Let's look at all the evidence from top educators abroad

Michael Gove is keen to see what we have to learn from education systems internationally, but the lessons may not be as straightforward as he thinks, says Valerie Hannon

Last week I saw a report that a US congresswoman wanted to change the official value of pi to precisely 3 as a way to help US 15-year-olds, after they came 25th in maths in the latest Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's world study. The story was a hilarious spoof, but it well illustrates the strength of feeling about these global rankings.

Recently Michael Gove has stressed the importance of comparing education systems internationally, as seen in the OECD's Pisa studies, and of learning from the most successful nations. But what should our response be?

The education secretary enthuses about Andreas Schleicher, of the OECD, calling him the "most important man in English education" for the insights his work confers. Schleicher's analysis, according to Gove, shows, first, that "we [England] are falling further and further behind other nations"; and second, that the key to success is "to recruit the best possible people into teaching and provide them with high-quality training and professional development". This is true – as far as it goes. But it is a partial analysis.

What else have successful systems to tell us about the issues we face today? Schleicher's work demonstrates compellingly that demand for the competencies 20th-century school systems were good at imparting (routine cognitive and manual skills) is falling sharply among employers across the world. He shows that 21st-century systems need to prepare young people with the skills to undertake non-routine analytic and, especially, non-routine interactive tasks. Schleicher's conclusion is: "The skills that are easiest to teach and test are also easiest to digitise, automate and outsource."

The implication of these findings is that systems need to prepare students "to deal with more rapid change than ever before … for jobs that have not yet been created … using technologies that have not yet been invented". This is about learning how to learn, and new ways of thinking that involve creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving and decision-making. It is in sharp contrast to an emphasis on the capacity to reproduce facts. Reducing the debate into a "skills v knowledge" dichotomy is manifestly false. The issue is the right balance between content acquisition, and the skills and dispositions needed to succeed in fundamentally changed conditions. This is the key message of Schleicher and the OECD's work. It is to be hoped that the current curriculum review is permitted to take this wider view.

For this is the perspective being adopted by the world's leading systems. Rather than relying on past achievements, they are reconceiving how they approach the future. Take Finland – always at or near the top of the Pisa rankings. The director of the Finnish board of education has described how their system has identified the key competencies for lifelong learning, and is setting about transforming their system to ensure they're acquired. Critically, this entails enabling learners to "undertake meaningful problem-based inquiry, which might be multi-disciplinary, supported by blended teaching methods and hybrid resources". The Finns aren't giving up on acquiring knowledge. They just know it's not enough.

Then there's South Korea, another "top performing" system. Perceived as exam-driven, cramming its students, Korea is set to change. Exploring the work of its very best schools has revealed that they focus on providing concentrated time for some subjects (rather than shallow drip-feed); on personalising learning; on evaluating creativity; and on experience-based learning. South Korea is basing its innovation agenda on the "three C's": creativity, collaboration and character.

And finally, take one of the most improved cities in the world in terms of education performance – New York City. Gove recently hosted the former chancellor of the NYC school system, praising the rapid progress made by the city. What he omitted, however, was that NYC has acknowledged its current set of school improvement initiatives is inadequate to deal with the challenges young people face. So it has a launched an Innovation Zone, comprising a distributed network of schools, specifically to test and refine new approaches to learning and teaching that are more personalised and emphasise higher-level skills.

So yes, let's join the global education community seeking out the best ways to make learning engaging and relevant to young people in the digital age. But let's do it with open minds, and attention to all the evidence.

Valerie Hannon is a board director of the Innovation Unit.

source:http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/mar/29/pisa-international-education-systems-evidence-compare

UK: Unions march for alternative economic choices and growth

EI’s British member organisations are backing their national Trades Union Congress (TUC) call for action and will join a March for the Alternative on 26 March.

The National Union of Teachers, the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, and the University and College Union, will join other public and private sector unions in a national day of action.

They have supported calls from the TUC General Secretary, Brendan Barber, who said “the brutal austerity measures being implemented in Britain, on the back of a series of myths, half-truths and distortions have poisoned our public debate.”

Like Barber, EI’s affiliates in the UK believe that “the government's answer – to slash public spending with reckless speed – is based not on a sound reading of the evidence, but on an ideological zeal to shrink the size of the state,” and that “the so-called reforms in the National Health Service and education threaten the fundamental character of our public realm.”

Teacher unionists consider the Conservative Government’s decision to “spend more on servicing debt interest than on educating our children is just plain wrong” and wish to break down “the myths used by the government to justify its deep, rapid and unfair cuts and set out the case for an alternative based on jobs, investment and growth.”

According to the TUC, four myths exist: that the deficit was caused by out-of-control public spending; without drastic cuts, Britain would become the next Greece; Britain is like a household that has ‘maxed out’ on its credit card, and though it is a great sound bite, and one that the public can easily understand, that there is no alternative.

