EDUCBLOG

A list of 50 Best Blogs for Education from Online Universities.   Categories include Education News,  Educational Policy and Educational Technology, amongst others.

The Stichting het Da Vinci Huis is based in Netherlands and has partnered with the International Association of School Librarianship - Africa Sub Sahara region to promote the grant for a young (40 years and younger) South African school/teacher librarian, official interested in school library services and information literacy to attend the IASL Conference in Brisbane, Australia from 27 September – 1 October 2010.

 

The grant covers:

  Two year membership of IASL

  Traveling costs to the 2010 IASL Annual Conference

  Costs for passport/visa

  Travel insurance

  Costs for accommodation and daily allowance

 

Selection Committee

Busi Dlamini (IASL Regional Director Africa Sub Sahara)

Prof Ina Fourie (University of Pretoria, Dept of Information Science)

Prof Mary Nassimbeni (University of Cape Town, Centre for Information Literacy)

Mona Niemand (LIASA, Slysig Chair)

 

Applications

The application for the grant must be accompanied by the following:

  A Curriculum Vitae

  A short description of the school and school library/institution

  The reasons for the application

  A supporting document from a supervisor/principal/manager of the school/institution

 

Applicants should include their contact details with the application and the statement forms which can be downloaded from http://albertkb.nl/pageID_8620836.

 

The deadline for receipt of applications is April 30 2010.

 

The winner will be announced in June 2010 and will have to give a short presentation (10 minutes) of his/her expectations and needs at the IASL Conference in Brisbane. After the conference, the winner will write a report for a national/international journal.

 

For more information contact Busi Dlamini and her contact details are below.

Busi Dlamini

Gauteng Dept. Education

111 Commissioner Street

Johannesburg

2001

Tel: 011 355-0763

Fax: 011 355-0766

Alternative:086570350

Mobile: 083 266 8085

email: busid at gpg.gov.za

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has released its 2010 Education for All Global Monitoring Report: Reaching the Marginalized.  (download pdf) 

Education systems in many of the world's poorest countries are now experiencing the aftershock of the global economic downturn.

The 2010 Education for All Global Monitoring Report, released on 19 January, argues that the crisis could create a lost generation of children whose life chances will have been irreparably damaged by a failure to protect their right to education.

The Report examines who these children are and why they are being left behind, and shows that the cost of providing Education for All is much higher than previously estimated.

The report looks at concrete solutions for making sure that no children are excluded from schooling.

 

Equal Education Statement on 2009 Matric Results

[For wide distribution.]

 

The 2009 matric results confirm that there is a deep crisis in South African education. The drop in the pass rate continues a trend:

 

2003: 73.3%

2004: 70.7%

2005: 68.3%

2006: 66.5%

2007: 65.2%  

2008: 62.7%

2009: 60.6%

 

A few comments on pass-rates generally:

• To pass matric candidates require 3 subjects at 30% and 3 subjects at 40%. This low threshold for passing underscores the poor results of 2009.
• Pass-rates must be analysed carefully. A reduction in the drop-out rate from grade 10, and a consequent rise in the number of matriculants can result in a decline in the pass-rate. Similarly, if all emphasis is on the pass-rate, schools and education departments can be pressured into excluding candidates uncertain of passing, thereby increasing the drop-out rate. Another way that the pass-rate can be artificially raised is by increasing the number of candidates who write Maths Literacy rather than Mathematics. This must be carefully monitored over the next few years. We join the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (NUMSA) in expressing concern at the high drop-out rate from grade 10. Over 40% of learners never reach matric, and are not even part of the poor examination results.
• Pass rates generally give us a global picture of the country or a province, but we need to know more. South Africa is the country with the greatest inequality of wealth and income in the world. It is therefore vital to analyse educational progress in terms of how different sections of our society are doing. For example, EE congratulates KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) for being the only province to improve its pass-rate, up by 3.5% to 61.1%. But did this improvement occur at the top or the bottom? In 2008, in KZN, 99.5% of white students passed, with 73.9% attaining adequate grades for university entrance, whereas only 53% of black African students passed, with 13% at university entrance level. We need to break the 2009 results down by municipal area, and by former departmental classification of the schools, amongst other indicators. EE will do some of this analysis in the coming months. For a fuller assessment of educational inequality published by Equal Education this week click here.

