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Education

Education Secretary Justine Greening says she was turned down for a banking job because she had not taken a gap year

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Justine Greening

The Education Secretary Justine Greening has revealed she was once turned down for a job in banking because she had not taken a gap year.

She spoke of an interview at Barings Bank, one of the world’s oldest merchant banks until it collapsed in 1995, where she was allegedly told that she was not suitable for the job as she had not travelled to enough exotic countries.

Speaking at the launch of her new social mobility strategy, she recalled how at the time she was “too embarrassed to admit that I simply couldn’t afford one”.

Taking a year out has become so common that it has prompted the mocking term “gap yah”, which arose from a comedy sketch about an upper class student boasting of his travels in far flung countries.

Companies have been criticised for favouring job applicants who have taken gap years, since they are more common among affluent students.

Ms Greening, who went to a comprehensive school in Rotherham before reading Economics at Southampton University, said she had never met a lawyer until she was an adult.

She urged businesses to take on more “rough diamonds” like her and help to “polish them up”.

“After my exams, I looked at going into the City. I remember a final interview with a long-established City bank,” Ms Greening said in a speech at PriceWaterhouseCooper’s London offices on Wednesday, at an event co-hosted with the Sutton Trust.

“I was sat in a wood-panelled office, being quizzed by one of their most senior managers at the firm. He wasn’t very impressed with my extra year of research post-university, doing research that was funded by Ladbrokes, looking at gambling behaviour.

“He looked me in the eye and said he felt I didn’t have enough of the ‘world experience’ that they wanted, and pointed out that I hadn’t had a gap year travelling. That was correct. At the time I was too embarrassed to admit that I simply couldn’t afford one.”

Ms Greening indicated she will press ahead with controversial grammar school plans in the face of stiff opposition. A consultation on expanding selective education closed before Christmas and the responses are being analysed by officials.

The policy has divided Conservatives and angered teaching unions. But Ms Greening insisted education reforms cannot be put “on one side because people feel that there are things we shouldn’t be looking at”.

She also said she does not support a ban on unpaid internships, which was recommended this week by the all party parliamentary group on social mobility.

Ms Greening said her social mobility programme will expand to target more areas where youngsters are failing to achieve their potential.

Doncaster, Bradford, Fenland & East Cambridgeshire, Hastings, Ipswich, and Stoke will join the six existing “opportunity areas”, including Blackpool and Norwich, in the £72million scheme.

The “opportunity areas” programme focuses on bolstering teacher support and improving schools as well as careers advice, mentoring and apprenticeship opportunities.

A new fund, made up of £1.5million of Department for Education funding and £2million from the Education Endowment Foundation, will be used to create new “research schools” in each area that will share evidence about the best ways of boosting the performance of disadvantaged pupils.

Kevin Courtney, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said it is “highly disingenuous” and “misleading in the extreme” for the Education Secretary to suggest that the funding is “new”.

“The £72million will not go far compared with the impacts of the worst funding crisis in decades for all schools and sixth form colleges,” he said.

[Source:- telegraph]

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Education

Gap between rich and poor primary school pupils wider than it was 50 years ago

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

schoolsv2.jpg

The UK’s education class divide is wider now than it was half a century ago, new research has revealed, with children from poorer backgrounds already eight months behind their more privileged peers before starting school.

A study into international inequalities by the Sutton Trust found the UK falls behind Canada and Australia in terms of the literacy gap between pupils from the poorest and most affluent backgrounds.

Inequality levels are even larger in the US education system, where disadvantaged pupils are around one year behind before they even start primary school.

Five-year-olds in Canada and Australia with less educated parts fall behind their more advantaged peers by approximately six months at the point of starting school – a significantly smaller gap than in the UK.

While inequality has narrowed slightly in the past decade, there is still a noticeably larger gap between social groups than there was for children born 40 to 60 years ago, researchers warned.

The Sutton Trust said greater efforts were needed to reduce the disparity in the UK system, for instance by ensuring that well-trained staff are employed in Early Years settings.

