May 18, 2012

Caribbean primary student assessment pilot runs smoothly

May 17, 2012 Leave a Comment

Caribbean Primary Exit Assessment students.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados — The first sitting (pilot) of the Caribbean Primary Exit Assessment (CPEA) was written last Friday by just under 2,000 students in Anguilla and Grenada.

In Grenada, 1,727 students took the assessment at 53 centres across Grenada, Carriacou and Petit Martinique; while in Anguilla, 223 students from six centres did the assessment.

The students wrote the final part of the CPEA, which was in the form of a multiple choice test. The other components of the CPEA were completed in school over the duration of the programme.

The students were assessed in three areas during Friday’s external assessment: English, mathematics, and science. This will account for 60 percent of their final grade, while the internal assessment completed in school will account for the other 40 percent.

In Grenada, Franka Alexis-Bernardine, Minister of Education and Human Resource Development, along with a team from the Ministry of Education, visited schools prior to the commencement of the external assessment.

Alexis-Bernardine described Friday’s first sitting as a “watershed moment for us here in Grenada.”

Noting that the CPEA is a work in progress, the minister said, “I think people understand the principle behind what we are trying to do. It’s important to remember that today is just part of the total assessment… that if a child, for any reason, is not able to perform well today, that does not mean he is not going to get into secondary, because there are other means of assessing his progress.”

Davis Adams, principal of South St George Government School, expressed similar sentiments as the education minister. Adams said it was a very proud moment for him as an educator.

“I am glad that I am in school to be part of this moment in Grenada’s history…” he stated. “We should embrace it with both hands and work the best we can that when our students get into secondary education they can be the best citizens of Grenada, Carriacou and Petit Martinique.”

“The CPEA pilot went very smoothly in Anguilla,” stated Colleen Horsford, CXC local registrar in Anguilla. “There was a noticeable increase in the number of parents who accompanied their children to the examination hall. This I believe demonstrates the importance parents have attached to the CPEA and the fact that they were very involved with the programme from its inception.”

Horsford attributed the improved parental involvement to the meeting the Ministry of Education and CXC hosted with parents at the start of the programme in 2011, which was attended by over 200 parents.

The CPEA assesses the literacies required by all students exiting the primary school system. The programme departs from the traditional one-shot test offered in the various primary exit examinations, and assesses the students over a period of time using various methodologies: projects, writing portfolios, book reports, can do skills, internal teacher-prepared tests and student-prepared tests.

Caribbean News Now

Filed Under: Education, Primary

Teachers’ performance pay ‘does not raise standards’

May 16, 2012 Leave a Comment

Balancing act: Half of OECD countries use some form of pay flexibility for teachers, says a report

There is no clear link between performance pay for teachers and raising standards in schools, says an international survey.

The OECD has examined data from its Pisa tests to find whether targeting pay improves pupil achievement.

Previous studies have identified the importance of high-quality teaching.

But the OECD’s Andreas Schleicher says the international evidence reveals “no relationship” between pupils’ test results and the use of performance pay.

Researchers have already established that top-performing school systems are likely to have teachers who are well-paid or with high social status.

Stretched budgets

The quality of teaching has been identified as central to the outcomes for pupils.

A previous OECD report advised that raising achievement in schools depended on attracting the best students into teaching with “status, pay and professional autonomy”.

But raising the pay for all teachers becomes difficult when public spending is under such pressure in many countries.

The OECD report says many countries facing financial constraints want to see whether they can increase the rewards for the most effective teachers.

The OECD’s membership includes more than 30 of the world’s industrialised countries – and about half of these already use some kind of extra pay incentives for specific teachers.

As such, the OECD has examined whether such a targeted, performance-related approach delivers better results.

Professional status

The findings are that there is no clear pattern.

“In other words, some high-performing education systems use performance-based pay while others don’t,” writes Mr Schleicher.

