Education Department trains SPED teachers to help students see their potential

MANILA, Nov. 2 (PNA)—Anchored on its Education For All (EFA) by 2015 Millennium Development Goal, the Department of Education (DepEd) is setting a plan of action that will set targets and milestones in basic education, not leaving the quality of education for children with disabilities behind.

“When the Philippine government gave its commitment to meet the EFA goal by 2015, it also meant giving educational opportunities to those with physical disabilities,” Education Secretary Armin Luistro said. “We believe that we can only honestly say that we are on the track towards the realization of that commitment to the world if we have been able to provide education for all children of school-age with equity and accessibility. That is, if we have been able to deliver the appropriate education to all children regardless of their race, size, shape, color, ability or disability.”

Mandated to provide the frontline service to the Filipino people, DepEd continues to push for educational reforms in basic education, one of which is to equip teachers with proper competencies to better respond to the needs of their learners, particularly the children who require special attention or those who fall under what they call children with special needs (CSN).

As the department intensifies its efforts to make EFA a reality, DepEd through the Special Education (SPED) Division of the Bureau of Elementary Education (BEE), in cooperation with the Resources for the Blind, Inc. (RBI) held its 8th National Teachers’ Congress on Visual Impairment on from November 5 to 7 in Tagaytay City.

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Students shine as they pay tribute their teachers

PASIG CITY (October 21, 2010)—Two fourth-year high school students from San Pablo City in CaLaBaRZon and from Lanao del Sur in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao emerged as the winners in the landmark essay writing and poem writing contests that extol the virtues of teachers.

The essay writing contest winner is Fatmah Amarah Balindong, a 4th year student of Curahab, Malabang, in Lanao del Sur. She won for her essays entitled “A One-in-a-Million Act," which tells about how her teacher, Mombao “Bambi” Balindong, fulfills her duties as a teacher in the face of the volatile peace-and-order situation in Malabang.

The poetry writing contest first-place winner is Princess Fernandez, 4th year student of San Pablo City Science High School in San Pablo City. She won for her entry entitled “Soaring With You,” which describes the remarkable transformation in her life that was made possible by her teacher, Madeline Rivera.

The contest, organized by the Department of Education and sponsored by Smart Communications, was conducted to give recognition to the very important role teachers play in the lives of students and in nation-building. It was in line with the Teachers’ Month Campaign and the World Teachers’ Day celebration on the theme “My Teacher, My Hero.”

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4 young Filipino math wizards top contest in Australia

MANILA (October 24, 2010)—Four Filipino youths were among 65 students from around the world who topped the 2010 Australian Mathematics Competition (AMC) last August. The competition drew about 400,000 contestants from 40 countries.

The Filipino topnotchers are Nathaniel Ryan Ang from Xavier School in San Juan, Metro Manila; and Seanne Daphne Ang, Mikaela Angelina Uy, and Carmela Antoinette Lao from St. Jude Catholic School in Manila. They were awarded medals by Prof. Peter Taylor, executive director of the University of Canberra-based Australian Mathematics Trust (AMT), in simple rites at the Summit Ridge hotel in Tagaytay City last October 22.

The other medalists from other countries were as follows: Australia, 23; Singapore, 7; Taiwan, 5; Hong Kong and New Zealand, 4 each; Malaysia, Indonesia, Bulgaria, and South Africa, 3 each; Thailand and India, both with 2; and China and South Korea, 1 each.

Seven other Filipino students each won a prize award that is given to contestants at the top 1 percent of the AMC. They are Adrian Reginald Sy from St. Jude Catholic School; Lorems Yrol Pedeglorio from the Butuan City SPED Center; Philip Christian Gelera from UP Integrated School; Miguel Lorenzo Ildesa from PAREF-Westbridge School; Farell Eldrian Wu from MGC New Life Christian Academy; Kaye Janelle Yao from Grace Christian College; and Samuel Christian Ong from UNO High School.

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Two first-timers, veteran writer win grand prizes in Bisaya Fiction contest

DAVAO CITY, October 24, 2010 (PNA) – Two first-time entrants and a veteran in vernacular fiction writing won Friday the three major prizes in the second Bisaya Fiction 20l0 Contest. The contest was conducted by the Davao Writers Guild (DWG) in cooperation with the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and the University of the Philippines in Mindanao (UP-Min).

Jayson E. Parba, a budding writer from Cagayan de Oro, won the PhP10,000 first prize for his “Danguyngoy sa Suba” (“Wail of the River”) by a unanimous decision by the three-man board of judges.

