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In Somalia, UNICEF constructs classrooms and trains teachers for children dis... - 0 views

www.educationandtransition.org/...children-displaced-by-conflict

somalia children education teacher development teachers UNICEF classrooms

shared by Teachers Without Borders on 01 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • “You can’t compare what we have now with how it used to be. Now we have good space for the children to learn, we have classrooms and furniture, toilets and hand-washing facilities.” says Mr. Odol. There are now 305 children – 234 of them girls – enrolled at the small school. It runs two shifts, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon, to accommodate the increasing number of students. The effect has been startling. “Children are learning better now. We have a better environment and enrolment has doubled because children prefer to spend their time in school,” says Mr. Odol.
  • Although the incentive he receives is not much, Mr. Odol says that he will keep teaching in his community. “I want to continue to teach these children, my children,” he says. “I hope that the children I teach will grow up to know how to help themselves and their families.”
  • UNICEF is constructing classrooms, training teachers, supplying learning and teaching materials and school uniforms, and distributing vouchers to families to ensure that children are released to spend time in school instead of working to support their families. UNICEF is also providing financial incentives for teachers.
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  • NICEF is helping to pay incentives to over 1,100 teachers across Somalia,” says UNICEF Education Officer Salad Dahir. At Shabelle School, each child has a complete set of textbooks and learning materials that have been provided with UNICEF support.
Teachers Without Borders

UNICEF warns of education crisis in Somalia :: U.S. Fund for UNICEF - UNICEF USA - 0 views

www.unicefusa.org/...unicef-education-somalia.html

education unicef somalia crisis enrolment students drought famine

shared by Teachers Without Borders on 14 Aug 11 - No Cached
  • The assessment, which was carried out last week, indicates that with the movement of an estimated 200,000 school-age children who have migrated to urban areas or across the border due to hunger, the gross primary school enrolment of 30% could plummet even further.  This is likely to be compounded by an acute shortage of teachers and an increase in demand for education services in areas where influxes of internally displaced people have been the greatest, such as in Mogadishu. 
  • "Education is a critical component of any emergency response," said Rozanne Chorlton, UNICEF Somalia Representative.  "Schools can provide a place for children to come to learn, as well as access health care and other vital services. Providing learning opportunities in safe environments is critical to a child’s survival and development and for the longer term stability and growth of the country."
  • Already, most of 10,000 teachers across the southern and central regions are dependent on incentives paid through the support of Education Cluster partners. Results indicate that in Lower and Middle Juba as well as Bay regions, up to 50 percent of teachers may not return to the classroom when schools reopen. 
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  • more than $20 million will be needed to carry out the plans.  Funding received to date is inadequate, and funding gaps in the education sector have reached their highest levels in the last four years.
  • Support is urgently needed to establish temporary learning spaces in camps for the internally displaced, support additional classroom space to accommodate new learners in host communities where people have migrated, provide water and sanitation facilities, provide school kits of essential education and recreational material to 435,000 children, provide incentives to 5,750 teachers and strengthen the Community Education Committee’s involvement in schools.
  • "After decades of neglect and lack of funding, the educational opportunities for school-aged children in Somalia are already dire, so it is imperative that we do everything we can to make sure the situation does not get worse,” said Chorlton.
  • Teachers Without Borders on 14 Aug 11
     
    NEW YORK (August 10, 2011)- With an estimated 1.8 million children between 5-17 years of age already out of school in southern and central Somalia, a rapid assessment conducted by the Education Cluster, in ten regions, warns this number could increase dramatically when schools open in September unless urgent action is taken. The assessment, which was carried out last week, indicates that with the movement of an estimated 200,000 school-age children who have migrated to urban areas or across the border due to hunger, the gross primary school enrolment of 30% could plummet even further.  This is likely to be compounded by an acute shortage of teachers and an increase in demand for education services in areas where influxes of internally displaced people have been the greatest, such as in Mogadishu. 
Teachers Without Borders

Vietnam demands English language teaching 'miracle' | Education | Guardian Weekly - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...alistic-english-teaching-goals

Vietnam education teacher development teachers TEFL English language reform teaching

