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State school - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

  • Education in Malaysia is overseen by two government ministries
  • Ministry of Education for matters up to the secondary level
  • Ministry of Higher Education for tertiary education
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  • education is the responsibility of the federal government, each state has an Education Department to help coordinate educational matters in their respective states
  • By law, primary education is compulsory
  • Education may be obtained from government-sponsored schools, private schools, or through homeschooling
  • Swedish state schools are funded by tax money
  • for both primary and secondary school (Swedish: grundskola), high school (Swedish: gymnasium) and universities
  • There are private schools as well who also receive funding from the government, but they may charge a fee from the parents.
  • Compulsory education starts at seven years of age, with an optional year in förskola (pre-school).
  • Swedish children take national exams at grades 3, 6 and 9.
  • Swedish primary school is split into three parts; Lågstadiet – “the low stage”, which covers grades 1 to 3. This is where you learn the basics of the three main subjects – in Swedish called kärnämnen – Swedish, English and mathematics. It also includes some natural science. Mellanstadiet – “the middle stage”, which covers grades 4 to 6, introduces the children to more detailed subjects. Woodwork and needlework, social and domestic science, and even a second, foreign language in grade 6, a B-språk (B-language). The languages available are usually French, Spanish or German depending on the school. Högstadiet, “the high stage”, is the last stage of the compulsory education, between grades 7 and 9. This is when studies get more in-depth and are taken to an international level.
  • When applying to gymnasium (high schools) or universities, a meritvärde (“meritous point value”) is calculated.
  • They first receive grades in grade 6. The grading system is letter-based, ranging from A-F, where F is the lowest grade and A is the highest.
  • Children not being approved in Swedish, English and mathematics will have to study at a special high school program called the “individual program”. Once they are approved, they may apply to an ordinary high school program. Swedes study at high school for three years, between the ages of 16 and 18
  • In the United Kingdom, the term "state school" refers to government-funded schools which provide education free of charge to pupils. The contrast to this are fee-paying schools, such as "independent (or private) schools" and "public schools".
  • In England and Wales, the term "public school" is often used to refer to fee-paying schools. "Public" is used here in a somewhat archaic sense, meaning that they are open to anyone who can meet the fees
  • Danish School system is supported today by tax-based governmental and municipal funding from day care through primary and secondary education to higher education
  • there are no tuition fees for regular students in public schools and universities.
  • Denmark[edit] Main article: Education in Denmark
  • Danish public primary schools, covering the entire period of compulsory education, are called folkeskoler (literally 'people's schools' or 'public schools'). The Folkeskole consists of a voluntary pre-school class, the 9-year obligatory course and a voluntary 10th year. It thus caters for pupils aged 6 to 17.
  • also possible for parents to send their children to various kinds of private schools. These schools also receive government funding, although they are not public. In addition to this funding, these schools may charge a fee from the parents.
  • France[edit] Main article: Secondary education in France
  • French educational system is highly centralized, organized, and ramified
  • hree stages: primary education (enseignement primaire); secondary education (enseignement secondaire); tertiary or college education (enseignement supérieur)
  • Primary Schooling in France is mandatory as of age 6
  • Many parents start sending their children earlier though, around age 3 as kindergarten classes (maternelle) are usually affiliated to a borough's (commune) primary school. Some even start earlier at age 2 in pré-maternelle or garderie class, which is essentially a daycare facility
  • French secondary education is divided into two schools: the collège for the first four years directly following primary school; the lycée for the next three years
  • baccalauréat (also known as bac) is the end-of-lycée diploma students sit for in order to enter university,
  • comparable to British A-Levels, American SATs, the Irish Leaving Certificate and German Abitur.
  • baccalauréat général which is divided into 3 streams of study, called séries. The série scientifique (S) is concerned with mathematics and natural sciences, the série économique et sociale (ES) with economics and social sciences, and the série littéraire (L) focuses on French and foreign languages and philosophy.
  • Education in Malaysia is overseen by two government ministries: the Ministry of Education for matters up to the secondary level, and the Ministry of Higher Education for tertiary education
  • Malaysia
  • education is the responsibility of the federal government, each state has an Education Department to help coordinate educational matters in their respective states
  • Education may be obtained from government-sponsored schools, private schools, or through homeschooling.
  • By law, primary education is compulsory
  • United Kingdom[edit] See also: State-funded schools (England)
  • In the United Kingdom, the term "state school" refers to government-funded schools which provide education free of charge to pupils. The contrast to this are fee-paying schools, such as "independent (or private) schools" and "public schools".
  • In England and Wales, the term "public school" is often used to refer to fee-paying schools. "Public" is used here in a somewhat archaic sense, meaning that they are open to anyone who can meet the fees, distinguished from religious schools which are open only to members of that religion
  • The National Curriculum is followed in all local authority maintained schools in England, Northern Ireland and Wales
  • he vast majority of state-funded schools are under the control of local councils
  • are referred to in official literature as "maintained schools".
  • exceptions are a minority of secondary schools in England funded directly by central government, known as academies and City Technology Colleges.
  • See Education in England.
  • Some maintained schools are partially funded by religious or other charitable bodies; these are known as voluntary controlled schools, voluntary aided schools or foundation schools.
izz aty

Independent school (United Kingdom) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

