Turkish MPs Fight as Controversial Schools Bill Passed

BBC: Turkey's parliament has passed a bill that allows parents to move their children into Islamic schools earlier.

The education reform bill extends compulsory education from eight to 12 years and allows children to switch to specialist schools from as young as 10.

The ruling AK Party says the bill will mean pupils stay longer in school but secular Turks see it as part of a wider plan to increase religious influence.

MPs fought during a debate on the bill, which followed days of protests.

On Thursday, police used water cannon and tear gas to disperse protesters in the Turkish capital, Ankara. » | Saturday, march 31, 2012

This Pampered Private School Elite Can Only Lead to US Decline
THE GUARDIAN: Insulated from any real-world experience, these 'cotton-wool kids' are ill-equipped to cope with global competition

I recently attended an event to welcome new parents to a private school in Manhattan. The options presented to the wealthy parents were jaw-dropping: kayaking and skiing for field trips; yoga among dozens of electives; the school gives each kid a new iPad. Parents asked one question after another about the offerings, sounding more as though they were evaluating a luxury vacation than preparing themselves to support their kids to exert themselves in a challenging environment. It was when one student presenter began to enthuse about the availability of the teachers – "You can email them anytime, you can call them anytime, they will always meet with you and help you: they are always there for you!" – that I became really uneasy.

Was that, I wondered, what teachers should be for students?

This school is not at all unusual in Manhattan's elite private school environment. If anything, it is restrained. A trend in Manhattan's wealthy private schools, as in major cities across the United States, reproduces this set of delights and more, as each competes to offer affluent parents, who can afford the $40,000 annually that such schools cost, the most fabulous experience for the child. Part of this trend is the excision of any part of the school experience for kids that is, in any way, unpleasant, taxing, scary or boring. I believe that these kids are being put at serious risk by this trend to smooth away any of life's rough spots, once kids are within private school doors; and that US competitiveness and innovation even are being put at risk by it. » | Naomi Wolf | Thursday, March 22, 2012

Children Who Speak English at Home in Minority
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Children with English as their home language are now the minority of pupils in more than 1,600 schools across England.

The number of these schools is rising by about one every week as the effects of migration into the UK are showing in the nation's classrooms.

Data now shows that close to one million pupils who attend schools in England do not have English as their first language at home.

There are 97 schools where children with English as their first language are in such a minority that they make up less than one in twenty pupils.

The statistics released by the Department of Education shows that in 1997, when Tony Blair first came to power, there were 866 schools in England where more than 50% of the pupils had English as a second language.

Last year that figure had ballooned to 1,638 schools, almost double the 1997 level. » | Thursday, March 22, 2012

My comment:

That we have allowed so many immigrants into our country that we now have an English language problem in our schools is nothing short of a national disgrace. Language is the buckle that binds a nation. The United Kingdom without English as its first and main language will be a disunited kingdom indeed. Shouldn’t the powers-that-be that have allowed this dire situation to come about be pilloried in the public square? My word, how this country has changed in my lifetime! So much for multiculturalism! – © Mark

Bright Students 'Cannot Write Essays', Say Cambridge Dons
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Bright students are starting university unable to structure an essay because of the “damage” caused by test-driven schooling, Cambridge academics warned today (Monday).

Many undergraduates are struggling to show their natural flair after being ordered to write in a highly-structured way to pass exams, it was claimed.

Robert Tombs, professor of history at St John's College, Cambridge, warned that students were “drilled into writing” in a formulaic manner between the age of 11 and 18, leaving them unable to articulate their ideas on degree courses.

David Abulafia, professor of Mediterranean history at Gonville and Caius College, also told how extremely bright students were “grappling with difficulties” that “would have been inconceivable” in the past, even among their weakest classmates.

The comments – made at a seminar organised by the Politeia think tank – come amid growing concerns over levels of basic skills among school leavers. Read on and comment » | Graeme Paton, Education Editor | Monday, March 05, 2012

Gay Rights Activists Urge Tennessee to Halt Passage of 'Don't Say Gay' Bill
THE GUARDIAN: Controversial bill would limit discussion of gay relationships in schools and could encourage similar laws across America

Gay rights activists are mounting a last-ditch push to stop legislation that would ban any discussion of homosexuality in Tennessee schools, in a move they fear will encourage similar laws across the US.

