Page 7 - ELG1801 Jan Issue 453

NEWS

DUTCH DON’T GIVE A DAM EU BID FOR
EDUCATIONAL

FOR EF ENGLISH TEST GLORY HARMONY

By Claudia Civinini giving way to Utrecht as the Dana Alhadeedi told the Gazette: By Claudia Civinini
What is the thing that makes the most proficient English speakers. ‘Yes, this ranking is based on a The European Commission wants
Italians feel depressed, the Thais According to Dr Jelke Bethlehem, self-selecting sample that has to streamline education across the
hopeful and the Dutch sceptical? a statistician from Leiden access to the internet. This is the continent in a bid to address skills
Not a satay pizza, but the EF University, the problem is in the scope in which the ranking can be shortages and develop a European
English Proficiency Index results. sample, which is self-selected and interpreted. Anything outside that identity, it has announced.
Released last month, the EF not representative. –we can’t be responsible for it’. Launching the plan to create
rankings showed Italy plunging ‘Only those people who want to In fact, EF makes no secret of a European Education Area by
into last place in Europe learn or learn about their English the nature of the rankings. 2025, education commissioner
for English language skills – skills will participate in one of ‘We recognise that the test Tibor Navracsics said: ‘As we look
‘overtaken by our French cousins’, these tests,’ he wrote in his blog. taking population represented in to Europe’s future, we need to
as Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore Also, the fact that the test is this index is self-selected and not equip ourselves with an ambitious
noted. conducted online cuts off those guaranteed to be representative of shared agenda for how we can use
Thailand, on the other hand, without internet access, he said. the country as a whole,’ it says on culture and learning as a driver for
climbed from 56th to 53rd, Academic Director, EFSET page 40 of its EF EPI booklet. unity.’
showing ‘promising signs of Among the Commission’s
improvement in overall English proposals are further
literacy’ according to the Bangkok harmonisation of higher education
Post. across the continent and a plan to
But the Dutch, the best non- ensure that every European leaves
native English speakers in the high school with two languages in
world according to the rankings, addition to their mother tongue(s).
have made surprisingly little fuss A new ‘Sorbonne Process’,
about it – and have even criticised building on the Bologna Process,
the findings. will enable mutual recognition
‘The honour seems somewhat of school-leaving and university
arbitrary’, Dutch newspaper de diplomas, making mobility ‘a
Volkskrant said, quoting some reality for all’.
changes in the rankings over the In foreign language education,
years. which is still deemed ‘inadequate’,
The Northern Europeans have the EU will invest in teachers’
always got the podium, but one mobility by strengthening
year the pole position was taken participation in Erasmus Plus and
by the Swedes (2015) and in e-Twinning programmes.
another by the Danes (2014). The aim is for every language
Scores also changed among teacher to graduate with at
Dutch provinces, with Zeeland Dutch handle English least six months of studying and
and Zuid-Holland suddenly with ease teaching abroad.

HAWAII WANTS TO RIDE INTERNATIONAL WAVE

By Claudia Civinini conducted by its Department of
Educational institutions in the Claudia Civinini Business, Economic Development
US state of Hawaii say they want and Tourism (DBEDT), total direct
to double their international spending of international students
student numbers, reaching 24,000 went down from $301,912,747 in
students a year, by 2026. Study 2016 to $225,316,831 in 2017 – a
Hawaii Educational Consortium decrease of about 25 per cent.
announced its plan at the opening DBEDT’s Dennis Ling said there
ceremony of International was a perception that the US was
Education Week in capital Honolulu Hawaii Governor David Ige less safe and less welcoming than
last month. State governor and Study Hawaii President Joel Weaver other countries. ‘But Hawaii is
David Ige said that international different,’ he said. With Hawaii
education helps promote peace it intends to change the narrative StudentMarketing to develop an sporting one of the strictest gun
around the world, and that local about the Aloha State, whose ambitious strategic plan (see more laws in the US and some of the
students greatly benefit from a truly status as an education destination on page 35) in a bid to gain support most diverse university campuses
global classroom. has been often overshadowed by its from state legislators. (Hawaii Pacific University was
But numbers are not the whole success in the tourism industry. Hawaii suffered a decrease in the named the most diverse private
story. Study Hawaii, representing The consortium has partnered number of international students institution in the country in 2016),
28 institutions on the islands, says with marketing intelligence agency last year. According to a survey Ling may just be right.
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