Author Archives: internationalednews

Reforms in Korea in the Asia Pacific Journal of Education

Posted on April 1, 2013 | 2 comments
Asia Pacific Journal of Education

Asia Pacific Journal of Education

In the most recent issue of the Asia Pacific Journal of Education, two studies highlighted teachers’ perceptions of, and resistance to, the Korean National Curriculum reform of 2011. In “Teachers’ perceptions of the recent curriculum reforms and their implementation: What can we learn from the case of Korean elementary teachers?”, Minjeong Park and Youl-Kwan Sung examine how and why Korean elementary teachers have negative feelings about the recent curriculum reform, and suggest that teachers need effective professional development programs, opportunities to work with peer teachers, and that context and culture be considered in the implementation process.

In “School reforms, principal leadership, and teacher resistance: Evidence from Korea,” Joo-Ho Park and Dong Wook Jeong, studied the relationship between principal leadership and teacher resistance to school changes, finding that “a principal’s initiative leadership is significantly related to the reduction of teacher resistance to change, in particular on the emotional and behavioural dimensions.” They emphasized the importance of human aspects in the reform process, concluding that school reformers should be “advised to rethink the school change model design in a way of fully capturing human aspects in the reform process.”

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Reforms in China in the International Review of Education

Posted on March 28, 2013 | 1 comment
International Review of Education

International Review of Education

The latest issue of the International Review of Education includes an examination of what some may see as the surprising failure of many private institutions of higher education in China. In “Turning around low-performing private universities in China,” Xiaofan Li explains that while most private colleges and universities in China disappeared after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, China’s marketization and privatization efforts included the re-opening of higher education to the private sector in the 1990’s. By 2009, statistics published by the Ministry of Education showed that there were 3,101 public universities in China as well as 812 private universities; however, Li reports that many of these “people-run” institutions are struggling, with approximately 500 of them shut down between 2000 and 2009 for financial, legal or other reasons. Of those private universities that have survived, the quality varies substantially, and they are not viewed as being on par with most public universities. Yet, in a country of more than a billion people, these institutions have opened up many new options for those who have been unable to get a place in public universities either because of their age, lack of qualifications, or the limited number of places. At the same time, quality assurance has been and will continue to be the most pronounced and crucial issue that private universities wrestle with. As Stephen Roche explains in the introduction to the issue, Li “considers several factors that contributed to poor performance, including insufficient resources, heavy government control, insufficient enrollments, lack of qualified teachers, limited programme breadth, and problems of scale,” and goes on to examine strategies for turning around low-performing private institutions and helping the government achieve its target of a 40% participation rate in higher education by 2020.

For more information:

2012 China Private University Rankings Announced (link in Chinese)

Boosting Migrants’ Education

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Singapore

Posted on March 27, 2013 | 1 comment

14295425_0The Singapore Ministry of Education has been surveying educators and parents about their concerns with the Singapore education system. The results reveal worries about a perceived over-emphasis on exams and grades that contribute to a high stress education system that overlooks non-academic talents. Additional concerns include anxiety about declining social mobility and rates of inclusion due to disparities in access to education that favors privileged children who can afford tuition.

In response to these kinds of concerns, the Ministry of Education has launched initiatives aimed at strengthening efforts to help every student succeed by:

  • building a strong foundation in literacy and numeracy, from the kindergarten level to secondary level. For the primary and secondary school levels, the existing Learning Suppport Programme for Primary 1 and Primary 2 students will be extended through all 6 years of primary education and even to secondary level.
  • providing teachers with professional development opportunities to learn clear research-based principles to reach out to “low-progress learners.” These measures will help ensure that all students benefit from the best opportunities in education regardless of their background and pace of development.
  • piloting 15 kindergartens in working class neighborhoods in Singapore and providing further support to the pre-school sector, which the MOE has traditionally not been overseeing.
  • expanding support for students with special needs by providing additional post-diagnosis services for parents, streamlining the application and enrollment process for special education schools, and increasing funding for low-income students with special needs.

