The two titans

Tendulkar and Murali have followed parallel careers to become their countries' greatest players. On Saturday, in their twilight, they face off in the biggest stage of all

Muttiah Muralitharan and Sachin Tendulkar: Will we see one moment of magic involving the two in their last game together?

Walking in to the freshly rebuilt Wankhede Stadium the day before the World Cup final, the most arresting visuals are the huge hoardings featuring Indian cricketers in body paint and primal scream. There's MS Dhoni looking slightly out of character; there are Harbhajan Singh and Virat Kohli in an extension of their on-field persona; and there is Virender Sehwag looking brooding and intense.

One cricketer is significant by his absence. Sachin Tendulkar doesn't endorse this cola brand anymore.

But just as well. For all of India, the World Cup has built itself up for the perfect finale, the dream finish: The Indian team winning it as the perfect gift for its greatest ever cricketer. It would complete the Sachin Tendulkar story. Throw in the hundredth hundred and the whole nation could die in peace. But Tendulkar isn't the only legend due a fairytale. There is another team in the match and what a farewell would it be forMuttiah Muralitharan, Sri Lanka's greatest cricketer.

And if precedent is anything to go by, the force is with Murali. The final ball of his Test career yielded a wicket, his 800th. The final ball of his international career at home fetched another and led to a comfortable win in the World Cup semi-final. Injury or not, who'd bet against him bowing on one leg and walking off the field with a handsome smile?

Fans in the subcontinent can sometimes be accused of missing the bigger picture by obsessing with individuals and certainly no one man can win the World Cup by himself. But that Tendulkar and Murali lend this World Cup final a certain poignancy and romance is unquestionable. Neither deserves disappointment but that's the cruelty of sport: for one dream realised tomorrow, there will be one broken. Murali has already been part of a World Cup-winning team but, if India lose tomorrow, Tendulkar will never know the feeling.

Neither deserves disappointment but that's the cruelty of sport: for one dream realised tomorrow, there will be one broken. Murali has already been part of a World Cup-winning team but, if India lose tomorrow, Tendulkar will never know the feeling.

Their craft and ways are different, but there are remarkable similarities between Tendulkar and Murali. Their careers have almost run concurrently and they have built records that are unlikely to be ever broken. Neither has allowed fame to corrupt them or divert them from their path. Both have made their nations proud not merely by their achievements on the field, but also with the dignity and grace they have conducted themselves off it. The controversies that Murali's action generated were not of his making; if anything, the way he has dealt with them has merely enhanced his reputation. And if Tendulkar can be accused of anything it is of being too reticent.

They have even had similar rivals. When they dazzled, Brian Lara and Shane Warne were more magical and compelling, but Tendulkar and Murali have endured because their devotion to the game was purer and they allowed nothing to distract them. And over the years they have become strong symbols of national identity in a way Lara and Warne could never have become.

And from their team-mates they have not merely earned respect but genuine affection. Murali has always been the soul of the Sri Lankan dressing room. Both Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara spoke endearingly about what a "nuisance" Murali is with his constant chattering about cricket. "He perhaps thinks he knows more about batting than Sachin," Jayawardene said. Murali, already a star, was the first team-mate to take him out for a meal when Jayawardene was a nobody, and he was neither the first nor the last one to receive his kindness. "Murali is always there for you," Jayawardene said.

Tendulkar has never been as effusive by nature but, from all accounts, young players are drawn to him. Unlike some of his predecessors whose presence was intimidating, Tendulkar has been a calming influence in the dressing room, leading not merely by example but by doing little things to put at ease younger players who might have otherwise been star-struck by him.

If there is anything lacking between them, it's the absence of the kind of rivalry forged between either Tendullkar and Warne, and Murali and Lara. Leave aside a grand series, or full innings or a spell, it's hard to remember a moment of magic involving them. And remarkably, even though India and Sri Lanka have played each other incessantly in the last few years, our ball-by-ball records show only 91 balls in ODIs and 366 balls in Tests between Tendulkar and Murali.

The World Cup can have only one winner tomorrow. Neither Tendulkar nor Murali would mind personal failure in their final World Cup match if their team ends up on the winner's podium. For cricket's sake, though, let's pray that these two titans rouse each other to a battle worthy of them.

source:http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/current/story/509078.html

France: Teachers reaffirm their commitment to solidarity and social justice

French teacher unions have issued a joint statement following on the recent district elections in France, which have seen a growth in support for the far right party, the National Front, asserting that “educators oppose the policies of the extreme right.“

In the declaration, EI’s French affiliates, the SGEN-CFDT, the UNSA Education, the FSU (union federation to which the SNEP, the SNES, the SNETAP and the SNUipp belong) and the FERC-CGT, said that “education staff teach co-operation and exchange; we work towards education and empowerment for all young people. That is why we cannot remain passive when the far right’s ideas gain support within the population.”

The unions also added that “the far right promotes hatred between ethnic groups and continually and unacceptably links immigration to insecurity. It seizes opportunities given by the effects of the economic and social crises, which increase inequalities and social injustices, to resort to scapegoating and pit one group against another.”

The unions also stated that “as educators, we promote the Republic’s values daily; as unionists, our struggle is guided by the values of solidarity and social justice.”

EI joins its member organisations in their uncompromising defence of education as a public service available to all.

source:http://www.ei-ie.org/news/news_details/1759

Morocco: teachers strike after violent protests

Teacher unionists in Morocco have staged a two-day nationwide strike after recent demonstrations for better benefits ended in violence.

