Blog 8: Australia's New Funding for Schools

Australian David Gonski noticed that there were some gaps in the funding for the states of this country when it dealt with education. He was working with the Federal Government to review what needed to be changed with the education funding or the system as a whole. He noticed that the country as a whole is not putting the adequate amount of money into education. He also noticed that some states get more funding for their schools than other poorer places. The review of the funding of education was completed in 2011 and this was a eye opener for most people. The most important gap that was seen in this review is that there is a gap between the achievements of students in different states. Some students were not at the same level of reading as other students the same age that were in richer schools. In the article it talks about if Australia does not put in action the reform that Gonski created that the public schools would get 390 million dollars less next year. There was one man, John-Paul Langbroek, who was not fond of the new funding. It talked about in the article how he was going to change the workplace agreements so the teachers and other school officials could not protest the new funding for education. The article explains that Mr. Langbroek is also the Queensland Minister of Education, and yet he still does not want any changes in the school system in his area.

It was a surprise that a country like Australia could have big problems like this and keep it hidden for so long. It was time that something changed for those students in the different states. It is a shame that students are not on the same playing field with their education because the funding was not fair. The article does not talk about why people decided to create this reform now, which would have been very important to talk about. When reading the article it just seems very random that a businessman and the Federal Government decided to change problems in the funding this year. The consequence of not following through with this reform is very serious to the life of the public schools. It looks like there could be something done other than taking that much money away from them. Some areas don’t have enough funds to begin with so why take more money away from them? In the article it explains the one man who does not want a new reform to happen. The article should have explained his reasoning for not liking the new reform. He could have had a very good reason why he did not want his area to be affected by the reform. Overall it may be time that Australia changes some things in their education so that everyone has an equal chance.  

Source:

Australia: education funding reform in jeopardy

http://www.ei-ie.org/en/news/news_details/2519 

Ashley Roberts

4/5/2013

11:03 am

blog 7: Bhutan Monastery Schools get Children's Rights

In Bhutan the monasteries are changing some of their policies deal with the children monks. There are new things that are now in place that protect the rights of the children. In this area many children turn to becoming a Buddhist because they come from very poor families and they will have a better life if they turn to the monks. The daily life of the children consists of the religion practices and that is also changing for them.

The article does not talk about education but it was very important to see that these children did not have rights. It is hard to think about that children in the world do not have basic rights like children do in the United States.

Source
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2013/feb/20/bhutan-children-rights-monastic-schools  

Bhutan brings children's rights to monastic schools

Ashley Roberts 

3/22/2013

10:59 pm

Blog 6: Sex for Education?

Women who attend Liberian Universities are facing many challenges when they attend these schools. The women that attend the schools in this area are being target by male professors as sex objects. Many students who are female have been harassed by male counterparts in forcing them into sex to get good grades. Women are afraid of speaking up about the sexual harassment because there is no support for the women and their rights as individuals. Students who have experienced sexual harassment form male professors and male students feel that they do not have a voice because the university officials value the professors and they will not get rid of them. The article also explains that in this area of Africa it is very common for women to be forced to have sex with professors in order to get passing grades.

One student who is rising to stop this harassment is a woman named Famata Adrekis. She is attending one of the universities that are having a problem in stopping the sexual harassment. What she is doing to help stop this problem is creating a save place at the university where others can talk about their situations and get the help that they need. Also in the article it explains that there is an organization called ActionAid that is also trying to change the problem practice of selling sex for grades in the universities in certain parts of Africa.

This problem needs to be addressed in a very quick manner. Women are selling their bodies just so they can get a better education; that just seems very unfair for the fact men do not have to do the same. The female student that was mentioned in the article is doing a very brave thing in stopping the practice of transactional sex. Women in these areas need to have more rights in allowing them to obtain higher education and not fearing that they need to “pay” the male teacher in sex in order to pass. University officials need to change some policies to stop this practice that is placing fear in women’s lives. One thing that needs to change is the punishment that the professors will face if they force a female student to have sex with them; that type of relationship is not very professional. Professors are very important to a university but they should not have too much power to where they are forcing themselves on females. Rules and regulations need to be placed because women are not second rate in society. They deserve to have an education and not fear that they will have crude comments told to them by professors or other male classmates. 