Barber noted that there is a “need to make jobs and growth the priority, keeping people in work, keeping tax revenues flowing, limiting the huge social costs of unemployment. And rather than swingeing cuts, we need a much more prominent role for progressive taxes - not least on the City and the bankers who caused this mess.”

EI supports the British TUC’s campaign, and calls on all teachers to join the major demonstration planned to take place on 26 March, with a message that pushes for a “genuine alternative with fair tax, growth and jobs at its heart, resonating with the public.”

source:http://www.ei-ie.org/news/news_details/1716

Pakistan schools campaign hopes to avert 'education emergency'

British-backed initiative aims to help overhaul a system that has left seven million children without primary education

Schoolchildren in Karachi. Pakistan has admitted it is failing to reach its UN education commitments

With millions of children out of school and one-fifth of teachers playing truant, Pakistan faces an "education emergency" that costs the economic equivalent of its flood disaster every year, a new campaign has warned.

The March for Education campaign, launched with British government backing, deploys stark statistics to draw a picture of a chronically ill system.

One in 10 of the world's out-of-school children live in Pakistan, a nuclear-armed state that last year spent just 2% of GDP on education.

The number of children absent from primary school – seven million – is roughly equivalent to the population of its second largest city, Lahore.

Half of the population is illiterate and progress is painfully slow – at present rates the government will not deliver universal education in Balochistan, the largest province, until 2100.

"It's a challenge of global dimensions," said campaign spokesman Fasi Zaka.

The campaign calls on Pakistanis to petition the prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, to double education spending. Oddly, the campaign comes from within government itself – a sign, officials say, of how serious the problem has become.

"When half your population has no skills or education, it's a serious issue of state security," said Shahnaz Wazir Ali, co-chair of the government taskforce behind the campaign. "That's why we're going public with this. It's not just a government issue, it's a society issue."

Campaigners want to raise awareness in a country that is becoming dangerously polarised. Pakistan's elite educates its offspring at expensive schools in Pakistan or abroad, and so education has slipped off the political agenda.

The taskforce estimates an extra £725m a year is needed to gets the school system into shape. But money is not the main issue. At least 26 poorer countries send more children to school, but Pakistan's system has been eviscerated by decades of cronyism and mismanagement.

Politicians use schools as patronage, and although public teachers are relatively well-paid, 15%-20% are absent from class on any given day.

"There's very little accountability," said Wazir Ali, whose co-chair is Sir Michael Barber, a former education adviser to Tony Blair.

Critics said the campaign fails to focus on the outdated curriculum in Pakistani schools that promotes a narrow view of Islam, hatred of Hindus and other bigotry.

"The emergency is not that there's too little education but that there's an excess of miseducation," said Pervez Hoodbhoy, an academic and campaigner. "Decades ago there was less literacy and fewer students in schools. But children were not fed their daily diet of hate, and open minds were more welcome than today."

Under constitutional changes introduced last April, education became a right for all Pakistanis under 16. But the country is lagging far behind its south Asian neighbours. India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka say they are on track to meet their education commitments under the UN's millennium development goals programme by 2015; Pakistan has already admitted failure.

Last week UK development secretary Andrew Mitchell announced a huge aid injection to provide Pakistan with an extra four million school places and 90,000 new teachers by 2015. But a large proportion of the money will go into the booming private education sector, especially in Punjab province, in the hope of bypassing the creaking public school sector.

The campaign hopes to invigorate debate by publishing British-style education league tables, broken down by constituency. But it has stoked controversy over its claim to debunk myths about the country's controversial madrasa sector.

Just 6% of Pakistani children attend such religious schools, the campaign says – a figure critics say is too high.

"It's a staggering number," said Hoodbhoy, calling for an education system that "demands questioning, teaches skills and downplays indoctrination in favour of knowledge and enlightenment".

source:http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/08/pakistan-faces-education-emergency

Panjab varsity to hold first alumni meet on Saturday

 Panjab University (PU), one of the oldest universities in the country that is PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh's alma mater, is organizing its first university-level alumni meet on Saturday.

Jammu and Kashmir Governor N.N. Vohra will deliver the inaugural address at the meet and several former students are expected to participate.

PU's Dean-Alumni Relations Bhupinder Singh Bhoop said around 225 alumni of 1970 batch and previous ones will be honored on the occasion.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been a former student as well as a faculty member of the economics department in the PU in 1950s and '60s. However, he is unlikely to participate in the event this time.

Various teaching departments of the university will also be holding events to mark the alumni meet.

Panjab University was established in 1882 at Lahore (now in Pakistan). It shifted to its present campus in Chandigarh's Sector 14 in late 1950s. It is now spread over an area of 550 acres in sectors 14 and 25 of Chandigarh.