Professor Jane Waldfogel, who led the research brief, said: “We have known for some time that achievement gaps in the US and UK are large. This international research puts them in context – and show that they can and should be smaller.”

By analysing information gleaned from international workshops and recent OECD data, researchers said they were able to compare international practices for better understanding of the best possible policies.

The charity has also called on the government improve access for disadvantaged children to the best early years education and care, ensuring children arrive at primary school on a more equal footing.

Sir Peter Lampl, Founder and Chairman of the Sutton Trust and Chairman of the Education Endowment Foundation, said:  “There is a large difference between the reading attainment of the richest and poorest children in both the US and the UK. Tackling this disparity early on is critical to breaking the cycle of disadvantage and reducing inequality.

“We need to make sure that every child has access to high-quality early years education, so that rich and poor children arrive at school on a more equal footing.”

A DfE spokesperson said: “We want all children to have the best start in life and latest results show the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their counterparts is narrowing but we know there is more to do. We are giving disadvantaged families, including looked after children, extra support through 15 hours of free childcare a week for disadvantaged two year olds, and the Early Years Pupil Premium, which is worth over £300 a year per child.

 “There are already a record number of nurseries, pre-schools and childminders rated as ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’, the proportion of children reaching the expected learning standards continues to rise and more than 16,000 specialist early years graduates have been trained. To build on that success we are creating a workforce strategy to help attract, retain and develop the very best staff and investing more than ever in the sector – £6billion per year by 2020.”

[Source:- independent]

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Education

Schools in debt as funding gap bites

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

school funding

Almost 1,000 local authority schools and more than 100 academy trusts in England are now in debt, ministers have revealed in an answer to a parliamentary question.

Heads and teachers have been complaining about deepening problems with funding shortages – with warnings they might have to cut school hours.

The ministerial response shows 5% of council schools have budget deficits.

Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said funding gaps had become a “national scandal”.

“Over 1,000 schools are in the red. This should be worrying to every parent,” said Mr Farron.

His party had asked ministers how many schools and academy trusts, which run chains of schools, were in debt.

‘Dire finances’

There have been growing warnings from schools about problems with funding.

The heads of every state school in West Sussex recently sent a letter to Downing Street, warning that they would have to consider cutting school hours or making teachers redundant if they did not receive emergency funding.

They warned that schools faced a “dire financial position”.

In a debate this week on school funding in West Sussex, MPs backed their concerns.

Sir Nicholas Soames, Conservative MP for Mid-Sussex, said funding arrangements were “unsatisfactory and unfair” and budget shortages would have a “damaging effect” on schools.

Tim Loughton, Conservative MP for East Worthing, said there was “nothing left in the tank” for many schools and that head teachers were telling him that school finances were at “breaking point”.

Head teachers say that budgets have not kept up with rising costs.

There are also particular regional shortfalls, with the government postponing plans to introduce a national funding formula aimed at addressing local anomalies in funding levels.

Education Minister Nick Gibb’s reply to the question on schools in debt showed that in 2014-15 there were 113 academy trusts with a revenue deficit, representing 4% of trusts.

There were 944 local authority schools in deficit, representing 5.3% of such schools.

The National Association of Head Teachers said problems with school funding were “very serious”.

A spokesman said a survey showed that two-thirds of schools were “dipping into reserves to stave off deficits” – and there were fears that rising costs would make this worse.

“I worry that in order for schools to bring their budgets in line to repay their debt, they will have to look at cutting staff, which makes up for 80% of the school expenditure,” said Mr Farron.

“There will be less extracurricular activities, IT equipment or even books as cash is funnelled into clearing the debt.”

Kevin Courtney, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, called on the government to provide “immediate additional funding”.

“School budgets are being cut to the bone, and many more could find themselves in debt as the funding crisis worsens.

“We estimate that 92% of schools in England could face real terms budget cuts over the next four years.”