Errol A. Merquita, another Cebuano fiction neophyte from Davao’s Tugbok district, won the PhP7,000 second prize for his “Kinsay Nagpatay sa Pari sa Calinan” (“Who Killed the Priest of Calinan?”), while veteran bilingual writer Raul G. Moldez, also of Cagayan de Oro City, won the PhP5,000 third prize with his “Bugti” (“Counterpart”).

The awards ceremonies has been tentatively scheduled for November 6 at the Bagobo House along Gov. Duterte St. in this city.

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Professors from Spain train Filipino teachers on teaching Spanish

MANILA (October 30, 2010)—The Department of Education (DepEd) is training select public school teachers from 54 schools nationwide in teaching the Spanish language. The program is being undertaken with the support of the Spanish government through its Ministry of Education, the Instituto Cervantes, and the Agencia Espanola de Cooperacion Internacional Para el Desarollo (AECID),.

“This is part of the continuing partnership between the Philippine Government and the Government of Spain,” Education Secretary Armin Luistro said. “This time, they will learn about advance methodological content and strategies in teaching the language.”

A total of 102 teachers were being trained by professors from Universidad de Salamanca provided for by Spain’s education ministry. The training was conducted at Instituto Cervantes in Manila and at the Ecotech Center in Cebu until yesterday.

Grants will also be provided later on to allow teachers to attend intensive or summer training and professional development courses organized by Spanish universities.

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Grammar schools will be allowed to expand

October 30, 2010—Michael Gove, the education secretary, has signalled to campaigners that existing grammars will be able to create more places but also, crucially, could be given permission to build new premises and start “satellite” schools.

The move is a significant shift for David Cameron who controversially ruled out building new grammar schools before the election. The Prime Minister has repeatedly said there will be no expansion of selective education in the state sector.

But ministers now accept that Mr Gove’s free schools policy—allowing parents and teachers to start their own establishments—has “let the genie out of the bottle.”

A senior Government source said that where there was increasing demand from parents in areas of population growth, existing grammars would be able to expand places.

One option being considered is to allow existing grammars to build new premises and expand into additional sites. In this way, they might set up and run “satellite” schools that are also selective.

The move is bound to increase tensions in the coalition as the Liberal Democrats oppose grammar schools and vowed in their manifesto to oppose the setting up of new ones.

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“Pushy parents” help children make the grade at school

October 29, 2010—Parents who push their children to work hard at school have a bigger impact on their child’s academic success than their teachers, research suggests.

The effort a parent puts into ensuring their child buckles down to schoolwork has a greater impact than that put in by the child or the school, it says.

Researchers at Leicester and Leeds universities found parents put less effort in the more children they had.

They looked at how much they read to a child and attended school meetings.

And also at teachers’ perceptions of their involvement.

The academics used data from the National Child Development Study for pupils born in 1958.

And to judge how much was down to parental influences and how much was down to pupils being self-starting individuals, the researchers also studied the children’s attitudes, such as whether, at the age of 16, they thought school was a waste of time.

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Don’t resist changes to English, says academic
By Anita Singh, The Telegraph UK

October 29, 2010—Do you pronounce your “aitches” as “haitches”? Believe that “ate” should rhyme with “plate”? And are you convinced that “mischievous” has four syllables? Then you are perfectly correct, according to the experts.

The English language is constantly evolving and there is no such thing as “wrong” pronunciation. That is the conclusion of John Wells, emeritus professor of phonetics at University College London.

The word “mischievous” is a case in point. A survey conducted by Prof. Wells found that 15 per cent of the population believe the word to be “mischievious”—pronounced mis-cheevy-ous—despite all evidence to the contrary.

“You can argue that ‘mischievious’ is incorrect because it doesn’t correspond to the spelling—there is no extra letter ‘I’ in it. On the other hand, nobody is going to tell you to pronounce a ‘b’ in the word ‘debt’ simply because it’s in the spelling. There’s no real way of determining what is correct other than looking at what is generally approved,” Prof Wells said.

Nor should glottal stops—omitting the letter “t” from the end of “what,” for example—be considered a bad thing. “Sometimes people get confused because they think that reductions of connected speech are an indication of incorrect pronunciation. They are really not.”

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British kids log on and learn math—in Punjab
By Julia Werdigier, The New York Times

LONDON (October 23, 2010)— Once a week, year six pupils at Ashmount Primary School in North London settle in front of their computers, put on their headsets and get ready for their math class. A few minutes later, their teachers come online thousands of kilometers away in the Indian state of Punjab.

Ashmount is one of three state schools in Britain that decided to outsource part of their teaching to India via the Internet. The service — the first of its kind in Europe — is offered by BrightSpark Education, a London-based company set up last year. BrightSpark employs and trains 100 teachers in India and puts them in touch with pupils in Britain through an interactive online tutoring program.

