Regional
News
Argentina
School
System Suffers with Economy
Argentina is facing its worst economic crisis in many years. Even the
country's system of education is suffering financial hardships. Proposed
budget cuts threaten to greatly curtail the ability of universities to
handle dramatic enrollment increases. With massive inflation, many people
have opted for the more affordable public universities over private education.
Enrollments at public institutions have nearly doubled in the last couple
of years.
Without more
money, school officials believe, they cannot accommodate the students
of 2002, much less plan for the future. Making matters worse, foreign
institutions have started canceling their study-abroad programs to Argentina,
thus cutting off a significant source of revenue for the troubled economy.
—
The Chronicle of Higher Education
March 8, 2002
Increase
in Student Migration Feared
Due to the current recession, Argentina's universities are witnessing
a significant increase in the number of graduates seeking validation for
their academic qualifications. Some educators believe this recent trend
signifies the beginning of a migration of graduate students out of the
country.
Some universities
have seen an increase of 500 percent for applications to validate qualifications.
—
The Times Higher Education Supplement
March 1, 2002
CANADA
Students
Choose Canada
In the wake of the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks on the United States,
more international students are choosing to study in Canada, thanks in
part to that country's less stringent visa procedures. Unlike the United
States, Canada did not place restrictions on international students after
the attacks.
According to a United Nations survey, Canada ranks as one of the best
places in the world to live. And many foreign students insist that studying
in Canada costs far less than what it costs in the United States.
In 2001-02,
Canada issued 11,700 student visas, compared to the 7,400 it granted in
2000-01, and the 3,804 it gave out the previous year.
—
China Daily
Jan. 31, 2002
Centennial
College First in Ontario to Offer Networking Degree
Centennial College has become
the first institute of higher learning in Ontario to offer an applied
degree in networking. The new Computer and Communications Networking Program
is designed to produce graduates who are "bilingual," or competent
in both the technology and the business applications that rely on networks.
The program puts Ontario's first community college in the company of some
of Canada's most prestigious universities offering a comparable quality
education.
The four-year
program is among the first of its kind to be approved by the Ministry
of Training, Colleges and Universities, a landmark move permitting
community colleges to offer applied degrees in academic fields not presently
taught at universities. Despite a perception that the "dot-bomb"
has wiped out jobs, Statistics
Canada identifies computer-infrastructure employment as a high-growth
field, and employers are keen to gain access to graduates of applied-degree
programs.
Centennial's
enrollment has grown from 514 full-time students in 1966 to 12,000 full-time
and 30,000 part-time today.
—
Canada Newswire
March 27, 2002
Canada
Doubles COL Contribution
The government of Canada has roughly doubled its annual contribution to
the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) from
CAN$630,000 to more than $1.2 million. The increased contribution will
improve educational materials, expertise and technologies that are made
available to developing countries.
The COL welcomed
the decision. "Education is recognized as a fundamental right of
all individuals. It is also a means to reduce poverty and infant mortality
and improve maternal health and family well-being," COL President
Gajaraj Dhanarajan said.
COL, based
in Vancouver, British Columbia, is funded on a voluntary basis by the
54-member Commonwealth, and Canada is one of its major contributors. It
was founded in 1987 to encourage the development and sharing of distance-education
knowledge, resources and technologies.
—
Commonwealth News and Information Service
March 21, 2002
MEXICO
New Fox
Plan to Deliver Education to Poor
President Vicente Fox recently
launched a program called Opportunities, aimed at delivering education
and other services to Mexico's poorest citizens.
The new program
will replace Progresa, a program created in 1997 under former President
Ernesto Zedillo who was criticized for using program funds for political
purposes. The new Opportunities program is part of Fox's Contigo plan
to combat Mexico's social problems.
"The
biggest challenge for Mexico is to defeat poverty and marginalization,"
Fox said in kicking off the new program. "There are 40 million (poor)
Mexicans who demand this."
The plan
is backed by a US$1 billion loan from the Inter-American
Development Bank.
—
The News Mexico
March 07, 2002
Fox's
New Education Push For Mexico
Education officials in Mexico have set a goal, under the leadership of
President Vicente Fox, to encourage more teen-agers to extend their schooling
beyond the ninth grade. The bedrock of this new plan is a 269-page blueprint
for eradicating the educational disparities that exist within certain
regions of the nation.
For Fox,
education is his government's top priority for developing Mexico, a country
in which 27 percent of the people live in extreme poverty. His plan for
education -the Programa
Nacional de Educación 2001-2006 emphasizes increased access
to schooling at the level of media superior, or 10th through 12th grades.
The implementation
of this plan has been hindered by a recession in Mexico (on the heels
of the economic downturn in the United States), and so far Fox has not
yet been able to deliver on his promises. Officials in his administration,
however, say that noticeable improvements will take time, and point to
many of Fox's achievements within the realm of education.
These include
establishing the Escuelas de Calidad (Schools of Quality) program and
the dispersal of grants to improve schools in low-income urban areas.
—
Education Week
March 20, 2002
UNITED STATES
Company
Gets Nod to Lead Philadelphia School System
Edison Schools Inc., the nation's
largest private operator of public schools, has just received a bigger
stake in the Philadelphia school system. Edison had previously submitted
a plan—endorsed by Gov. Mark Schweiker—to take over the city's school
system, but the proposal was denied. However, a commission overseeing
the state takeover of the city's schools voted in March to let Edison
advise officials on how to restructure the district's administration,
allocate staff, evaluate classroom management and come up with an 18-month
plan for reform.
A member
of the commission said the plan will bring in "some of the best management
expertise in America" to revamp the district's education system while
retaining control. The recent vote comes after a long dispute over the
prospect of Edison taking on a leading role in Philadelphia's education
system. The objections came from parents, unions and anti-privatization
groups.
Philadelphia's
school system is the seventh-largest in the nation, with 265 schools and
more than 200,000 students, most of whom score in the bottom quarter on
state academic tests.
—
CNN.com
March 27, 2002
SAT
May Face Big Changes
The SAT, the nation's most widely administered college entrance exam,
may get a facelift in coming years. The College
Board is considering major modifications to the SAT to counter criticism
about the exam's true testing ability.
The possible
changes include the addition of a writing section, an intensified critical
reading component, excluding - or decreasing the size of - the section
on analogies and an increased math section to include more advanced math.
Critics say the changes would better reflect what students learn in school.
The College
Board, which administers the test, will consider the proposals and vote
on them by June; if changes are made, they will go into effect in 2006.
—
The Washington Post
March 26, 2002
Online
Program Scores Practice TOEFL Tests
International students can now practice for the writing portion of the
Test of English as a Foreign Language
(TOEFL) by submitting their essays to the ScoreItNow!
online service and get immediate scoring and feedback on their work. Each
year the TOEFL is taken by 800,000 people worldwide, and remains the most
accepted measure of English language ability.
ScoreItNow!
uses retired TOEFL essay topics and an automated essay scoring system
developed at Educational Testing Service (ETS) and delivered by ETS Technologies
(a subsidiary of ETS). Essays are scored within a matter of seconds.
Students
from across the globe can now log on, write their responses to former
TOEFL essay questions and receive a score. The service costs $10, which
entitles the student to write two essays and receive scores for both.
—
ETS
February 2002
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