South Korea, often applauded as an education success story, does not use performance pay. But Finland, often commended for an equitable system, does use an element of performance-based pay.

England has a performance threshold linked to higher pay – while France and Germany do not use performance pay.

But within this bigger picture of ambiguity there are some identifiable and contradictory trends.

In economies where teachers are relatively poorly paid, performance-related pay can be associated with improved student performance.

The report says this might suggest that for countries that cannot afford good pay for teachers, such a strategy could have value.

But in countries where teachers’ pay is relatively good, the use of performance pay is linked to poorer performance.

Measuring results

The report also emphasises that performance pay comes in many forms and raises many difficult questions:

How is performance to be reliably and fairly measured? How can an individual teacher’s impact be separated from the contribution of other staff? Should rewards be shared among staff reflecting their collective effort?

And it says that many successful school systems have a wider approach to attracting and rewarding staff.

This can include ensuring the public status of teachers, providing career development and giving teachers professional responsibility.

By Sean Coughlan
BBC News education correspondent

Filed Under: Education, Primary, Secondary

Prince Edward declines appeal for royal homework pardon

May 16, 2012 Leave a Comment

The prince studied the document but didn't sign it

Prince Edward has declined a Belfast pupil’s appeal for a royal reprieve from homework.

The prince was visiting Lagan College on the outskirts of the city in the first engagement of a one-day visit.

During a presentation in the main hall, year eight pupil Michael Hare asked the prince to sign a royal pardon which would have “pardoned all year eight pupils from any homework not done.”

The prince studied the document but didn’t sign it.

Speaking to BBC’s Radio Ulster, Michael said he got the idea from history lessons.

“In history we’re learning about the Normans coming to Ireland and I think it’s Strongbow who gets a royal pardon from the king and that gave me the idea,” he said.

“I started sort of talking to my class about it and they said ‘yes really do it’ and then they sort of pushed me along to it and I said ‘yes I’ll do it’.

Michael said the Prince liked the idea.

“He said this is absolutely great – he was very enthusiastic and he said ‘very tempting, good idea’.

“But he said Ms McNamee (the head teacher) wouldn’t be very happy about it.

“It’s a tiny bit disappointing but I don’t really mind homework.”

BBC News

Filed Under: Education, Primary

Undereducated teachers in Suriname causing concern

May 15, 2012 Leave a Comment

Red flag raised that two-thirds of high school teachers in Suriname not sufficiently qualified.

PARAMARIBO, Suriname — Only 31% of the teachers in Suriname are fully qualified and the Education Ministry is to seek ways to increase this percentage.

This was asserted by Eddy Jozefzoon, chairman of the task force on educational innovation after revealing the results of a recent survey, which concluded that the percentage of fully qualified high school teachers has not increased for the past four years. 

Jozefzoon claims the percentage of teachers with limited qualifications has increased from 51% five years ago to the current 60%, while that of non-qualified teachers was dropping.

The relative low number of higher qualified teachers has also caught the attention of authorities within the school system.

Balram Soemeer, chairman of the high schools principals council and principal of the Miranda Lyceum, is reported to have said that the survey portrays an accurate representation of what occurs across the schools as the shortage of fully qualified teachers at secondary level is nothing new.

Soemeer lamented that this had not improved much through the years and he pointed to the teacher training institute as having an important role to play in increasing the numbers of qualified teachers in by producing more graduates, while more people should be persuaded to become teachers.

This issue reared its head in the past and under former Education Minister Edwin Wolf, a consultant wrote a report about issues including teachers and their qualifications with the recommendation for teachers to be retrained and offered refresher courses.

In commenting on the primary school system, Jozefzoon made a recommendation for the most experienced teachers to work in the lower grades of these schools so that these teachers could intervene at an earlier stage to mitigate early learning difficulties and help to improve performance results.

