International News

Letter from London

Education tops Labour agenda again

J. Thomas

At a recent press conference the prime minister reaffirmed that for Labour, education and the economy are two sides of a coin, reiterating his conviction that improving education opportunities and standards is central to Britain’s future economic well being. "These two topics are linked. A strong economy is an essential part of making investment in education in the future," he said. With this in mind the Labour party has pledged to increase annual spending on education to £5,500 (Rs.4.62 lakh) per pupil, and the creation of 300,000 apprenticeships by 2008.

The Labour party seems to be concentrating on 16-19 year olds, the crucial ages when school students decide whether to pursue further education or enter the job market. Curiously business leaders seem to prefer more school leavers to pursue the latter option. The British Chamber of Commerce is telling the prime minister that employers are unable to recruit people with requisite skill-sets because too many school leavers are reading for degrees that don’t equip them for the workplace. The chamber believes that students aren’t receiving the career counselling advice they need in their early teens, meaning they are not encouraged to examine the possibility of pursuing routes other than university. That’s because school managements prefer to show high exam performance and high university acceptances to enhance their academic ratings. "We fully support the main thrust of the Tomlinson report, which is full integration of academic and vocational qualifications, so that there is no difference between the two," says Bill Midgley president of BCC.

The chamber has appealed to the prime minister to ditch the Labour party’s target of getting 50 percent of young people into university, on the ground that doing so will damage the economy. Midgley thinks the government is not making it clear why it is desirable that such a high proportion of young people should enter university. He says, "It is damaging because it promotes a false impression in the minds of many young people that getting a degree will get them through their working lives."

Certainly it is at this time, when the end of the academic year is looming, that hitherto happy-go-lucky university students suddenly become aware that they have to confront the prospect of surviving in the real world. They have to find themselves jobs, compete with others outside their field of studies and learn to get on with people from many walks of life. Universities do a good job, but their graduates have to learn to compete with those who may not have a degree but have a wealth of work experience already under their belts.

According to prime minister Blair "Education (is) the best liberator of any human being’s potential." However, ‘education’ is not imparted only in schools and universities. Vocational education and work experience are also education. And those who choose to opt out of university also have plenty to offer.

(Jacqueline Thomas is a London-based journalist/ academic)

Iraq

Rising resistance to Islamists

Leading secular and liberal groups have launched a counter-attack against what they say is the undue influence of hardline Shia Islamists and Iran’s theocracy on the formation of Iraq’s new government.

There is growing opposition to the candidacy of Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a conservative Islamist with suspected links to Tehran, for Iraqi prime minister, and the prospect of a damaging rebellion from within the victorious Shia alliance that nominated him, as Iraq’s political gridlock worsens. Talks between the main Kurdish and Shia blocs over a coalition government also took a knock when the interim Iraqi president, Gazi al-Yawar, a Sunni Arab, said he would not become the speaker of parliament.

The national assembly convened on April 5, for only the second time since the January 30 elections. But to the frustration of ordinary Iraqis there is still no government. Some senior positions have been announced but not the full cabinet. In the latest twist in the protracted process of forming the first freely elected administration in decades, it emerged that senior liberal and secular politicians have been meeting behind the scenes to see whether they can mount a ‘Stop Jaafari’ campaign.

Allawi (left): anti-clergy broadside

The interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi, whose secular pan-Iraqi list came third in the elections and who is still considering calls to join the new government, fired an unprecedented broadside against the powerful Shia religious clergy, headed by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. "Thrusting the religious establishment into daily political affairs could distance it from its guiding role and disrupt relations between the political forces," a statement from the party said.

Cambridge board’s new English exam

Cambridge ESOL, the British-based exam board responsible for the world-popular First Certificate and Celta qualification for teachers, has developed a new exam that it says responds to growing global demand from people starting out as English language teachers. The Teaching Knowledge Test (TKT), which will be launched in June, is an introduction to the theory, terminology and structures of English language teaching but will not test language proficiency or teaching ability.

