CNN Hero of the Year is urban version of rural mobile teachers

MANILA (PNA)—Education Secretary Jesli Lapus on Wednesday said CNN’s Hero of the Year Efren Peñaflorida is the Department of Education’s (DepEd’s) urban version of rural mobile teachers who bring education to far-flung areas in the country.

Lapus hailed Peñaflorida, saying that “the CNN Hero of the Year award shows global recognition that in small ways, societal or non-government organization (NGO) intervention is needed in the universal quest for education for all.”

“Kudos to Efren Peñaflorida. He knows that education is key to success in life.” Lapus said.

“Efren is the urban version of DepEd's 1,000 rural mobile teachers who bring education to far-flung, sometimes isolated communities. Their missionary zeal is heroic as they take risks in daily motorcycle travels through rivers and mountains in sometimes untrusting villages,” he added.

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Broadcasters, advertisers pledge solidarity vs. TV shows harmful to kids

MANILA (PNA)—The National Council for Children’s Television (NCCT) signed on Monday a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the Kapisanan ng Brodkaster sa Pilipinas (KBP) and the Philippine Association of National Advertisers (PANA) to monitor and handle complaints against “undesirable” television programs and commercials that are harmful to children.

Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Jesli Lapus said, “Our television programs must increasingly become reliable resources for learning among our children, and not a source of negative influence.”

Lapus added the television is still the most widely used source of entertainment among Filipino children.

He added KBP and PANA will play a major role in protecting children from television shows and commercials that show excessive sex, violence and other viewing fares that are unfit for minors.

“We welcome this partnership that promotes positive TV programming that puts premium on educational and responsible entertainment content for our children,” Lapus stressed.

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319 Asian youths cruise the sea on two-month exchange program

MANILA—A total of 319 youth ambassadors from Southeast Asia and Japan are currently sailing the seas aboard a Japanese cruise ship as part of a two-month cultural exchange  for almost two months not for leisure but for a cause.

The youths from the Philippines, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia and Lao P.D.R. arrived in Manila last November 12 aboard the Fuji Maru to mark the start of the 36th Ship for Southeast Asian Youth Program (SSYEAP).

The 640 million yen- funded-program, initiated by the Japanese government, traces its roots in 1974 when Japan decided to join hands with SEA countries to promote friendship and mutual understanding among young people.

“It’s not only a cultural exchange, but also a significant program to deepen the understanding of each society from political, economic to social aspect,” said Tomoko Dodo, director of the Japan Information and Cultural Center of the Japanese Embassy to the Philippines.

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US Secretary of state Hillary Clinton vows $5M in storm relief funds

MANILA—US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Thursday visited a flood-devastated school in Marikina City last November 12 and pledged another $5 million relief package in addition to the $14 million in flood-relief assistance already provided to the Philippines by the United States.

“The new support will be to build new schools, construct classrooms, 300,000 books and desks for 15,000 students, as well as to repair water and sanitation systems, refurbish clinics and provide medical supplies and assistance,” Clinton said. “I promise you that the United States of America will always be a friend to the people of the Philippines.”

During her Philippine visit, Clinton also opened a book fair that will distribute to students some 50,000 books donated by an American foundation through the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

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Education Department renews partnership with Knowledge Channel

MANILA (PNA)—The Philippine Education Department and Knowledge Channel Foundation Inc. recently renewed an agreement that will benefit more public high school teachers and students by making educational TV programs available through cable, satellite, and the internet.

“Continuing this partnership with Knowledge Channel will allow more public schools to experience non-traditional yet effective mode of instruction,” Education Secretary Jesli Lapus said.

Since 1999, the Knowledge Channel has provided and installed satellite infrastructure and cable TV facilities to 2,000 public high schools nationwide to deliver educational TV materials to help improve the academic performance of public school students in English, Math and Science.

Lapus said that under the new partnership, another 4,000 public high schools stand to benefit which includes a teacher training program on TV-assisted instruction.

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The English language is too complex, a neuroscientist says

The English language needs to be simplified and the text generation is well placed to reform it, a brain expert says.

“It can take an English-speaking child two years to learn what an Italian child can learn of their language in six months,” Prof Stanislas Dehaene says.

He believes language reformation will happen—it’s just a matter of time.

Dehaene says younger users of the language, who have reformed it with Twitter and texting, may be the ones to do it.

A world-renowned cognitive neuroscientist, Dehaene was in Australia to present a lecture for the Mental Health Research Institute and Melbourne University about the latest scientific findings on the brain.

These findings are contained in his book, Reading In The Brain.

Dehaene and his colleagues at a cognitive neuroimaging unit in France can take images of the brain and see how it acts during certain activities.

The images have revealed that the brain of a child learning English is more active than that of a child learning almost any other language.