  • History
  • Edward Thring of Uppingham School introduced major reforms, focusing on the importance of the individual and competition, as well as the need for a "total curriculum" with academia, music, sport and drama being central to education
  • The Independent Schools Council say that UK independent schools receive approximately £100m tax relief due to charitable status whilst returning £300m of fee assistance in public benefit and relieving the maintained sector (state schools) of £2bn of costs
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  • They were schools for the gentlemanly elite of Victorian politics, armed forces and colonial government. Often successful businessmen would send their sons to a public school as a mark of participation in the elite
  • the public school system influenced the school systems of the British Empire, and recognisably "public" schools can be found in many Commonwealth countries
  • The Direct Grant Grammar Schools (Cessation of Grant) Regulations 1975 required these schools to choose between full state funding as comprehensive schools and full independence
  • Until 1975 there had been a group of 179 academically selective schools drawing on both private and state funding, the direct grant grammar schools
  • Both these trends were reversed during the 1980s, and the share of the independent schools reached 7.5 percent by 1991
  • 119 of these schools became independent.
  • share of the independent sector fell from a little under 8 percent in 1964 to reach a low of 5.7 percent in 1978
  • changes since 1990 have been less dramatic, participation falling to 6.9 percent by 1996 before increasing very slightly after 2000 to reach 7.2 percent, as seen at present.
  • England
  • As of 2011[update] there were more than 2,600 independent schools in the UK educating some 628,000 children, comprising over 6.5 percent of UK children, and more than 18 percent of pupils over the age of 16
  • According to a study by Ryan & Sibetia,[7] "the proportion of pupils attending independent schools in England is currently 7.2 percent (considering full-time pupils only)".
  • Most independent schools, particularly the larger and older institutions, have charitable status
  • Most public schools developed significantly during the 18th and 19th centuries, and came to play an important role in the development of the Victorian social elite
  • Independent schools, like state grammar schools, are free to select their pupils, subject to general legislation against discrimination
  • Selection
  • principal forms of selection are financial, in that the pupil's family must be able to pay the school fees, and academic, with many administering their own entrance exams - some also require that the prospective student undergo an interview, and credit may also be given for musical, sporting or other talent
  • Nowadays most schools pay little regard to family connections, apart from siblings currently at the school.
  • Only a small minority of parents can afford school fees averaging over £23,000 per annum for boarding pupils and £11,000 for day pupils, with additional costs for uniform, equipment and extra-curricular facilities.[2][12]
  • Scholarships and means-tested bursaries to assist the education of the less well-off are usually awarded by a process which combines academic and other criteria.[13][14]
  • generally academically selective, using the competitive Common Entrance Examination at ages 11–13
  • Schools often offer scholarships to attract abler pupils (which improves their average results)
  • Poorly-performing pupils may be required to leave,
  • Conditions
  • generally characterised by more individual teaching
  • much better pupil-teacher ratios at around 9:1;[16]
  • more time for organised sports and extra-curricular activities
  • longer teaching hours (sometimes including Saturday morning teaching) and homework, though shorter terms
  • a broader education than that prescribed by the national curriculum, to which state school education is in practice limited.
  • Educational achievement is generally very good
  • As boarding schools are fully responsible for their pupils throughout term-time, pastoral care is an essential part of independent education, and many independent schools teach their own distinctive ethos, including social aspirations, manners and accents, associated with their own school traditions
  • Most offer sporting, musical, dramatic and art facilities, sometimes at extra charges, although often with the benefit of generations of past investment
  • more emphasis on traditional academic subjects
  • Independent school pupils are four times more likely to attain an A* at GCSE than their non-selective state sector counterparts and twice as likely to attain an A grade at A-level
  • Some schools specialise in particular strengths, whether academic, vocational or artistic, although this is not as common as it is in the State sector.
  • A much higher proportion go to university
  • set their own discipline regime
  • In England and Wales there are no requirements for teaching staff to have Qualified Teacher Status or to be registered with the General Teaching Council
  • impact of independent schools on the British economy
  • 2014 a report from Oxford Economics highlighted the impact that independent schools have on the British economy
  • independent schools support an £11.7 billion contribution to gross value added (GVA) in Britain. This represents the share of GDP that is supported by independent schools
  • Independent schools support 275,700 jobs across Britain, around 1.0% of all in employment in Britain
  • the report quantified the savings to the taxpayer derived from c.620,000 British pupils at independent schools choosing not to take up the place at a state school to which they are entitled. This results in an annual saving to the taxpayer of £3.9 billion, the equivalent of building more than 590 new free schools each year
  • the report highlighted the additional value to Britain’s GDP that results from the higher educational performance achieved by pupils at independent schools
  • many of the best-known public schools are extremely expensive, and many have entry criteria geared towards those who have been at private "feeder" preparatory-schools or privately tutored
  • the achievement of pupils at independent schools in Britain results in an estimated additional annual contribution to GDP of £1.3 billion.
  • Criticisms
  • often criticised for being elitist
  • often seen as outside the spirit of the state system
  • the treatment of the state sector as homogeneous in nature is difficult to support
  • Although grammar schools are rare, some of them are highly selective and state funded boarding schools require substantial fees
  • Even traditional comprehensive schools may be effectively selective because only wealthier families can afford to live in their catchment area
  • may be argued that the gap in performance between state schools is much larger than that between the better state and grammar schools and the independent sector
  • Smithers and Robinson's 2010 Sutton Trust commissioned study of social variation in comprehensive schools (excluding grammar schools) notes that "The 2,679 state comprehensive schools in England are highly socially segregated: the least deprived comprehensive in the country has 1 in 25 (4.2 percent) of pupils with parents on income benefits compared with over 16 times as many (68.6 percent) in the most deprived comprehensive"
  • Every 2.3 pupils at an independent school supports one person in employment in Britain
  • large number (c. one third[citation needed]) of independent schools provide assistance with fees
  • The Thatcher government introduced the Assisted Places Scheme in England and Wales in 1980, whereby the state paid the school fees for those pupils capable of gaining a place but unable to afford the fees
    • izz aty
       