According to Cambridge, TKT is designed to help individuals establish a basic foundation knowledge and to provide a first step towards further training. It also responds to an increasing global demand for an entry-level ELT (English Language Teaching) qualification.

Cambridge Esol started developing the test in 2002 in response to requests from around the world for an easily accessible test for teachers of English. "A large number of countries have undergone or are undergoing education reform which involves, for example, the introduction of English language teaching in the primary curriculum," states Mick Ashton of Cambridge Esol’s examinations and assessment groups. "This means that large numbers of teachers are now involved in teaching English who previously taught other subjects and therefore need to retrain. In other regions education authorities are now requiring teachers to obtain training in teaching where previously this was not required."

Many of these teachers do not have the time or resources to follow international qualifications, such as the Celta or Trinity’s CertTESOL, which require lengthy or intensive preparation courses. These also demand a high level of language proficiency. TKT is different because it is designed to be flexible — available on demand at Cambridge Esol test centres around the world — and cheap, costing from around $150 (Rs.6,750) for the complete three-part test.

The test is suitable for teachers of English in primary, secondary or adult teaching, and while Cambridge Esol says the test may also be taken by pre-service teachers or those who are moving to English teaching from another subject, normally candidates will have already had some experience of teaching English to speakers of other languages.

Rampage in Red Lake High

The high-school pupil who went on a shooting rampage on an Indian reservation on March 21, killing his grandparents at their home and then seven people at his school grinned and waved as he fired. Armed with two handguns and a shotgun he then killed himself after exchanging gunfire with police.

It was the United States’ worst school shooting since the 1999 Columbine school massacre in Littleton, Colorado, which left 15 people dead. The teenage gunman rammed a pick-up truck into the wall of his school in Red Lake, northern Minnesota, before blasting his way through the metal detector and killing a security guard at the entrance. He then walked down the hallway shooting and into a classroom where he opened fire, shooting dead a teacher and four pupils. Sondra Hegstrom (17) said a classmate pleaded: "No, Jeff, quit, quit. Leave me alone. What are you doing?"

Red Lake High prayer service for victims

There is no immediate indication of Weise’s motive, but pupils say he held anti-social beliefs, and had posted messages on the neo-Nazi website expressing admiration for Adolf Hitler. A writer who identified himself as Jeff Weise of the Red Lake Reservation posted the messages under the nickname "Todesnges" — German for "angel of death". An April 2004 posting by him referred to being accused of "a threat on the school I attend," though the writer later said he was cleared.

Like the Columbine killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, Weise was obsessed with Goth culture, usually wore black and was a loner who was teased by other pupils. Relatives told the St. Paul Pioneer, a Minnesota newspaper, that his father had committed suicide four years ago, and his mother was living in a Minneapolis nursing home because she had suffered brain injuries in a car accident.

The death toll at the 300-student school included five pupils and Neva Rogers (62) who had taught there for five or six years. At least 14 other pupils were injured. The rampage in Red Lake, one of America’s most deprived areas, was the second fatal school shooting in Minnesota in 18 months. Two students were killed at Rocori high school in Cold Spring in September 2003.

Varkey’s UK expansion plans

Sunny Varkey has all the trappings of wealth you would expect from the typical Dubai millionaire. Visitors to the entrepreneur’s luxurious offices might be picked up from the airport in a Bentley, from his fleet of chauffeur-driven cars, and whisked through the thriving metropolis. On their way, they might spot an extraordinary project taking shape off the coast of the commercial capital of the United Arab Emirates: private man-made islands for the super-rich, one in the shape of a palm, the other resembling a map of the world.

Naturally the headquarters of Global Education Management Systems (Gems) and the Varkey Group are air-conditioned, just like his new schools, which often come with swimming pools and the latest IT equipment. Now, the Dubai businessman behind Gems, the world’s biggest private schools company, has emerged as the latest high-profile figure to become a sponsor of the British government’s city academies programme.