Source:

Liberian women battle against 'sex for grades' at universities

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2013/mar/04/liberian-women-battle-sex-grades-universities

Ashley Roberts

3/8/2013

8:52pm 

France Shortens Summer Break

In a previous article about France’s education it explained that the school week was going to become longer and the school days were going to be cut short. In this article it explains on top of the school week getting longer and the days becoming shorter the break that the students get for the summer will be getting cut to only six weeks. The man behind all the changes for the education system for this country is Vincent Peillon. In this article and in the past article about France it explained that teachers and parents went on strike because of all the changes.  This new change to the summer break has also angered many people. The education minster tried to explain that the change for the summer break will not be put into place until the year 2015; but that still made people very angry.

The present of the country was also making changes for the education system. He was the man who decided to take away the mid-week break away from students because he felt that the school week is already short enough. He wanted this new plan to be placed into action next year. The main reasons for all these new changes for the school system is because France is behind all the other countries in their standards.

This article just re-insures that there needs to be something else fixed in the school system in France. Taking away days in the summer break will not bring the country up to the standards. Only allowing six weeks of a break will not make students want to do any better on their school work. Peter Gumbel makes a very good point about how long school days was a part of the problem but not the only thing that was wrong. The people in the education department need to look at all the smaller parts and not just one aspect. Peter Gumbel also explains that the culture of the classroom in France is just based on what a student cannot do; it is harsh on the students who have to attend schools here. It just seems wrong that students are not accepted for what they did, but put down because it was not the very best they can do. If students keep getting this type of attention many of them will not want to even try. The system needs to look at the culture and how maybe that is playing a role on why students do not try their best in the classroom. 

Source

French education minister targets sacrosanct summer holidays

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/25/french-education-minister-summer-holidays

Ashley Roberts

3/1/2013

5:22 pm

Blog 4: Families struggle in China to give their child higher education

Many rural families in China are having a difficult in time obtaining money so that their children can go to college. In the article it talks about how there are many people trying to go to college but many of them are having a hard time in getting the funds to help pay for all the tuition and fees that come along with higher education.  Many parents have to work two or even three jobs just so they can pay for schooling.

The article takes the life of one family in an area called HANJING, China. The parents have one daughter named Wu. They have been working two jobs each just they could get their only daughter through elementary school to high school. The father works in dangerous conditions in a coal mine just to bring two hundred dollars home for the fees of school. The family lives in a small home with only two rooms that they built themselves. The parents of Wu have given everything up just so they can see their very own daughter go to college so the family could have a better life when she graduates. In the article it states that the parents have an elementary education, they barely passed the third grade.

They are not the only family that has to give up almost everything for a hope of a better life. Many families that live in rural China have to work many hours so their child can go to schools and get a better life. In the article it talks about how parents have to work up to fifteen months just so they can afford higher education for their child. It also talks about how families who are lower in economic status have a more difficult time in getting financial aid or scholarships.  Having to pay for school is not the only thing that is a burden on rural families who live in China. Many families will hire tutors for their child so they can score hire on the placement tests that they will have to take before getting accepted into college. The parents feel that if their child scores high enough they will be able to go to one of the better Universities and not a polytechnic. In the article it explains that a polytechnic school is similar to the United States community college but the fees are more expensive than a University in China. Many of these schools are run by local governments and are allowed to charge twice as much for fees and tuition as what a University would charge.  

As the article goes on Wu does not want to stay in college and wants to work. Her parents are very upset that their daughter wants to leave school because they invested in so much into her. Wu knows that if she graduates from college there may be no job waiting for her when she gets out into the work force. There are so many students graduating from college there are not enough jobs for them all when they are ready to work.