Caribbean 360 News

Filed Under: Education, Primary, Secondary, Tertiary Tagged With: , , , , , ,

EdUSA Weekly Update Issue

May 14, 2012 Leave a Comment

Photo credit: facebook.com

EdUSA Weekly Update Issue #278 May 7th, 2012

I. Financial Aid

MONMOUTH COLLEGE INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE MERIT SCHOLARSHIPS
Monmouth College has a longstanding tradition of welcoming students from every part of the world. We know that international diversity within our student body benefits all students, inside the classroom and beyond. When engaged and enthusiastic young people from many countries and many cultures study, reflect, and socialize together, good things happen – friendships are established, understanding is increased, communicative skills are enhanced, patience is deepened, and an endlessly rewarding curiosity about the world bursts into life.

Merit Scholarships for International Baccalaureate Students will be awarded to admitted international applicants who have completed the IB Diploma program at an IB World School. Award amounts will vary, with a minimum of $15,000, and may be renewed for up to three additional years of study. The applicant should provide proof of graduation from the IB World School in the form of the high school transcript (course marks), sent directly from the high school itself. The student applicant does not need to demonstrate financial need to be eligible for this scholarship. Monmouth College welcomes IB students!
For more information, please visit: http://bit.ly/IF1RSp

HIRAM COLLEGE MERIT SCHOLARSHIPS
Hiram is a coeducational liberal arts college of about 1,300 men and women located in the historic Western Reserve region of Ohio. Hiram is a nationally respected institution that offers students a distinct learning environment with an emphasis on close student-faculty interactions, international study experiences, and experiential learning environments.

International applicants are eligible to compete for merit-based Global Scholarships. For on-campus residents, they range up to a maximum of $19,500 per year. For commuter students, they range up to a maximum of $15,000 per year. Scholarships are renewable annually for up to four years of study. To receive full consideration, a completed application for admission must be received no later than February 15 for the fall intake and no later than October 1 for the spring intake.

UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND LAW SCHOLARSHIPS
The University of Richmond provides a collaborative learning and research environment unlike any other in higher education, offering students an extraordinary combination of the liberal arts with law, business, leadership studies, and continuing education. Students are guaranteed an integrated, interdisciplinary academic experience across any of the five schools.

All applicants to the law school are considered for the John Marshall Scholars Program, which awards scholarships of $10,000 each to a number of incoming students each year. The scholarship is renewed automatically each year, provided the recipient ranks in the top third of his or her class. John Marshall Scholars are chosen by a blue-ribbon panel of Virginia Supreme Court justices and prominent alumni. Beginning in their second year, John Marshall Scholars are invited to participate in a specially designed seminar during the course of the academic year.

WANGARI MAATHAI SCHOLARSHIP FOR ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
At the Bard Center for Environmental Policy, we believe that solutions to environmental challenges such as climate change must be tackled from an integrated perspective. Whether enrolled the existing environmental policy track or the new climate science and policy degree, students are given rigorous scientific, economic, legal, and political training, and graduates enter their careers equipped with the knowledge and practical experience to create thoughtful and competent policy.

The new Wangari Maathai Scholarship is available for one outstanding international student as part of the Wangari Maathai Scholars program. This new program will grant one $20,000 scholarship per year to a student who shows promise of a leadership career in environmental policy. Interested students should email a statement of no more than 500 words to cep@bard.edu on the following: Please define and explain leadership in the context of the sustainability challenges we face in the coming decades. Finalists will be reviewed based on this statement and their application materials, and will be interviewed by the selection committee. Applicants must be accepted to the Bard CEP masters program and have completed a international financial aid application, including a certificate of finances, in order to qualify. Applications are due by May 15. The scholarship recipient will be notified on June 1st.

II. Campus News

HOW TO APPLY FOR YOUR STUDENT VISA
EducationUSA’s Marty Bennett goes through the steps of how to apply for your student visa. While the process may be intimidating and nerve racking, the article reassures that any fears are unnecessary; especially when compared with the excitement that comes with visa approval.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS ANNOUNCES CONDITIONAL ADMISSION PROGRAM
The Global Achievement Program at University of California, Davis is a new opportunity uniquely designed for foreign high school students who satisfy all the academic requirements for admission to UC Davis except for the English language requirements.

