As part of efforts to ensure international level education for students, the Delhi Board of School Education has signed an MoU with the International Baccalaureate — an international board that works in 159 countries.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said with this partnership, the students studying in the Delhi board affiliated schools will get international-level of education.

He added that the training of teachers of the schools that are affiliated with the Delhi Board of School Education and student assessments will be done under the supervision of international experts.

Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia interacted with the Heads of Schools in the South-East District ahead of the re-opening of schools.

He said that heads of schools are ready to not only bridge the learning gap when schools open but also cater to social-emotional well-being when children return to school.

A three-day capacity building program has commenced for the Heads of Schools in the South-East District to the aim of creating awareness of the new programmes started by the government in the field of education and share information related to its implementation.

Along with this, the Heads of School are also being trained on how to reduce the learning gap of the children once schools reopen and reconnect them.

China’s latest campaign to rein in its $100 billion out-of-school education sector was meant to level the playing field for all, instead the crackdown is forcing tutors under the radar, making their services even more expensive and exclusive.

A sweeping overhaul announced last month bans private companies from teaching the school syllabus during weekends and vacations and from making a profit, along with a list of other restrictions.

The education technology industry is most affected with more than $18 billion wiped off the combined market value of TAL Education Group, Gaotu Techedu Inc. and New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc.

The new rules have also seemingly created a loophole though temporarily: private tutors and one-on-one lessons that the wealthiest families were already using to give their kids a headstart.

With the companies that provided group classes to middle-class families now decimated, regulations intended to redress the balance for students could end up skewing it further, as extra assistance becomes available only to the richest.

Private tutor rates have already skyrocketed in the aftermath of the chaotic crackdown.

In Shanghai, parents say some one-on-one tutors are charging as much as 3,000 yuan ($463) an hour.

Private tutors — many of whom are public school teachers offering extra tuition to students one-on-one, or in small groups — have been a popular option for rich families since well before the crackdown.

Though the rules announced on July 24 specifically target education firms, there are signs now that individuals are also starting to face additional scrutiny.

Following a recent inspection by the Beijing Municipal Education Commission, one person, along with six institutions, have been punished for offering unlicensed lessons.

Students who have won a place on an oversubscribed dentistry degree in England are being offered £10,000 to transfer to a different university with places available.

But universities warn cash incentives will not relieve the pressure on many dental courses.

Like medicine, dental schools have been hit by the double challenge of a huge increase in demand for places, and far more students than expected achieving the high A-level grades needed to secure their offer.

According to figures from university admissions service, Ucas, this year 28,690 students applied to study medicine and dentistry, a rise of 21% on last year.

Dentistry students have been invited to join the Department for Education’s new “brokerage” scheme, under which medicine and dentistry students can claim £10,000 compensation if they move from an oversubscribed institution to one with space.

The Dental Schools Council said the scheme was working well, but dental academics say they expect a very limited supply of spare places.

Last week education secretary Gavin Williamson was forced to announce last-minute funding for hundreds of extra places in medicine and dentistry, which both have their numbers capped by the government, in an attempt to resolve the recruitment crisis.

The Eritrean Ministry of Education is earnestly working to ensure educational opportunity at all levels and in particular to pre-school children.

This is according to the head of General Education at the Ministry of Education, Musa Husein Nayb, who indicated that the Ministry is working to ensure that all children attend pre-school education as well as to ensure equitable distribution of educational facilities across the country.

The Director General called on the public and stakeholders to reinforce participation in realizing the Ministry’s strategic plan that until 2030 no child is left out of school.

He indicated that the number of pre-school facilities that was 90 in 2001 nationwide, has currently increased to 524 and the number of students’ school enrolment rose from 8.5% to 33.8%.

Pointing out that the far location of schools, lack of regrouping of villages as well as nomadic lifestyle have been the main bottlenecks for the low level of students’ school enrolment, Musa said that strong effort is being exerted to address the challenges.

Head of the Ministry of Education branch in the Anseba region, Kiflay Andemicael, on his part while underlining the significance of pre-school education in the mental development and creativity of children, stated that due attention should be given to its development.

Meanwhile, Governor of Anseba Region, Ambassador Abdella Musa, on his part, called for strong participation and contribution of the public in the effort to expand pre-school facilities with a view to ensuring that every child benefits from the educational opportunity to all.

The teachers’ employer in Kenya, the Teachers Service Commission,  has identified key learning areas that it recommends universities and colleges should introduce in their teacher training programmes in preparation for the rollout of the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) in junior and senior school.