The article is a huge eye opener to a student who is going to a University in the United States. It is a shocker to read that the parents have to pay for all the schooling for their child; there is no free public education over in China. What is most upsetting to read is that there is not a huge need to change the way financial aid is given out to students. In the article it explains that money is given out based on grades only and not if the student is in need for it. That does not make a whole lot of sense to do it that way. If a student is poor they will not be able to afford college, even at a community college level. So why are they not given any help from the government so they can be successful as the other students who are “richer”? It does not make any sense to help the ones who every person knows has the money to afford the best colleges and the best tutors so they can get the best job once they graduate. The students who are from poorer families have the right to an education and the government needs to see that. Every child has potential to do great things when they become adults and if they cannot see that then they will never be able to grow as a country. The other thing that is so upsetting is that the students who come from poorer families have to pay more so they can get into college. That cycle will never be able to be broken if they have to keep paying more for college; they will keep being poor because of all the money they are giving away just so they can get into a horrible school. It is not fair for their families that work so hard to make barely any money and have them give away that away in hopes their child can get a good job that support everyone in the family.  

“All the parents in the village want their children to go to college, because only knowledge changes your fate,” was something that Wu’s mother said in the article. It stuck out as something very heart wrenching.  She and her husband have sacrificed so much to have their daughter go to school and get a higher education. She knows that there is a slim chance that their child will find a job because she is competing with so many other graduates for the same job. Yet they still hope that their child will come out on top and they will be able to rest easy knowing they will have support from their daughter. They are not the only people who hope this happens; many other families are hoping for the same outcome. They have spent so much money on their own to help their child succeed and the government does not see that they need help. The poor should have type of help that they can get so they do not have to work so many jobs for their child’s education. There people who are out there that would argue that if they are poor they will not be able to move up in society but not every person is the same. Wu worked so hard to get to where she is at and she deserves to get some aid to relieve the burden on her family. If nothing happens then she will never be able to get out of the lower level of the economic status.

Source 

In China, Families Bet It All on College for Their Children

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/17/business/in-china-families-bet-it-all-on-a-child-in-college.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=education& 

Ashley Roberts

2/20/2013

4:57pm

Blog 3: France and their education

In France the president, François Hollande, is changing the way the students school week will be than what it used to be in the past The school week for students is already long and on top of that they have a midweek break from school. On a typical school day students would be going to school around 8:30 in the morning and would not be getting out of school till 4:30 at night or even later than that. The schedule for the school week dates back to 1882 in which Roman Catholic Church had a very big role on education. The reason why there is one day out of the week where there is no school is because the church felt that there needed one day for religious practices of the people who live in France. 

Times are changing though; now there will be school on Wednesday and the rest of the week the school day will be cut down by 45 minutes. In the past the day that students do not have to attend school they would have other activates that they could be involved in like music or sports. The families that were not that well off would have to work multiple jobs so they could place their child in child care. Even though things are changing to help students succeed in education many people are angry and the choice the president is making. A man named Sébastien Sihr stated that “We have to put an end to this magical thinking that just stretching the school week over four and a half days will improve students’ performance.” People believe that things in the school system need to change other than making the school week longer. Some people feel that knowing what the students are being taught and to obtain better teaches would be a better idea than having the students sit longer in school. Others feel that the criteria that are placed in front of the students are taking away from their critical thinking skills as well as creativity away. Most of the time students are given “rote learning” where the main goal is reading comprehension and math.

 There have been over seven thousand teachers and parents are protesting the new plan of adding an extra day and shorting the days of the school week. There are many groups, like teacher unions, that are angry at the choice to go through with the plan of the reform because the president did not get the different groups consultation. The president is worried about the groups and how they are reacting but he has a plan that will work out. He plans on hiring 60,000 new teachers in the next five years even though there are not a lot of funds to hire that many teachers.  

