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Play Donald trump free online interactive war game - 0 views

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    Play Donald trump free online interactive war game is an educational game on the 45th United States president known as Donald trump. In this free online interactive war game, kids and adults who find pleasure in learning while playing interactive online games will find this war game very interesting as they respond to questions and fight against opponents who want to defeat them as they try to respond to the correct answers. This Play Donald trump free online interactive war game consists of the biography of Donald trump such as When was Donald Trump born? What's the name of the school Trump attended and had his degree? Donald Trump is a member of which political party? and much more. Click on the game to stat and play Donald trump free online interactive war game for kids, students and adults.
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Main - Malaysia - Viral video reveals varsity 'brainwash' tactics, says student @ Wed J... - 0 views

  • Follow kopite 131p kopite has not yet written a personal description. View IntenseDebate profile +133 Vote up Vote down kopite 131p · 11 hours ago Freedom of speech means cutting off others and bullying? Freedom of speech means belittling and humiliating others? Freedom of speech means avoiding a valid question and went to a defensive mode of equating real problems with animals? Freedom of speech means asking others to leave if they don't like it? Geez.... are you Sharifah?
  • ponu299 126p · 5 hours ago The students who were all vocally supporting this BITCH are equally responsible for the state of affair of this country. To think that we have student of this mentality, where they don't support their own uni mate, who was bring the topic of free education. To the student this was just a argument between a Muslim and a Hindu. WHAT 1MALAYSIA IS ABOUT.
  • · 5 hours ago Typical of Big Brother- UMNO - I speak you listen. No questions allowed. Just follow what I say. Only Big Brother is right. Also - whenever there is a seminar or forum organised by them, it only addresses the muslim crowd. To them, the other races do not exist and they are not bothered.
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  • hailamkiak 146p
  • ummNO 158p · 12 hours ago Exactly. How can universities teach such blatent behaviour, and they seem to condone it. When I help a person, it does not need to be an indian, malay or chinese. It cannot be based on race or religion. Yet, UiTM Melaka allows it's students to protest against intake of non-muslims. And the authorities and current govt adminstration does nothing. It's as though they condone such behaviour. It's not good for nation building. By their actions, they are making themselves to be exclusive to one race only.
  • Follow worried22 82p worried22 has not yet written a personal description. View IntenseDebate profile +40 Vote up Vote down worried22 82p · 8 hours ago An Indian student standing up and speaking about free education whereas most of the Malay students clapped in support of that Listen Listen lady when she asked her to leave the country if she is not happy with the government's policies. What an irony!
  • karulann 130p · 10 hours ago not every malaysia have the "privileged" of getting grants. Loans are just burdening the graduates. I say we MUST advocate for free education, regardless of anyone income or place of living, education should be free at any level. Let us stop with the speculation that Malaysia does not afford to provide free education, but now the BN goverment are able to dishes out billions of ringgit for the BR1M, and have "janji" to continue giving every year IF they win and probably MIGHT increase the amount to RM1000.. You do the calculation of how many billions is wasted just like that.. and you get how much? Give me free education instead of RM500 yearly
  • Malaysian 154p · 10 hours ago WHO WANT SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE BOOK!!! What kind of forum is this.
  • Hobbesianism 166p · 11 hours ago We are not angry mind you. We're simply astounded at the fact that there are such people like Ms. Sharifah in what you called the one-sided, barisan friendly forum. In fact, its freaking funny! Is that how you respond to a question, i.e. if you don't like, get out, my education is better than yours, you cannot compare with others, must always listen to elders, animals also got problems? Haha! No wonder you are still sad.
  • ankmlysia 153p · 13 hours ago ‘All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing’
  • AaronID 156p · 12 hours ago What's even scarier than the dozens, if not hundreds, of these roadshows are the obvious fact so many, so young, are already too far into being brainwashed by BTN/BN! The video of Sharifah belittling and humiliating Bawani is made worse by the cheerleaders, cheering Sharifah, on! Poor kids...
  • VJK001 177p · 13 hours ago Why is Sharifah with one sided views allowed to mediate in Universities of Malaysia? No wonder our universities are going down in ranks compared to rest of the world. How can a mediator asked a fellow Malaysian to go to countries of her choice if she don't agree with policies in Malaysia? Imagine the other students clapping and supporting Sharifah! That shows the true strength of our Malaysians university students? The only one outstanding there is little Ambiga Bawani! Syabas Bawani..
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Teacher Burnout: What Are the Warning Signs? | Edutopia - 0 views