The feedback from pupils, the schools and parents is good so far, and BrightSpark said a dozen more schools, a charity and many more parents were interested in signing up for the lessons. The one-on-one sessions not only cost about half of what personal tutors in Britain charge but are also popular with pupils, who enjoy solving equations online, said Rebecca Stacey, an assistant head teacher at Ashmount.

But the service also faces some opposition from teacher representatives who are fearful that it could threaten their jobs at a time when the government is pushing through far-reaching spending cuts. The 3 percent that is to be cut from the budget for educational resources by 2014 might be small compared with cuts in other areas, like welfare and pensions, but money at schools will remain tight.

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Chongqing’s English translations confuse some foreign residents
By Zhang Han, Global Times

October 29, 2010—English-language signs and badly translated menu items have been around for decades in China.

Now, some people in Chongqing are scratching their heads to figure out the idea behind some translated slogans installed in the city to promote the municipality's administrative campaigns.

Some of the official translations are fine, but others could confuse some foreigners.

The signs are meant to promote the municipality to the outside world, according to a report in Chongqing Morning Post Wednesday.

“Different English translations can lead to a misunderstanding and even resentment to our foreign guests,” a director at the newly established translation office in the municipal foreign affairs department told the paper.

The five goals by the quality-of-life campaign, overseen by the city’s Party chief Bo Xilai, are to make Chongqing a city more suitable for living, to build an efficient transportation system, to expand the size of the forest, to lower the crime rates, improve work safety standards and create a healthy living environment.

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Chinglish: To keep or let go?

October 30, 2010—“I like the ‘small cities’ more,” he said. Chinglish reflected the Chinese way of thinking, which he believed was very interesting.

In fact, some Chinglish phrases have even become accepted English phrases, said Zhao Jianhui, an English teacher with the School of Business Foreign Languages in the Shanxi University of Finance and Economics.

“For example, ‘long time no see’ is a word-by-word translation of a Chinese greeting, but foreigners use it, too, now,” she said.

The teacher believed that the change was a result of China’s growing influence in the world.

She hoped that more Chinese words could be accepted in the English language.

Some universities have also begun to adopt Pinyin in the translation of their names. A good example is Beihang University, which used to be called the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

On the social networking website Facebook, there is a group calling for “saving Chinglish,” which has attracted thousands of members.

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Over 200 Teach India volunteers get to brush up their language skills

NEW DELHI (November 1, 2010)—They postponed overseas trips and took seven-day leave. All to ensure they lived their dreams of teaching India. Over 200 Teach India volunteers participated in a weeklong “training the trainers” programme that they described as outstanding—conducted by expert facilitators from the British Council of India.

Teach India is The Times of India’s social responsibility initiative that has seen tremendous response ever since its launch in 2008. This year, the initiative focuses on spoken English courses for the youth for jobs. The idea is to coach sets of dedicated trainers who will in turn coach underprivileged young men and women in language skills needed to land jobs in retail, hospitality so on and so forth—in essence a skills-for-employability programme with focus on English language spoken communication.

Held across six centres in NCR in the first chapter, the training will see 200 trainers emerge who in turn will be linked with NGOs across NCR. Here in teams of two they will teach 20 young men and women spoken English. Both the BCL facilitators and citizen volunteers brought to the sessions the energy of a mission that can power a million dreams.

True dedication sparkles. So when 18-year-old Somil Goel, doing his eco (honours) from Hansraj College, says the onus of helping underprivileged India lies on literate society, you better listen. No matter what it does, the government alone can't tackle India's multiple development challenges.

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Deadline for pilots to clear English test

MUMBAI (November 2, 2010—It is finally official: pilots have to be proficient in the Queen’s English if they have to keep their licenses valid. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has set December 31 as deadline for all pilots in the country to clear English language proficiency tests, failing which they cannot exercise their license privileges. So, for those who can barely put together nouns, proverbs, conjunctions into grammatically correct sentences, it’s time to go back to school books.

English language proficiency for pilots is an International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) requirement, which contracting states like India have to comply with by March 2011. Keeping with the ICAO norms (which were later adopted by the DGCA), an office memorandum was issued by the DGCA recently to airlines and aviation organizations asking them to nominate examinees who can conduct these language proficiency tests for their pilots, flight engineers, air traffic controllers, etc.

“A board specially constituted by the DGCA for this will conduct an oral test, which these chosen examinees will have to clear to be an approved examiner,”' said an aviation source. Following this, they will conduct tests for pilots, engineer, etc, of the concerned airline or flying school.

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Construction of temple to Goddess English halted

November 3, 2010—There couldn’t be a greater champion of the English language than Chandrabhan Prasad.

