All Philippine public high schools to be equipped with computer labs

MANILA (PNA)—Education Secretary Jesli Lapus on Sunday said that the Department of Education (DepEd) will provide all 6,650 public high schools with computer laboratories as well as Internet connection in partnership with the private sector.

Lapus said that DepEd continues to push for the use of information communication technology in the public school system to meet the needs of 21st century education.

The chief of education also called on teachers, school administrators and schools division superintendents to participate in the UNESCO Next Generation of Teachers: First Philippine Conference on Information Communications Technology (ICT) in Teacher Education.

The ICT conference was held in different venues within the UP Diliman Campus with the following parallel workshops: Peer Coaching, Intel Teach: Web 2.0 Tools, ICT Integration, and Curriculum Development.

The conference was meant to enhance participants’ skills in ICT integration in teaching and learning; develop action plans in implementing and sharing acquired ICT skills; and plan collaborative research on integrating technology in instruction.

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Free education proposed for children with special needs

MANILA—A bill has been filed in the Philippine Congress mandating the government to provide free appropriate public education for children and youth with special needs, including the mentally and physically challenged, the hearing and visually impaired, and the gifted and talented.

The bill is sponsored by Kabataan (Youth) Representative Raymond Palatino, who explained that children with special needs are entitled to participate in and make contributions to society. Proper education, he said, is vital to help them accomplish this.

Palatino said a United Nations study showed there was hardly any support from the Philippine government for the training of teachers of special needs children, or even to put up diagnostic centers for them.

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Indian police investigates English language test scam

Top executives of a company contracted by Australia's largest recruiter of international students are being investigated for fraud in India.

In the latest scam to hit Australia's international education industry, Indian police this week arrested one man and are hunting a second as part of an investigation into a swindle involving English language proficiency tests.

The fraud involved students with poor English allegedly paying to have someone more proficient sit English tests on their behalf. Students from India must pass an English test as a condition of their Australian visa.

Revelations of the scam call into question the integrity of the English-language testing system for foreign students, and raise fears some Indian students are entering Australia using English language certificates gained by fraud.

Indian police were tipped off about the scam earlier this year by IDP Education, Australia's biggest international student recruitment company.

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Kingpin of IELTS scam kingpin arrested

LUDHIANA: Police have arrested the kingpin of International English Language Testing System (IELTS) scam, that had come to light on July 6, 2009, when they arrested three persons, including two boys and a girl in an impersonation case whereby they had superimposed their pictures on the passport for appearing on behalf of other candidates.

Notably, police had also arrested people from Jalandhar, Faridkot and Ludhiana in the same case, but Rajbir Singh, who was being considered as the main accused, was not arrested as he had managed to escape on July 6 and is absconding since then.

With Vishal Mehta’s arrest, police are claiming to have solved the case, saying the accused was the mastermind behind the scam. Assistant sub-inspector Tarsem said Mehta, who was arrested from Gurgaon on Saturday night, was ex-manager operations with Planet Education Company, looking after their operations in India and Nepal.

The company had tied up with Australian embassy for conducting IELTS exams. It was here that he started taking money from aspirants for Australia for getting them to secure qualifying marks, charging them somewhere between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 10 lakh. And for this, he used to contact people securing marks below the required cutoff, contacting them through fake email ids.

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Educational publisher launches two new English learning programs

ORLANDO, Fla.—Educational publisher Pathways Learning announces the launch of two new educational programs, English Travels and Blast! Building Grammar and Writing. These programs provide comprehensive learning systems that enhance instructional effectiveness and improve student outcomes in English Language acquisition.

Pathways Learning had co-developed these programs with Innovatus Education, a respected international educational publisher. It has exclusive license to market and distribute the products throughout the United States and its territories and possessions, Department of Defense Schools, and American Schools abroad.

English Travels supports a Response to Intervention protocol with systematic instruction and assessment. The program consists of theme-based units designed to explicitly teach language structures, vocabulary, grammar/writing, and phonics/word study. It will enable English language learners to acquire vocabulary and grammatical structures through emphasis on oral language.

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