The controversial 'don't say gay' bill has already passed the state's senate, and is expected to receive a second vote on Tuesday. If passed, the bill could become law within months.

Opponents are concerned about the implications across the US as well as in Tennessee, where two teens, Jacob Rogers and Phillip Parker, have recently killed themselves after being bullied over their sexuality.

The legislation, originally authored by Republican state senator Stacey Campfield, limits all sexually-related instruction to "natural human reproduction science" in kindergarten through eighth grade, when students are 13-14 years old.

The original version of the bill would have prohibited public elementary and middle schools from providing "any instruction or material that discusses sexual orientation other than heterosexuality."

The amended version would limit instruction to "natural human reproduction science", but has left those terms undefined. » | Dominic Rushe in Nashville, Tennessee | Monday, February 27, 2012

Teacher Under Investigation for Teaching Children How to Make Pipe Bombs
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A German chemistry teacher is under police investigation for allegedly constructing pipe bombs in class and detonating them in front of pupils by using sparklers.

The 39-year-old teacher, who has not been named, apparently taught the children how to make gunpowder and load it into the metal pipes about the size of a one-litre bottle. The bombs were then set off at a nearby heath by using sparklers for detonators, with the resulting explosion so powerful that the pupils felt the shock wave in their stomachs.

According to a report in the German newspaper Lu[e]becker Nachrichten, the teacher constructed bombs for pupils from 2009 to 2011 at a Waldorf school in Lubeck. Waldorf schools, based on the teachings of Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner, take an unorthodox approach to education, stressing creativity and giving teachers considerable leeway in what they teach.

"No syllabus in the world contains something like this," the mother of one of the students said. » | Matthew Day | Thursday, January 12, 2012

A Bible Is a Thing of Beauty: Gove to Send One St James Text to Every School in Move Blasted as 'Unacceptable Waste of Money'
MAIL ONLINE: The Prime Minister will send every school in Britain a copy of the King James Bible – complete with a foreword by the Education Secretary Michael Gove.

Mr Gove said the Bible was the most ‘important book written in the English language’ and had major cultural and historical significance.

But the move is highly controversial with non-religious groups condemning it as an unacceptable waste of public money.

Critics also mocked the project on Twitter with former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott describing it as Mr Gove’s ‘vanity project’.

The Department for Education confirmed that the Bibles will be sent out to over 20,000 schools to mark the 400th anniversary of it[s] translation.

Supporters said the book will help school pupils of all faiths to take pride in the history and culture of Britain.

Government ministers have always been careful to avoid controversies surrounding religion with Tony Blair’s former communications chief Alastair Campbell famously once declaring: ‘We don’t do God’.

But Mr Gove said: ‘It‘s a thing of beauty, and it‘s also an incredibly important historical artefact. It has helped shape and define the English language and is one of the keystones of our shared culture. And it is a work that has had international significance’. Continue reading and comment » | Kirsty Walker | Saturday, November 26, 2011

Michael Gove Proposes Teaching Foreign Languages from Age Five
THE GUARDIAN: Education secretary outlines plans ahead of Tory conference, including extension of school day and tougher truancy fines

The education secretary, Michael Gove, has proposed that every child aged five or over should be learning a foreign language, and promised to "pull every lever", including encouraging longer school days, to make it happen.

In a pre-Conservative conference interview, he says: "There is a slam-dunk case for extending foreign language teaching to children aged five.

"Just as some people have taken a perverse pride in not understanding mathematics, so we have taken a perverse pride in the fact that we do not speak foreign languages, and we just need to speak louder in English. It is literally the case that learning languages makes you smarter. The neural networks in the brain strengthen as a result of language learning." » | Patrick Wintour and Nicholas Watt | Friday, September 30, 2011

THE GUARDIAN: Conservative conference: Gove spells out next step on his agenda for schools: Education secretary talks to the Guardian about his proposals for teaching modern languages and denies free schools are elitist » | Nicholas Watt and Patrick Wintour | Friday, September 30, 2011

Spies in Schools to Hunt Fanatics

THE SUNDAY EXPRESS: EXPERTS in Islamic extremism have been drafted in by Education Secretary Michael Gove to identify dangerous radicals in schools.