Varkey’s Gems, which runs 42 private schools around the world, has brokered a deal with Milton Keynes council to sponsor two academies, independent state schools, to be opened in 2008. Gems already owns a private school, Bury Lawns, in the town.

It is the latest flirtation by the chairman of Gems with the British state-school sector. Last year Gems purchased 3E’s, a non-profit making company set up to manage failing state schools, giving the company direct influence over three secondaries and contracts to advise more than 100 others.

Varkey: UK expansion drive

The millionaire, whose other business interest is healthcare, denies he has met Tony Blair or his advisers at Number 10, but he makes no secret of the fact that he wants government help to ease Gems’ expansion in the UK. The company has identified 10 to 15 greenfield sites suitable for building schools. "We are trying to find Greenfield sites to build new schools, then we can put up nice newly designed campuses, with the latest technology," he says. "But it is not easy with planning laws in the UK. That’s where we look to the government to give us some support," he adds.

Gems’ schools in the UK, following a model operating in Gulf states, will cater for premium as well as ‘budget’ customers, with fees ranging from £10,000 (Rs.820,000) to just £2,000 (Rs.164,000). Varkey says it is possible to keep fees below £5,000 (Rs.410,000) because training, administration, recruitment and other overheads can be managed centrally.

Such low fees have already raised concerns among heads of smaller independent schools who believe Gems and other profit-making organisations, including Cognita, which is chaired by Chris Woodhead, may force them out of business.

Sea change in tertiary education

The Beijing Municipal government has capped tuition fees in the capital to ensure that higher education remains accessible to poor students. Most of the capital’s higher education institutions must now keep their annual fees between 4,200 and 6,000 yuan (Rs.22,304-31,980) according to a joint statement issued by the city’s Municipal Prices Bureau, Finances Bureau and Education Commission.

Tuition fees for most students will be at the lower end of that bracket, but key universities may be allowed to charge upto 5,000 yuan (Rs.26,550) if various education departments grant approval. Fees may be increased for popular subjects such as sciences, engineering, foreign languages and medicine, but will be capped at 6,000 yuan (Rs.31,980). Beijing’s most prestigious universities — Tsing Hua, Peking, Renmin and the Beijing Teachers’ University — have agreed to set their fees at 4,800 yuan a year.

Chinese universities began to charge tuition fees only in the early 1990s. The previous system of free education followed by assignment to work units after graduation was said to be "incompatible with the growth of a market economy".

Chinese higher education has developed rapidly in the past five years. Enrollments increased from 6 million in 1999 to more than 20 million in 2004. This change in the sector has placed higher education out of the financial reach of a great number of Chinese students, particularly those from the countryside.

In 2003, the government invested 70 million yuan (Rs. 37 crore) in higher education and students contributed 40 million yuan (Rs.21 crore) to the system in university fees.

Temple University breakthrough

Japan has recognised its first full offshore campus of a foreign university amid sustained pressure from the US for liberalised trade and investment in the Japanese education and health sectors.

Recently Temple University, Japan (TUJ) was officially designated a ‘foreign university, Japan campus’, a new status conferred by the ministry of education. It enables TUJ, a branch of Temple University (a state institution based in Philadelphia), to sponsor the visas of international students. About one third of TUJ’s 2,100 students are from overseas.

The Japanese branch of TUJ was established in 1982 in Tokyo. It has operations in Osaka and Fukuoka, and it previously held the lesser designation of ‘miscellaneous school’. The redesignation legitimises credits and degrees earned at TUJ, which means that students can transfer their credits to Japanese institutions and TUJ graduates can apply for enrollment in professional and graduate schools.

To qualify for the new classification, the university had to demonstrate — and the ministry had to accept — that the programmes TUJ offers are the same as those available on its main campus in the US. What is not quite clear though, is how the tiny TUJ, its 2,100 students and its handful of programmes equates to Temple in the US, which is one of the three comprehensive public research universities in Pennsylvania, with more than 34,000 students and 17 schools and colleges.