  • Lack of adequate preparation for dealing with the kinds of learning and behavior problems that teachers face in the classroom
  • Lack of autonomy
  • Difficult student behavior
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  • Lack of support and interpersonal conflict
  • Boredom
  • Do you feel run down and drained of physical or emotional energy? Do you find that you are prone to negative thinking about your job? Do you find that you are harder and less sympathetic with people than perhaps they deserve? Do you find yourself getting easily irritated by small problems, or by your co-workers and team? Do you feel misunderstood or unappreciated by your co-workers? Do you feel that you have no one to talk to? Do you feel under an unpleasant level of pressure to succeed? Do you feel that you are not getting what you want out of your job? Do you feel that you are in the wrong organization or the wrong profession? Are you becoming frustrated with parts of your job? Do you feel that organizational politics or bureaucracy frustrate your ability to do a good job?
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    "In his landmark book, Beyond Burnout (Routledge), Cary Cherniss used intensive case study research to identify factors most likely to lead to teacher burnout:"
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"We're the future - YOUR future." | Psychopomp - 0 views

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    Riots in London have everyone talking today, although violence and disorder have been going for days according to reports. Causes and motivations are still unclear, and as with most crises they will probably remain so until after the fact. Whatever the reasons, youth in London and increasingly across England are tossing aside any sense of citizenship they might have had in favour of selfish, violent behaviour against a society which, judging from the quotes that are emerging, they perceive as having abandoned them. Why is this spreading so far and so fast? Riots of this magnitude erupt when people are pushed to their limits, unhappy with a government which has betrayed them or does not represent them. We applaud when people demonstrate their desire for democracy with this kind of passion, and comdemn police who silence them. In London, however, the police seem to be determinedly holding to their responsibility not to hurt citizens - and in pro-democracy protests, rioters do not upload photos with themselves and the commercial goods they have managed to steal.
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On Education: Lecture by Sheikh Hamza Yusuf - YouTube - 0 views

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    Length: <1 hour. A short lecture on education, educating the youth and comparisons between contemporary and classical approaches towards institutionalized learning.
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Double standards in sentencing - Story | The Star Online - 0 views

  • even if one were to believe that the sanctity of the courts is so fragile that a punitively deterrent punishment is required for the flinging of footwear, it is impossible to ignore the incongruous disparity in the punishments meted out to these two men for crimes of such vastly different seriousness.
  • Much has been said about the judge’s unbelievable comment when sentencing Noor Afizal. Apparently being a national bowler with a bright future is enough to let you escape jail time for rape.
  • what is this “bright future” the judge is thinking about? The man is a child rapist; he confessed to it. He should not be allowed to represent the country in anything at all.
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  • It does not matter in the slightest that children mature at different rates; what matters is that in general, this society believes that girls under the age of 16 are not yet ready to make decisions regarding their own sexual activity.
  • There are mental, psychological and also physiological elements to this need for protection.
  • The sexual act by itself could have implications for a child’s well-being, but a child from our society would surely be traumatised in the event that she got pregnant and had to face either childbirth or abortion. Furthermore in immature bodies, the experience can also be seriously harmful physically.
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    HOSLAN Hussein gets one year in jail for inaccurately chucking (he missed) his slippers at a judge. Noor Afizal Azizan gets a fine and zero jail time for raping a 13-year-old girl. It boggles the mind. Hoslan's sentence, in my view, was very harsh and over the top.
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Human Rights, United Nations, International Law - 0 views

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    "The United Nations Security Council is one of the main organizations in the United Nations and their main duty is to maintain international peace and security. The exact responsibilities and power of the United Nations Security Council has been outlined in the United Nations Charter. The United Nations Security Council has authority in matters of establishing peacekeeping operations, the establishment of international sanctions, and the authorization of military action."
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Someone said that... - 0 views

