Stories about Education from March, 2006
Venezuela: Op-Ed Translations
Katy of Caracas Chronicles has translated an opinion piece, originally published in Tal Cual by Marino González, a professor at Simón Bolívar University. Venepoetics translates an op-ed, also from Tal Cual, by Oswaldo Barreto.
Japan: Textbooks
The issue of Japanese textbooks is revisited today with new translations from Coming Anarchy and background to the controversy at The Korea Liberator.
Russia: Putin Plagiarized His Dissertation
W. Shedd of The Accidental Russophile and Alex(ei) of The Russian Dilettante's Weblog discuss Vladimir Putin's plagiarized dissertation: “What was Putin doing in 1997? If I am not mistaken, he was vice mayor of St. Petersburg. For some reason, he decided on getting a PhD […]. What would the typical...
Taiwan: Teaching English
Scott Sommers provides some context in response to recent comments on websites frequented by English teachers regarding government restrictions on private language schools in “The Continued Crackdown on Commercial Education.”
Jamaica: High school sports teams at war
From Leon Robinson, a rather dispassionate discourse on the “war” being waged between rival Kingston high school teams in the “Champs”, the VMBS/ISSA Boys & Girls Athletic Championships. “We even have “territories”, places where rival schools are not welcome, at least not in frequency or numbers. . . . We...
Belize: The Jaden Foundation
Simone writes about the challenges and progress of a charity she founded in rural Belize which helps send children to school.
India: Forget the public school
A recent post on the Freakonomics blog on a 10 year old Indian boy writing in, sparks a post that talks of government schools being uniformly worse than private schools world over, regardless of the country.
Singapore, Malaysia: Comparing Educational Systems
Rajan Rishyakaran recently got his exam results back. That got him writing about the differences between the Singapore and Malaysian systems of education. Singapore's is highly competitive and meritocratic while Malaysia's has affirmative racial discrimination.
Philippines: Linguistic Divide
Howie Severino talks about the linguistic divide in the Philippines between Tagalog a.k.a. Filipino (the language spoken in and around the capital Manila) and English (the widely-used colonial lingua franca). “…a foreign correspondent once noted that our presidents use Filipino only when they want to tell jokes or be folksy....
Cayman Islands: Grammar
Fed up with the quality of the writing in his comment thread, Cayblogger urges the people of the Cayman Islands “to unite in your indignation of all things grammatically incorrect, and stand up against the scourge of poor grammar”.
Barbados: A Caribbean education
Barbados Free Press links to an article which states that British children of Caribbean heritage are being sent back to Barbados to be educated.
Belarus: Students Face Expulsion
LJ user lipski reports (RUS) that photos from the Oktyabrskaya Sq. protests have reached the dean's office of Belarus State University's history department: two students from the department are on these pictures, and faculty members are now considering expelling these students. Also, dean's office of the geography department demands lists...
Ecuador: Public Schools
Pigeontoes is disheartened by a trip to a public elementary school in Quito, Ecuador.
China: Plagiarism under pressure
Chinese Law Prof highlights a reader's comment on the subject of academic plagiarism in Chinese universities, which cites a recent analysis by Prof. Gong Renren of the Beijing University Law School. Much of the problem hinges around the fact that pay and benefits packages are linked to the number of...
Buying In, Selling Out or Scraping By: Francophone African Bloggers on Social Mobility and Education
School on Hold While Mom Scrapes By Carine. Courtesy Tony Katombe. Le Blog du Congolais shares (FR) the touching story of Carine, a 22 year-old from the DRC with an infectious smile who sells omelettes and doughnuts during school hours: Today I don't feel like eating Carine's omelettes. I can't...
Landing at the Iraqi Blogodrome
Today's report is dedicated to the women of Iraq. Women have suffered greatly in the new Iraq and on top of everything have to cope with the prejudice of some western journalists too. Again a mixed selection of blogs but you must read to the end for more cute animals!...
China: Anti-corruption vaccine
The Peking Duck Pond has a discussion thread on attempts to “vaccinate” Chinese schoolchildren against corruption at an early age, with special educational sessions addressing the temptations of power.
Nigeria: University closes
Jangbalajugbu Homeland Stories reports on the closure of his university, Obafemi Awolowo University in Ife during the middle of semester exams.. “Students are to leave the University before 4pm on Sunday. Mobile policemen have already been positioned at the University gate to ensure that students comply with the instruction. By...
Iran: USA & Censorship
Antropologiinfo blog talks about censorship of research in the USA. Blog says” Recently, two articles by teams from the University of Bergen were accepted by prominent US journals and then turned down because, the publishers said, “we cannot publish your paper because the United States government restricts publishers from publishing...
Caucasus: Education
At young caucasus women, young women from Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia discuss issues related to education in their countries.
Tajikistan: Economic Education
“Tajik Boy” writes that he hopes that Tajik educators currently in the US learning about the delivery of economics education pick up valuable skills to bring back to Tajikistan.