Education

The Most Common Issues in American Education

Education blogger

Nowadays, the problem of testing in American education is extremely important because often the existing system of tests is severely criticized and, what is more important, as a rule, this criticism is justified. In this respect, it is worthy to refer to the article by E.D. Hirsch Jr. “Using Tests Productively, where the author researches the problem of tests and their effectiveness. In fact, the author is very skeptical about the existing system of tests which, as he believe, are far from perfect.

Probably, one of the most important problems the author raises in his article is the problem of uselessness of the existing tests. To put it more precisely, E.D. Hirsch argues that both teachers and students are rather more concerned on the successful passing the tests than on the knowledge they receive. By the way, it is worthy of mention that it is not only teachers and students that are involved but the problem of effective testing also concerns the parents of students for, basically, tests are supposed to assess students academic successes and evaluate the effectiveness of their learning.

At the same time, the author underlines that often students that are practically of the same level of education, learning in the same class often show absolutely different results in testing. Hirsch mainly focuses on reading tests and, critically evaluating them, he underlines that they are quite ineffective because they are not testing comprehension strategies, as they are supposed to, but, instead, they are just testing comprehension that is obviously insufficient and ineffective.

Furthermore, the author also points out that, as a rule, students are directly prepared for the reading tests that is totally unacceptable. Instead, Hirsch insists that students should be prepared for a reading test indirectly and that is necessary to develop broad reading skills and abilities. Students should be able to work and comprehend a wide range of text on the basis of broad knowledge which is not only directly linked to reading. This knowledge should be wider, more universal involving not only literature but also art, science, logics, etc.

Naturally, on criticizing the existing system, it would be logical to offer some alternative and Hirsch underlines that content testing could be much more effective if they were specifically tied to the broad knowledge goals of a sound education in literature, science, history and arts. The broad knowledge from different spheres is essential because they form the background information which is of a paramount importance for reading comprehension. Eventually, the author concludes that such broad knowledge would increase the effectiveness of testing as well as education at large because it contributes to the progress of students academic achievements and their cognitive competence.

Obviously, the problem of testing is really important because tests actually define the whole process of education because often they are the final goal students and teachers strive to achieve and pass successfully. At the same time, the changes offered by Hirsch are really important because they help refocus education process from preparation to a particular and not perfect tests to more effective and useful acquisition of broad knowledge, skills and abilities which can not only help pass some tests but could also be useful in students personal and professional life making them really educated and intelligent personalities.

A Rock Climbing Wall Accessory Can Facilitate Cross-curricular Education And Initiative Tasks.

Education blogger

The rock climbing wall accessory is usually designed to facilitate cross-curricular education as well as initiative tasks. The Magna Flags are fun and catch the eye and are a wonderful rock climbing wall accessory to make games more enjoyable to play and each flag hangs from a magnet that is secured into the bolt hole of the climbing hold and are easy to grab or move or toss as well as place. The rock climber can toss these flags into buckets while he or she traverses the wall.

Challenge Course, Discovery Plate And Erasa Plate

Another rock climbing wall accessory is the Challenge Course in which the rock climber can climb over, under, around or through the Challenge Course and with it, one may be able to create many different individual as well as team challenges, especially using the Traverse Wall Challenge Course whose twenty-five polystyrene noodles fit into Groperz Handholds that have been specially designed for such a purpose to make lines, loops and other obstacles that the rock climber can climb. There are a number of related activities, and many noodles, and it comes with 12 noodle anchoring units, 12 anchor bolts as well as a hex anchoring wrench. The noodles can easily fit into specially designed handholds.

The Discovery Plate is a rock climbing wall accessory and the magnetic chalkboard plates fit between the climbing wall and the holds and there is absolutely no hassle in using tape and tag board when one is labeling routes or playing games. Most rock climbing students as well as educators can write on them using chalk or even stick magnets on them. A set consists of ten plates and there are also five sample activities with more than five hundred letter as well as math magnets.

There are also the Erasa Plates which are redesigned and shaped in the form of circles, squares as well as triangles and can easily fit between the climbing wall and handholds and because of their dry-erase surface the climber can allow for labeling to suit individual activities. Since they can be quickly erased they can be used for different purposes and they are sold in sets of twelve, with there being four of a particular shape and they also come with five sample activities plus a set of markers are also included. One common activity for this rock climbing wall accessory is for students to traverse the wall and at the same time give examples of special numbers.

