Philippine enrolment expected to reach 23.43M this school opening

MANILA May 27—Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Mona Valisno told a media briefing in Malacañang last week that around 23.43 million students are expected to enroll on June 15 both in public and private schools in the elementary and high school levels. Some 20.17 million will enroll in the public schools, 3.26 million in the private schools.

Valisno said that a large number of students from private schools transferred to public schools this school year. “We cannot refuse anyone that will come to our public school system,” she said.

In 2009, there were 22.44 million enrolled students both from pre-school to high school both in public and private schools nationwide.

Valisno said she expects that the next administration to continue giving priority to the education sector like what President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo did under her administration.

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12 fellows to the 17th Iligan National Writers Workshop named

The 17th Iligan National Writers Workshop (INWW) opened last week at the MSU-Iligan Institute of Technology Mini-Theater. Twelve writing fellows were selected for this year’s INWW. They are:

Poetry (Filipino): Bernardo Miguel Aguay Jr., Calabanga, Camarines Sur; and Paul A. Castillo, University of Santo Tomas, Manila; (English): Roberto Klemente R. Timonera, MSU-IIT, Iligan City; (Cebuano): Gratian Paul R. Tidor, MSU-IIT, Dipolog City; Herminigildo M. Dico, MSU-IIT, Dumingog, Zamboanga del Sur; Jona B. Bering, University of San Carlos, Cebu City; (Waray): Nemesio S. Baldesco, Lamiraw, Calbayog City

Fiction (English): Jayson E. Parba, Capitol University, Cagayan de Oro City; Kyra Camille C. Ballesteros, Ateneo de Manila University, Taytay, Rizal; (Filipino): Romulo P. Pena, UP Diliman, Quezon City; (Hiligaynon): Reynaldo A. Villaruz, Colegio de la Purisima Concepcion, Roxas City

Play (English): Anili F. Butcon, Xavier University, Cagayan de Oro City

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Registration ongoing for ALS accreditation and equivalency tests

ILOILO CITY (PNA)—The Department of Education (DepEd) is again opening its doors for those who would like to avail themselves of the Alternative Learning System (ALS) accreditation and equivalency (A&E) tests slated on August 15.

DepEd-Western Visayas Resource Mobilization chief and previous ALS coordinator Corazon Puluhan said the registration for the A&E tests is now ongoing and will end on June 15. She added that a registration and testing center has been identified in every division. In Iloilo, these are at the Mabini Elementary School and at the Iloilo National High School.

Elementary and high school dropouts who are 11 or 15 years old, respectively, on or before the day of the exam are qualified to register and may take the corresponding elementary and secondary ALS A&E tests.

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Teachers in Catholic schools encouraged to use population education module

TUGUEGARAO CITY—The Commission on Population (POPCOM) Region 2 has encouraged teachers to utilize the new teaching module on population and development education (POPDEVED) for catholic schools.

Ms. Theresa Soriano, Information Officer, presented to the Regional Population and Executive Board (RPEB) the newly published book by the University of San Carlos Press and Population Studies Foundation for elementary, high school, and college levels. She said that the book can be a substitute to the sex-education module produced by PopCom and DepEd that church leaders found very controversial.

Soriano said the module contents are very much appropriate to the age brackets of pupils and students. For elementary level, the book only tackles more on basic education on population in the community, components of population growth and the benefits and adverse effects of population growth. For secondary, it is more on the discussion on population growth and ecosystems, ecosystem balance and stewardship, and population growth and age-sex composition.

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Over 90% pass English class language assessment in Hong Kong

The Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority announced Tuesday that over 90 percent of candidates met the English language proficiency requirement in classroom language assessment.

The percentage of candidates meeting the English language proficiency requirement are 66.2 percent in reading, 42.7 percent in writing, 71.9 percent in listening, 43.7 percent in speaking and 93.9 percent in classroom language assessment.

