Tag Archives: education

Singapore

Posted on September 13, 2012 by | 1 comment

MOE Removes Secondary School Banding and Revamps School Awards

Ministry of Education Press Release (September 12, 2012)

The Ministry of Education has announced plans to modify its measures of school effectiveness and will shift its emphasis to promote best practices over academic banding (or tracking). Reforms include abolishment of school rankings that are based on academic results, an emphasis on good practices over score-based awards, and building partnerships with parents and the community. The MOE will promote sharing across schools by establishing an online Good School Practices (GSP) repository to encourage the sharing of ideas between schools and teachers.

Additional news reports can be found here:

The Information Daily

Today Online

An infographic from the Singapore Ministry of Education:

“Achieving a Student-Centric, Values-Driven Education”

 

 

 

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

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Ireland

Posted on September 10, 2012 by | Leave a comment

The Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairí Quinn T.D.

Minister Quinn gives go ahead for major restructuring of initial teacher education provision

Press Release, Irish Department of Education and Skills (September 5, 2012)

The Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairí Quinn T.D., will go ahead with a sweeping overhaul to teacher education. Following recommendations from a recent Higher Education Authority (HEA) report, only six “centres for teacher education” will provide Initial Teacher Education (ITE) offering primary and post-primary teaching. In the new system, greater emphasis will be placed on literacy, math and pedagogical skills.  Additional curricular reforms have already been outlined by the Minister.

The HEA has been asked to submit a report with more formal proposals and financial implications by the end of the year.

Click here to view full report

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Chile

Posted on September 8, 2012 by | 1 comment

Chilean students announce new protests demanding a better education

Ultima Hora (September 2, 2012)

“Education is sold”

Chilean university students announced today that they will mobilize once more during the second week of September. These student protests demand better quality of education and reject government intervention, such as the proposed tax reform. Students’ pleas for a restructuring of the Chilean education system have not been addressed by the Chilean government.

Chilean Gov Calls for an End to School Occupations

Gwynne Hogan, The Santiago Times (September 6, 2012)

Santiago Mayor Pablo Zalaquett

Santiago Mayor Pablo Zalaquett and Education Minister Harald Beyer have responded to a month of student marches and occupations by calling for students to return to school when in opens, on September 20th: “We are making an appeal to the youth, we encourage them to fight for their right to quality education through peaceful marches and cultural acts, but they must stop missing school because there are not going to be special laws for them,” Zalaquett said. In 2011, 70,000 students were held back when the school system was paralyzed due to similar school occupations.

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Australia

Posted on September 8, 2012 by | 1 comment

PM Pledge for Top Five School Spot

Michelle Grattan, The Age (September 7, 2012)

The Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, announced a new school funding arrangment (dubbed the “Gonksi Plan”), promised to “legislate for a goal of having Australia in the top five schooling systems in the world by 2025.” By then, Gillard said that Australia should be among the top five nations in reading, science, and math, and be noted for the provision of high quality and equity education. Among other things, the Gonski funding plan recommended an extra $5 billion a year overall (in 2009 dollars) for school funding, and variables such as economic disadvantage, disability, school size and the particular needs of indigenous students.

For more information:

“PM Pledge for Top Five School Spot” (video clip)

In a panel discussion, presented by La Trobe University, Ideas and Society Program, May 2012, Carmen Lawrence, Richard Teese, Dennis Altman and (host) Lorraine Ling, discuss the Gonski Report and educational issues present in Australia today.

Experts respond to Gillard’s announcement.

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India

Posted on September 4, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Poor PISA score: Govt blames ‘disconnect ‘ with India

Anubhuti  Vishnoi,  Indian Express online (September 3, 2012)

Indian students participated in Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) for the first time in 2009. 16,000 students from 400 schools across the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu took this test. Though Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are among the best performing states in India, the PISA scores of their students were dismally low, leading to much discussion in India. The Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD), however, is arguing that these scores are not a reflection of the country’s schooling but of the disconnect between the test questions and India’s socio-cultural specificities, especially that of rural India. The Ministry will write to the Organization for Economic Cooperation Development to address this disconnect.

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India

Posted on September 2, 2012 by | Leave a comment

AP for reforms to make RTE effective

The Hindu online (September 2, 2012)

The Right to Education Act (2009) makes education free and compulsory for children between 6 and 14 years. It also mandates government schools to provide free education to all children and that these schools be managed by School Management Committees (SMC). Viewing the disconnect between the local government schools and the people in that community as an impediment to the effective implementation of RTE, the Andra Pradesh School Education Department has recommended a series of reforms. These include making it compulsory for SMC members’ children to attend the concerned school in their locality, having teachers teach in other schools in the area to meet teacher shortage, and providing after-school remedial classes for students.

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