Category Archives: About K-12 International Education News

One third of Austrian students face difficulties in reading
N.N., derstandard.at (6 September 2012)

An extended analysis of PISA-data presented by the European Commission reveals that 27.5 percent of Austria’s adolescents face severe difficulties in reading or are dyslexic. The number has increased during the past years from 19.3 percent (2000) to today’s 27.5 percent. Within the European Union (EU), Austria ranks third, right after Bulgaria (41 percent) and Romania (40.4 percent). In Finland, only 8.1 percent of students are categorized as students with insufficient reading skills, according to the PISA data.

Androulla Vassiliou, Commissioner of the EU, emphasizes that the ministers of the EU decided to reduce the number of 15-year-old students with poor reading skills from 20 percent to 15 percent by 2020. They advise national states to invest in the education of the students’ reading competences, especially because of its economic benefit.

Click here to read the study in English.

The International Education News will be taking a short summer break for the month of August.  We will return in early September, 2012, with regular posts about education news from around the world.  In the meantime, please continue to follow us on Twitter.

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”).