Temple is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, and this status is extended to its international branch in Japan, even if international acceptance of US accreditation is still unclear. The US state department seems to have provided the impetus for the change in policy of the Japanese government and the ministry of education.

The case of TUJ has often been cited by the Americans as an example of what they refer to as the "closed nature" of university education in Japan. The US has been increasingly aggressive in pushing for trade and investment liberalisation in education and health, either bilaterally or under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). Under the GATS liberalisation regimes, the US plans to expand still further its already dominant status as a net exporter of services in education, especially in the tertiary sector.

Spreading rot in higher education

The secretary-general of Thailand’s education council has been cleared of leaking university exam papers but found guilty of breaching procedures by opening sealed boxes before they were distributed to test centres. It was suspected that the daughter of a powerful figure had benefited from the alleged leak. But Adisai Bodharamik, the education minister, decided against disciplinary proceedings in the case of Voradej Chandrasorn. "Voradej has long served the civil service and has devoted himself to serving the country’s interests. The offence was a first for him," he says.

Earlier Chandrasorn said he would resign from the civil service regardless of the findings. Neat though this solution is to the latest exam leak scandal, academics say it is not the first and fear it will not be the last.

In 2002, the son of prime minister Thaksin Shinwatra was escorted from his political science exam at Ramkhamhaeng University when he was found in possession of notes relevant to the test. Panthongthae Shinwatra was cleared of cheating but found guilty of breaking regulations. He received an official warning but was not punished, and was allowed to retake the exam.

On another occasion, entry rules to the prestigious Chulalongkorn University had to be changed after accusations that they had been relaxed for the prime minister’s daughter. "The trend of peddling university degrees to anyone who is willing to pay continues to proliferate," says Sompong Chitradab, an education lecturer at Chulalongkorn University.

Chitradab co-wrote an "open letter on the state of tertiary education" with Amornwich Nakornthap, director of the university’s Centre for Education Policy Research. It lists problems in Thailand’s higher education system, including the sale of degrees, mismanagement of university property, corruption, cronyism, nepotism and a general unwillingness to denounce wrongdoing.

Winds of change in tertiary education

The Australian government plans to encourage foreign universities to open alongside the nation’s state universities by allowing home students who enroll to take government loans. Brendan Nelson, education minister, told a recent conference in Melbourne that he backed plans by the South Australian government to allow the US Carnegie Mellon University to establish a campus in Adelaide. "Carnegie Mellon is, by any reasonable standards, a world-class university," said Nelson. "I will be doing everything I can to see that it is able to establish facilities in South Australia."

Although the federal government would not provide subsidies for Carnegie Mellon or any international university wanting to establish a base in Australia, students would be able to take federal loans if they enrolled in such institutions, he said.

Nelson (centre): backing foreign varsities

More than 40 private colleges and institutes have applied to become "approved higher education providers" so that their students can access the fee-help scheme. At least 30 have been successful and, as well as their students accessing loans on a deferred payment basis, some may also be awarded "national priority places" in fields such as nursing, for which the government subsidises course costs.

In setting out the government’s priorities for 2005, Dr. Nelson said the two key issues are establishing a research quality framework and a review of the national protocols governing university status. Sir Gareth Roberts, who reviewed science and engineering skills in the UK, is chairing a committee investigating models for a quality framework whereby only research rated "high quality" would receive government grants.

Nelson says that while research quality is at the top of his agenda, it’s also time to look at how the term ‘university’ is defined. "I ask why there are 14 Australian universities that run teaching-only campuses with staff employed on contracts, that have limited resources, and why other institutions that provide extremely high-quality teaching should be denied access to the title ‘university’," says Nelson who adds that over half of Australian academics publish research papers and only a quarter bring in research money. "One of my other agendas is to see that performance in teaching is at least as highly regarded as research output in terms of promotion," he says.