The program offers a rigorous foundation year of language and academic preparation coursework to help students succeed academically at the University of California. As a reminder for those who wish to apply for the 2012 -2013 academic year, all application and supplement materials must be received by Friday, August 10, 2012.

IT’S IMPORTANT TO KEEP YOUR MIND OPEN WHEN APPLYING
Roz, as he has come to be called by his American friends, is an Uzbekistan student who participated in the Undergraduate Intensive English Language Study Program (UIELSP) at Utah State University.

Before starting this program, Roz had never even heard of the UIELSP. But thanks to the EducationUSA adviser in Roz’s country, he was encouraged to apply. Roz speaks about the amazing experience he had in the U.S., and how it both improved his language skills and continued to guide him upon returning home.

Filed Under: Education, Tertiary

UWI Cave Hill Principal to keynote CTO HR conference

May 11, 2012 Leave a Comment

Professor Sir Hilary Beckles. Photo credit: nationnews.com

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – The Principal of the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) Professor Sir Hilary Beckles will deliver the keynote address at the 6th Annual Tourism Human Resources Conference this month in Barbados.

Sir Hilary will speak on the conference theme, “Enhancing Caribbean Tourism Human Resources through Partnerships and Innovation”, at the opening ceremony of the 23 – 25 May international gathering.

“Human resource enhancement and quality management go hand in hand and impact on any organization’s performance. We must therefore seek to identify the challenges that deter us from maximizing the creative potential of our Human Resources, while creating a workplace culture that thrives on innovation,” the UWI principal said ahead of the event.

During the three day conference, tourism human resources professionals from the public and private sectors, tourism educators and trainers and consultants will approach the theme from a number of angles. These include effective leadership and employee engagement, how to recognize and nurture leadership at all levels of an organisation and how to leverage resources across boundaries.

An exciting workshop aimed at breathing life into the workplace has been planned. This workshop – Waking up the Tourism Workplace – is one of two intensive practical learning sessions to be presented by experts in the various fields. The other workshop will focus on innovation and creativity in the workplace.

CTO is partnering with the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies and the Barbados Hospitality Institute – Hotel PomMarine, to organize the conference.

Press Release

Filed Under: Education, News, Regional, Tertiary

Selena Victor wins 2012 Kweyol Spelling Bee Competition

May 11, 2012 Leave a Comment

Selena Victor of the Paix Bouche Primary School. Photo credit:Pictastic Photo Studio

Selena Victor of the Paix Bouche Primary School won the 3rd Annual Kwéyòl Spelling Bee Competition held at the Awarak House of Culture on Wednesday May 9, 2012.

The keenly contested competition involving primary schools lasted three hours and involved 11 finalists. Lancia Demosthene of the St.Luke’s Primary School, Grace Etienne of the Delices Primary School and Megan Denis of the Grand Bay Primary captured the second, third and fourth places respectively.

The event was organized by the Cultural Division and the Konmité pou Etid Kwéyòl (KEK) as part of DOMFESTA.

Other participants in the finals were Julia Cyrille of the Atkinson Primary School, Jaden Joseph of the Colihaut Primary School, Sheldon Esprit of the Campbell Primary School, Shaniah Edwards of the Massacre Primary School, Jamescia George of the Penville Primary School, Vera Darroux of the Salybia Primary School and Antonio Fontaine of the St. Mary’s Primary School. These finalists emerged from preliminary rounds held a week earlier in various zones around the island.

Coordinator of the Kweyol Spelling Bee, Ms. Charlene White-Christian, commenting on the event, noted, ‘This year, the Kwéyòl Spelling Bee competition was exceptional. The participation from the schools must be commended. Students were very well prepared for the competition and this lent itself to the competition being of a very high standard.