Prasad, a Dalit thinker, celebrates Thomas Macaulay’s birthday every year and was in the process of building a temple to Goddess English in a village in Uttar Pradesh until the construction was stopped by the district administration, saying they did not have permission to do so.

Prasad was aiming to inaugurate the temple on November 25, Macaulay’s birthday, and still hopes that the construction will resume soon.

He says people may think his belief in English is bizarre and snigger at him, but the same people move heaven and earth to ensure their children go to the best English schools.

Prasad—who was introduced to the English language when he came to study at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh—is persistent in the belief that by revering Goddess English, uneducated Dalit mothers will make sure that their children learn English

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Social responsibility, language assessment focus of Dubai meet

November 5, 2010—The personal and professional goals of the learner should be taken into account while gauging the social responsibility in language assessment, Sheikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan has said.

The Minister for Higher Education and Scientific Research was opening the 2010 Conference for Current Trends in English Language Testing (CTELT) at Dubai Men’s College (DMC) on Thursday.

“Let me observe first what is already very clear to you: that living and working in our interdependent and multicultural world demands competence in multiple languages, and that facility in speaking English provides nearly limitless horizons of possibility for speakers of other languages,” the Chancellor of Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT) told the annual gathering of experts at CTELT.  

“Competence in speaking English, which includes competence in the social and cultural dimensions of language, enables trade, travel, and the cross-cultural understanding that is essential for living in peace. Globalisation itself depends on excellent communication and understanding,” he said of the language learning for Arab students.

The theme of this year’s conference is Social Responsibility and Language Assessment. 

“There is a distinct ethical dimension to testing, considering that a student’s performance on a test might — or might not — yield a reward as a consequence,” Sheikh Nahyan noted. “Therefore, the test designer, the teacher, and the administrator of the test have responsibilities to the student, as well as to their schools, colleges and universities and others, to perform their roles in a way that the student’s true competence is revealed.”

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Students discover the play’s the thing for learning English

October 28, 2010—Some high school students are attempting something most adults wouldn’t even consider. They are studying the language, learning their lines and performing Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” onstage at Chicago Shakespeare Theater.

The 25 students are not from elite high schools but from some of the most at-risk Chicago public schools. They are not diehard drama students; many are discovering Shakespeare for the first time. And four students from Gage Park High School are ESL students—that’s English as a Second Language, which makes tackling Shakespeare a special challenge.

Maria Rivera is their energetic ESL teacher who never takes no for an answer. She inaugurated the ESL/Shakespeare program a year ago at Gage Park with full support from the school and mild trepidation on the part of her students.

“Teaching from a textbook was not so interesting to me,” said Rivera, whose lifelong love of Shakespeare began as a teen. “So I quickly began looking for ways to adapt Shakespeare into my classes.”

Rivera found inspiration at CST, where, like many other area teachers, she took part in Team Shakespeare’s Bard Core program, a professional development seminar offered annually to CPS teachers that helps them formulate practical reading strategies and exercises for their students.

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Using TV to teach English in Bangladesh

October 2010—BBC World Service Trust’s English in Action project aims to use a supernatural detective drama and a comedy game show to help millions of people to learn English.

English in Action is a major nine-year initiative in Bangladesh with an ambition to raise the English language skills of 25 million people by 2017.

In a landmark for the BBC World Service Trust project, children and adults will be brought together to learn English for the first time.

The ambition is to use the most widely adopted and affordable media available – television – to reach out to the many millions of ordinary people who have poor or nonexistent English language skills and lack the confidence to learn.

From 16 October, children and adults of all ages will be able to watch the brand-new drama series Bishaash, accompanied by a linked English-language learning show BBC Janala: Mojay Mojay Shekha (Learning is Fun), created by the trust.

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Hard times for English magazines

October 18-24, 2010—Myanmar once had a number of quality English language magazines, yet despite efforts to revive the ailing market, declining readerships and advertising revenues spell out a bleak future for the industry.

“To the best of my knowledge, literary magazines in English cannot survive in this country because of lack of readers and contributors, insufficient contacts [in the international publishing industry] and the problem of distribution,” says U Nyunt Wai Moe, an editor at Educator, a monthly academic magazine published in Myanmar language.

Myanmar once had quite a few magazines published in English, the most popular being The Guardian (1953-2004), Spectrum (1968-1975), Open Mind (1959-1972) and The Cry (1952).

Currently there is only one magazine still published in English. The monthly Today magazine has a circulation of 15,000 and is targeted at English learners. It publishes mostly on cultural themes.

With high print and distribution costs, combined with the limited size of the market, some publishers are looking at digital editions as a way to cut costs and potentially reach more people.

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