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    A collection of memorable quotes to think about and/or live by.
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Is That Supposed to Be Funny? Using Humor in the Classroom and Avoiding the Pitfalls - 1 views

  • generational differences are really cultural differences in societies that undergo rapid change
  • humor is so dependent on culture, on a shared context, and why jokes that have to be explained are probably not going to be funny.
  • Culturally and context specific
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  • There is the old apology, “You had to be there” when a “funny” story falls flat. Most of the humor of stand-up comedians is on very specific cultural phenomenon.
  • In one of my reading classes, the text had a reading about the lifework of movie actor/writer/director Woody Allen, who, not surprisingly, the students were not familiar with. So to give a sense of Allen and his work, I explained the synopsis of one of his short films, “Oedipus Wrecks,”
  • The students were able to see the humor in this as overprotective mothers are a cultural universal
  • If the teacher can lighten the mood with humor, some of the tension dissipates, leaving students more ready to learn.
  • When you laugh with someone, even a stranger, you bond with that person, if only momentarily
  • A class that laughs together develops a feeling of goodwill toward each other and can work more productively together.
  • When you learn a society’s humor, how it conveys humor and what it finds funny, you’ve learned quite a lot about its culture
  • the sources of humor are also sources of anxiety; the laughter is to dispel anxiety
  • Sometimes culture and language itself can be sources of humor
  • a favorite short play I like to teach students is Kaufman and Hart’s “The Still Alarm.
  • hilarious in its use of overly polite, inappropriate language, as in the hotel manager knocking and announcing something like, “Pardon me for intruding, but the building is on fire.”
  • Methods for Including Humor in the ESL Classroom
  • Include humor from the beginning
  • Lighten the mood
  • Call attention to humor
  • Share a joke from their cultures
  • Humor is a tool
  • humor, especially sarcasm, should never be directed at students. Sarcasm can be hard to understand, even from someone within one’s own culture, and “mean” humor becomes a barrier to, not a tool for, learning. Direct humor at inanimate objects or situations, not people.
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    ESL students don't share the same cultural context as their instructor in most cases, making humor in the ESL class dicey.
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Ken Robinson: How to escape education's death valley | Talk Video | TED - 0 views

  • . I have found no evidence that Americans don't get irony. It's one of those cultural myths, like, "The British are reserved." I don't know why people think this. We've invaded every country we've encountered.
  • I knew that Americans get irony when I came across that legislation No Child Left Behind. Because whoever thought of that title gets irony, don't they, because -- (Laughter) (Applause) — because it's leaving millions of children behind. Now I can see that's not a very attractive name for legislation: Millions of Children Left Behind. I can see that. What's the plan? Well, we propose to leave millions of children behind, and here's how it's going to work. 2:04 And it's working beautifully. In some parts of the country, 60 percent of kids drop out of high school. In the Native American communities, it's 80 percent of kids. If we halved that number, one estimate is it would create a net gain to the U.S. economy over 10 years of nearly a trillion dollars. From an economic point of view, this is good math, isn't it, that we should do this? It actually costs an enormous amount to mop up the damage from the dropout crisis.
  • the difference between the task and achievement senses of verbs. You know, you can be engaged in the activity of something, but not really be achieving it, like dieting. It's a very good example, you know. There he is. He's dieting. Is he losing any weight? Not really. Teaching is a word like that. You can say, "There's Deborah, she's in room 34, she's teaching." But if nobody's learning anything, she may be engaged in the task of teaching but not actually fulfilling it.
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  • The role of a teacher is to facilitate learning. That's it. And part of the problem is, I think, that the dominant culture of education has come to focus on not teaching and learning, but testing. Now, testing is important. Standardized tests have a place. But they should not be the dominant culture of education. They should be diagnostic. They should help.
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Grace Dent: Who cares if she spells it Barraco Barner? Gemma Worrall is more employable... - 0 views

