Teachers Without Borders

In Sri Lanka, child-friendly schools transform communities

Research that helps us pinpoint the causes of burnout gives us guidance for how to avoid and combat it. In his landmark book, Beyond Burnout (Routledge), Cary Cherniss used intensive case study research to identify factors most likely to lead to teacher burnout:

School districts across the US are creating new teacher evaluation systems that are supposed to better identify ineffective teaching and, in some cases, tie a teacher's rating to student performance. My quarrel is not with the evaluation systems themselves however. My quarrel is with how they are being implemented. Here are three of the most common mistakes I've seen:

England's schools should take lessons from Japan and the Far East on how to improve performance, the shadow education secretary says. Stephen Twigg says despite many school reforms, there has been little change to the style of classroom teaching since Victorian times.

SHENYANG, May 15 (Xinhua) -- Educational authorities across the nation are embracing newly amended rules to prevent cheating on upcoming college entrance exams.

MANILA, Philippines - The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) will deploy thousands of its personnel to assist in the cleaning and renovation of all the public schools across the country in preparation for the opening of the classes on June 4. AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Jessie Dellosa said that his deployment order is in support of the week-long "Brigada Eskwela 2012" launched by the Department of Education which will kick-off on Monday. In Metro Manila alone, Dellosa said at least 1,000 soldiers will be tapped in preparing schools in the metropolis, adding that the military contingent is composed of active and reservists which will come from the AFP's three major services command.

As students and teachers again face a shortage of classrooms this year, one of the country's most populated school divisions is turning to home schooling to ease overcrowding. The Quezon City school division is placing some 10,000 students from six high schools on a home schooling program, the biggest number to be covered in a single area since the Department of Education adopted this alternative mode of teaching. "There are 10,000 students from six high schools that will go on home study. Our city government has already allocated P20 million for that," said assistant division superintendent Rowena Cacanindin.

DUBAI // A group of Grade 6 pupils in Dubai want to convince schools across the country to convert to solar energy - and save up to Dh1 million a year on their electricity bills. Related ■ Weaving the sun's power into life's fabric ■ Utility bills sent out to show waste If their mission, under the banner "Make A Difference", is successful, the students at Emirates International School Jumeirah estimate that schools can reduce electricity usage by 20 per cent.