Page 2 - ELG1601 Nov Issue 441

Page 2
Getting a global perspective
ENGLaNd: FED up with lack of
a government strategy for teach- The EL Gazette editoral team present a selection of ELT news from around the world
ing English to adult migrants,
teachers of Esol, as the subject
is called in the UK, wrote their
own – and took it to Parliament.
In its report, teachers’ associa-
tion natecla gave evidence of the
benefits offered by the Esol strat- NIGErIa: OnLy 65 per
egies used in Wales and Scotland,
and argued for a similar plan for
England. Education is a devolved
matter in the United Kingdom
and all four constituent nations
set their own policy. indigenous languages.
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p02-03_ELG1116.indd 1 10/21/2016
ELworld news November 2016
uNITEd STaTES: TWO Ecuador: ThE Andean TurKEY: ThE education sec- EGYPT: POSTGRADUATE
cent of nigerians feel they American civil rights groups nation of Ecuador needs 2,800 tor continues to feel the effects students and applicants for
‘understand or communicate – the American Civil Liberties English language teachers by of the crackdown following universities report sudden and
effectively in English’, accord- Union (ACLU) and the Educa- 2017 to accomplish the goals July’s failed coup (see August unexplained increases in tuition
ing to a recent survey of the tion Law Centre (ELC) – have of its new English language 2016 Gazette). fees – in some cases triple those
nation – which has over 500 filed a federal lawsuit against learning (ELL) policy, El País Two of the three universities of the previous academic year.
the School District of Lancaster, newspaper reported. State closed in Izmir have reopened, Sara Mahmoud, a pharmacist
Pennsylvania over English Lan- schools have started a new with new names. Newsweek at Tanta University, told news
guage Learners’ (ELLs) access curriculum in which English reported that students of the agency Al Fanar that annual
to mainstream education. language is a mandatory subject. closed Gezim University, at fees for her course jumped
ACLU, ELC and law firm The main goal of the programme Cesme near Izmir, were home- from 11,000 Egyptian pounds
Pepper hamilton LLP allege is for primary students to reach less in mid-September, unable to (£1,020) last year to 36,000
the school district refuses enrol- the equivalent of CEFR A1-level retrieve belongings left in their (£3,320). At Mansoura Univer-
ment into public high schools proficiency in English by the sealed-off halls of residence. sity, one of the country’s biggest,
to refugee students with limited time they turn eleven years old. According to a Gazette source post-graduate diplomas in arts
English, placing them instead Currently the country has in the mostly ethnic Kurdish subjects rose from 8,800 pounds
in a privately run disciplinary 8,400 specialist English lan- city of Diyarbakir (south-eastern (£810) to 20,000 (£1,850), with
institution. The plaintiffs include guage teachers but it needs more Turkey), the new school year a MA up from 1,000 (£90) to
six refugees aged 17–21 from for the next stage of the policy, this September started late in 3,000 (£280).
Somalia, Sudan, Democratic which starts in May 2017. many schools as so many pri-
Republic of Congo and Burma. Minister of education Augusto mary school teachers had been
One of them, 17-year-old Khad- Espinosa stated that the gov- purged. Recent graduates were
idja Issa, was reportedly told to ernment will hire foreign ELT drafted in to fill vacancies. Many
‘get a job’ when she applied to teachers to end its teacher short- Turkish academics elsewhere in
the regular high school. age, and that they expect to see the country are still out of work
the first results of the new ELL and are owed a lot of back-pay uNITEd STaTES: SChOOLS
policy by the end of 2020. Read as of early October, according to in the US state of Texas are
more on page 4. another Gazette source. The Brit- ‘desperate’ for bilingual teach-
ish Council Turkey’s Ielts tests ers, the Dallas News reported.
have gone ahead as planned. The total number of speak-
ers of ‘limited English’ in the
IraN: FOLLOWInG the coun- state has doubled in the last
try’s recent nuclear deal and the ten years, so the proportion of
lifting of international sanctions students in schools who have
on the Islamic Republic, ties PaKISTaN: In September the difficulty with their English
are being forged with European Khyber Province on the north- uGaNda: AROUnD 80 per is growing. For the previous
school year, 2014–15, Texas
and US universities. France’s
west frontier with Afghanistan
reportedly signed new agree- (£23 million) teacher training performed badly in basic primary- bilingual teacher for every 46
cent of the country’s teachers
schools only had one ESL or
prestigious École Polytechnique
announced a one billion rupee
ments with Sharif University
programme for 83,000 school
students recorded as struggling
level reading and numerical exams
in an evaluation conducted by the
with English, the notimex news
of Technology, the University
teachers, with partners the Brit-
ish Council to pay 30 per cent of
government’s Ugandan national
of Tehran and the University of
agency reported. The concerned
state has started looking for
Isfahan in the summer. US higher
Examinations Board (Uneb). Its
the cost. Attacks by the Taliban
education institutions, seeing a
of every ten teachers can neither
included the 2014 Peshawar
bilingual teachers from Mexico.