For more information:

More help in Math, English for weaker students

Helping every student succeed (MOE)

Get back to basics of education: Heng Swee Keat

More support for students with special needs (MOE)

Exams and streaming: Recalibrating our education system (commentary)

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Posted in About K-12 International Education News, Government Reports, Newspaper Articles

Japan

Posted on March 19, 2013 | Leave a comment

Report on Problematic Behaviors of Public School Students

The Ministry of Education (March 13, 2013)

 

Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology: Japan

Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology: Japan

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) in Japan published an updated version of a national survey, titled “Problematic Behaviors of Public School Students (1-12).”  According to the survey, violence against peers and teachers in schools decreased across all grade levels. The number of truant students decreased by 2,000 in elementary and junior high school compared to last year; however, the number of truant students increased by 600 at the high school level. In addition, the number of 1- 12 grade students who committed suicide was 202. This is a 29.5% increase compared to last year. The survey follows a report last month from the National Police Agency that revealed the number of bullying incidents reported in 2012 more than doubled to 260 from the year before. The report also showed that 511 students were arrested or taken into custody in 2012.  A special commission on education reform is expected to address these issues by recommending, among other things, that “moral education” be made a regular subject.

For more information:

Japanese City Takes on Bullies

Harumafuji saddened by bullying incidents

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Australia

Posted on March 18, 2013 | 1 comment

Support for Teacher Standards

Josephine Tovey and Amy McNeilage, The Sydney Morning Herald (March 12, 2013)

photo: Peter Rae

photo: Peter Rae

In an effort to raise the standard of teacher training in Australia, the federal government has announced plans for higher standards for teachers entering the profession. As part of the government’s National Plan for School Improvement, the new screening process for admission to teaching courses will include an interview process, demonstration of values and aptitude, and a written statement, thereby making the entry process comparable with existing models in the field of medicine. In addition, all future teachers will need to pass a literacy and numeracy test, demonstrating that their skills are equivalent to the top 30% of the population, before obtaining a teaching degree.

Education Minister Peter Garrett said, “I think that they (teachers) do an excellent job, but the fact is universities need to be sure that the people who are putting up their hand to come in and do teaching have got not only the right qualifications but also the additional temperament, commitment, enthusiasm and directed strengths and real desire to do that job.”

Australia’s plan comes on the heels of a recent, controversial New South Wales proposal, which sets minimum academic entry standards for teacher education students, tougher accreditation tests, and requires mentoring by veteran teachers.

For more information:

Proposed reforms to ensure ‘right’ people enter teaching

The new Rs needed for teaching: reading, writing and a bucketload of rapport

Piccoli firm over teaching benchmark

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Austria

Posted on March 14, 2013 | Leave a comment

Poverty conference calls for a socio-economic index to support schools

Johann Bacher

Johann Bacher

derStandard.at (February 26, 2013)

Johann Bacher, sociologist at the University of Lintz, called for index-based resource funding for schools at this year’s Austrian Poverty Conference.  According to Bacher, this method of funding would focus on socioeconomic disparities and compensate for social segregation in Austrian schools. Four variables (parent level of education, occupation, migration background and language spoken at home) would inform decisions about which schools receive additional government funding; however, schools would have the power to decide independently how best to use the money. The index would support weak students and strengthen the attractiveness of these schools for parents with higher income. The Federal Ministry for Education, Arts, and Culture (BMUKK) has expressed concern over the implementation of the index and feels that they are already dealing with the issue.

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Scan of Ed News: Quality and Access

Posted on February 18, 2013 | Leave a comment

International-Travel-Agency-262545-262545-1so(links to articles are embedded as hyperlinks)

Recent news reports reveal the ways in which countries all over the world are taking steps to make quality P-12 education more accessible for students.

In China, the government is closing privately operated schools and will allow the children of migrant workers to attend public schools. In addition to paying tuition fees for vocational students in southern rural areas, the Chinese government is also looking for ways to increase high school enrollment in areas such as the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. In contrast, the government has announced that, in their effort to increase the quality of tertiary institutions, postgraduate education will no longer be free. As noted in The New York Times, the cost of education is felt sharply by those in rural areas, where families are suffering from “high education costs coincid[ing] with slower growth of the Chinese economy and surging unemployment among recent college graduates.”   Meanwhile, state universities in Indonesia will receive government funding to eliminate initial fees for new students and lower tuition rates overall.