 

Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga is correct in her statement that “We have not yet turned the corner in education”. In general, her frank and self-critical assessment of the matric results is to be welcomed. 2010 will be another difficult year due partly to the disruption to education expected by the FIFA World Cup.

 

Over the next few days, weeks and months the question for the country is not how to increase the pass-rate in 2010 by 2%, but rather how to increase the pass-rate by 10% over 10 years and by 20% over 20 years.

 

In this regard EE says as follows:

 

• Distribution of resources: As stated yesterday by President Zuma: “The achievement of parity in the distribution of resources is paramount to quality learning and teaching. We still have schools that have to work with very little resources, while others have more than enough.” EE is in favour of maintaining well-performing public schools, and bringing the rest up to the same level. A vital resource, proven to improve performance by between 10% and 25%, is a school library. During 2010 EE will be campaigning for a National Policy on School Libraries. For more click here.
• Teachers: Included in our understanding of “resources” are well-trained, well-supported, well-remunerated teachers. No transformation of South African education can take place without dedicated, hard-working, motivated and well-educated teachers. We must hold teachers accountable to high standards, but at the same time we must improve their working conditions, which in township and rural schools are often very difficult with large classes, inadequate staff-rooms, and too little in-service training. At the same time we must look for innovative ways to expand the teaching profession. Models such as Teach South Africa, which allow top university graduates without teaching qualifications to serve two years of community service teaching in poor schools should be supported strongly by the Department of Basic Education (DBE).
• Standards and Assessment: Minister Motshekga stated that examination standards will be maintained because “through maintaining the standards of our examinations we are able to assess the shortcomings in the quality of learning and teaching”. This is to be welcomed. By the same token we must continue to assess at other levels, and publish these assessments. For example, the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) conducts important numeracy and literacy assessments at certain primary school grade levels every two years. The 2003 grade 6 assessment, showed that only 1 in 1000 learners in African township schools was adequately numerate, compared to over 62% in former model-C schools. This same group went on to be the matrics of 2009, and their poor numeracy proved an accurate predictor: In the Western Cape the maths pass rate also dropped, from 65.2 percent in 2008 to 64.9 percent. The physical science pass rate plummeted from 71.2 percent in 2008 to 52.9 percent in 2009. It is therefore of deep concern that the WCED now seems unwilling to release the disaggregated results from the most recent grade 6 literacy and numeracy assessment done in 2007; despite repeated requests, only the province-wide totals have been released.
• Community Mobilisation and Organisation: Minister Motshekga has repeatedly made progressive calls for community involvement in education. In announcing the results she said: “We will continue to mobilise our communities to involve themselves in the education of our children throughout the year. As President Zuma has said "Education is a societal issue".” President Zuma echoed this yesterday when he said: “I call on parents and communities to truly place education at the forefront of our national agenda.” In 2010 Equal Education will be at the forefront of building this people’s movement for education. In our campaigns, in our media, in our public education and in our youth and community organising we will prove that ordinary people can bring change to South Africa’s education system and ensure that we can turn the corner. Our first major campaign of 2010 is the Campaign for School Libraries. For more on this contact Lukhanyo Mangona (0825958600) or Adam Sack (0837941111).

 

Congratulations

 

Equal Education congratulates its members and all matriculants who were successful in the 2009 examinations. We congratulate all teachers, markers, officials and parents who played their part in the 2009 matric examinations. Our members who failed will be assisted to prepare for the supplementary examinations in March 2010. Learners who worked with dedication would have improved their chances of avoiding failure and achieving success. But as a movement we know that it is the system which has once again failed the learners. Only the transformation of education in the direction of quality and equality for all will lead to a sustained improvement in matric results.

 

Statement by the Minister of Basic Education, Mrs Angie Motshekga, MP, on the announcement of the National Senior Certificate Grade 12 Examination results for 2009 at the Media Centre, Union Buildings, Pretoria on 07 January.
....