reduction in state scholarship
Read more on page 3.
read nor solve basic primary level
students from Brazil and Saudi on schools in the province have evaluation showed that ‘eight out solutions – including hiring
Army Public School massa-
Arabia and wary of over-reliance cre. nobel Prize winner Malala mathematical questions.’ (Eng-
on the Chinese and Indian mar- yousafzai survived being shot lish and Swahili are Uganda’s
kets, are keen on ‘new source on her way to school in Khyber’s official languages, with English
markets’ and are eyeing oppor- Swat Valley in 2012 (see May more widely used in education.)
tunities for Iranian partnerships.
nassali Lukwago, the ministry
2013 Gazette, page 1).
nafsa, the US association of of education’s permanent secre- NEW ZEaLaNd: A group of
tary, was quoted as saying, ‘The
international educators, included
in its regional conference in recent report released by Uneb over 150 Indian students facing
newport, Maine, in October ses- is alarming and depressing. It’s deportation have held a series
sions on potential partnerships
demonstrations
of
really absurd that some teachers
around
with Iranian universities. can’t read and solve basic equa- meetings of ministers and out-
MaLaYSIa: InTERnA- tions.’ The government has since side MPs’ homes (see August
2016 Gazette, page 1, for
launched a nationwide investiga-
TIOnAL
pursuing
students
a degree in the country don’t tion to find out why the majority details of the hyderabad-based
always have an optimal level of its primary school teachers are immigration scam). Indian
semi-illiterate, AllAfrica news
of English, the Malaysian
students crashed a meeting
SPaIN: A study of public-sector press reports. The Malaysian website reported. between finance minister Bill
English and Parmjeet Parmer
Qualifications Agency reports
bilingual education in the Auton- finding many students with MP in Auckland, and held a
omous Community of Madrid below-average English, some noisy protest outside Kanwaljit
found that children from bilin- unable to ‘answer the ques- Singh Bakshi MP’s home after
he commented on their cases.
gual schools perform worse in
tions posed by the inspectors’.
subjects that are taught in Eng- This has also been observed by Immigration minister Michael
lish, especially children whose doctors carrying out the com- PaLESTINE: A history text- Woodwose declined to meet
parents had less than upper- pulsory post-arrival medical book for use in British schools the students, telling the New
was withdrawn from some Mid-
secondary education. The study
examination for students – one
Zealand Herald he couldn’t
dle Eastern institutions that had
discuss cases ‘still under con-
analysed the results of the first
such doctor told newspaper the
two years of the programme’s Daily Sun that many can’t even adopted it, including the Choue- sideration’.
ifat international school chain
implementation. Madrid was the
While student visa fraud
tick the boxes on their medical
first Spanish region to introduce history. in the United Arab Emirates, was perpetrated by agents and
bilingualism in 2004 in state English language require- following complaints over its banks without the applicants’
education. ments are set at a minimum ‘What is “terrorism?”’ section. knowledge, tertiary educa-
The local-government depart- of 5 for Ielts. Other exams ‘Technology, War and Independ- tion minister Steven Joyce
ment of education pointed out accepted are Cambridge Eng- ence’ for the UK curriculum told nZ Radio, ‘Students are
that students and teachers were lish Advanced and Proficiency includes a ‘suicide bomb’ para- responsible for what is sub-
making considerable effort, but
and Pearson Test of English.
graph, which ends with the
mitted on their own behalf.’
unions criticised the ‘decline’ The head of communications of words ‘Palestinian terrorists are Alastair McClymont, a law-
in teacher training since the the Education Malaysia Global well known for this.’ Its publish- yer representing the students,
programme had been launched. Services, a government-man- ers, Oxford University Press, told the Herald that while the
dated agency which processes
Indian agents and the new
Madrid’s budget for teacher
told the Gazette it will review
go training fell by three quarters student visas, told the Sun that the section. OUP’s head of com- Zealand schools ‘still have
between 2009 and 2016, EL Pais they recommend intensive munications Dan Selinger said their money. The students are
newspaper reported. Read more English language programmes ‘customers looking to return being punished because the nZ
on page i of the young Learners if the students don’t meet their titles should speak to their government can’t do anything
supplement. requirements. local bookshop’. about the agents.’
7:15:05 PM