Education secretary confident of 100% education participation rate in 2015

MANILA (PNA)—Philippine Education Secretary Jesli Lapus expressed confidence his department will be able to attain 100 percent participation rate in education particularly on Universal Primary Education pursuant to UNESCO’s Education For All (EFA) goals in 2015.

Lapus said the Department of Education has also set its 2010 target to reach 94 percent participation rate for elementary and 72 percent for high school to accomplish a cohort survival rate of 81 percent for elementary and 90 percent for high school.

He said efforts are also geared towards reaching a completion rate of 79 percent for elementary and 85 percent for high school, and reducing the dropout rates to 4 percent for elementary and 2 percent for high school.

“By the same token, we also need to reach out to more out of school youth and adults and provide them with opportunities to learn valuable life skills, whether in formal school or through alternative means,” Lapus said.

Full story...

Library ‘hubs’ improve reading among students

MANILA—Library hubs established in the country’s various public school divisions have helped improve students’ reading proficiency of as much as 20 percent in some school divisions.

According to Education Secretary Jesli Lapus, results of the English Reading Test (ERT) showed that of the first 32 school divisions that had Library Hubs, 15 registered a 50 percent mean percentage score (MPS) or higher in 2005-2006. The MPS also generally improved in 2006-2007, he added.

Library Hubs, also known as "warehouse" or wholesale libraries, mainly serve public elementary students. They provide supplementary reading materials in plastic bins that are sorted by subject area or theme.

Full story...

Winners of 5th National PR students competition announced

MANILA (PNA)—Ten students from the Pamantasan Ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM) College of Mass Communications emerged champions in the 5th National PR Students Grand Prix Competition sponsored by the Public Relations Society of the Philippines (PRSP) recently. The contest was conducted last Sept. 6 at the University of Santo Tomas (UST) College of Medicine Auditorium.

The Pluma V students of PLM bested seven other schools with their communications plan on the theme, “We are the Change Makers: Voters Education Campaign.” Their plan,

“Bigkis Bigkis sa Halalang Malinis,” encourages volunteerism among college students in Metro Manila for the upcoming 2010 national elections and focuses on the new automation process, first-time voters' education, and voters' rights and responsibilities.

Full story...

Teachers campaign against code of conduct

Thousands of teachers in England are campaigning for a new code of conduct to be scrapped because they say it intrudes into their private lives and strips them of basic human rights.

A petition against the code—which comes into force next month and requires teachers to uphold "public trust and confidence" in their profession, even out of school and on weekends—has collected more than 10,000 signatures over the summer holidays.

The code, drawn up by the profession's watchdog, the General Teaching Council for England (GTC), says teachers must "maintain reasonable standards in their own behaviour that enable them to uphold public trust and confidence in the profession".

Teachers should offer "impartial advice and guidance [to pupils] about their future options".

Full story...

A humorous book on English language goes off the press

A writer from the region has written a book exploring the funny side of the English language.

Phil Woods, from Connah’s Quay, says Beat About the Bush is a light-hearted look at some of the sayings and cliches we use that don’t make sense.

Phil and co-author Steve Smith, from Bolton, got the idea for the book after hearing someone say “we’re all in the same boat.”

The pair, who count Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie among their influences, then started writing down a list of all the expressions and phrases they found amusing.

Their book includes a section on phrases that irritate them and a chapter that encourages the use of original and inventive language.

Full story...

Public-private partnership to train English teachers

The Government is looking at private/public partnerships to improve the quality of English teachers in the country.

The Government is now in the process of taking necessary steps to improve the quality of English teachers in the remote areas, Education Minister Susil Premajayantha said.

"It is the need of the hour to improve the quality of English teachers in the country to equip our younger generation with good English language skills," Minister Premajayantha told at a media briefing on the Council for Business with Britain's (CBB) ongoing English Language Teacher (ELT) training initiative.

This is being done in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and the British Council and funded by HSBC Bank, which is part of their CSR projects.

Full story...