Technology No. 1 in Tabriz, East Azerbaijan Province, northwestern Iran, also commemorated the Student Day by holding a gathering on Saturday and lining up their food trays on the floor to protest the low quality of food.

In Semnan, students of the School of Engineering and Computer held a free speech forum to commemorate the Student Day, and a number of the students made speeches. Two days earlier, Thursday, December 6, 2018, when the mullahs’ president, Hassan Rouhani, visited the University of Semnan, students shouted at him and asked, «What is your answer to high prices and inflation?”

In Kermanshah, western Iran, a group of teachers held a picket on the occasion of the Student Day and congratulated all Iranian students. They called for the release of imprisoned teachers and workers.

Students of the Medical Sciences University of Tabriz, held a sit-in outside the office of the university’s president on Thursday, December 6, 2018, to protest insufficient legal supervision of the university’s conducts.

On the same day, employees of the Hospital of Karaj held their 34th round of protests to demand their unpaid wages long overdue.

On December 6 and 7, 2018, a woman teacher from Isfahan and Ms. Adineh Baigi -wife of the imprisoned teacher activist Mahmoud Beheshti- paid visits to Hamid Rahmati, a teacher, who has been on hunger strike since December 1. He is sitting in the court yard of the Department of Education in Shahreza, Isfahan Province, demanding freedom of imprisoned teachers.

On Thursday, December 6, 2018, some 150 of the staff and employees of the Parseh Clinic in Kermanshah staged a protest against sealing off of the clinic. A large number of women participated in and led this protests. They were demanding that the Prosecutor of Kermanshah stop this inhuman measure as a result of which a large number of people lose their jobs.

defrauded clients of the IRGC-backed Caspian Credit Institute held a gathering outside the mullahs’ parliament in Tehran on Thursday, December 6. A similar protest gathering ws held in Kerman in front of one of the branches of the institute.

Also, on Thursday night, a group of political and civil activists visited the mother of Dr. Farhad Maysami, political prisoner who has been detained for his protest against the mandatory veil.

Source of the notice: https://women.ncr-iran.org/iran-women-news/5624-student-day-commemorated-across-iran-by-students-teachers

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