One of EI’s national affiliates, the Syndicat national de l'enseignement (SNE-FDT), together with the Fédération nationale des fonctionnaires de l'enseignement (UNTM) and the Fédération nationale de l'enseignement (UMT), called on members to protest in the capital Rabat, from 29-29 March, the outcome of an earlier demonstration, in which they claim 165 people were hurt, 65 seriously, including people with broken limbs or gashes from beatings by police. Unions said 50 were taken to hospital. Interior Ministry and police officials declined to comment on the violence.

In a joint statement, unions say that “to show their solidarity with the teachers and condemn the barbarous way the peaceful demonstration of teachers was suppressed, they will stage a 48-hour strike.” They also demand that an investigation be opened into the police’s violent repression against teachers, who were voicing their concern about the national education system’s reform and demanding increased status and salaries depending on diplomas for teachers.

According to SNE-FDT, the strike participation’s rate on 29 March was 95%. Thousands of teachers were expected to take part in a sit-in in front of the Ministry of Education on 30 March.

EI urges Moroccan authorities to respect teachers’ trade union rights and ensure that investigations will be undertaken into the recent clash between police forces and teachers.

source:http://www.ei-ie.org/news/news_details/1760

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

Sorry, Seniors: College Admission Rates Are Down This Year

NewsFeed is sure there are plenty of high school seniors already sweating over the arrival of their college acceptance letters (or lack thereof), without us adding this disappointing news: Ivy League admission rates are way down this year.
Student newspapers at Cornell, Yale, Columbia, UPenn, Dartmouth, Brown, Princeton and Harvard are all reporting that as application rates have soared, admission rates have dropped. (Do colleges discriminate against poor whites?)
While some of the school's admission rates don't seem too bad - Cornell's accepted 18% of this year's applicants - many of the Ivies have turned away more than 90% of those who applied. Harvard and Columbia have the most daunting numbers, with 6.2 and 6.4 respective admission rates.
The Atlantic Wire has rounded up what most of the school's have been saying about the acceptance rates and (unsurprisingly) school officials are putting a positive spin on what the low numbers mean: they simply received far more outstanding applications this year.
Which, of course, is an extra ego boost for those who are lucky enough to get that acceptance letter. But for those who don't make the cut, well, there's not much anyone can say to ease the disappointment of not getting into your first choice school. On that note, good luck!

source:http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20110401/us_time/httpnewsfeedtimecom20110331sorryseniorscollegeadmissionratesaredownthisyearxidrssfullnationyahoo;_
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India vs Sri Lanka: ICC bans TV channels from covering World Cup final

NEW DELHI: A day before the World Cup final clash between India and Sri Lanka , the International Cricket Council (ICC) renewed the ban on Indian television news channels from covering the match at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai.

ICC on Friday cancelled the accreditation for all Indian news channels from being allowed inside the stadium.

ICC's cancellation came despite the intervention from the Information & Broadcast Ministry.

Information and broadcasting minister Ambika Soni had also taken up the issue with agriculture minister and ICC president Sharad Pawar after the Cabinet meeting on Thursday.

TV channels were permitted to cover the India-Pakistan World Cup semifinals after ICC lifted the ban on accredited journalists from the news channels for a day, following intervention by Soni. She had written a letter to Pawar requesting him to restore the status-quo and allow the electronic media to report on the event as was the case earlier. 

source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/et-cetera/india-vs-sri-lanka-icc-bans-tv-channels-from-covering-world-cup-final/articleshow/7842127.cmshttp:

Rising coal, crude prices will hurt corporate earnings, profit margins: UBS

HONG KONG: Profit margins of Indian companies will be under pressure as rising coal prices force them to pass on the increase in cost to customers, according to commodity analysts present at the UBS APAC Journalist Forum in Hong Kong. UBS expects thermal coal's contract price to remain above $100 per tonne over the next one year.

"Domestic prices for coal in India is still 20-25% lower than international prices," Peter Hickson, global basic materials strategist, UBS, told ET on the sidelines of the conference. "But then, even a small increase will affect the bottom lines of cement, power and steel companies, which use coal in a big way."

Demand for coal in India has grown at 9% a year for the past five years. The country, along with China, will play an important role in driving up global coal prices. India expects power coal usage to rise from 400 million tonnes to 600 million tonnes by 2015. Apart from coal, crude prices will also play a major role in the corporate earnings of Indian companies. Analysts expect the effect of oil prices to start showing on the earnings from the April-June quarter.

"We're not sure where oil prices are headed," Mr Hickson said. "In normal circumstances, we expect crude prices to hover at $85-90 per barrel level but there are many concerns. The crisis in Gulf countries, tight supply environment and steady demand will keep crude prices firm."

Problems in Japan , volatile west Asia and "slower" economic activities in China could have an impact on the overall commodity prices. Crude oil, platinum, phosphate, lead and palladium are on the 'preferred commodity list' while nickel, steel, uranium and aluminium have fallen out of favour - at least in the short-term - for most commodity analysts.

"Cost curve will be up for most commodities over the next few years," said Andrew Ferguson, CEO of APAC Resources . "It'll not be excess liquidity alone that will keep commodity prices up; demand-supply gap and high cost of extraction will add to the overall prices. Raising interest rates to control commodity price inflation will not bring about a big change in prices."

Copper prices are likely to be governed by China's seasonal restocking, which should last till May. The recent spike in steel prices in US and Europe is largely driven by an increase in seasonal activity, low steel inventories and raw material cost-push. Analysts are worried that key-end markets like construction, infrastructure and real estate have not contributed much to the demand for steel.

Gold prices may benefit from lingering European Union sovereign debt concerns, rising inflation fears and the West Asian crisis. "Gold prices will be firm this year. We do not expect a sharp spike up, but a gradual rise in prices. I am bullish on gold as an asset class," said Mr Ferguson.

source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/analysis/rising-coal-crude-prices-will-hurt-corporate-earnings-profit-margins-ubs/articleshow/7840309.cms