Higher test scores for Filipino students sought in national achievement exam

MANILA—Education Secretary Jesli Lapus expressed hope that on the basis of their 21 percent test performance improvement in the last four years, students in the Philippines will get higher scores in the National Achievement Test (NAT) this coming March.

The Department of Education will be administering the NAT for Grade Three, Grade Six, and Second Year high school students to determine what the students know, what they understand, and what they can do at their level. The exams for Grade Six and Second Year will be administered in both public and private schools, while those for Grade Three would be given only to public schools.

“By measuring our students’ strengths, weaknesses and achievement levels, we can derive ways on how the present education system can be further improved,” Lapus said in a statement.

He said that the NAT will be administered through the National Education Testing and Research Center on March 3 for Grade Three, on March 5 for Grade Six, and on March 11 for sophomore students.

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1,422 ex-rebels become beneficiaries of government scholarship program

MANILA (PNA)—A total of 1,422 erstwhile rebels have become beneficiaries of the government’s scholarship program since 2002 to date.

The program is a joint undertaking of the Office of Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd).

The beneficiaries came from various rebel groups such as the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), the Cordillera People’s Liberation Army (CPLA), the New People’s Army (NPA) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Most of the former rebel scholars belonged to the CPLA and MNLF which signed separate peace accords with the government in 1986 and 1996, respectively.

The breakdown of the scholarship program is as follows: School year 2002-03, 570 scholars; 2003-04, 183; 2004-05, 216; 2005-06, 62; 2006-07, 100; 2007-08, 100; 2008-09, 100; and 2009-10, 91 slots, or a total of 1,422.

The scholarship is part of the government’s program to reintegrate former rebels into the mainstream of society.

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Spanish language to be included in Philippine high school curriculum

MANILA (PNA)—The Department of Education (DepEd) has signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the University of Alcala in Spain to allow the inclusion of Spanish language in the high school curriculum as well as to strengthen educational and cultural ties between the Philippines and Spain.

The agreement was signed by DepEd Secretary Jesli Lapus, together with University of Alcala Rector Professor D. Virgilio Zapatero Gomez. It seeks to develop students’ skills in listening, reading, writing, speaking and viewing, which are fundamental to acquiring communicative competence in a second foreign language.

“Bringing back the Spanish language in the school curriculum would help us understand and connect with our past,” Lapus said. “Many of the works of our forefathers, including our national hero Jose Rizal, which were written in Spanish, remain significant up to this day.”

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Recession fuels shift from private to public schools

Private schools in the USA, which educate about 5.8 million students, are projected to lose about 174,000 students, or about 3%, by next fall, compared to their 2006 enrollment. Meanwhile, public schools, which educate about 50 million students, are expected to gain about 735,000 students, or about 1.5%.

In the particular case of Angela Allyn and her photographer husband, Matt Dinnerstein, they pulled their three kids out of Chicago-area private schools and enrolled them in Evanston, Ill., public schools.
It has been a challenging transition: Maya, 16, now a high school sophomore, "doesn't like crowds — and her high school is as big as a small college," her mother says. Though Maya is learning a lot in the "amazing" science program, she's also hoping to leave the crowds behind by doubling up on coursework, graduating by the end of junior year "and then going and doing interesting things," Allyn says.

The transition also has been an education for Maya's parents, who say they had "no choice" in the struggling economy but to switch to public schools.

They're saving about $20,000 a year in tuition, but like many former private-school families, they're coming face-to-face with larger class sizes and the public school bureaucracy as they push to get services for their children.

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English department offers modern Greek class

For many students and community members the Greek language seems difficult and out of reach, reflecting the cliché “It’s Greek to me.” However, learning the language is no longer a dream but an obtainable goal.

For those interested in learning to read, write and speak the Greek language, the English department at Shawnee State University will offer a Modern Greek class for the spring semester 2010.

“Many students want to take the class to learn how to read the Bible in it’s original language, Greek, while others are interested in learning the language to gain a competitive edge in their careers," said Dr. Stylianos Hadjiyannis, the professor who will be teaching the course.

According to Hadjiyannis, a native of Greece, thousands of words in the English language have been borrowed from Greek. The language is based on phonetics and the English alphabet, making it easier to learn.

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English language requirements revised for Australian general skilled migration

From 1 January 2010 the English language requirements for onshore General Skilled Migration (GSM) visas have changed:

The English language requirements have increased for applicants nominating trade occupations (Australian Standard Classification of Occupations (ASCO) Level 4 occupation) so that you no longer gain points for “vocational English.”

You no longer have the option to receive points for the General Points Test for “vocational English.”

If applying with “concessional competent English” you will need to attain an average score of 6 in the International English Language Testing System (IELTS);

If you are applying with “concessional competent English,” you will no longer be restricted to being nominated by a State or Territory, or to being sponsored by a person who resides in a State or Territory.

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Improve your Arabic skills to learn English, expert says

DOHA: “When Arab students do not learn proper Arabic grammar, their English will suffer because they lack a strong linguistic foundation in their mother tongue. By improving their Arabic skills, students will be able to improve their English as well”, says a language expert.

As parents in the Arab world seek bilingual education for their children, they are increasingly opting for schools that educate them in languages such as English or French.

This has resulted in an increase in the number of Arab students fluent in the regional dialect. Such students are becoming less proficient in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), the accepted form of Arabic used in writing and formal speech. Abbas Al Tonsi, an Arabic professor and expert at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar (SFS-Qatar), is building an innovative solution to this incongruity.

Al Tonsi and his team were recently awarded a grant by the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) to study Arabic language instruction in Qatari schools, and to help identify some of the current shortcomings.

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