Lancia Demosthene of the St.Luke’s Primary School, Grace Etienne of the Delices Primary School and Megan Denis of the Grand Bay Primary captured the second, third and fourth places respectively. Photo credit: Gregory Rabess

The Kwéyòl Spelling Bee carries a certain prestige and with it comes the joy of knowing that the younger ones are becoming more and more aware of the Creole Language and are embracing the challenge of spelling this Mother tongue which identifies us as Dominican and Francophone’. Ms White – Christian also commended the finalists and participating schools and looked forward to greater participation next year.

The finalists received trophies sponsored by Ross University School of Medicine. DIGICEL, a major sponsor of the event, presented a gift bag and a voucher valued at $50 redeemable at Jays Bookstore to each finalist and a Blackberry telephone to the winner.

The winning school, Paix Bouche Primary School, also received a plaque compliments the Signman. Addresses at the event came from Mr. Raymond Lawrence, Chief Cultural Officer and Ms. Mary-Ann Augustus Francis, French Coordinator in the Ministry of Education.

The Kwéyòl Spelling Bee is part of efforts by the Konmite pou Etid Kwéyòl (KEK) and the Cultural Division to promote written form of the Kwéyòl language.

Press Release

Filed Under: Education, Local, News, Primary

Young females in Haiti receive World Bank training for the job market.

May 10, 2012 Leave a Comment

In Haiti young women from poor homes have greater difficulties to find a first employment than boys.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, May 10, 2012 - A World Bank programme aimed at fostering economic independence among young girls and young women will result in 1,000 Haitian females between the ages of 17 and 20 receiving non-traditional vocational training.

The programme launched this week is called the Adolescent Girls Initiative (AGI) and is part of a global public-private partnership aimed at fostering economic independence among 12,000 young girls and young women in eight countries. The training will be carried out in poor neighbourhoods in Port-au-Prince.

500 young girls will be trained in 2012 and 500 in 2013. The training will take place in a number of selected training centres and the young females will be trained in areas such as work ethics, self-confidence, and professional conduct. They will also receive a stipend to be paid via a mobile banking system to cover the cost of transport and other costs associated with participation in the training program. After the training they will be offered an internship which will be considered as the first phase of employment. The internship will take into account the needs of the partner employers involved in the initiative.

Sheyla Durandisse, Chief of Staff in the Ministry for Women’s Affairs and Women’s Rights, said: the Haiti AGI contains community, educational, and professional components to address the challenges young girls are facing in Haiti and thus to improve their social and economic conditions. In Haiti, where people under the age of 30 account for roughly 70 percent of the population, adolescent girls and young women from poor homes have greater difficulties to find a first employment than boys with the same educational level.

Vocational training is a key factor for the development of human capital in Haiti. It is crucial to the employment challenges and the country’s growth over the next five years and beyond, said Alexandre Abrantes, the World Bank’s Special Envoy to Haiti. The AGI was launched in Liberia in 2008 as part of the World Bank Group’s gender action plan Gender Equality as Smart Economics, which is aimed at helping adolescent girls make the transition to productive employment.

The US$22 million initiative is already under way in Afghanistan, Jordan, Liberia, Nepal, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Rwanda, and South Sudan. The Bank is working with partners including the Nike Foundation and the governments of the following countries:  Afghanistan, Australia, Denmark, Jordan, Liberia, Nepal, Norway, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, the United Kingdom, Rwanda, South Sudan, and Sweden.  The World Bank is also establishing partnerships with other interested public and private sector organizations.

Caribbean 360 News

Filed Under: Education, Secondary Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Haitian adolescent girls to benefit from vocational training

May 10, 2012 Leave a Comment

Photo credit: caribjournal.com

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — On Wednesday, the World Bank launched the Adolescent Girls Initiative (AGI) in Haiti. The initiative is a global public-private partnership aimed at fostering economic independence among 12,000 young girls and young women in eight countries. Through the AGI in Haiti, 1,000 adolescent girls between the ages of 17 and 20 will receive non-traditional vocational training to be provided in a number of selected training centers.