  • away from the classroom, stupidity and smartness are really only relative to what it is one actually needs to know. Because, yes, Gemma hasn’t much of a grip on Ukraine – neither have I, but I’m a damn good bluffer – and neither can she nail the spelling of Barack Obama without making it sound like a delicious vitamin C drink. But as a beautician, Gemma is one of those girls I am constantly giving money hand over fist to.Gemma has a skill. Gemma will most probably have a thorough understanding of Shellac nail procedures and skin exfoliation. She’ll probably know how to remove excess upper-lip hair, push back cuticles and spray a Fantasy tan without missing elbows or staining knees. So, yes, Gemma seemingly can’t spell Barack Obama. But she will always be in employment.
  • We deride the differently skilled and slap down the not quite as sharp, but the country’s cogs turn via the energies of people not quite as bookish as you.
  • Gemma’s slight confusion that Obama is a high-level influencer in British politics – no Westminster pundit in the land would quibble at this suggestion. Also, her worry about provoking Russia and her fear of war aren’t silly in the slightest, they’re absolutely bang on the money
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  • Perhaps Gemma isn’t enormously au fait with the history of the Cold War or the break-up of the Soviet Union, but she’s possibly seen photos in the tabloids of Vladimir Putin with his top off riding a tank or letting stallions nuzzle him – and that’s enough to guide foreign-policy strategy for most of us.
  • As access to the internet makes many of us feel cleverer, more connected, more omniscient, more infallible, it’s tempting to write off all the people “left behind”.All those little unthinking people without university degrees who shape our nails, or clean our houses, or mend our toilets, or rewire our kitchens, and can’t even spell a president’s name without messing it up.But the fact is, they might not know where Ukraine is, and they might not know why Germany doesn’t favour sanctions against Russia, but when the lights go out in your house, they know where the fuse box is and which wires to fiddle with to mend it. And right at that moment that’s a damn sight less stupid than you
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Facts about the Danish Efterskole - Find den rigtige efterskole! Søg på fag, ... - 0 views

  • Each Efterskole is a self-governing independent institution and they all deal with both the educational and personal development of the students
  • enlightenment for life, general education and democratic citizenship
  • Efterskole were founded about 150 years ago
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  • school’s political, religious or pedagogical orientation. Freedom of the Efterskole is assured by substantial state subsidies to both schools and students.
  • Efterskole has substantial freedom in terms of eg. choice of subjects, teaching methods and educational approach
  • The schools were closely related to the Danish Folk High School and the educational ideas of N.F.S. Grundtvig (1789-1872) who wanted schools to provide enlightenment for life rather than formal vocational training
  • unique about the Efterskole is the teacher-student relationship. The teacher is responsible for both teaching and supervision outside of school hours
  • Most Efterskoles offer the same subjects and final examinations as the public schools, but many focus on special subjects like physical education, music or theatre, or offer various kinds of special education.
  • more than 260 Efterskoles spread across Denmark, mostly in rural areas or near provincial towns
  • approximately 28.500 students attend the schools. Schools vary in size from 25 to 500 students but must have a minimum of approx. 100 students. The number of students has increased considerably within the last 25 years.
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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
  • Academies, which are now the majority of secondary schools, can already set their own hours
  • called for more testing, including taking the common entrance exam taken by 13 year olds in some private schools
  • 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 - Coalition row over school places funding - 0 views

  • 11 May 2014
  • Lib Dem sources say 30,000 local authority places are being lost as money is diverted to new free schools. They said Mr Gove was "ideologically obsessed" about backing free schools.
  • Tory education sources called the Lib Dems "pathetic", saying more school places were being created overall.
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  • David Cameron said free schools were "an excellent innovation" and he would "get on with delivering what matters, which is good schools for our children".
  • Liberal Democrat's deputy leader, Malcolm Bruce, said the budget for free schools was "completely out of control" and accused the education secretary of being "monetarily obsessed".
  • According to sources in Mr Clegg's office, last December Mr Gove overruled the Lib Dem schools minister David Laws to take £400m from the Basic Need Budget for 2015-17. They claim the money was diverted to help cover a projected £800m overspend between 2013 and 2016 in the budget of free schools - a project close to Mr Gove's heart.
  • Free schools can be set up by parents, teachers, charities, businesses, universities, trusts, religious or voluntary groups, but are funded directly by central government. There are currently 174 free schools in England with another 116 approved to open from this September.
  • senior Department for Education officials had raised concerns school places may have to be cut if the Lib Dems' free school meals policy for infant children was implemented.
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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 &amp; 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
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      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 &amp; 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
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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."
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."
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Autism Takes a Huge Leap Forward in Bangladesh | Science News | Autism Speaks - 0 views

