Page 13 - ELG1706 Jun Issue 448

NEWS

Teacher’s pet

The German-speaking canton
of Zurich, Switzerland, has done
its bit for linguistic diversity, after
voting to keep teaching two languages
at primary level. The Swiss federal
government is pleased with the result as it
was pushing to keep the status quo.
If allowed to teach just one language,
ministers feared that schools would not
prioritise national languages (German,
French, Italian, and Romansch) and opt
for English instead, The Local reports.
The issue of languages in Switzerland is
a confusing and ongoing story.
In one recent episode, another German-
speaking canton, Thurgau, voted to
banish the teaching of French from
schools in favour of English.
This enraged the French-speaking
cantons, which have to give priority to the
teaching of German in their schools.
It looks like the Swiss languages saga –
as The Local dubbed it – will continue for
some time yet.

Naughty corner

was needed. Stanford, NYU, Duke and Cornell Are
Those in favour of the in the US, and Nottingham and Confucius
institutes claim they are not a Liverpool universities in the UK. Institutes There is a special place for
threat to academic freedom and In recent years, many Western China’s international students in the UK
do not have sufficient levels of universities have been setting up ticket to Conservative party’s general election
influence to have a detrimental programmes in China, as they global ‘soft manifesto, and that’s right under the
impact on American values by bring in much-needed income power’? heading ‘controlling immigration’.
changing people’s opinions. and serve as marketing and Making official what many thought
The Confucius Institutes’ recruitment tools for Chinese was just one of Theresa May’s personal
objective, Hanban’s news website students, who usually pay higher idiosyncrasies, the manifesto clearly states
said, is to build a ‘spiritual express fees than domestic students. that students will indeed remain in the
train connecting China with the It is not yet clear what the
people of the world’ by teaching outcome of these inspections has net migration figures.
about language and culture. been and whether any staff have To borrow an analogy from physics, the
But the Chinese government been ejected or courses cancelled. rest of the policy line on education and
seems more nervous about this These two most recent immigration is somewhat Schroedinger-
‘spiritual express train’ when the stories suggest the complicated esque.
rails lead east. relationship between the US and The manifesto depicts a country that
A report in the UK’s Financial China makes it difficult for each attracts more foreign students and skilled
Times last month said that teams of country not to feel threatened by workers, while simultaneously making
inspectors have been parachuted the other when it comes to the it harder for
into China’s 29 top universities, battle for people’s minds. students to
tasked by its government to The culture clash of democracy get a visa TEACHER DUDE
look for examples of breaches and free speech versus a one– and kicking
of ‘political discipline’. These party system means, at least for graduates out
include ideological problems and now, an atmosphere of suspicion as soon as they
infiltration of ‘western values’ will pervade the halls of academe take off their
such as democracy and freedom for some time to come. mortarboards.
of speech. Outsourced to China: No need to
Most of the top universities in Confucius Institutes and Soft open the box
China have courses and study Power in American Higher to know which
centres set up in partnership with Education, is available at Britain we’ll
western universities, including NAS.org
get.
editorial@elgazette.com 13

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