shared by Teachers Without Borders on 25 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • More than 80,000 English language teachers in Vietnam's state schools are expected to be confident, intermediate-level users of English, and to pass a test to prove it, as part of an ambitious initiative by the ministry of education to ensure that all young people leaving school by 2020 have a good grasp of the language.
  • But the initiative is worrying many teachers, who are uncertain about their future if they fail to achieve grades in tests such as Ielts and Toefl."All teachers in primary school feel very nervous," said Nguyen Thi La, 29, an English teacher at Kim Dong Primary School in Hanoi."It's difficult for teachers to pass this exam, especially those in rural provinces. B2 is a high score.""All we know is that if we pass we are OK. If we don't we can still continue teaching, then take another test, then if we fail that, we don't know."
  • "No teachers will be sacked if they are not qualified because we already know most of them are not qualified. No teachers will be left behind and the government will take care of them. But if the teachers don't want to improve, then parents will reject them because only qualified teachers will be able to run new training programmes."
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  • The state media recently reported that in the Mekong Delta's Ben Tre province, of 700 teachers who had been tested, only 61 reached the required score. In Hue, in central Vietnam, one in five scored B2 or higher when 500 primary and secondary teachers were screened with tests tailored by the British Council.
  • "B2 is achievable enough. The teachers I know want to improve their English but want their salaries to be higher so that they can have an incentive to try harder to meet the standard," said Tran Thi Qua, a teacher trainer from the education department in Hue.
  • A new languages-focused curriculum delivered by retrained teachers should be in place in 70% of grade-three classes by 2015, according to ministry plans, and available nationwide by 2019. English teaching hours are set to double and maths will be taught in a foreign language in 30% of high schools in major cities by 2015.
  • "The government needs to fund courses to help improve the quality of the teachers, and pay them more money, but I think if teachers don't want to improve, then they should change jobs," she said.
  • Rebecca Hales, a former senior ELT development manager at British Council Vietnam, said: "The ministry is taking a phased approach, which is commendable, but there are issues with supply and demand. They don't have the trained primary English teachers. The targets are completely unachievable at the moment."
  • "The teacher trainers we trained up are now at the mercy of the individual education departments. There's no evidence at this stage of a large-scale teacher training plan," Hales said.
  • "There are many challenges. We are dealing with everything, from training, salaries and policy, to promotion, how to train [teachers] then keep them in the system. I'm not sure if [Project 2020] will be successful. Other countries have spent billions on English language teaching in the private sector but still governments have been very unhappy with the outcomes."
Teachers Without Borders

Survey: Supportive leadership helps retain top teachers - washingtonpost.com - 0 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...AR2010030204203.html

leadership teachers survey US standards

shared by Teachers Without Borders on 06 Mar 10 - Cached
  • A national survey of more than 40,000 public school teachers suggests that while higher salaries are far more likely than performance pay to help keep top talent in the classroom, supportive leadership trumps financial incentives.
  • To retain good teachers, 68 percent called supportive leadership "absolutely essential," 45 percent said the same of higher salaries and 8 percent listed performance pay.
  • Fifty-nine percent said establishing common standards across states would have a strong or very strong impact on achievement, and 73 percent said clearer academic standards would produce such benefits. But 69 percent said the rigor of their own state's standards was "about right," and teachers were nearly evenly split on whether their own state has "too many standards" or "the right amount."
Teachers Without Borders

Zimbabwe: Deteriorating education system and political tensions have led to severe teac... - 1 views

www.ei-ie.org/...newsshow.php

Zimbabwe unions shortages teachers

shared by Teachers Without Borders on 21 Apr 10 - Cached
  • Zimbabwe: Deteriorating education system and political tensions have led to severe teacher shortage
  • Incentives that parents can pay to improve teachers’ salaries have become one of the most controversial issues facing the education unions of Zimbabwe. It is dividing teachers and has incapacitated access to education by the most vulnerable groups of our society, said ZIMTA President Tendai Chikowore in her opening address.
  • ZIMTA estimates that in the past decade more than 20,000 teachers have left the country. In 2009, according to Chikowore, 35% of the teacher posts in primary education and 33% in secondary education were vacant.She noted that “teachers' morale sank to its lowest ebb since independence” and that any form of support for the reconstruction of Zimbabwe should recognize the need for support to teachers.
Teachers Without Borders

allAfrica.com: Zimbabwe: Gloom Looms in Education Sector - 0 views

allafrica.com/...201101100518.html

Zimbabwe funding education

shared by Teachers Without Borders on 15 Jan 11 - No Cached
  • Legislators have predicted a catastrophic year epitomised by poor pass rates and falling standards in the education sector ahead of next Tuesday's official schools opening day as a result of poor funding.
  • "The ministry will have to drastically revise downwards its stated objectives for 2011 as reflected in the blue book. The impact of the downward revision will be catastrophic. The ministry envisages poor pass rates, low quality education, lack of or no supervision of the education delivery mechanism, inadequate teaching materials and the continual mushrooming of illegal schools operating on the sidelines of conventional schools," reads part of the Parliamentary report.
  • the committee said the funds were inadequate to address the plight of teachers whose salaries are currently being topped-up through a controversial teacher incentive scheme. The budget was also said to have not prioritised secondary education.
Teachers Without Borders