The young girls will be trained in areas such as work ethics, self-confidence, and professional conduct. They will also receive a stipend to be paid via a mobile banking system to cover the cost of transport and other costs associated with participation in the training program. After the training they will be offered an internship which will be considered as the first phase of employment. The internship will take into account the needs of the partner employers involved in the initiative.

Sheyla Durandisse, chief of staff in the Ministry for Women’s Affairs and Women’s Rights, said: “the Haiti Adolescent Girls Initiative contains community, educational, and professional components to address the challenges young girls are facing in Haiti and thus to improve their social and economic conditions.”

The training will be carried out in poor neighbourhoods in Port-au-Prince and 500 young girls will be trained in 2012 and 500 in 2013.

In Haiti, where people under the age of 30 account for roughly 70 percent of the population, adolescent girls and young women from poor homes have greater difficulties finding first employment than boys with the same educational level. This is the case in many developing countries.

The latest World Development Report indicates that investing in adolescent girls can break the poverty cycle from one generation to the next. In Argentina, for example, income increased significantly and employment rates rose by 9 to 12 percentage points for young girls participating in the Progama Joven. In Peru, the income of young girls participating in the Projoven project rose by 92 percent after 18 months of training.

“Vocational training is a key factor for the development of human capital in Haiti. It is crucial to the employment challenges and the country’s growth over the next five years and beyond,” said Alexandre Abrantes, the World Bank’s special envoy to Haiti.

Caribbean News Now

Filed Under: Education, Secondary

School spending on exams doubles to £328m in a decade

May 9, 2012 Leave a Comment

There were 880,000 A-levels awarded - out of 16 million qualifications awarded last year

School spending on exams rose to £328m last year – up from £154m less than a decade ago, according to figures from the exam watchdog Ofqual.

The annual report on the exam market in England, Wales and Northern Ireland also shows the number of qualifications has doubled to 18,000 in five years.

This includes 300 different A-levels, 250 AS-levels and 800 GCSE options.

Altogether in 2010-11 there were 16 million separate qualifications awarded, including vocational training.

Ofqual’s report shows the scale and cost of the qualifications market in 2010-11 – with the amount spent on exam fees rising by 8.5% on the previous year.

Rising costs

The report shows that the amount spent by schools on exams has increased above inflation every single year since 2002.

This increase has outstripped the rise in school running costs – and means that exam fees have taken a growing proportion of budgets.

The reasons for the sustained increase are suggested as higher fees, more pupils taking exams, more re-sit fees and a shift to pupils taking more expensive exams.

The average A-level fee, the report says, is now about £81 for maths and £93 for French.

Within the total of 16 million qualifications awarded there were 5.5 million GCSEs – drifting downwards from a high point of 6.2m in 2007.

The report suggests that this might be because schools are offering more non-GCSE qualifications.

The number of A-levels awarded has remained a small proportion of the overall total – 880,000, the same as the previous year.

Among the biggest areas of business for the qualifications industry is the wide range of vocational, training and basic skills awards, with eight million qualifications awarded.

There has been a continuing growth in the number of bodies awarding qualifications – rising to 179 from about 100 a decade ago.

A Department for Education spokesman said: “Our reforms to league tables mean that while GCSEs will continue to count, low-quality qualifications that don’t help young people into further study or jobs will be stripped out.”

“We are concerned about the scale of school spending on exams – this is money that could otherwise be spent on teaching.

“Expenditure on exams, including exam fees, is one of the most significant calls on school and college budgets, and has been growing in real terms, as has the percentage of budgets that this represents.”

By Sean Coughlan
BBC News education correspondent

Filed Under: Education, Primary, Secondary
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