      1980 Assisted Places Scheme: financial aid
  • The scheme was terminated by the Labour government in 1997, and since then the private sector has moved to increase its own means-tested bursaries.
  • Some parents complain that their rights and their children’s are compromised by vague and one-sided contracts which allow Heads to use discretionary powers unfairly, such as in expulsion on non-disciplinary matters. They believe independent schools have not embraced the principles of natural justice as adopted by the state sector, and private law as applied to Higher Education
  • Nowadays, independent school pupils have "the highest rates of achieving grades A or B in A-level maths and sciences" compared to grammar, specialist and mainstream state school
  • pupils at independent schools account for a disproportionate number of the total number of A-levels in maths and sciences.
  • In 2006, pupils at fee-paying schools made up 43 percent of those selected for places at Oxford University and 38 percent of those granted places at Cambridge University (although such pupils represent only 18 percent of the 16 years old plus school population)
  • A major area of debate in recent years has centred around the continuing charitable status of independent schools, which allows them not to charge VAT on school fees. Following the enactment of the Charities Bill, which was passed by the House of Lords in November 2006, charitable status is based on an organisation providing a "public benefit" as judged by the Charity Commission.[23]
  • "ceteris paribus, academic performance at university is better the more advantaged is the student's home background".
  • In 2002, Jeremy Smith and Robin Naylor
  • they also observed that a student educated at an independent school was on average 6 percent less likely to receive a first or an upper second class degree than a student from the same social class background, of the same gender, who had achieved the same A-level score at a state school
  • The same study found wide variations between independent school, suggesting that students from a few of them were in fact significantly more likely to obtain the better degrees than state students of the same gender and class background having the same A-level score
  • Richard Partington at Cambridge University[29] showed that A-level performance is "overwhelmingly" the best predictor for exam performance in the earlier years ("Part I") of the undergraduate degree at Cambridge
  • A study commissioned by the Sutton Trust[30] and published in 2010 focussed mainly on the possible use of U.S.-style SAT tests as a way of detecting a candidate's academic potential. Its findings confirmed those of the Smith & Naylor study in that it found that privately educated pupils who, despite their educational advantages, have only secured a poor A-level score, and who therefore attend less selective universities, do less well than state educated degree candidates with the same low A-level attainment
  • Independent sector schools regularly dominate the top of the A-level league tables, and their students are more likely to apply to the most selective universities; as a result independent sector students are particularly well represented at these institutions, and therefore only the very ablest of them are likely to secure the best degrees.
  • In 2013 the Higher Education Funding Council for England published a study [31] noting, amongst other things, that a greater percentage of students who had attended an independent school prior to university achieved a first or upper second class degree compared with students from state schools
izz aty

What you can claim | Disability Rights UK - 0 views

  • education benefits education grants education maintenance allowance
  • Disabled students
  • education grants education maintenance allowance
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  • education benefits - You may be able to get free school meals for your children if you are on a low income. Local authorities also supply free school meals for certain age groups. You may also be able to get help with the costs of travel to school or be entitled to a school clothing grant. For more information contact your Local Authority. education funding - For information on funding further, higher and postgraduate education see our education factsheets page. education grants - see Factsheet F48 - grants for students aged 16 and over in school and further education.
izz aty

What's the big difference between charter schools and free schools? | Education | The G... - 0 views

  • By comparing students in each charter school with similar students attending a local traditional school, researchers measured the impact that attending each institution had.
  • The 2013 study shows that the effect of school type is largely negligible when looking across students as a whole. But for poor students, especially poor minority ethnic students, charter schools bestowed substantial learning benefits.
  • there is a huge amount of variation across schools and geographical regions. Even if they were, England's policy is not like the American one.
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  • in New Orleans. Prior to Hurricane Katrina, the city was notorious for its poorly performing schools, but since then, 88 charters have opened and are considered a lead cause of improved student achievement. What the policy's proponents won't tell you, though, is that charter school proposals in New Orleans are decided upon by the local school district, or they are independently evaluated.
  • In Florida, another frequently quoted "success" story, local districts have complete control over charter school applications.
  • with England, where local authorities are completely cut out of the picture, leading to the opening of free schools in areas with neither enough pupils to fill them nor any land for suitable premises.
  • England's lack of transparency on free schools is an embarrassment. Given that the schools are entirely taxpayer funded, the fact that it took a two-year legal battle before the British Humanist Society was granted access to the names and locations of proposed schools is absurd. A second lengthy struggle concluded last month, when the National Union of Teachers finally secured the release of statutory "impact reports" detailing the knock-on effects of opening each free school
  • While these releases are welcome, it is a shame they arrived only after legal appeals, and the public still has no way of knowing what the new school founders promised in their applications, whether the mandatory consultations with local people were faithfully represented, or why proposals were accepted or rejected – leaving some people questioning whether all applicants have been treated equally.
  • At the hearings, local people are allowed to voice concerns or support for the planned school, obliging the potential founders to listen to the community they will serve
  • Any government writing a policy specifically avoiding this step must be doing so because it believes ordinary people could not possibly add anything to its perfect decision-making
  • That a government can be open about the application process yet still achieve great schools is perfectly demonstrated by Massachusetts and New York. Both have high-scoring charter schools and both require applicants who wish to start a school to face public hearings as part of the application process
  • The impact of charter schools appears to derive from the fact that those that are failing are closed more quickly than failing traditional schools
  • in England, there is no consistent process for closing a failing school or transferring its ownership to another group, with some poor performers forced to "restart", whereas others are left alone
  • The Credo report also admits that many charter schools perform worse than traditional ones
izz aty