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Library a sanctuary for those struggling with English

By J. L. Watson, News-Press.com 

The group chats amicably, like family around a dinner table.

But the members of the English Cafe at the Cape Coral-Lee County Public Library come from distant corners of the globe, and most were strangers to this country and its language when they first arrived.

“Here, it is nice because you can practice the language,” said Maria Pia Malerba, a Cape Coral resident who moved here from Italy.

On a recent evening, participants from Germany, Poland and Italy joined the conversation.

“It’s interesting,” Malerba said. “When you speak, you learn something.”

Conversation veered from shoe shopping to international relations, green cards to car tags. Instructor Marilyn Graham keeps track of the conversation and uses a large chalkboard to emphasize phrases or slang terms that participants might not understand.

Christine Conrad is coming to the end of an eight-month internship in the United States and will soon head back to Germany.

“It’s good for me to speak English,” Conrad said. “Speaking is different than listening.”

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USA Today tests online edition at colleges

STATE COLLEGE (AP)—Penn State, Indiana, and Missouri are the first schools to participate in a USA Today initiative meant to test how students respond to electronic versions of printed newspapers.

The “e-Edition” is free for students, faculty and staff. USA Today says it’s identical to the newspaper’s print edition but with additional interactive and exclusive content. For instance, the Penn State edition, which officially launched last week, includes a university-themed story selected and written by the school.

Newspapers across the country have been searching for new sources of revenue and readership as they battle the explosion of free online news sources. While newspapers typically make their Web sites available for free, many have been selling access to digital replicas of print editions. Students could be a key target group given the comfort they've had growing up with the Internet and technology.

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High school drama students present David Ives’ series of comedic plays

By Yovanna Bieberich, staff, Argus-Courier

The complexities of language, love and social interaction can be both intriguing to examine and easy to poke fun at. The humor found in these human experiences are the subject of “All in the Timing,” a series of one-act plays by American playwright David Ives.

Casa Grande High School drama students will perform six of Ives’ “All in the Timing” short plays Nov. 13-15.

The collection of plays was written by Ives between 1987 and 1993. It was first published by Dramatists Play Service in 1994, with a collection of six plays; the current collection contains 14. They are short, comedic and frequently employ wordplay. The brevity and easy stage requirements make it a popular play for high school and college students to perform.

The six-pack of short plays the students will perform include “The Sure Thing,” “The Universal Language,” “Variations on the Death of Trotsky,” “Words, Words, Words,” “English Made Simple” and “The Philadelphia.”

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Bill Gates makes big push on US education reform

WASHINGTON - The real secretary of education, the joke goes, is Bill Gates.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has been the biggest player by far in the school reform movement, spending around $200 million a year on grants to elementary and secondary education.

Now the foundation is taking unprecedented steps to influence education policy, spending millions to influence how the federal government distributes $5 billion in grants to overhaul public schools.

The federal dollars are unprecedented, too.

President Barack Obama persuaded Congress to give him the money as part of the economic stimulus so he could try new ideas to fix an education system that most agree is failing. The foundation is offering $250,000 apiece to help states apply, so long as they agree with the foundation's approach.

Obama and the Gates Foundation share some goals that not everyone embraces: paying teachers based on student test scores, among other measures of achievement; charter schools that operate independently of local school boards; and a set of common academic standards adopted by every state.

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Crackdown on school place cheats urged

BBC—Tougher action should be taken against the thousands of parents who lie to get their children into popular schools, England's school places watchdog says.

Schools Adjudicator Ian Craig said an estimated 3,500 parents lied on school application forms each year.

Local authorities should use all means open to them to deter parents from cheating the admissions system. This includes removing places from the guilty and pursuing them through the courts, possibly using the Perjury Act.

In his government-commissioned report Dr Craig said currently people had “nothing to lose” if they lied to get a place, but he stopped short of calling for school place fraud to be made a crime.

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Bangladeshis swamp English language service

A service using mobile phones to teach English in Bangladesh has been overwhelmed by users since its launch on Thursday.

The Janala project, developed by the BBC World Service Trust, provides short English lessons by mobile phones.

It had expected 25,000 users on its first day but received more than 100,000—four times the number who use similar services in the country to check cricket scores. By last night, the service had taken more than 375,000 calls.

“'It’s technically very basic—you call a number and you hear a recorded voice,”' the project's manager, Sara Chamberlain, said from Bangladesh.

''It's the lowest common denominator when it comes to technology [but] our service provider has called to say they need to expand the capacity.''

The service offers 250 three-minute recorded lessons on pronunciation and conversational English, augmented by a website and text message testing. It is hoped to reach 6 million Bangladeshis by 2011, as part of Britain's nine-year English in Action program.

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