There are a lot of things that France needs to work out. The time span that they want is fixed is really unrealistic. The way that school has been function with one day off and long hours has been going on since 1882. That is a very long time a system has been working and never been changed until now. The president needs to look at the other factors that can be playing a role on why the performance of the students is not up to standards with the other countries. In the article it talks about how third graders spend 847 hours a year in the class room. That is a very long time for any person to imagine sitting in a classroom. A person may think that these students are getting a good mixture of different subject matter; that is not the case. Most of the time students are just learning math and reading. How could any person spend long hours on those two subjects? The president needs to view all the components of the education system before he decides to change something. There is also a huge worry about how many teachers he is going to hire in the next five years, 60,000. That is a very large number for any country to comprehend. In the article it talks about how France is have money issues; so it does not make any sense to hire a ton of teachers knowing that their pay will be very small and the schools will not have the funds for resources.

Also it talks about how many people feel that how the school system is “widening inequalities between rich and poor”. It is happening because with the one day having no school for one day the families who are lower in economic status have to work multiple jobs just to keep the children in day care or other extra circular activities. On top of the gap among the rich and poor there is now starting to feel like a gap among the genders. Women feel that because of the school system the government is preventing them from working full time jobs. They have to work many different jobs just to be able to support their children in school and all the extra things that they do outside of school. There are many issues that are happening because the school system needs a reform. The only problem that is happening is that the president is trying to fix everything at once and not looking at the little pieces that make up the whole.   

Source: 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/12/world/europe/12iht-france12.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&ref=education 

French Plan to Add to Already Lengthy School Days Angers Parents and Teachers

Ashley Roberts

2/15/2013

11:48am 

Blog 2: Kenya's Refugees get an Education

The North- Eastern part of Kenya is getting a new idea on how to better the lives of the refugees that live in one of the largest camps in this area. What is actually going on it that a new school called Dadaab campus of Kenyatta University is opening up. This is not just a typical education that will help people be safe in their daily life, like how to obtain healthy drinking water. The education that the people are looking forward to is being able to obtain a diploma from this new university. People who go to this school can get an undergraduate or masters in many different studies like public policy. One person who is very excited to go to this new school is a man named Noor Hassan. He explained in the article that he wants to improve his skills so he can later move to Somalia.

There have been problems since this idea came up; there have been wars and a lot of them.  The location of the refugee camps plays a very big role on why so many wars have an effect on the new school and also the refugees.  The biggest reason is that the camp and school are both located on the corner of the county of Kenya which is very close to Somalia. There would not be any problems for the people of the camp, but there is a war against the Islamic insurgents of al-Shabaab.  These problems are not the only things that the people have to worry about. There have been explosive devices that have targeted many police patrols that are in the areas of the camps. Some aid workers for the camps have also been kidnapped and because of that the movement on where the aid can go is now very limited.  Even with these problems that the camp and University is facing other people are a part of a group called Windle Trust are not stopping until the refugees’ lives are better off.  

Marangu Njogu who is the director of Windle Trust is also a very important person in a project titled Borderless Higher Education for Refugees.  He feels that the people need to be educated so they can have their own power of their lives. The main goal of this program is to prepare the people to go back home and to have an education when they do leave the camps. Along with the education the program will not have any tuition fees for the people who are going to the University at the refugee camp in Kenya. There will also be more courses available for the people such as online classes. A fund will also be opened so that there will be a way for people to obtain food and transportation to get to the University. Technology is also another thing that is improved for the refugees. With the help of Microsoft and Kenyan telecoms there will be new computer labs opened and laptops will be given to classes to keep track of attendance and other education information. 