A Better India By Imparting Education For Slum Children

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India is a developing country. The main factor that has made India a developing country is its poor educational field leading to illiteracy and subsequently poverty. These are the two main problems India is facing at the moment. More than 80% of the population in India depends on agriculture and out of this number; about 60% of the population is illiterate. Thus, the basis of all major problems is illiteracy.

It is extremely important that females be educated so that they can play a pivotal role in the development of their childrens characters When a female is educated she attains knowledge, gains power that helps in herself development .When she has a family it influences her family life in various ways. This helps the society to improve and develop in all aspects .This gradually leads the country to progress and achieve its goals. When a female is educated she helps educate many generations through her own knowledge and talents. Therefore, literacy and good education can solve many of the problems of developing countries .In all aspects education is an essential factor that helps in bringing about various changes to ourselves as human beings and also to the society. Through education, we can achieve all that we want and can work on saving our precious resources to meet growing demands of the population.

As mentioned earlier, poverty is one of the major problems that India faces. When speaking about population the first thing that comes to our minds is the slums in India. Today slum dwellers make up for about 60% of Mumbai’s population that is about 7 million people. These slums mainly spread into the areas neighboring Byculla, such as: Parel, Mahim Creek, Dadar and Matunga and wherever else they can find space, even on roads. The conditions in the slums are dreadful. Slum inhabitants constantly have to deal with issues such as, lack of water, no sewage or solid waste facilities, constant migration, lack of public transit, poor education, pollution and housing shortages. Infant mortality is very high in rural areas of India where there are no amenities.

In order to deal with the menace of poverty and illiteracy, many NGOs in India have come up with programs whereby imparting education for slum children.

These NGOs provide all the students with free education including free study material, free uniform and free occasional medical checkups. Some NGOs are running schools in various city slums with foreign assistance. They are playing a key role in imparting education for slum children but there is always a question about the standard of education in those schools as there is a lack of regular monitoring, education materials and skilled manpower. The Central Government of India is also playing a crucial role in providing education for slum children. It has also announced that a new welfare scheme has been created , which will with immediate effect eliminate and eradicate, all problems of slum children, including poverty, lack of education and health facilities, child labor and abuse. This program is also concentrating on providing education for the slum children, who could make a decent life for themselves in the future.

Brief History of Education in Nigeria

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Long before the Europeans arrived, education had been part of Nigerians. The Children were taught about their culture, social activities, survival skills and work. Most of these education processes were impacted into the children informally; a few of these societies gave a more formal teaching of the society and culture.

In these Societies, there are formal instructions that governed the rites of passage from youth into adulthood. The youth is expected to have attained the necessary social and survival skills as well as having a grounded knowledge in the culture. These are the foundations of education in Nigeria, and upon them were the western education implemented upon.

European Education was introduced into Nigeria in the 1840s. It began in Lagos, Calabar and other coastal cities. In a few decades schooling in English language gradually took roots in the Nigeria. During the Colonial years, Great Britain did not promote education. The schools were set up and operated by Christian Missionaries. The British colonial government only funded a few schools. The policy of the government was to give grant to mission schools rather than expand the system.

In the northern part of Nigeria, which was predominantly Muslim populated, Western-style education was prohibited. The religious leaders did not want the missionaries interfering with Islam. This gave way to establishing Islamic school that focused primarily on the Islamic education.

Today, adult literacy has been estimated to be over 78 percent for men and 64 percent for women. These statistics were made based on estimate literacy in English. That excludes the literacy in Arabic among northern Muslims. It is therefore not erroneous to call Nigeria a nation dominated with educated persons.

Prior to Nigeria’s independence, Nigeria had only two established Post-secondary Institution. Yaba Higher college (founded in 1934, Now Yaba College of Technology) and the University of Ibadan was founded in 1948. It was then a College of the University of London until two years after the independence when she became autonomous. More prominent universities which include University of Nigeria, Obafemi Awolowo University (formerly University of Ife), Ahmadu Bello University and Mohood Abiola Kashimawo University (formerly University of Lagos) were founded in the years that followed the Independence.