South Africa desperate for skilled teachers - News - Mail & Guardian Online - 1 views

mg.co.za/...desperate-for-skilled-teachers

south africa teachers teacher development education

shared by Teachers Without Borders on 06 Oct 11 - No Cached
  • According to a report released by the Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE) on Wednesday, South Africa is in dire need of good, skilled teachers. "South Africa's education system is underperforming, especially in terms of maths and science results. When compared to many other developing countries, our expenditure on education is not matched by the results, and research shows decisively that good teaching is vital for better results," Ann Bernstein, the founding director of CDE, told journalists.
  • Research dating back to 2005 demonstrates that 16 581 mathematics teachers were present in the Eastern Cape but only 7 090 were teaching the subject. But 5 032 were teaching mathematics who were not qualified to do so.
  • Of those who are pursuing a career in the classroom, only two-thirds spend 46% of their time actively teaching and of those hardly any teach on a Friday.
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  • Additionally, the education system must also contend with the fact that over 25% of newly qualified teachers immediately pursue other professions, or emigrate.
  • "We need to make teaching a more attractive profession with better incentives for good performance. Teaching is not respected enough in South Africa and society needs to change its views and attribute greater status to teachers," Bernstein said.
  • "The starting salary in the teaching profession is low compared to other professions, even though the teachers have completed a four-year degree. This prevents people joining the profession. Teacher development and training is also key to improving the current situation," said Sadtu spokesperson Nomusa Cembi.
  • "In the past teaching was seen as a vocation and not a job. There has been a decline in the way teachers are viewed and the overall ethos of the profession has also waned. This will only be improved if teachers rise to the occasion," he said.
Teachers Without Borders

BBC News - UK pupils 'among least likely to overcome tough start' - 0 views

www.bbc.co.uk/...education-13794591

UK education disadvantaged children socioeconomics study OECD

shared by Teachers Without Borders on 22 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • The UK performs poorly in an international league table showing how many disadvantaged pupils succeed "against the odds" at school. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has studied how pupils from poor backgrounds can succeed academically.
  • It says that "self-confidence" is a key factor in whether such pupils succeed. The UK comes behind Mexico and Tunisia in the table - with the top places taken by Asian countries.
  • The study from the international economic organisation looks at whether there is an inevitable link between disadvantaged backgrounds and a cycle of poor school results and limited job prospects.
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  • Using science test results from the major international PISA study, which compares the performance of different education systems, it shows that there are wide differences in the levels of resilience.
  • Among countries, South Korea, Finland, Japan, Turkey and Canada are the most successful in terms of poorer pupils achieving high results.
  • But the UK is well below average and at the lower end of this ranking of resilience, with only 24% showing such examples of "resilience".
  • Believing that they are likely to succeed in exams is an important part of how they actually perform. The study argues that mentoring schemes can be particularly beneficial.
  • There is also a link between longer hours in class studying a subject and the improved chances of poorer pupils. It is also says that motivation is important - but in the form of a "personal, internal drive" rather than the promise of a reward or an incentive.
  • "All of these findings suggest that schools may have an important role to play in fostering resilience," says the report. "They could start by providing more opportunities for disadvantaged students to learn in class by developing activities, classroom practices and teaching methods that encourage learning and foster motivation and self-confidence among those students."
Teachers Without Borders

Angola is facing a teaching crisis that seems without end | Alex Duval Smith | Global d... - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...ovince-angola-teacher-shortage

teaching teachers shortage Angola teacher development education

shared by Teachers Without Borders on 14 Oct 11 - No Cached
  • In her job as a teacher-training co-ordinator in Huíla province, 43-year-old nun, Sister Cecília Kuyela witnesses school overcrowding every day. Primary School 200, which serves the poor area of João de Almeida, has 7,348 pupils for 138 teachers and eight permanent classrooms. At peak periods, classes are held in the street. But that is the least of Sister Cecília's worries.
  • During the war, people with only a grade 3 or 4 education became teachers. Since 2002, the pressure to meet MDG2 and to reduce Angola's 27% teenage illiteracy rate has seen the country recruit thousands of untrained school-leavers into teaching.
  • According to Unicef, less than 10% of five-year-olds have access to preschool. Only 76% of children between six and 11 are in primary school. Overall, more than 1 million six- to 17-year-olds are out of school.
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  • The shortage is so great," he says, "that those who do come into the system choose where they will work. We do not have the resources to pay incentives to place them where they are most needed.''
  • In his office in the provincial capital, Lubango, director of education Américo Chicote, 48, describes a "crisis'' that seems without end. "Our biggest challenge is to get children into school but then we have to find people to teach them. In Huíla province we have about 700,000 children of school age and 19,000 people teaching them. At the end of the war we had 200 schools. We now have 1,714 schools but we are still teaching 40% of our pupils under trees, and the school-age population is growing at a rate of 3% per year. Results are suffering. There are 171 days in the school year but there are not 171 days of good weather. We just have to do our best.''
  • Currently, anyone with a grade 10 education can sit the exam to become a teacher.
  • "We estimate that around 40% of our teachers are not properly qualified. So far, training initiatives have reached about 3,000 teachers in the province. The scheme needs to be expanded to reach more teachers across more subjects,'' he says.
  • "I am doing my best,'' says Florinda, who has a grade 10 education and eight years' experience as a teacher. She hopes in due course to be given on-the-job training. "I would love to learn some methods for animating my teaching. But to tell you the truth, in all this dust and heat, if I can just keep their attention for a whole lesson I feel I have done well.''
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