The white working class. It’s a phrase that has become so commonplace that few recognise the sheer oddness, and indeed odiousness, of the concept. It denotes both pity and contempt.
On the one hand, it is a description of the “left behind”, sections of the population that have lost out through globalisation and deindustrialisation. On the other, it is shorthand for the uneducated and the bigoted, people who support Donald Trump or Brexit, and are hostile to immigration and foreigners.
Source : Guardian
Secret Teacher: subjects like art are being sidelined – but they matter
It’s Monday afternoon and I’m teaching a class of 10- and 11-year-olds French. Last week they wrote a set of descriptive sentences about animals and today they’re going to turn their descriptions into picture books.
“Once you’ve finished with your sentences, you’re going to illustrate them to reflect what you’ve written,” I tell the class.
Silence.
“Any questions?”
A hand pops up.
“Do we have to draw the pictures? Can’t we just write the sentences?”
“You need to draw the pictures as well. You’re making a picture book, remember?”
“But I can’t draw, Miss.”
Source : Theguardian
Educational support for deaf children in England ‘in complete disarray’
A deaf pupil with a specialist teacher. In some areas, there is just one specialist teacher for every 100 students. Photograph: Brian Mitchell / Alamy/Alamy
A report by the Consortium for Research into Deaf Education says the number of teachers of the deaf has been cut by 14% in the past seven years, at the same time as a 31% increase in the number of children requiring support.
In some areas the situation is so critical there is just one specialist teacher for every 100 students. Without intervention, researchers say the crisis is likely to worsen, with many existing staff close to retirement.
Source : Guardian
Strike: SSANU, NASU, NAAT remain adamant, demand N66bn
The NON teaching staff in the universities have said that their members will not resume work today pending when the Federal Government will pay them their Earned Allowances totalling over N66 billion.
ASUU: Catholic bishops declare strike as unnecessary, a burden But the Federal Government has promised to mop up money for the non teaching staff comprising the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, Non Academic Staff Union of Universities and Associated Institutions, NASU, and National Association of Academic Technologists, NAAT, alleging that the N23 billion released to the four university based unions was hijacked by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.
Read more: Vanguard
Government mum on money for free higher education
Cape Town – Where the money will be found for the free higher education, which President Jacob Zuma announced last month, remains a mystery.
Higher Education and Training Minister Hlengiwe Mkhize addressed the media on Thursday morning to provide further detail on Zuma’s “historic announcement for free higher education and training for poor and working-class families”, as she termed it.
Communications Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane chaired the briefing, and Mkhize was flanked by State Security Minister Bongani Bongo, who also serves on the inter-ministerial committee (IMC) on higher education.
Source : News24
Refugee children battle for education in Tanzania
Teenager Irahoze Diello is quietly confident about today’s maths test. Even without books, shoes, a safe place to study or a morning meal, he has worked hard to prepare for this moment. He just hopes the rain will hold off long enough for him to complete it.
“When it rains everything gets wet,” says Irahoze, 14, who fled Burundi and now studies beneath the trees in Tanzania’s Nduta refugee camp. “When it’s windy, the branches fall and when the sun is strong it’s too hot. Sometimes we have to stop classes.”
He is one of about 200 refugee children who attend Furaha Primary School, where a lack of funding means classes are held in the open air. Benches and blackboards are dotted among the trees, creating makeshift classrooms. For every three boys who attend, there is just one girl, and with little food to eat at home many pupils struggle to concentrate.
Source : http://www.unhcr.org/news/stories/2018/1/5a37ac6d4/refugee-children-battle-education-tanzania.html
Teachers’ union joins criticism of Toby Young appointment
Representatives of nearly half a million teachers and lecturers have written to the education secretary, Justine Greening, expressing concern over her decision to appoint Toby Young – whom they accuse of sexist and homophobic behaviour – to a high-profile government position.
The move by the National Education Union will add to the pressure on Greening over her decision to place Young, a journalist and free schools advocate, on the board of the new higher education watchdog, the Office for Students (OfS).
Young has already faced claims that sexually explicit remarks he has publicly made about female former work colleagues and other women make him unfit for public office.
Source : Theguardian
Masari fires education commissioner who called for teachers to undergo aptitude test
Governor Aminu Bello Masari of Katsina state has on Thursday sacked his Commissioner of Education, Professor Halimatu Sa’adiya Idris. Governor Masari demotes principal, head teacher A press statement signed and made available to newsmen in the state by the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Media, Abdu Labaran Malumfashi quoted a letter personally signed by the Governor, saying the Commissioner was relieved of her appointment with immediate effect.
Her statement has caused serious tension and apprehension in the state with many calling for her ousting.
Source : DailyTrust
WAEC pledges collaboration with relevant organisations on prisoners’ access to education
The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) says it will always partner relevant organisations to assist prison inmates to have easy access to education. The council’s Head of National Office (HNO), Mr Olutise Adenipekun, told the Newsmen on Wednesday in Lagos that such collaboration would enhance the inmates’ transformation and development.
Source : Vanguard
Must-Read Education Stories From 2017
It would be easy enough to drive past Calvin College without giving Betsy DeVos’s alma mater a second thought. Six miles southeast of downtown, the school is a sprawling cluster of nondescript buildings and winding pathways in a quiet suburb. But to bypass Calvin would be to ignore an institution whose approach to education offers clues about how the recently appointed U.S. education secretary might pursue her new job, and about the tug religious institutions feel between maintaining tradition and remaining relevant in a rapidly diversifying world.
Source : TheAtlantic