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A new wave of primary teachers will be trained to give dedicated lessons in disciplines such as mathematics, science and foreign languages, it was announced. It signals a dramatic shift in the primary school workforce which has traditionally favoured all-rounders who can teach any subject. Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, said the move would put state-educated pupils on a par with those in fee-paying schools. "Children in private sector through prep schools get primary specialist teaching in core subjects such as maths and sciences," he said today.

"The basic mission is to create OERs to replace textbooks in every school subject for every age or grade level for every country in every language needed. Children commonly take five subjects at a time, including Physical Education, divided into semesters, for 12 years of primary and secondary education. There is some variation in this plan, which does not change the fact that this comes to a requirement for more than 100 semester class OERs, without counting electives. The real count is doubtless greater than 300, including academic and vocational subjects, and numerous languages."

Factors that impact the Implementation of Peace Education Training

Two-thirds of parents say they have witnessed bullying and intimidation on the school sports field, a survey suggests. A poll of 1,250 eight to 16-year-old pupils and 1,010 parents for cricket charity Chance to Shine suggests some pupils are put off sport as a result. More than half of the pupils surveyed say they have been subjected to teasing, taunts and physical threats.

How do you fix education in Africa, where students have far fewer opportunities than their counterparts in other parts of the world? There are two schools of thought on the subject: do you invest bottom up? Or top down? The statistics are hard to ignore.  Sub-Saharan Africa is the lowest-ranked region in the world on the United Nations' education development index. The U.N. education agency (UNESCO) says a quarter of all children in sub-Saharan Africa do not go to school, and account for 43 percent of the world's out-of-school children. Meantime, the African Union (AU) has said the continent will need to recruit more than 2 million new teachers by 2015, just three years from now. While the U.N. and the AU agree on the scope of the education challenges facing the continent, they are from two separate schools of thought on how to remedy the situation.

The Gambia Committee on Traditional Practices in collaboration with the Ministry of Basic and Secondary schools will be introducing the teaching of Female Genital Mutilation and Girls' rights as one of the life skills subjects in schools.

Uganda will introduce Kiswahili as a compulsory subject in primary and secondary schools this year as a way of integrating fully with the other EAC partner states. Uganda joins Rwanda in the list of regional countries seeking to boost their language use as they seek opportunities in the integrated EAC where English and Swahili are the main languages of communication.

A *very* comprehensive e-book designed for K-12 teachers, seeking to support them in integrating ICT into their classrooms. Covers all manner of subjects, from details of hardware through to theoretical considerations.

Free online course for teachers of different subjects and school levels. Through this 12 week course teachers learn how to integrate online collaborative projects into their classes Course offered in Spanish. **N.B. This links to a page in Spanish.

Fewer students are applying to become teachers since the government began to reduce bursaries for those with 2:2 degrees and turn away applicants with thirds. Applications to teacher training courses are down by 15% on last year, after the number of bursaries was also cut back for those applying to teach non-priority subjects. But research shows more students want to join the profession. Over 80% of final-year students think teaching is a high-status career choice, according to research released today by the Teaching Agency, while a separate survey shows schools and universities are the second most popular type of employer

Tuesday afternoon, January 12th, the worst earthquake in 200 years - 7.0 in magnitude - struck less than ten miles from the Caribbean city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The initial quake was later followed by twelve aftershocks greater than magnitude 5.0. Structures of all kinds were damaged or collapsed, from shantytown homes to national landmarks. It is still very early in the recovery effort, but millions are likely displaced, and thousands are feared dead as rescue teams from all over the world are now descending on Haiti to help where they are able. As this is a developing subject, I will be adding photos to this entry over the next few days, but at the moment, here is a collection of photos from Haiti over the past 24 hours.

Children can no longer afford to be ignorant of how complex financial products work. The world of finance and money is becoming rapidly more complex and requires an integration of education and safe financial products to ensure children grow up knowing how to manage money and debt. From this year, financial literacy will be included in the national school curriculum and will be rolled out across a range of subjects during the next three years.

A federal task force is calling for financial literacy to be taught as part of the regular school curriculum throughout Canada. The task force said Wednesday having such an important subject ignored in many schools is no longer acceptable.

The International Leaders in Education Program (ILEP) brings outstanding secondary school teachers from around the globe to the United States to further develop expertise in their subject areas, enhance their teaching skills, and increase their knowledge about the United States. The program also brings US secondary school teachers to the home schools of international alumni to collaboratively develop workshops and share best practices. International alumni are eligible to apply for small grants to implement self-designed projects that benefit their home schools and communities. ILEP is a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the US Department of State.

The Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program (TEA) brings outstanding secondary school teachers from around the globe to the United States to further develop expertise in their subject areas, enhance their teaching skills, and increase their knowledge about the United States.The program also brings US secondary school teachers to the home schools of international alumni to collaboratively develop workshops and share best practices. International alumni are eligible to apply for small grants to implement self-designed projects that benefit their home schools and communities.

Students perform poorly in math and science subjects because teachers are incompetent, the National Council for Science and Technology has said. The council said most graduates from tertiary institutions are half-baked. "I have visited more than 40 public schools and institutions across the country and I can tell you for sure some of the math and science teachers are just incompetent," said NCST boss Prof Shaukat Abdulrazak.

Speaking at Narok Model Primary School during the District Education Day, Oyaya said teachers also create a bad environment for learners. He said this has made many students dislike some subjects, something that has impacted negatively on education standards in the district.

ABU DHABI // A new curriculum cutting from 13 to a maximum of seven the number of compulsory subjects in the last three years of school is to be tested in 2012. The revamped curriculum, which will go on trial in selected secondary schools in Abu Dhabi next September, will also offer a vocational stream for non-academically inclined pupils in Grades 10, 11 and 12.

School report comment bank files for most subjects, kindly provided by teachers from a wide range of schools around the world.