But Department for Education spokeswoman said: “All academy trusts must balance their budget from each academic financial year to the next.

“We continue to monitor the tiny number of trusts which reported a deficit at the end of the academic year 2014-15.”

[Source:- BBC]

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Tech Update

Australia plans new co-ordinates to fix sat-nav gap

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Australia seen by satellite

Australia is to shift its longitude and latitude to address a gap between local co-ordinates and those from global navigation satellite systems (GNSS).

Local co-ordinates, used to produce maps and measurements, and global ones differ by more than 1m.

The body responsible for the change said it would help the development of self-driving cars, which need accurate location data to navigate.

Australia moves about 7cm north annually because of tectonic movements.

Modern satellite systems provide location data based on global lines of longitude and latitude, which do not move even if the continents on Earth shift.

However, many countries produce maps and measurements with the lines of longitude and latitude fixed to their local continent.

“If the lines are fixed, you can put a mark in the ground, measure its co-ordinate, and it will be the same co-ordinate in 20 years,” explained Dan Jaksa of Geoscience Australia. “It’s the classical way of doing it.”

Because of the movement of the Earth’s tectonic plates, these local co-ordinates drift apart from the Earth’s global co-ordinates over time.

“If you want to start using driverless cars, accurate map information is fundamental,” said Mr Jaksa.

“We have tractors in Australia starting to go around farms without a driver, and if the information about the farm doesn’t line up with the co-ordinates coming out of the navigation system there will be problems.”

The Geocentric Datum of Australia, the country’s local co-ordinate system, was last updated in 1994. Since then, Australia has moved about 1.5 metres north.

So on 1 January 2017, the country’s local co-ordinates will also be shifted further north – by 1.8m.

The over-correction means Australia’s local co-ordinates and the Earth’s global co-ordinates will align in 2020.

At that point a new system, which can take changes over time into account, will be implemented.

“We used the old plate fixed system to make life simple, but we don’t want to do this adjustment every so often,” said Mr Jaksa.

“Once we have a system that can deal with changes over time, then everybody in the world could be on that same system.”

[Source:- BBC]

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Education

Closing the early education gap for rural families

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

The mountain of evidence that early childhood education has profound and life-long effects for students has been building for decades. Educators have made efforts to expand access to high-quality early education opportunities, but that access is not evenly distributed–rural communities are often left out of the loop entirely.

Approximately one in five Americans live in rural areas, and, according to the Center for American Progress, 59% of rural areas are defined as “child care deserts.” This term refers to areas that have fewer available child care spots than there are children in need of them. Even more concerning, there’s no guarantee that those available spots even offer high-quality preschool instruction.

My formal title is director of curriculum and instruction at Greenburg Community Schools, but I also serve as the coordinator for our Federal Title I, Title II, Title III, and Title IV and Rural and Low Income Schools grants, as well as those for high ability and gifted students.

These positions allow me to see where students are when they enter our school system at the kindergarten level and watch them evolve, experience, and mature through graduation. We see students who have been enrolled in childcare facilities since they were six weeks old, others who have attended preschool for two or more years, and still others who have never been away from home before they enter kindergarten.

I have found that there is no simple, one-size-fits-all solution to providing early learning opportunities for rural communities, but at-home, online programs are helping to fill the gap.

The Challenges

A lack of available preschool options isn’t the only challenge facing rural parents seeking to educate their children. With more than a quarter of rural children coming from economically disadvantaged families, cost is also a significant issue. In my own experience working with rural populations in Indiana, I’ve seen this firsthand. Many parents are unemployed or underemployed. They may be working but no longer able to earn a living wage after factories that paid upwards of $20 an hour have closed, forcing them to make due on part-time work from temporary staffing agencies that pay $9–$15 an hour. Some preschool options can cost as much as $200 per week, which puts them firmly out of reach for many rural families.