Free school: Conservatives eye the Swedish model - Education News - Education - The Ind... - 0 views

  • Each youngster is set weekly goals and gets a 15-minute briefing with their own tutor at the end of the week to check on progress and discuss how to reach the targets setfor the following week.
  • The big difference between the education system in Sweden and the UK is that, in Sweden parents are given an educational voucher for each child, and they use that voucher to apply for any school they want to.
  • Bertil Ostoberg, the Swedish Secretary of State for Education, summarised the scheme as "providing freedom of choice for the parents and the pupils, much wider freedom of choice". He added: "They have to compete to provide a high quality to get pupils. We think this competition has led to a higher quality in the system."
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  • a wide variety of providers, with Waldorf Steiner, Montessori, confessional (faith schools) and traditionally-run schools which emphasise the basics and are strong on discipline.
  • Claes Bromander, vice-chairman of the Swedish Association of Independent Schools and principal of Vaxjo Fria Gymnasiet. "They reinvest most of the profit. Swedish TV has done some research: the 60 biggest providers that are run as companies have a turnover of about 10 billion kroner (£804m)."
  • The Swedish government has made a determined effort to make the admissions system for its independent "free" schools fair. They operate a "first come, first served" policy, announcing the date for the start of admissions and closing once they have filled up all the places.
  • Research for the Swedish National Agency for Education shows it has caused increased segregation, with better-educated parents more likely to opt for an independent "free" school place.
  • Mervyn Benford, a former primary school head from the UK who has spent years in Sweden advising ministers on their inspection system thinks there could be another reason for the "free" schools' higher results. "They are smaller than the municipal schools," he said. "They can give pupils more attention."
  • All political parties – the Conservative-led coalition in government at present and the opposition Social Democrats – are committed to maintaining the system, although the Social Democrats have called for a freeze on new schools, with pupil numbers falling. "We have to shrink the system," said Maria Sellberg, vice-principal of Norre Real High School, a top-performing public school in Stockholm. "Shrinking such an organisation costs a lot but the number of students [nationally] is decreasing. You squander taxpayers' money on this over-capacity; there is a great bleed-away of taxpayers' money." As the Swedish National Agency for Education put it: "To provide choice, you have to over-provide."
izz aty

Statistics: how many people have autism spectrum disorders? - | autism | Asperger syndr... - 0 views

  • The latest prevalence studies of autism indicate that 1.1% of the population in the UK may have autism. This means that over 695,000 people in the UK may have autism, an estimate derived from the 1.1% prevalence rate applied to the 2011 UK census figures.
  • Emerson and Baines (2010) in their meta-analysis of prevalence studies found a range of people with learning disabilities and autism from 15% to 84%, with a mean of 52.6%.
  • Around a third of people with a learning disability may also have autism.
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  • The NHS Information Centre, Community and Mental Health Team, Brugha et al.(2012), found between 31% and 35.4% of people with a learning disability have autism.
  • Baird et al (2006) found a male to female ratio of 3.3:1 for the whole spectrum in their sample.  The Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey looked at people in private households, and found a prevalence rate of 1.8% male compared with 0.2% female, (Brugha et al, 2009). However, when they extended the study to include those people with learning disabilities who had been unable to take part in the APMS in 2007 and those in communal residential settings, they found that the rates for females were much closer to those of the males in the learning disabled population, (The NHS Information Centre, Community and Mental Health Team, Brugha et al., 2012).
  • For over 30 years, Sula Wolff, in Edinburgh, has studied children of average or high ability who are impaired in their social interaction but who do not have the full picture of the triad of impairments
  • more than 50 years since Leo Kanner first described his classic autistic syndrome
  • The specific pattern of abnormal behaviour first described by Leo Kanner is also known as 'early infantile autism'. Kanner made no estimate of the possible numbers of people with this condition but he thought that it was rare (Kanner, 1943).
  • autism spectrum disorders are under-diagnosed in females, and therefore the male to female ratio of those who have autism may be closer than is indicated by the figure of 5:1. The under recognition of autism spectrum disorders in females is discussed in Gould and Ashton-Smith (2011)
  • the clinical picture overlaps with Asperger syndrome to a large extent. However, these children represent the most subtle and most able end of the autism spectrum. The majority become independent as adults, many marry and some display exceptional gifts, though retaining the unusual quality of their social interactions
  • they often have a difficult time at school and they need recognition, understanding and acceptance from their parents and teachers. The approach that suits them best is the same as that which is recommended for children with Asperger syndrome and high-functioning autism.
  • Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network Surveillance Year 2008 Principal Investigators (2012) Prevalence of autism spectrum disorders - autism and developmental disabilities monitoring network, 14 sites, United States, 2008. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Surveillance summaries, 61(3), pp. 1-19. Available to download at http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss6103a1.htm  [Accessed 15/05/2013]
    • izz aty
       