<snip> 

The national pass rate of the National Senior Certificate examinations for 2009 is 60.7%. This means that there is a slight decline in the pass rate from 2008 of 2% across the country.

I wish to state directly that even though this shift is marginal, I am most unhappy with the decline in the national pass rate and indeed in the overall pass rate of just over 60%. The National Senior Certificate is an important indicator of the quality of our education system, and as a country we cannot afford to allow our young people to achieve results that are in the main average or below average.

In announcing the provincial results, I would like to commend KwaZulu-Natal as that province has shown an improvement in the pass rate of 3.5%, up from 57.6% in 2008 to 61.1% in 2009. The province is to be commended on its efforts. I am also pleased to report that the results in the Eastern Cape have stabilised at around 50%. Both these provinces are essentially rural in character with high rates of poverty, but both have shown that they have managed to buck the downward trend of the past years and have begun the turn around.

I am however disappointed in the overall results within particular provinces. Those in the Free State declined by 2.4%, and the pass rates in the Western Cape and North West provinces have declined by 2.7% and 0.5% respectively. In addition, the pass rate in Limpopo declined by 5.4% and that of the Northern Cape by a staggering 11%. Gauteng's pass rate has also shown a decline of 4.6 %. Mpumalanga has registered the poorest performance with a pass rate of 47.9%, a decline of 3.9%.

 <snip> .... We recognise that the NSC results are an important indicator of the quality of our education system. While the nation rightly takes great interest in the NSC performance of our learners, we should all be reminded that we cannot only sit up and pay attention to our learners when they enter the Further Education and Training Band in grade 10 or begin to concern ourselves when they reach Grade 12. We need to remember that good teaching and learning need to take place from Grade R. My Department recognises the necessity for the development of strong foundational skills. From this year, the Department of Basic Education will extend the Foundations for Learning Programme to all primary schools to ensure the improvement of the foundational skills of literacy and numeracy.

.

 

Spotted on Boingboing.    Seen on a test.

 

 

The Basic Education Laws Amendment Draft Bill 2009 has been published for public comment. 

These can be emailed to Mr C Ledwaba.c at doe.gov.za no later than 11 February 2009.

 

 

Thanks to Parliamentary Monitoring Group

The 2009 State and Development of Adult Learning and Education in Sub-Saharan Africa:  a regional  synthesis report compiled by John Aitchison and Hassana Alidou is available online.  Published by the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning.  

Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Basic Education is shifting its focus towards the delivery of, and challenges facing, quality education in South Africa.

This after the Committee noted areas of concern, particularly with regard to equal access to quality education by all categories of learners and questionable levels of learning outcomes.

The Committee is now calling for written submissions on aspects affecting quality outcomes in primary and high schools. Those aspects include the following:

•  curriculum content
• teacher development
• class size
• managerial capacity at schools  
  
• orientating schools towards specialisation
• values in education.

 

Submissions are also invited on the issue of access to education. This pertains to such issues as geographic location of schools and infrastructure; language barriers; homeless children/orphans; children in trouble with the law and education in prisons and inclusive education.

Through these submissions, the Committee aims to obtain first-hand information on the pressure points and to find mutual solutions that would make positive contribution towards improving areas of concern within the basic education system.

All stakeholders and teachers in particular are urged to contribute and send their submissions by 28 February 2010.

Submissions should be emailed to Committee Secretary: Mr Llewellyn Brown, Committee Secretary at lbrown@parliament.gov.za by no later than 28 February 2010

Enquiries tel Mr Llewellyn Brown: (021) 403 3764, cell 083 709 8450

 

Via PMG 

 

Jan Herrington, Anthony Herrington, Jessica Mantei, Ian Olney and Brian Ferry (editors), _New Technologies, New Pedagogies: Mobile learning In Higher Education_, Faculty of Education, University of Wollongong, 2009, 138p. ISBN: 978-1-74128-169-9

Full text and individual chapters available at http://ro.uow.edu.au/newtech/

Preface

 While mobile technologies such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and digital music players (mp3 players) have permeated popular culture, they have not found widespread acceptance as pedagogical tools in higher education.

