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The Chilean government has revealed a new initiative that aims to improve English education in Chile by testing English teachers’ competency. The test, designed by Cambridge University, will determine the teachers’ knowledge of the English language. It will be required of roughly half the teaching population (approximately 5,000 teachers) in public schools throughout the country, and, as Education Minister Harald Beyer said, “Those who obtain the highest levels…will be able to become certified with an additional test.”
Posted in About K-12 International Education News
Tagged Chile, English language learning
While Minister of Education Hekia Parata is keen to avoid another fight with teachers, her Ministry will be compiling and releasing some “useful” information based on the National Standards that is meaningful for learners, schools, and parents. Earlier, Prime Minister John Key opened debate about league tables when he expressed support for them. (League tables compare data from different academic institutions.) The teacher union believes league tables “would have a severely damaging effect on children’s education and would unfairly label schools and students as failing.” Professor Martin Thrupp, an expert on school league tables says, “introducing the system here would lead to schools narrowing their teaching focus, competing for the ‘best’ students and rejecting those who fall behind in order to reach national targets.”
Almost 280,000 Austrians between 15 and 64 years old have not graduated from compulsory school, and every year 3,500 to 5,000 adolescents leave school without graduating. The council of ministers therefore will enact a law that provides €54.6 million (maximum €6,600 per person) to open new possibilities on the job market for these individuals. Courses will prepare people for exams in the subjects German, English, mathematics and vocational knowledge. Additionally, people will have to take two exams from the following fields for their compulsory school equivalencies: “creativity and design,” “health and social work,” “nature and technics,” and an additional language.
Posted in About K-12 International Education News
Tagged Austria, compulsory education
Students’ roles in education policy and the costs of higher education are the subject of debates and protest in Austria, Canada, and South America (“Student group demands direct ballot for student representation”; “Protesters clash with police as Quebec students’ grievances grow”; “60,000 Chileans protest in the year’s first authorized student march”).
Control of education, the autonomy of schools and public and private education have been in the news in Germany, Japan, India, and New Zealand (“Cost explosion in education administration: Court of Auditors urges centralization under Federal Government of all education matters”; “Governor and Prefectural Board of Education in Shimane Agreed on Joint Determination of Educational Goals”; “Who picks up the tab?; Charter school trials to take place across the country”).
A host of issues related to teachers and teaching quality including teacher evaluation and merit pay, student-teacher relations, and stress and burnout have also been subjects of discussion in England, Australia, Austria, South Korea, and Germany (“Great teachers: Attracting, training and retaining the best”; “Annual appraisal plan includes observing teachers in classroom”; “Demand for reduction in teachers‘ holidays”; “More teachers insulted by students, parents”; “Pupils overstrain their teachers”).
In order to increase student motivation for PISA tests, Josef Pühringer, the Governor of the Province of Upper Austria, suggests including PISA test results in students’ general grades. He believes this would lead to higher test scores because the problem with Austria’s PISA results, in his view, is one of student motivation rather than weak student knowledge and competences. (Find more about Austria’s performance on PISA in relation to other nations here and here.)
Posted in About K-12 International Education News
Tagged accountability, Austria, PISA, testing
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