EDUCBLOG

Spotted on UNESCO Education

Four regional reports on adult learning and literacy have been published focusing on the Arab States, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa between 1997 to 2007. These regional reports will inform discussions at the Sixth International Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA VI) to take place end of 2009 in Brazil.

Compiled by UNESCO Member States, the four reports include national information on the situation of adult learning and education since the fifth International Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA V) in 1997.

The Sixth International Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA VI) was to be held 19-22 May 2009 but was postponed by the Brazilian government due to health security concerns about Influenza A (H1N1). The new dates for the conference will be confirmed shortly.

Follow this link to the pdf version of the report for sub-Saharan Africa. 

A new open access journal,  Journal of Instructional Pedagogies publishes covers contemporary instructional techniques and education issues in higher education.   Educational topics related to delivery methods, implementation of classroom technologies, distance learning, class activities and assessment are typical topics.  

Published by the Academic and Business Research Institute.

The International Children's Digital Library - a Library for the World's Children.    The mission of the International Children's Digital Library Foundation (ICDL Foundation) is to support the world's children in becoming effective members of the global community - who exhibit tolerance and respect for diverse cultures, languages and ideas -- by making the best in children's literature available online free of charge. The Foundation pursues its vision by building a digital library of outstanding children's books from around the world and supporting communities of children and adults in exploring and using this literature through innovative technology designed in close partnership with children for children. 

SA Child Gauge 2008, released by UCT's Children's Institute,  "paints a bleak picture of roughly two thirds of junior primary school children being functionally illiterate and innumerate, a statistic that grows to 73 percent innumerate when pupils reach Grade 4."   

IOL reports that the report shows that while the country has a very high rate of enrolment in grades one to nine, they are often not receiving "meaningful access to education, or meaningful learning outcomes". 

Meaningful access to education, said the Children's Institute's Shirley Pendlebury, requires among other things access to well-conceived text books and other learning materials; competent and prepared teachers who are able to use a range of appropriate classroom practices; a curriculum that builds a strong basis in the foundation phase; teaching facilities and resources such as laboratories and well-stocked libraries; and a safe and supportive environment.

"Ninety-six percent of children of compulsory school age are enrolled in school, yet poor national averages for language and mathematics in grades 3 and 6 show that most learners do not acquire the skills and understanding that give substance to the right to education."

Only 36% of grade 3 pupils passed the literacy and 35% the numeracy assessments in 2007, according to the preliminary findings.

From the Planet Science website: 

Bad Science is a column written by Dr. Ben Goldacre where he tells us just how the media sometimes gets it wrong when they’re talking science.

This is affectionately termed "pseudoscience" i.e. false science.

Planet Science have teamed up with Dr. Goldacre and some lovely helpful teachers to bring you "Bad Science" for the classroom: fun activities to do with your students and show them that not everything you read is "proper" science.

(Ben Goldacre is a medical doctor and writes the "Bad Science" column in the Guardian newspaper.)

From Educblogger:  You can find the book "Bad Science" on our library shelves at DSL 500 GOLD and check out the Bad Science blog.

Spotted this morning on Educblogger's Google alerts:-

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of California, has written an opinion piece in which he asks why California's public school students are still learning "from instructional materials in formats made possible by Gutenberg's printing press" when they "get their information from the Internet, downloaded onto their iPods, and in Twitter feeds to their cell phones."

He was writing about the digital textbooks initiative that California has just launched, starting with high school math and science books.    He has issued a call for educators and content developers to submit digital texts for review -  the plan is that everything is ready for Fall 2009.

 <snip>

If California is to remain competitive in an increasingly global economy, this initial focus on math and science texts is critical.

And here's the story as told in the Guardian.

From UNESCO Education

This publication provides a strategic vision of the critically important role that education must play in addressing HIV and AIDS. It targets decision-makers and practitioners in the education sector, as well as colleagues who work on HIV and AIDS responses in other sectors.

It identifies key priorities for responding to HIV and AIDS through education, puts forward two central objectives for education responses, and outlines how the response should be tailored to the local epidemiological situation and other factors.

Spotted on intute.ac.uk

OE Eprints is a depository of research papers produced by the Institute of Education in London. These electronic copies of academic papers "Eprints" can be "pre-prints" (the version of a paper submitted for peer review) or "post-prints" (the final peer reviewed version, which has been accepted for publishing) or similar material such as book chapters, conference papers, working papers, technical reports and so on. It is possible to search the database by keyword, type of publication, author etc., browse the repository by department / year or view the latest accessions chronologically. The full text of items is available for some of these papers.

School Libraries in South Africa, a blog created by Maggie Verster, for South African school libraries.  

<snip> This blog will track and trace library resources, articles, interesting librarians, great books, social media and tools,  media literacy and everything that could help us create more vibey and exciting libraries in our schools as seen from a South African perspective.

<snip> It was created as an example for the blogging session at a workshop for school librarians, but will hopefully be maintained by local librarians from all over South Africa. It will also follow our local librarians on their blogging and social media learning pathways and report on successes and struggles along the way!

Quoting from this morning's State of the Nation Address by His Excellency JG Zuma, President of the Republic of South Africa.   (Full text is available on Amandla blog; also thanks to Kate Hunter at the GSB Library)

Compatriots,

Education will be a key priority for the next five years. We want our teachers, learners and parents to work with government to turn our schools into thriving centres of excellence.

The Early Childhood Development programme will be stepped up, with the aim of ensuring universal access to Grade R and doubling the number of 0-4 year old children by 2014.

We reiterate our non-negotiables. Teachers should be in school, in class, on time, teaching, with no neglect of duty and no abuse of pupils! The children should be in class, on time, learning, be respectful of their teachers and each other, and do their homework.

To improve school management, formal training will be a pre-condition for promoting teachers to become principals or heads of department.
I will meet school principals to share our vision on the revival of our education system.

Fellow South Africans,

We will increase our efforts to encourage all pupils to complete their secondary education.

The target is to increase enrolment rates in secondary schools to 95 per cent by 2014. We are also looking at innovative measures to bring back into the system pupils who dropped out of school, and to provide support.

Honourable Members, we are very concerned about reports of teachers who sexually harass and abuse children, particularly girls.

We will ensure that the Guidelines on Sexual Harassment and Violence in Public Schools are widely disseminated, and that learners and teachers are familiar with and observe them.

We will take very serious, and very decisive, action against any teachers who abuse their authority and power by entering into sexual relationships with children.

To promote lifelong learning, the Adult Basic Education and Training Kha ri Gude programme will be intensified.

Compatriots, Honourable Members,

We have to ensure that training and skills development initiatives in the country respond to the requirements of the economy.

The Further Education and Training sector with its 50 colleges and 160 campuses nationally will be the primary site for skills development training.

We will improve the access to higher education of children from poor families and ensure a sustainable funding structure for universities.