      http://www.autism.org.uk/about-autism/myths-facts-and-statistics/statistics-how-many-people-have-autism-spectrum-disorders.aspx The word 'autism' was first used by Leo Kanner in the term 'early infantile autism' which was used to describe a specific pattern of abnormal behaviour. 
  • The Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network in the USA looked at 8 year old children in 14 states in 2008, and found a prevalence rate of autism spectrum disorders within those states overall of  1 in 88, with around five times as many boys as girls affected (Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network Surveillance Year 2008 Principal Investigators, 2012).
  • The National Center for Health Statistics in the USA published findings from telephone surveys of parents of children aged 6-17 undertaken in 2011-12. The report showed a prevalence rate for ASD of 1 in 50, (Blumberg, S .J. et al, 2013).
  • 2.64% was found in a study done in South Korea, where the researchers found two thirds of the ASD cases were in the mainstream school population, and had never been diagnosed before., (Kim et al, 2011).
  • both the increase in estimates over time and the variability between countries and regions are likely to be because of broadening diagnostic criteria, diagnostic switching, service availability and awareness of ASD among professionals and the public, (Elsabbagh M. et al, 2012).
  • The Department of Health then funded a project to build on the APMS study and look more closely at the numbers of adults with autism that could not have been included in the original study. This included people in residential care settings and those with a more severe learning disability. The study was led by Professor Terry Brugha of the University of Leicester, who also led on autism research for the APMS 2007.  Combining its findings with the original APMS, it found that the actual prevalence of autism is approximately 1.1% of the English population, (The NHS Information Centre, Community and Mental Health Team, Brugha, T. et al., 2012)
  • Blumberg, S. J. et al (2013) Changes in prevalence of parent-reported autism spectrum disorder in school-aged U.S. children: 2007 to 2011–2012. National Health Statistics Reports, No 65. Available to download at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr065.pdf   [Accessed 15/05/2013]
  • Emerson, E. and Baines, S. (2010) The estimated prevalence of autism among adults with learning disabilities in England. Stockton-on-Tees: Improving Health and Lives. Available to download at http://www.improvinghealthandlives.org.uk/projects/autism [Accessed 10/05/2013]
  • Idring, S. et al. (2012) Autism spectrum disorders in the Stockholm Youth Cohort: design, prevalence and validity. PLoS One, 7(7): e41280 Available to download at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3401114/ [Accessed 15/05/2013]
  • Elsabbagh, M. et al (2012) Global prevalence of autism and other pervasive developmental disorders. Autism Research, 5 (3), pp.160-179. Available to download at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aur.239/pdf [Accessed 15/05/2013]
  • World Health Organisation.  (1992). International Classification of Diseases. 10th ed. Geneva: WHO.
izz aty

Increasing the number of academies and free schools to create a better and more diverse... - 0 views

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    "There is an urgent need to reform our school system to prevent the standard of education in the UK from falling further behind that of other countries. Our education system is also frequently unequal, with poor performance concentrated in disadvantaged areas. There is evidence that giving heads and teachers greater freedom over their curriculum, budget and staff can help improve the quality of the education they provide and reduce the attainment gap. We also believe giving parents, teachers and charities the ability to open schools in response to the needs of the local community will help to raise standards."
izz aty

Education and International Development MA - Institute of Education, University of London - 0 views

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    This masters degree will: - introduce concepts of development and educational development - assess the role of education and learning in the development process by examining theory and research - examine contemporary policy issues regarding education in low- and middle-income countries.
izz aty

BBC News - How blind Victorians campaigned for inclusive education - 0 views

  • Over the past 30 years there has been a greater effort, backed up by law, to integrate disabled children into mainstream education. But in the Victorian era they often attended educational institutions supported through philanthropic fundraising.
  • To encourage donations, schools emphasised the "miseries" of sensory deprivation.
  • Unhappy about these negative representations of disabled people, an un-named "intellectual blind man" of the era said: "I assure you it is not blindness, but its consequences, which we feel most painfully, and those consequences are often laid on us most heavily by the people who are loudest in their expressions of pity."
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  • The names of these early activists are all but forgotten today. However, their views on the importance of including, rather than segregating, blind and deaf children, and their powerful advocacy that they should be heard and given appropriate rights, make their views seem strikingly modern.
  • "Special education" emerged in Britain and Europe during the second half of the 18th Century. Thomas Braidwood established a school for deaf pupils in Edinburgh in 1764, which moved to Hackney in London in 1783 due to increased demand for places.
  • first school for blind pupils opened in Liverpool in 1791
  • London's School for the Indigent Blind, founded at St George's Fields Southwark in 1799, was by the 1860s educating 160 boys and girls in reading, writing and "useful" trades, intended to provide for their future employment.
  • 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act, the state subsidised school fees for some pupils so that attendance did not push families into poverty - education was neither free nor compulsory until later in the century
  • Charitable schools were founded primarily as residential institutions intended to provide protection, board, lodging and education to their pupils. Yet the practice of shutting away "blind, deaf and dumb" children in so-called "exile schools" was opposed by an increasingly vocal group of activists in the mid 19th Century.
  • institutions "immured" their pupils, treating them like prisoners. They were degrading and they perpetuated "pauperism"
  • The campaigners noted that inclusion promised to benefit all society, not just the deaf and blind themselves.
  • Organisations such as the Association for Promoting the General Welfare of the Blind, founded by Elizabeth Gilbert in 1854, established workshops for blind handicraftsmen so that workers received better prices for their products than for those produced in institutions.
  • Whilst the association encouraged basket making, some campaigners claimed that these traditional trades were symbolic of a system that failed to recognise people's potential or range of talents.
  • Biography of the Blind, written in 1820 by James Wilson, a self-taught blind man who wrote the book "with a view of rescuing my fellow sufferers from the neglect and obscurity in which many of them are involved."
  • Charities were not always appreciated. Activists claimed that too much of the money donated to the dedicated charities went on buildings and non-disabled staff, rather than on the welfare of the blind pupils themselves. Many of them imposed social and moral restrictions on who could apply for assistance. Some campaigners argued that it would be better if the donated money was paid directly to blind people themselves, to enable them to live in their own homes and support their families.
  • The education of blind and deaf children in specialist institutions remained the norm until recent years. Far greater effort now goes into integrating disabled children into mainstream schools, and has been backed up by new laws. But integration is not the same as inclusion, and even in 2014 campaigners are still arguing that there is further to go before disabled children are fully included in schools. They say there needs to be greater recognition that they have a right to an education and should be given support in ordinary classes, not in special units.
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England's Ranking in International League Tables | National Union of Teachers - NUT - 0 views