The university has 75 teaching and research departments and 15 centres and chairs for teaching and research at the main campus located at Chandigarh.

PU has 188 affiliated colleges across Punjab and has three regional centres at Muktsar, Ludhiana and Hoshiarpur. It also has one regional rural centre in Punjab.

source:http://indiaedunews.net/Punjab/Panjab_varsity_to_hold_first_alumni_meet_on_Saturday_13542/

IIT-Bombay to consider proposal for setting up NY centre seriously

Mumbai: The Indian Institute of Technology - Bombay (IIT-B) has been invited by the New YorkCity Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) to submit a proposal for setting up a campus in the Big Apple for courses in applied science.

The tie up with IIT-B will allow the city to have a world class facility for applied sciences teaching and research along with an emphasis on applied engineering.

The proposal from IIT-B is being prepared by a committee at the institute and will be submitted by April 2011. The capital contribution will be made by the host city along with provision of land and other considerations for setting up the campus.

IIT-B Director Devang Khakhar who had been invited by the NYDEC to consider setting up the campus said that they were exploring the concept and a team was working on a feasible plan.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, commenting on the need for setting up the campus for applied science courses said that the city needed to optimize its business strengths. He said that the city was committed to finding the right partner for the applied sciences center and would also provide the support needed for setting up such a campus.

"The city will be providing all the support that will be needed for establishing such a facility because research in the fields of engineering, science and technology is creating the next generation of innovations in global business and this is what will be driving the economy forward," Bloomberg stated.

He further added that the city of New York already had all ingredients that would help in establishing the applied science and engineering center. These included a highly educated global population, unequalled financial and business community that would contribute in the capital and support for new ventures as well as existing top notch institutions that had their own latest researches. He said that these strengths could be capitalized upon for the new centre.

source:http://www.indiaedunews.net/IIT/IIT-Bombay_to_consider_proposal_for_setting_up_NY_centre_seriously_13481/

Things much better for Indian students in Australia - Envoy

Chandigarh: With things turning out to be a "lot calmer" in recent months vis-�-vis Indian students in Australia, Australian High Commissioner to India Peter N. Varghese said that the safety of Indian students there is an issue that is "behind us".

Varghese said the Australian government had taken a series of measures which had led to "things being a lot calmer than they were 12 months ago".

"Look, I think that the issue of safety of Indian students is behind us really. We have taken a series of measures at federal government level, state government level and in relation to our police forces," Varghese told the sources in an interview here.

"All of those measures, which range from law enforcement to registration of educational institutions and to changes to our migration policy - separating out education and migration. I think all of those have helped us to manage this issue and I think that things are a lot calmer now than they were 12 months ago," the envoy said.

There had been a string of attacks on Indian students in Australia over the past two years, causing an uproar in India. Nitin Garg, an Indian student, was fatally stabbed in Melbourne in a race attack that took place in January last year.

Varghese said that External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, who is leaving for Australia Tuesday for a two-day framework dialogue meeting, will be briefed on the issue of safety measures for Indian students in Australia.

"I think there is a recognition by the Indian government that we have taken the matter seriously enough and taken action on it. We would be happy to give Mr. Krishna an update on how things are and a full briefing on the measures that are taken," he said.

"We do regular surveys of attitudes of international students and the most recent surveys have shown that the Indian students in Australia continue to be very positive about their experience in Australia," Varghese asserted. Since a majority of the student community in Australia - which is around 300,000 - is from Punjab, the Australian government sees Punjab as an important place.

"At the people-to-people level, it (Punjab) is very important. We have a large number of student migration from Punjab. Because our trade with India is so dominated by commodities, Punjab is less important on the trading side because you are not a big buyer of coal, copper etc," he said.

Figures show that student migration from India to Australia has dropped by as much as 80 percent in recent months.

"We would not have opened a (trade) office here if we were not interested in expanding the relationship and if we didn't recognize that it is an important relationship for us."

"In Punjab, at the moment, not much is there on the investment front. The sort of things we are looking at is doing in the agriculture sector. That would involve more Australian technology and expertise than investment. Educational linkages also do not necessarily require investment," Varghese said.

But he added that there could be some investment in the IT (information technology) sector even though it is early days on this front.

"One of the reasons we set up a (trade) office here is that we would like to do some scoping of the opportunities here. We will see if we can make it more specific."

The high commissioner said that investment between India and Australia has not been as much as the potential is.

"Investment has kind of lagged behind in the economic relationship. I am very keen to see investment in both directions. We are now seeing some substantial Indian investment in Australia in coal which is very good," he said.

"The Australian investment in India is still very low and I think that more than anything else, it reflects on the trade between both countries. The big ticket items in Australian exports to India are all commodities and they don't generate big investment."

"Over time as the economic relationship base broadens and Australian companies get in other sectors, we will see more Australian investment into India. I want to see that happening more often," the high commissioner added. IANS