This whole idea of opening a University by a refugee camp in Kenya is a very excellent idea. Having people now in charge in their own lives and to stop being afraid of how they will survive each day seems like a very positive step forward from the people who have to live at these camps. In the article Marangu Njogu explains that “education is as essential as emergency service”. This is very true because without education people will always be stuck at where they are in life, they will never be able to grow as an individual. These people were misplaced and they lost everything when they came to the camp in Kenya, they have the right to get a better education so their lives can become better once they do go home. Another thing that I hope works in this new program is the further education of girls in the area. Many countries around the world only allow education for girls to a certain extent to where they have to stop. This is a very new thing that I hope works. Every person, men or women, deserve a higher education and with this new idea women will be able to achieve a diploma in an undergraduate or master’s program. This program is also very new and with knowing this there are many bugs that will have to be worked out over the years but if the people of the community and program directors have hope for this University they will be able to overcome many of the struggles that may happen. 

Source:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2013/jan/31/kenya-dadaab-innovative-educate-refugees 

Date 2/8/2013 

12:09 pm 

Blog 1: China's Education

China is starting to change their ways about how they view higher education. An article in the New York Times talked about how China is now making a new investment in "human Capital". What this means is that the leaders of the country are placing more money into education and helping many people obtain some sort of higher learning. People who live in this country feel that it is time for a change in the education system.  How people thought of education in the past was that a small amount of higher education officials lead semi educated workers. Now China wants a more people in the public to be educated so that the population looks similar to the middle class of the United States. The country's main goal is to get out of the area of cheap labor and finally be able to compete with the white collar workers of the United States and in Europe.

There is a growing supply of universities that are popping all over China. One man that is helping the growth of universities is Li Shufu. In the article it talks about how with the help of Mr. Shufu's help there were three universities that allow over 20,000 students to attend. With the growing number of students graduating from these new universities they are being hired by very well-known companies like Intel. There is a problem that is arising because of the fast growth of universities in China and that is there is a shrinking supply of qualified professors for the new schools. Many universities are having a difficult time in finding professors that have had experience in teaching at the university level. In the article there is other problem that is being noticed since China starting expanding the education system for higher learning. The problem that the country has faced other than lack of teachers; they have also facing the problem of many students studying abroad to western schools. Many students are noticing that they can excel in any university in the west because they do not have the same high standards like Chinese universities. 

The change that China is facing is in much need. In the article it talks about how many people want a change in how the business world in china works. In the past there were very few people who were "elite" because of their higher education. The only problem with running companies like that is the fact that many different countries are competing against one another to be the best. If China even wants to be a country that can keep up with other countries they needed to change who is going into the business world, and that is what they did. Creating many new universities was a very good place to start in creating better qualified graduates. In building better schools for college age students the country is allowing more students who meet the standards to attend and with that a better chance of working with well- known companies. There are many good things that China is doing for its college students. One thing that was shown in the article that was a positive thing was the low tuition rates that the students have to pay. It stated in the article the "annual tuition is a little less than $1,000"; that is no where as expensive as colleges are in the United States. Many students have to pay way more money than that if they want to attend a university. There are some things that are going to hurt the progress of China's growth in universities, and that is how the professors teach. The country may have very new campuses for the upcoming college students but unless the professors can stop the "outdated" method of teaching things may slow down in the near future. Many professors in the universities are not changing the old way of standing in front of a class and lecturing for a given amount of time. When this happens many students will find other places to go find an education; that is what some are actually doing. In the article it talked about how many students are going to other universities in different countries in study abroad programs. Many students like how the United States universities are ran and they tend to flock every year to the universities here. If China does not want all these new universities to fail they need to realize that students do not learn best by just listening; they want to interact and talk about the subject. 

Source:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/17/business/chinas-ambitious-goal-for-boom-in-college-graduates.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=education

Ashley Roberts
1/25/2013
1:52 AM

Education

I decided to pick Education for my subject of my blog. The reason I chose this is because I want to go into education for my future career. I am also interested in how the rest of the world creates their own education system and how well they compare to our very own in the United States.

Ashley Roberts
1/17/2013
11:12pm