  • GAPH-Bangladesh aims to improve services, raise awareness and fund research in the nation. The partnership was launched at an international conference “Autism Spectrum Disorders and Developmental Disabilities in Bangladesh and South East Asia.” In addition to launching GAPH-Bangladesh, those assembled agreed to start the South Asia Autism Network – a multi-national network of governments, organizations, and private citizens committed to combating autism throughout South Asia.
  • the governmental representatives and those gathered agreed to adopt the “Dhaka Declaration” which brings attention to the unmet needs of millions of individuals with developmental disabilities and autism. It calls for coordinated action in the region and globally to raise awareness, improve access to quality healthcare and resources, and encourage a more welcoming community. The Dhaka Declaration will serve as a political instrument to mobilize resources and UN agencies for not only the South Asia region, but the world.
  • a landmark conference that will help raise awareness, improve early diagnosis and expand the range of services and facilities for individuals with autism. “The stronger this movement grows, the greater will be the pressure on governments to provide more services,” said Gandhi.
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How To Kill A Country - Samantha Power - The Atlantic - 0 views

  • In 1980, after a civil war that cost 30,000 lives, the black majority took charge of the country, which was renamed Zimbabwe. Robert Mugabe—the nationalist leader whom Smith had branded a "Marxist terrorist" and jailed for more than a decade; a man who had once urged his followers to stop wearing shoes and socks to show they were willing to reject the trappings of European civilization—became President.
  • 1. Destroy the engine of productivity
  • 2. Bury the truth
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  • 4. Legislate the impossible
  • 3. Crush dissent
  • 6. Scare off foreigners
  • 8. Ignore a deadly enemy
  • 9. Commit genocide
  • 10. Blame the imperialists
  • Mugabe will have the last word on Zimbabwe's fate. His cronies are clearly worried that if he clings to power indefinitely, the ruling party will sink with him. He is under pressure to choose a successor by the end of the year. But at seventy-nine, Mugabe may well decide to stick around, relying—though he would never admit it—on the United States and Britain to bail out his people with food aid.
  • For all their differences, Mugabe and Ian Smith share a basic misconception about power: they both fail to realize that a government cannot survive indefinitely when it advances the political and economic desires of the few at the expense of the many.
  • http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2003/12/how-to-kill-a-country/302845/
  • 5. Teach hate
  • 7. Invade a neighbor
  • How could the breadbasket of Africa have deteriorated so quickly into the continent's basket case? The answer is Robert Mugabe, now seventy-nine, who by his actions has compiled something of a "how-to" manual for national destruction. Although many of his methods have been applied elsewhere, taken as a whole his ten-step approach is more radical and more comprehensive than that of other despots. The Zimbabwe case offers some important insights. It illustrates the prime importance of accountability as an antidote to idiocy and excess. It highlights the lasting effects of decolonization—limited Western influence on the continent and a reluctance by African leaders to criticize their own. And it offers a warning about how much damage one man can do, very quickly.
  • Although Zimbabwe is as broken as any country on the planet, it offers a testament not to some inherent African inability to govern but to a minority rule as oppressive and inconsiderate of the welfare of citizens as its ignominious white predecessor. The country's economy in 1997 was the fastest growing in all of Africa; now it is the fastest shrinking. A onetime net exporter of maize, cotton, beef, tobacco, roses, and sugarcane now exports only its educated professionals, who are fleeing by the tens of thousands. Although Zimbabwe has some of the richest farmland in Africa, children with distended bellies have begun arriving at school looking like miniature pregnant women.
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