  • The Sutton Trust report said that big variations in England’s education rankings in global league tables can be misleading, should be treated with caution and can obscure the true challenges facing schools.
  • apparent differences in performance between different global tables, are the result of three key factors: Different countries are included in the different tables; League tables exaggerate the importance of raw test scores; and Some countries do better on one survey than another, perhaps because the surveys test different aspects of literacy, numeracy and science.
  • Sir Peter Lampl, chair of the Sutton Trust, said:“Whatever the average ranking of English education, we need to focus on reducing social segregation which is greater in England than almost all other OECD countries
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  • We also need to improve teaching standards across the board and not focus so much on structures if we are to match those countries that consistently outperform the rest of the world – not just places like Hong Kong and Japan, but successful European education systems – and use their achievement as our benchmark
  • School systems that offer parents more school choices are less effective in raising the performance of all children
  • UK state schools outperform private schools;
  • Financial constraints limits school ‘choice’ for low income families
  • PISA 2009 had some interesting things to say on schools systems, choice and equity, finding, for example that: Comprehensive school systems produce better and more equitable results;
  • Exclusions and school transfer of pupils reduces performance.
  • Pisa is unequivocal in saying that: “The bottom line is that the quality of a school system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers.”
  • The top ranked countries were Finland and South Korea where, despite huge differences, there was a shared social belief in the importance of education and its “underlying moral purpose”. These countries also had among the lowest levels of school choice and Finland had the lowest levels of school autonomy.
  • The Pearson report concluded that spending on education was important but less so than other factors. For example it said successful countries gave teachers a high status and have a ‘culture’ of education.
  • also emphasised the importance of high-quality teachers and the need to find ways to recruit the best staff – including raising teacher status, professional respect and pay.
  • OECD, PISA 2009 Results: What Makes a School Successful? – Resources, Policies and Practices (Volume IV) (OECD Publishing, 2010)
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Why private schools are better than state - Parentdish UK - 0 views

  • beautiful buildings, steeped in history, the acres of immaculate grounds, the committed teachers, the exam results, the range of extra-curricula activities
  • Or maybe I'd simply prefer my children to mix with other children and parents whose speech is not punctuated with 'innit'.
  • I've taught in independent and state schools.
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  • Not all teachers in state schools are work-shy; some are brilliant. But there are too many teachers who are not
  • In the last 10 years, only 17 out of 400,000 teachers in state schools were dismissed due to incompetence
  • In the state school, once-a-term staff meetings were something to get through as quickly as possible.
  • Parents thought nothing of looking me right in the eye at parents' evenings and reminding me that they were paying a lot of money for their child's education, so they expected results. I felt personally accountable. Do parents dare to tell a teacher in a state school that their taxes are paying their salaries, so shape up?
  • class size. I've taught classes with 15 pupils and classes with 35. Children in smaller classes feel more confident about contributing, and I had more time for them. I knew the name of every pupil in the school; I felt part of a close knit community and so did they.
  • Independent schools can't allow any child to slip through the net. At the weekly staff meeting we discussed each year group, flagging up any pupil who was struggling and an action-plan was devised. My department also had a weekly meeting where pupils were discussed.
  • Autonomy and accountability, that's what makes the independent system successful. Bad teachers just go.
  • Do independent schools simply hot-house children to get them through exams? Yes, and why not? But extra-curricular activities in independent schools are there to help children flourish, whether they are academically gifted or not.
  • Everyone connected with independent education expects success - the teachers, parents and children. There is no embarrassment about applying to Oxbridge or any Top Ten university, it's the norm. I accept that not all state schools have low expectations, but too many have an 'us and them' attitude towards top universities.
  • As an only child, I wanted my son to start in the prep system and carry on making friends for life
  • it gives parents power to provide the best for their children; you are the customer.
  • Until the state system is run on those lines, giving parents power, attracting the very best teachers with salaries and working conditions to match, then money will always buy better education and no one should feel guilty if they choose to buy it.
  • It could be deduced that we live in a society where your chance of success is determined before birth and that there is little reason to compete in 'the race of life' since some people are starting that race 150 yards in front and the top positions in our society are largely predetermined.
  • The trick is to find a school where the kids (and their parents) are committed to learning. Such schools do not have to be private, and the teachers in both private or state schools are generally excellent.
  • The grammar schools and the private schools are roughly comparable in academic performance. They outperform the comprehensives, for the simple reason for this is that the kids ending up in the comprehensives tend to be the ones who failed the 11+ examinations (i.e. their parents did not get them private tutoring, etc.).
  • The most stuck up children come out of private school.
  • This is the third time she has been back to private education and we feel we have much more of a say, as we are employing them to do a service and feel much more involved in her education.
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BBC News - Gove calls for state schools to be more like private - 0 views