Transportation is another significant hurdle. Rural communities are geographically isolated. Coupled with the grim economic picture, this means many families cannot take their children to preschool, either because they cannot afford it or because they don’t have flexible enough working hours to take them. A lack of public transportation in these rural areas often takes preschool completely off the table as an option.

The Solution

Luckily, the answers are suggested by the challenges themselves. If high-quality early education is too expensive for rural families, let’s educate their children at no cost to them. If transportation woes prevent them from taking their children to free high-quality options, let’s bring those options to them.

One organization I partner with–the nonprofit Waterford.org–offers an online early learning solution called Waterford UPSTART, which is designed to help children develop early literacy, numeracy and science skills.

I had previously worked with this organization when I was at a larger district. While there, I saw how the platform helped struggling and at-risk students prepare for kindergarten. When I moved to my current position at Greensburg, we adopted it as an early intervention tool with the help of an Early Intervention Literacy Grant.

All of our kindergarten students and our seven kindergarten teachers at Greensburg use Waterford UPSTART. I also serve as a local education partner with the organization for a project in which they provide the program free to pre-K students. Participating children are asked to spend 15 minutes a day, five days a week working with the program. If the family doesn’t have a computer, Waterford provides one. If they don’t have internet access, that’s provided free of charge as well through programs such as an EIR grant.

Families get their own academic coach, who monitors the frequency and duration of use and checks in with them frequently to ensure their children are neither over- or under-using the program. My role is to help promote the program in our district and identify students eligible for the free benefits.

Connecting with Families

As an educator, it has been a joy getting to know the local families I’ve had the privilege to work with and watching “my” children grow from our first meeting through our frequent family engagement events. In April, Greensburg Community Schools will hold its annual Kindergarten Round Up, where we’ll hold an open house for our new students and their families before administering baseline assessments for all incoming kindergartners. I look forward to comparing my online pre-K students’ results to those of their peers and cheering them on as they progress through their academic careers.

[“source=smartbrief”]

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Education

‘Close rural-urban gap in school education’

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Bedi says feedback from students shows the difference in teaching methods; asks officials to visit schools on a daily basis

Following her visit to a government girls’ higher secondary school in suburban Bahour, Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi on Wednesday made a quick assessment of the quality of education being imparted at the Thiruvalluvar Government Girls’ Higher Secondary School in the city.

Among the Class XII students who expressed views was one who complained that she could not hear the teacher’s voice in commerce class and another who wanted to “change a teacher but the school wouldn’t do so.” Students also sought better toilets and facilities for indoor sports and games.

“The feedback from students revealed the big difference in education standards between the rural and urban schools,” Ms. Bedi said.

She assured the students that the Education Department will do the needful.

“Do you know you can be your own teachers by being self-learners? Form groups to learn and then test each other to improve,” she advised them.

Pointing to the possibility of some among the students being first generation learners in their family, the Lt. Governor conveyed to them that the onus was as much on them to work harder and prepare for multiple options. “Admissions are now by merit. So you need to work hard to qualify to join professions of your choice”, she said.

Summing up her experience, the Lt. Governor said that the visit was most helpful in getting a first hand feedback of students on the specific needs to take them to the next level of learning.

‘Make surprise visits’

Ms. Bedi has instructed the Directorate of Education to make surprise visits to schools on a daily basis to identify areas of improvement in the education system. “Visit one school daily and take feedback from students to identify gaps. Organise intensive teacher training programs based on the learning outcomes mandated by Government of India. Develop customised training packages for rural and urban schools for their upliftment,” she told L. Kumar, Director of School Education.

She asked him to partner with the Labour Department to provide after-school skills training to students and emphasised the need to start career counselling for students as early as Class IX “so that they did not experience frustration related to employability once they graduate from school.”

Ms. Bedi also took to Twitter to lament over the education system where “our examination system in school may pass them (students) from one class to the next, but sets them up for failure post school”.

Ms. Bedi added that she has written to all elected representatives to undertake visits to schools in their constituency and ensure that rural students are not put to unfair disadvantage.

[“Source-thehindu”]

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