In addition to the issue of access to education, many countries are reporting on efforts to improve the quality of education, resulting in conflicts between government officials, union leadership, and teachers. In Denmark, teachers are pushing back against the government’s reform measures, which include increasing the number of hours teachers spend in the classroom. In France, schools have had to shut their doors due to a teacher strike in protest of President Hollande’s reform agenda, which aims to increase classroom time. Guatemalan teachers and students have also been protesting the country’s education reform goals, which include university-level training for all teachers, a measure many believe will have a negative impact on education in rural areas. South Africa has long provided rural teachers with incentive stipends; however, teachers are in the midst of planning a strike to protest the government’s recent decision to terminate the allowances.

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Reforms in Mexico and India in the Journal of Educational Change

Posted on February 15, 2013 | 2 comments

(links to articles are embedded as hyperlinks)

JEDU 2009:JEDU 2009In the most recent issue of the Journal of Educational Change, studies highlight teacher participation in reform efforts in Mexico and a participatory approach to wide-scale change in India.

Education Reform and Teacher Participation in Mexico

In their study of Mexico’s 2006 Reforma de la Educacion Secundaria (RS) (Reform of Secondary Educatión), Levinson, Blackwood and Cross conclude that despite interest in professionalizing teaching at the secondary level, “for the most part secondary teachers in Mexico neither felt like agents nor partners in the RS…. As in previous reform efforts, teachers mostly felt that they were recipients of plans formulated by government officials, and as a result many have evidenced neither complete compliance nor full commitment to the reform.”  They go on to explore the problematic role of the union in the reform and the concerns that many teachers have about the union. Recent reports from Mexico show that concerns about the union and teacher participation continue.  President Enrique Peña Nieto’s recent education reform initiative is widely seen as an effort to diminish the power of Mexico’s teacher union, which has been led by Elba Esther Gordillo; however, it is not clear if President Nieto will provide the essential structure and support that would allow for authentic teacher participation. At this time, the teachers and union leadership have been presented in the press as allies in the effort to protest Nieto’s reform.

Wide-scale change in India

While recent attention often focuses on the regulations of the Right to Education Act in India (including recent reports  and debates about the progress of this initiative), Tricia Niesz and Ramchandar Krishnamurthy suggested that the wide-scale adoption of Activity-Based Learning (ABL) in Tamil Nadu India was accomplished through a more participatory, grass-roots approach.  They argue that state-level administrators “engaged strategies for change that combined both movement-building tactics and the conventional tools of administrative power.”  These administrators themselves became experts in the ABL method in a way that built good will and moral authority even when administrators used top-down mandates to institutionalize the reform.

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China

Posted on February 5, 2013 | 1 comment

High school admissions a priority in Xinjiang

By Cui Jia in Urumqi, China Daily (February 1, 2013)

China

Nur Bekri

Nur Bekri, chairman of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, has stated that in the next five years they hope to increase senior high school admission rates, and make vocational education available for all junior and senior graduates. While there have been significant increases in student enrollment since 2006, and regional governments began paying the tuition fees for vocational students from southern rural areas, the government is searching for ways to encourage more students to continue their studies.

For more information:

Uyghur Pupils Face Beatings

1,600 vagrant Xinjiang children resume normal life

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Austria

Posted on February 1, 2013 | Leave a comment

Häupl wants referendum on Comprehensive School

derStandard.at (January 18, 2013)

APA/Schlager

Michael Haüpl  APA/Schlager

The implementation of a comprehensive school system has been the subject of controversial debate for a long time. Now, Michael Häupl, Mayor of Vienna (Socialist Party, SPÖ), has suggested a national referendum asking Austria’s citizens whether they want to keep the current, partly stratified school system or implement a comprehensive school system with whole-day care for all children aged 6 to 14 years. If policymakers are unable to decide on this overdue question, then the Austrian people should, he argues. Johann Gudenus, head of the Austrian Freedom Party and Manfred Juraczka, head of the People’s Party in Vienna, both state that Mr. Häupl is ignoring the bad education conditions in the city of Vienna and therefore recommend that he first take care of those problems before demanding national solutions.

For more information on education news from Austria:

Education report recommends expanding entangled day schools (link in German)

A-levels: Students Union accuses the Ministry of Education of inactivity (link in German)

“Pre-school year for children with problems is German-discrimination” (link in German)

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