  • Education Secretary Michael Gove
  • he said he wanted to break down the "Berlin Wall" between state and independent sectors. This could see state pupils taking the private school common entrance exam and state schools staying open longer
  • The education secretary, speaking at the London Academy of Excellence, said that for decades "the dominant consensus has been that state education in England was barely satisfactory"
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  • he wanted schools to be able to stay open longer for nine or 10 hour days. This would allow more time for after-school activities or to provide a place for children to do their homework.
  • Mr Gove said that commentators had associated state schools with "poor discipline, low standards, entrenched illiteracy, widespread innumeracy", but he said that this "pessimistic view is no longer tenable"
  • he said the state system was improving, with better results, more pupils taking tougher subjects and fewer weak schools
  • called for more testing, including taking the common entrance exam taken by 13 year olds in some private schools
  • Academies, which are now the majority of secondary schools, can already set their own hours
  • Mr Gove backed plans for individual secondary schools to be able to take the OECD's international Pisa tests
  • Sir David also had tough words about teachers' unions, saying their "political naivety has been astonishing". "Their barrage of industrial action and knee-jerk opposition to any change has allowed the education secretary and his supporters to characterise them as cartoon-like bogeymen," he writes.
  • Responding to Mr Gove's speech on Monday, Labour's shadow education secretary, Tristram Hunt, said: "Improving school standards starts with a qualified teacher in every classroom. Until Michael Gove commits to this, he is ruling himself out of any serious debate about how we raise standards in our schools. "Whether on discipline, delivering extra-curricular activities or on improving learning outcomes: it all hinges on the quality of the teacher in the classroom. Raising the quality of teaching - that is where the focus needs to be and that is what Labour is concerned with. The Tories have lost sight of this and are undermining school standards as a result.
  • Christine Blower, leader of the National Union of Teachers, challenged the idea of state schools using the common entrance exam. "Why would we imagine that that is an appropriate examination? He's not discussed that with anybody, he's not discussed it with any of the exam boards, he's certainly not discussed it with the representatives of teachers," said Ms Blower.
  • Mr.Gove says that at the heart of every successful private school is the independence of the Head. It isn't.At the heart of every successful private school is exclusivity; fees; selection and privileged parental backgrounds.Will he give those to state schools? No, of course not. So let's stop this nonsensical argument now.
  • Most people work a 8 hour day (although there are many who work more) and we expect children to work for longer? How, many of us adults would want to attend a course that lasted 10 hours a day for 40 weeks of the year? I know my brain would explode! Concentrate on quality not quantity Mr Gove!
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BBC News - Free school £21m private contract plan - 0 views

  • But the plans have raised political sensitivities about the boundary between free schools funded by public money and the involvement of the private sector in state education.
  • Free schools are funded from the public education budget - but the schools are run independently.
  • Alicia Rickards-Ottevanger, one of the group of local families supporting the free school plan, said the Swedish firm had been chosen because it seemed closest to the trust's ambitions for the school, regardless of whether they were a profit-making business.
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  • free school was a practical way of addressing the lack of a school for families in the area.
  • "Free schools are funded like all other state-funded schools - on a per pupil basis.
  • "Free schools founders do not and can not make a profit. "State schools and their local authorities have always been able to use companies to help them run services in schools - from human resources, to ordering stationery, to school catering and providing educational advice.
  • the Anti Academies Alliance said the proposals were a "clear signpost of the direction of travel" for the government's education policy. "Privatisation and deregulation, not system-wide school improvement, appear to be the destination."
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Comprehensive school (England and Wales) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

  • In 1976 the future Labour prime minister James Callaghan gave a speech at Oxford's Ruskin College. He launched what became known as the 'great debate' on the education system. He went on to list the areas he felt needed closest scrutiny: the case for a core curriculum, the validity and use of informal teaching methods, the role of school inspection and the future of the examination system.
  • Comprehensive schools remain the most common type of state secondary school in England, and the only type in Wales. They account for around 90% of pupils, or 64% if one does not count schools with low-level selection.
  • Since the 1988 Education Reform Act, parents have a right to choose which school their child should go to. This concept of "school choice" introduces the idea of competition between state schools, a fundamental change to the original "neighbourhood comprehensive" model, and is partly intended as a means by which schools that are perceived to be inferior are forced either to improve or, if hardly anyone wants to go there, to close down
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  • Government policy is currently[when?] promoting 'specialisation' whereby parents choose a secondary school appropriate for their child's interests and skills. Most initiatives focus on parental choice and information, implementing a pseudo-market incentive to encourage better schools. This logic has underpinned the controversial league tables of school performance.
  • Supporters of comprehensive education argue that it is unacceptable on both moral and practical grounds to select or reject children on the basis of their academic ability
  • comprehensive schools in the UK have allowed millions of children to gain access to further and higher education after the age of 16, and that the previous selective system relegated children who failed the eleven-plus examination to a second-class, inferior education and hence to worse employment prospects.
  • the reality has been a levelling-down of provision and a denial of opportunity to bright children from disadvantaged backgrounds, who might once have expected to pass the eleven-plus exam and have the advantage of a grammar school education.
  • The most straightforward way for parents to ensure that their children attend what is perceived to be a "good" school now is to buy a house within its catchment area. This, critics claim, has led to de facto selection according to parents' financial means rather than their children's ability at passing exams.
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Göransson, K., Nilholm, C. & Karlsson, K., 2011. Inclusive education in Swede... - 0 views