The counter-intelligence advisers, who worked for many years at the Home Office, have the most detailed knowledge of terror networks around the globe and their affiliates in the UK. They will work with a new Government unit to prevent extremism and will hunt down Muslim radicals hijacking learning and grooming school pupils from primary level onwards to create the terrorists of the future.

Intelligence sources have become aware that extremists are increasingly using schools and after-school clubs to brainwash children against the West.

Mr Gove said: “The due diligence unit will monitor applications for new schools and arrangements in existing schools so there’s no risk of extremism taking hold.

“We want to help local authorities and others deal either with governors trying to hijack a school or extremists setting up free schools. Whether it’s religious extremism or political extremism, that power will be there.” » | Hilary Douglas | Sunday, June 12, 2011

Iran to Make University Courses More Islamic
REUTERS – BLOGS – FAITH WORLD: Iran plans sweeping changes to university courses to make them more compatible with Islam, the official IRNA news agency reported on Friday. Deputy Minister of Science for Research and Technology Mohammad Mehdi Nejad Nouri, quoted by IRNA, said at least 36 courses would be changed by September after revision by a group of university and seminary experts.

The report did not name the subjects that would be changed, but officials said last year Iran would review 12 disciplines in the social sciences, including law, women’s studies, human rights, management, sociology, philosophy, psychology and political sciences, as their contents were too closely based on Western culture. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for modification of these studies in August, saying that many humanities subjects are based on principles founded in materialism rather than divine Islamic teachings. » | Mitra Amiri | Friday, May 06, 2011

California Set to Teach Gay History and Rights in Schools
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: California is set to become the first US state to require the teaching of gay history and rights.

Children would take lessons on issues affecting gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people, with schools granted discretion about what age to start the lessons.

The law was passed by the state's senate and is likely to pass the assembly easily, which is also controlled by the Democrats, before being signed by Governor Jerry Brown. Read on and comment » | Alex Spillius, Washington | Friday, April 15, 2011

My comment:

I don’t understand all this hullabaloo about homosexuality. It should neither be promoted nor rejected. It should just be accepted. It is, after all, a part of life. There have always been homosexuals, just as there have always been geniuses. They form a small part of the population; so why are people so worried about giving gays their rights?

The homophobia in the comments here is plain to see and reprehensible.

Homosexuality is a perfectly natural sexual condition. It has to be, otherwise it wouldn’t occur in other species. In nature, there are homosexual penguins and dogs and birds. So on what basis can anyone say that it is not natural?

As people, we are inclined to say something is unnatural simply because we don’t like it, and we choose not to partake of that thing. Further, because we need to procreate to survive as a species, heterosexuality has always been the preferred norm. And it is the norm. But that doesn’t make homosexuality unnatural.

Gays have suffered since the beginning of time. They have been bullied and mistreated, and even hunted down and killed. And by whom? By bigots who wrongly believe that the world is here for them, and them alone.

But the fact is that this world has not been created for bigots. There is space in this world for all people. Just give them that space, And show a little compassion. Many homosexuals, I feel sure, wish they weren’t that way.

How would you people feel, I wonder, if you had a homosexual child, or brother, or sister? Wouldn’t you be protective of that person?

The fact is this. If this education programme is neutral – that means to say, it doesn’t promote the homosexual lifestyle, for that would be dumb – if it is there merely to inform the uninformed, and to promote acceptance of people who are different, and can’t help being that way, and if it is there to try and put a stop to all the brutality against gays, then it is to be welcomed. – Mark

This comment also appears here, as do others.

School Shooting Rocks Even Violent Rio de Janeiro
A former student wielding two handguns entered a school in the western part of the violence-plagued Brazilian city and opened fire, killing at least 11 students and wounding 18 more.

Parents who arrived to pick up their students instead found a chaotic scene, with police helicopters landing nearby to ferry away the injured.

One man told Al Jazeera he never thought such a shooting could happen in his country.

