by Sean CoughlanEducation correspondentThe biggest ever global school rankings have been published, with Asian countries in the top five places and African countries at the bottom.Singapore heads the table, followed by Hong Kong, with Ghana at the bottom.Read the rest of the story at BBC News.
by Doug BoltonNicky Morgan has been reappointed as Education Secretary in David Cameron’s post-election cabinet reshuffle.Morgan, who took over from the unpopular Michael Gove in July, dramatically increased her majority in election and has been rewarded with the same brief as before.The reappointment has proved controversial with some teachers, as Morgan, like her predecessor Gove, has no teaching experience.Read the rest of the story at The Independent.
by Rebecca WinthropBrookings InstitutionWhen it comes to education the differences between the developed and developing worlds remain stark.There has been a convergence in the number of pupils enrolling in primary school, with many more young children in developing countries now having access to school.But when it comes to average levels of attainment – how much children have learnt and how long they have spent in school – there remains a massive gap.Read the rest of the story at BBC News.
A ll schools in and around Niger’s capital, Niamey, have been shut until Monday because of a meningitis outbreak that has killed 85 people this year.
by David Cyranoski, Natasha Gilbert, Heidi Ledford, Anjali Nayar & Mohammed YahiaThe world is producing more PhDs than ever before. Is it time to stop?Scientists who attain a PhD are rightly proud — they have gained entry to an academic elite. But it is not as elite as it once was. The number of science doctorates earned each year grew by nearly 40% between 1998 and 2008, to some 34,000, in countries that are members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The growth shows no sign of slowing: most countries are building up their higher-education systems because they see educated workers as a key to economic growth (see ‘The rise of doctorates’). But in much of the world, science PhD graduates may never get a chance to take full advantage of their qualifications.In some countries, including the United States and Japan, people who have trained at great length and expense to be researchers confront a dwindling number of academic jobs, and an industrial sector unable to take up the slack. Supply has outstripped demand and, although few PhD holders end up unemployed, it is not clear that spending years securing this high-level qualification is worth it for a job as, for example, a high-school teacher. In other countries, such as China and India, the economies are developing fast enough to use all the PhDs they can crank out, and more — but the quality of the graduates is not consistent. Only a few nations, including Germany, are successfully tackling the problem by redefining the PhD as training for high-level positions in careers outside academia. Here, Nature examines graduate-education systems in various states of health.Read the rest of the story on Nature.
9 April 2015 – Just one third of countries have achieved all the measurable education goals set in 2000 and only half of all countries have achieved universal primary enrolment, the United Nations agency mandated with promoting learning spotlighted today, urging countries to bridge the $22 billion annual finance gap needed to achieve quality basic education for all by 2030.“The world has made tremendous progress towards ‘Education for All’…however the agenda is far from finished,” said Irina Bokova, Director-General at the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), on the heels of the key findings produced in the 2015 EFA Global Monitoring Report (GMR) .Education for All 2000-2015: Achievements and Challenges, produced by UNESCO tracks the progress of a set of six goals ranging from improving quality of education to ensuring equal access to learning. Released today, the report found that 47 per cent of countries reached the goal of early childhood education, and another eight per cent were close. Twenty per cent were very far from the goal. Yet, in 2012, nearly two-thirds more children were enrolled in early childhood education than in 1999. Read the rest of the story at UN News Centre.