In 1970s more universities were founded which include University of Benin (founded in 1970), and new university opened in Calabar, Ilorin, Jos, Port Harcourt, Sokoto and Maiduguri. In the 1980s, more universities were opened as well as institute specializing in Agriculture and Technology. A number of Polytechnics were also opened, which includes the Yaba College of Technology in Lagos and Kaduna Polytechnics.

In 1980, the estimated enrollment in the primary schools was 12 million, Secondary and technical colleges 1.2 million, teachers colleges 240,000 and Universities 75,000. One would expect that with such an estimate, the Nigerian education in Nigeria three decades after would have greatly improved. Unfortunately the reverse has been the case.

The present decline in the Nigerian education system can be traced back to the 1980s and 1990s. Then there was a shortage of qualified teachers, the few qualified teachers were not paid in a timely manner. The number of schools did not grow with the population and many of the existing schools were inadequately funded resulting in poor maintenance. In the Universities inadequate funding led to the shortage of space and resources. Increase in tuition fee often resulted in riots leading to cancellation of semesters. Industrial actions by the University Staff requesting for higher salaries and better working conditions also compounded the situations. However, today governors in most state are addressing these issues.

The damage to the educational system has been done. Most graduates lack the necessary survival and social skills that should have been learnt in schools. These have led to many disastrous situations in the nation. The center of the nation’s growth “the Education system” no longer holds value; hence the entire nation is falling apart. Products of the Nigeria education system are not employable, causing massive unemployment and under-development in the country. No survival skills leading to increased poverty rate in the country.

The situation however is not entirely hopeless. The foundation of education in Nigeria upon which the Europeans laid the western-style education is strong. This has managed to hold the educational system of the country together through the trouble days. However, if left unattended, we will all join Chinua Achebe and exclaim: Things fall apart, The center cannot hold… Anarchy is set forth everywhere.

The American Dream – Offering Affordable Education For All

Education blogger

Today Americans face a tough and increasingly complicated economy while business changes at a more rapid pace than ever before. Unemployment continues to rise, while the job market gets more and more competitive. Individuals are expected to possess a wide variety of skills and add to their knowledge base on a minute by minute basis. Corporate leaders and working professionals are expected to be jack of all trades and masters of many disciplines within their respective area. Needless to say, it is not easy to do business in the 21st century.

With that said, most of the information needed to succeed in this competitive environment is easily available anywhere, anytime thanks to the internet. The proliferation of the internet and mobile technologies has revolutionized the modern world of business, science, education and related fields as we know it, and internet and technology-based education is becoming a de facto standard in both public and private education systems.

Unfortunately, with a hyperactive economy and business structure comes the skyrocketing costs associated with obtaining an education in America. On average, the cost of obtaining a higher education degree has almost doubled during the last 10-15 years. Student debts have surpassed credit card debts, and are currently estimated to amount to approximately $830 billion.

Analysts predict that in the next 15 years the world will educate over 250,000,000 students. America and Europe are expected to grow 65-75% on average where as China and India are expected to grow approximately 450-550%. This need for education in the coming years shows the need for rapid growth in quality and affordable education, that will be in high demand worldwide even more so than it already is today.

Understanding the current market conditions and predicting the future of education, the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC), a Washington-based education accrediting agency, took initiatives to create and publish a public service announcement called Think About It” during their fall workshop. Meant to guide the student community, the video PSA was well received during the conference and quickly spread across the internet. Highly successful in explaining the need for affordable higher education, and ways of achieving that goal in the coming years, this video was published and featured in esteemed online media outlets ranging from Forbes to Yahoo, CNBC and more. So far over 10,000 individuals have come in contact with this information, thus proving the impact and need for a plan and direction to provide affordable education worldwide.

Spreading information about the possibilities of education attainment, the DETC continues to pioneer affordable online education. DETC institutions have enrolled and helped an estimated 140 million students worldwide since the founding of the first DETC school in 1890, and today DETC schools teach over 2.5 million students annually. Their mission is to continue to fulfill the American dream by providing opportunities for aspiring students everywhere. Setting a global standard for online education it is the hopes of myself, and many other educators and members of the industry, that Think About It” is just the first of many successful attempts at making higher education a possibility for all.