Al Jazeera's Gabriel Elizondo reports from Rio de Janeiro.


Related video »

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Gunman captured on security video »

Deadly School Shooting in Brazil
A Brazilian gunman fatally shot 12 children at a Rio de Janeiro public school before killing himself, police said, shocking the South American nation that has never seen such an incident before.



Twenty-two people, including children, were wounded in Thursday's shooting spree, several of them seriously.



Al Jazeera's Gabriel Elizondo has this report from Rio.

Portugal's Next Big Challenge: Education Reform
Portugal is the poorest and least educated country in Western Europe. With a debt crisis bearing down, it must make massive reforms to fix its economy, and education is at the top of the list. WSJ's Charles Forelle reports from Lisbon

Chinese Schoolchildren to Sit Compulsory Manners Classes
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Chinese schoolchildren are to sit mandatory manners classes in an attempt to smooth some of the rougher edges off modern Chinese society, the country's ministry of education has announced.

From primary school onwards, Chinese children will now receive lessons in the art of queuing, good table manners, how to respect their elders and betters and the correct way to write letters, emails and even send SMS messages.

Older children will be tutored in the arts of introducing oneself to strangers, dealing politely with members of the opposite sex, making public speeches and the rudiments of dealing with foreigners and (to Chinese eyes, at least) their strange ways.

"The goal is to let students know that China is a country with a long history of civilisation, rituals and cultures," said the guidelines which were published on the ministry's website. >>> Peter Foster, Beijing | Monday, January 24, 2011

China is leading the way. I believe that we would do well to follow suit. Good manners are also sadly lacking in Western society today. It’s all part of the downfall of our civilisation. We, too, need to do something to stop the rot. – © Mark

Islamic Schools Should Be Banned
Islamic schools should be banned. They inculcate a sense of superiority, encourage their pupils to hate, teach that the West must be conquered, that the West is in a state of Jahilliyyah, or pre-Islamic chaos. To them, the world is split into two: the House of Islam (Dar ul Islam) and the House of War (Dar ul Harb). Jihad will be waged until the latter is turned into the former. Is this what we want British children to believe, regardless of their ethnic background?

Islam is anathema to Western-style liberal democracy. Indeed it is its enemy. – © Mark

This comment also appeared here.

Pupils to Learn a Language in GCSE Shake-up
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Foreign languages will be made virtually compulsory up to the age of 16 under an overhaul of the education system being announced today.

A shake-up of league tables used to rate schools will force growing numbers of teenagers to take GCSEs in subjects such as French, German and Spanish.

The Coalition said the move would counter the "catastrophic decline" of languages witnessed under Labour following the decision to make them optional at 14.

Ministers say the reforms will also promote the study of other traditional subjects such as history, geography and science, which have fallen in popularity over the past 13 years. >>> Andrew Porter, Robert Winnett and Graeme Paton | Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Apartheid Haunts South Africa's Schools
Celia Dugger reports from the Kwamfundo School near Cape Town on South Africa's struggling public education system.

Islam in Britain: Muslim Schools
BBC: Panorama reporter John Ware travels to Birmingham to Al Furqan Community College. The school strives to nurture a genuine sense of respect for other faiths and values. But not all religious schools are as willing to open their doors to other communities. Watch BBC video >>>

Tuition Fee Protests: Lecturers Back 'Magnificent' Student Rioters
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Lecturers at one of the country’s leading universities were roundly condemned last night for praising students who rioted at Conservative Party headquarters.

Academics at Goldsmiths, University of London, justified the violence by saying it had brought the tuition fees row “media attention across the world”.

In a statement branded “irresponsible” by Downing Street, they said they wished to “congratulate staff and students on the magnificent anti-cuts demonstration”.

It was signed by John Wadsworth, the president of Goldsmiths lecturers’ union, and its secretary Des Freedman, a lecturer in communications and cultural studies.

It also emerged that a lecturer from the University of Sussex who was among the protestors is a prominent member of the left-wing socialist group Revolution, which began planning “direct action” weeks ago. >>> Gordon Rayner and Laura Roberts | Friday, November 12, 2010

Who are the student rioters? >>>