Releasing the 2010 Language Proficiency Assessment for Teachers results on Tuesday, the authority said 2,058 candidates sat for the English papers in February while 2,642 sat for the Putonghua papers.

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Many English learners still struggle with the language, study shows
By Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times
 
Nearly 60% of English-language learners in California’s high schools have failed to become proficient in English despite more than six years of a U.S. education, according to a study released Thursday.

In a survey of 40 school districts, the study found that the majority of long-term English-language learners are U.S. natives who prefer English and are orally bilingual. But they develop major deficits in reading and writing, fail to achieve the academic English needed for educational success and disproportionately drop out of high school, according to the study by Californians Together, a coalition of 22 parent, professional and civil rights organizations.

The flaws in California’s English-language programs have placed hundreds of thousands of children in academic jeopardy, dashing their dreams for college and imperiling the state's economic future, the study found. The offspring of immigrants make up 55% of Los Angeles County's child population.

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IELTS monopoly of Australian market likely to be broken up

A monopoly enjoyed by the English language test IELTS is likely to be broken up.

Immigration and Citizenship Minister Chris Evans has given in-principle approval for rival tests to be officially recognized as English proficiency tests for overseas students or workers seeking visas.

Eileen Tyson, a TOEFL representative in Australia this month for talks, said: “We’re very hopeful. There's really no objective reason why TOEFL [the US-based Test of English as a Foreign Language] could not be confidently used in the Australian [immigration] context.”

TOEFL, which dates back to 1964, and a new test from global publisher Pearson are known to have applied to the Department of Immigration and Citizenship for official status.

IELTS, the International English Language Testing System, which emerged from British and Australian collaboration, has had a monopoly since 2001 when the department mandated its test for student visas.

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Avoid unnecessary use of English, ex-RSS chief urges

Former RSS chief K Sudershan on Saturday asked people to avoid “unnecessary” use of English, an essence of the British rule that is relegating the national language Hindi.

“While the British rule was pushed out of the country with the great sacrifices by martyrs like Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru, the essence of the British rule (English language) is yet to go away," Sudershan said paying tributes to martyr Sukhdev on his 103rd birth anniversary.

“The greatest tribute to the martyrs would be to adopt the Indian culture and our own language which is being relegated to secondary position in preference to English,” the former chief of the right wing group said.

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Demand for MBAs in the Russian language

The world’s third most-spoken first language and, more importantly, its most popular second language, English, is often, somewhat ironically, labeled the lingua franca of the business world.

But not all Russia’s businesspeople are English speakers, and learning a language to study for a master of business administration degree can be time-consuming. “When I was looking at studying, I had a choice: either study language or an Executive MBA,” said Vladimir Verbitsky, first deputy director of the Russian Institute of Directors.

As a result, Verbitsky, an independent director at several Russian firms, opted to look for a Russian-language program. Having originally decided on a course at a Russian institution, he changed his decision on finding a Western business school offering EMBA courses in Russian.

Lecturers at Western business schools have a deep understanding of business practices, Verbitsky said. Although Russian lecturers have a great grasp of the subject, they were brought up in a completely different environment “World outlook is very important in business education,” he said.

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To boost English proficiency, newspaper provides 10,000 copies to Tamil schools

In a bid to enhance English language proficiency among Indian pupils, the Penang state MIC has come forward to sponsor 10,000 copies of The Star to 10 Tamil primary schools in Seberang Prai.

State MIC chairman Datuk P.K. Subbaiyah said the sponsorship, a joint venture with the Mak Mandin Tamil School Ex-Students’ Association would see The Star’s Newspaper-in-Education (NiE) programme run over 10 Wednesdays from May 5 to July 21.

“We hope our humble sponsorship cannot only help enhance the pupils’ command of the language, but also help them widen their general knowledge,” he said at the presentation ceremony at SJK(T) Mak Mandin in Butterworth recently.

Subbaiyah said there were cases where Indian pupils missed getting straight As in public examinations because of their failure to obtain a distinction for the English language.

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