The purpose of this e-book is to explore the use of mobile devices in learning in higher education, and to provide examples of good pedagogy. We are sure that the rich variety of examples of mobile learning found in this book will provide the reader with the inspiration to teach their own subjects and courses in ways that employ mobile devices in authentic and creative ways. This book is made up of a collection of double blind peer-reviewed chapters written by participants in the project New technologies, new pedagogies: Using mobile technologies to develop new ways of teaching and learning.

 The book begins with an introductory chapter that describes the overall project, its aims and methods. The second chapter describes the professional development process that was used for the teacher participants involved in the project. This is followed by 10 chapters, each describing a mobile learning pedagogy that was employed in the context of a subject area within a Faculty of Education. The final chapter presents guidelines or design principles for the use of mobile learning in higher education learning environments.

 We wish to acknowledge the support provided for the project on which this book is based by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council, an initiative of the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. This research was also funded by generous support from the Office of Teaching and Learning at the University of Wollongong. Jan Herrington, Anthony Herrington, Jessica Mantei, Ian Olney & Brian Ferry, April 2009

 Thanks Gerry!

"The Big Debate" series on eTV will focus on Education - the problems and possible solutions.  The show will first be broadcast on eNews (DSTV channel 403) at 9pm on Wednesday 2 December, then again at 8pm on Friday 4 December.  It will also be broadcast on eTV on Friday 4 December at 10am. 

An interview on LitNet with Tessa Dowling on Professor Jonathan Jansen's plea for multilingualism during his inaugural speech as Vice Chancellor of the University of the Free State.

 <snip>

2008 statistics from the Department of Education show that out of the 590 000 pupils writing matric that year, 113 902 wrote Afrikaans as an additional language, compared with only 12 723 who chose one of the nine African languages available in the school curriculum. Why do you think so few English- and Afrikaans-speaking students opt to study an African language up to matric level?

There are a number of reasons.   ....    We have to go back to the foundation phase and see how African languages are taught there - you will find that while Afrikaans teachers use a variety of effective methods, styles and textbooks, African language teachers at primary schools are not as well versed in the methodologies required for teaching additional languages and often struggle with these problems alone, in English- or Afrikaans-medium schools, afraid to ask for help or guidance. So you get the situation where for five years learners learn exactly the same thing - there seems to be no logical progression from one grade to the next and teachers are often unaware of the materials that are out there that could help them. This means that when students get to high school they are sorely lacking in the skills needed to cope with a rigorous First Additional syllabus. So in a nutshell, I would put it down to the fact that (a) African languages are not considered prestige languages, (b) teachers of African languages are not sufficiently trained in teaching their languages as additional languages, and (c) students subsequently fear "doing badly" and therefore opt for Afrikaans.

 

OnlineCollege has just published a list of 100 Open Access Journals for Educators.   Categories include Education Research, Practices and Approaches;  Education Policy and Issues;  Leadership ; Science and Maths;  Language Arts;  Technology;  Higher Education and Online Education and  Special Education, Early Education and Child Development.           

 

The Academy of Science of South Africa report, "Scholarly Books: their production, use and evaluation in South Africa today"  (released this month), argues that the Department of Higher Education and Training needs more urgently to encourage and support the writing and publishing of scholarly books, including how they are ‘weighted’ when the department calculates higher education institutions’ research output subsidies.

 

 (Thanks to Education Blog @ University of Pretoria)

 

 

Journal of Student Wellbeing is a peer reviewed e-journal which publishes applied and theoretical papers on students' social, emotional, mental, and spiritual wellbeing. It focuses on the promotion of child and adolescent wellbeing in educational settings.

The journal aims to cater for a wide audience with an interest in:

• child and adolescent resilience
• psycho-social development
• bullying
• child protection
• child and adolescent mental health
• peer relationships
• conflict resolution
• spirituality
• equity and social justice
• drug education strategies
• pre-service and in-service professional education