Posts for 'Education Issues' Category

The UT's only mega project that took off, Education City, is also facing a bleak future, though its reasons for that are quite different from those of other similar projects.In this case, the stringent conditions finalized by administration have kept most major institutes away.

UT adviser Pradip Mehra had convened a meeting about this on Monday, but the final decision is yet to be taken on scrapping the project. Sources in administration, however, confirmed that it was only a matter of time before UT came out with a formal announcement for that as the project had failed to generate response expected from private educational institutes.

Most applicants shortlisted by the education department for allocation of sites in Education City have backed out and only three have so far signed agreements with UT. The applicants, which were allotted land for the first and second phase of the project, had pointed out to the administration that All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) norms required that either the company should own the land on which educational set up was proposed or have the area's lease for 99 years.

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Federal Education Minister Sardar Asif has moved a reference on Friday against the chairman of the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Education, Abid Sher Ali accusing him of misusing his authority.
Abid Sher Ali had directed the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to verify the degrees of parliamentarians.

Talking to media after attending the International Conference held in National Center for Physics on Friday Sardar Asif said that a reference has been sent to Speaker National Assembly against Abid Sher Ali. He said that Abid Sher Ali has no authority to punish anyone it is the work of the courts. " Chairman NA Standing Committee should study act 4 of the Committee", he said.

Sardar Asif said Abid Sher Ali before taking any step should take the committee members into confidence as according to the constitution the standing committee can only prepare recommendations it has no authority to direct. He said that the Chairman NA Committee had overstepped his boundaries by issuing orders about verification of parliamentarians' degrees.

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The Education department of the defunct City District Government Karachi (CDGK) is not taking any serious measures to protect a school building from being occupied by a person, a ‘fake owner’, who has claimed that the schools is his property and thus be handed over to him, The News has learnt.

The building in fact hosts a couple of schools, Dastagir Public Government Boys Primary School (GBPS) and Muslim GBPS, located in Federal B. Area, Gulberg Town, which are running in the said building in morning and evening shifts respectively.

Sources told The News that a person, Misbah Mehmood Kidwae, has claimed the ownership of the said building, showing “photo-copied” documents to prove his claim. The documents, which are not readable due to their poor quality, are not genuine, the sources disclosed. It is also interesting to note here that according to the records available with the Education department, Dastagir Public GBPS.

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Teacher embarrassment and lack of knowledge were often to blame, Ofsted said in a report based on findings at 92 primary and 73 secondary schools. It said in many secondary schools, pupils were taught about the biology of sex but not relationships.
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The government says all young people should have high-quality teaching in this area. It will take Ofsted's findings into consideration in its review of the curriculum. Ofsted looked at personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education in 165 schools in England. The subject has been part of the timetable in most schools for about a decade. Ofsted found in more than a third (34%) of the secondary schools visited, students' knowledge of sex and relationship was "no better than satisfactory", while in a further three schools it was rated "inadequate".

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The Florida Department of Education says it wants to make sure school grades are accurate before releasing them. This statement comes after five school districts questioned the validity of students' scores on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, which the state uses to grade schools.

Hillsborough, Duval, Broward, Miami-Dade and Leon counties claim they have seen anomalies in test scores, so the counties have urged the state to postpone releasing school grades until experts can review all the data. According to D.O.E. spokesman Tom Butler, the state is hiring an independent third party to study the issue.

However, Butler maintains that the D.O.E. has the utmost confidence in FCAT results. “We’ve had multiple reviews of these results both by ourselves, the testing contractor and an independent third party, the Buros Institute, and all have had positive findings on the results,” Butler said.

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A new higher-education reform commission appointed by Gov. Bob McDonnell is focusing on improving education in Virginia. The Commission on Higher Education Reform, Innovation and Investment held its first meeting Monday at the Chesterfield County campus of John Tyler Community College. The 45-member panel is seeking ways to improve higher education, including increasing the number of degree recipients and ensuring college access and affordability.

"It is abundantly clear that higher education is a powerful engine of economic growth and produces one of the highest returns on investment of any public or private program," McDonnell said at the meeting. "And the states and countries with the best trained work forces are the magnets for business investment, job creation, and economic growth."

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Education Secretary Michael Gove has been forced to apologise for releasing a list riddled with mistakes about which school building projects would face the axe.

The list -- released on Monday, after the coalition government said it would scrap Labour's £55 billion Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme -- contained the names of 1,500 schools whose building plans would be affected. Of those, 715 schools were told their projects would be cancelled.

But there were 25 mistakes in the Department for Education list, prompting outrage among teachers, pupils, parents and politicians. Gove said he was grateful for the opportunity "to unreservedly apologise" for sending out "inaccurate information".

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Conservative Education Secretary Michael Gove has scrapped 715 school building programmes in cuts slammed as "shameful". Mr Gove announced yesterday he would ditch Labour's Building Schools for the Future programme - a move that was expected.

And for the first time he published the full list of the school building programmes that would not go ahead. Shadow Education Secretary Ed Balls said it was a "tragedy" for teachers and pupils who would have benefited from facilities. He said : "Today is a black day for our country's schools."

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Five kilometres outside the town of Gulu in northern Uganda, down what barely qualifies as a road -- a long stretch of deep potholes filled with muddy water -- lies the Gulu Primary Teachers College. Here, peace finally prevails and faculty.

And students have rejoined the reopened college, now sitting in an area that a few short years ago was controlled by the Lord's Resistance Army, infamous for its use of child soldiers, mutilating and brutalizing its victims, abducting children in the night, and enslaving thousands of women into sexual submission as "bush wives."

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Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani Wednesday said his government aims to strengthen the education system that provides opportunities for all students regardless of their socio-economic background. “I believe that we cannot bring about any major change in current educational culture, which is based on cramming unless we promote the culture of research, analysis and free inquiry in our educational institutions.

“Therefore, we must focus on strengthening the domestic technological capability through research and development in order to be a self-sufficient nation,” he said while addressing a Pak-US Fulbright Scholarship Programme award ceremony for 157 Pakistani scholars at the PM Secretariat here Wednesday.

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