  •  
    Göransson, K., Nilholm, C. & Karlsson, K., 2011. Inclusive education in Sweden? A critical analysis. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 15(5), pp.541-555. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13603110903165141 [Accessed September 29, 2014].
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NASUWT: Why NASUWT Opposes Free Schools - 0 views

  •  
    "The NASUWT believes that the overriding rationale for any change to education policy should be to raise standards, tackle disadvantage and inequality and narrow the achievement gap. Any changes should also safeguard and enhance the values and ethos of state education. Nothing in the Coalition Government's academies and free schools programme meets those principles. There is strong evidence from the UK, the USA, Sweden and elsewhere that bringing other providers in to run schools creates additional financial pressures across the whole system, increases inefficiency (especially as a result of the potential increase in numbers of surplus places) and leads to profiteering."
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Comparison of Different School Types (UK) - 0 views

  •  
    There are an increasing number of state school types in the UK - including three different kinds of academies, four major kinds of maintained schools, independent schools, grammar schools and others. It can be very difficult to distinguish between these schools, and understand which - if any - you are interested in founding. This guide is designed to help you distinguish between the different kinds of schools in operation in the UK, and in particular to explain the differences between free schools, traditional academies, academy converters and maintained schools. The New Schools Network will help you set up any new stateCfunded school. Most of the groups we work with choose to set up free schools, but some are exploring setting up new maintained schools. We hope this document will help you decide which path you would prefer.
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School can worsen disabled children's behavioural problems, researchers say - Institute... - 0 views

  • disabled children might have fewer behavioural issues in their early years if more schools introduced stringent anti-bullying measures and other support strategies, the researchers conclude.
  • The researchers found that disabled children consistently presented more conduct problems than their non-disabled peers between the ages of 3 and 7. However, the conduct of both groups of children followed the same development pattern, improving between 3 and 5 and then slightly worsening at about age 6.
  • The long-term benefits of such interventions could be very substantial, the researchers believe, as behavioural difficulties are likely to compound disabled children's problems and reduce their chances of having a happy and successful adult life.
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  • The researchers compared non-disabled children with infants who had:  a developmental delay at age 9 months (in relation to hand-eye coordination, for example, or early communication gestures)  a longstanding limiting illness (such as type 1 diabetes or asthma)  special educational needs at age 7 (stemming from learning difficulties or impairments such as hearing loss).  They were able to analyse assessments of MCS children's behaviour at ages 3, 5 and 7 as parents had been asked about conduct problems, hyperactivity, emotional difficulties and whether their sons and daughters got on with children of the same age.   This enabled the researchers not only to record the emergence of any problems but establish whether the behaviour of disabled and non-disabled children had followed the same trajectory.   They also took into consideration family background factors known to be associated with child behaviour, such as income poverty, parental discipline and the closeness of the parent-child relationship.  
  • also recommend that more support is provided for mothers and fathers of children with an impairment or special educational need.
  • At age 3, children with longstanding limiting illnesses and special educational needs were also more likely than non-disabled infants to exhibit the other three negative behaviours that were assessed: difficulties with peers, emotional problems and hyperactivity. But, worryingly, unlike conduct problems, these particular behavioural difficulties became more pronounced among children in these two disability categories between the ages of 3 and 7.
  • some early school environments may exacerbate behavioural problems for disabled children in ways that cannot solely be solved by learning support – because the underlying issue is behavioural rather than cognitive," the researchers comment.   "Many disabled children find it increasingly difficult to engage with the social world as they pass from toddlers to the mid-primary school age. They also struggle with structured social contexts such as school. We need to gain a better understanding of the effects that schools have if we are to develop environments that do not, in effect, disable children further."
  • we should seriously consider the implications of the marked increase in emotional problems for disabled girls, in particular, in terms of future risks such as depression and self-harm."
  • 'Convergence or divergence? A longitudinal analysis of behaviour problems among disabled and non-disabled children aged 3 to 7 in England', by Rebecca Fauth (NCB), Samantha Parsons (IOE) and Lucinda Platt (LSE), is the latest working paper to be published by the IOE's Department of Quantitative Social Science (QSS). It will be available from the QSS website http://www.ioe.ac.uk/research/departments/qss/35445.html from 9am on Friday, October 3.
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BBC News - Parents 'made to feel private school unacceptable choice' - 0 views

  • HMC chairman Tim Hands said there was an "illogicality" about families buying a house near a good school but not being willing to pay school fees
  • Mr Hands said parents were making illogical choices and that private schools, such as those in his association, were wrongly attacked for restricting social mobility because of the fees they charged.
  • Average fees in UK private schools are £14,000 a year.
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  • 36% of pupils in HMC schools across the UK received help with their fees.
  • "Tony Blair, opening a London Academy in 2005, talked of the different ways in which parents could transform their child's education. "Examples included moving house in order to access a better school and employing a personal tutor - one quarter of all parents in London pay for private tuition in the course of their child's school career.
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