In an advisory to the Ministry of Education, the CEO of the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), Nancy Macharia said the alignment of the training programmes by universities and private colleges is intended to equip teachers with requisite skills, in line with the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development Basic Education Framework.

The advisory is copied to the PS for Implementation of Curriculum, Prof Fatuma Chege, the CEO of the Commission for University Education, Prof Mwenda Ntarangwi, and vice chancellors of universities that train teachers.

According to the TSC, the new learning areas that universities need to give special attention include pre-technical and pre-vocational education, life skills, agriculture and health education.

Optional subjects include indigenous languages, Kenya Sign Language, visual arts, and performing arts.

It further identifies various subjects where skills gaps exist, such as leatherwork, Mandarin, woodwork technology, plumbing and ceramics.

Dr Macharia added that to implement the teaching of some of the learning areas, there is a need to retool teachers in home science and biology to facilitate learning in health education, social studies to include content on citizenship and sports and physical education to include the aspect of sports and health introduced in the learning areas.

A young Liberian student studying in the US, Mohammad Bah, has launched a Gofundme/fundraising campaign dubbed “Help Renovate Yalon Town Public School” to tackle educational inequality and systemic problems afflicting the education system in the country.

Yalon Town Public School is the only school in more than 20 rural villages that provides primary education for young students.

In recent weeks, the school was hit by a severe storm and heavy rain that severely damaged the building as a result of which students are learning in an open and unconducive environment

Through the Moijama Educational Foundation, Mohammed donated benches, blackboards, and an office desk to make sure the students have a comfortable learning environment.

Mohammed, who is the organizer of the fundraiser disclosed that the crumbling school building is not the only obstacle to students’ learning: windows are broken, the building is damaged, and worst of all, students have to sit in the sun while undertaking instructional activities because the roof was blown away by the storm.

It is estimated that the total cost to reconstruct the school will be $6,740.

Although the major concern at this point is the roofing of the school, many parts of the school’s building are dilapidated. Consequently, the budget was increased to rebuild the entire school instead of simply reroofing it due to the poor condition of most parts of the building.

Mohammed revealed that the goal is to start construction as soon as possible and complete it before classes begin for the 2021-2022 academic school year.

A young Liberian student studying in the US, Mohammad Bah, has launched a Gofundme/fundraising campaign dubbed “Help Renovate Yalon Town Public School” to tackle educational inequality and systemic problems afflicting the education system in the country.

Yalon Town Public School is the only school in more than 20 rural villages that provides primary education for young students.

In recent weeks, the school was hit by a severe storm and heavy rain that severely damaged the building as a result of which students are learning in an open and unconducive environment

Through the Moijama Educational Foundation, Mohammed donated benches, blackboards, and an office desk to make sure the students have a comfortable learning environment.

Mohammed, who is the organizer of the fundraiser disclosed that the crumbling school building is not the only obstacle to students’ learning: windows are broken, the building is damaged, and worst of all, students have to sit in the sun while undertaking instructional activities because the roof was blown away by the storm.

It is estimated that the total cost to reconstruct the school will be $6,740.

Although the major concern at this point is the roofing of the school, many parts of the school’s building are dilapidated. Consequently, the budget was increased to rebuild the entire school instead of simply reroofing it due to the poor condition of most parts of the building.

Mohammed revealed that the goal is to start construction as soon as possible and complete it before classes begin for the 2021-2022 academic school year.

A 2020 Ordinary Level candidate in Zimbabwe has threatened to drag the country’s Schools Examination Council (Zimsec) to court for withholding her Mathematics results over cheating allegations.

The candidate, Ashley Mutandwa, sat for the exam at Intellect College last year but has not managed to obtain her results which the examinations board withheld after questioning why she excelled in one paper after performing dismally in the others.

Irked by the examiner’s conduct, the candidate through her legal counsel, Alex Majachani of Alex F & Associates has written to Zimsec threatening to approach the High Court if concrete evidence linking the student to cheating is not released amid allegations of choosing to communicate with the college alone while excluding the affected student.

Majachani accused Zimsec of having chosen to adopt a flawed procedure in making exclusive communication with the College when the rights at stake are those of their client.

He said the candidate believes that her constitutionally guaranteed right to be fairly heard was grossly infringed upon by the examinations body.

Majachani accused Zimsec of violating the Administrative Justice Act after informing the college where the examination was written from, that allegations which prompted the withholding of results were buttressed on police reports which were never furnished to his client for consideration.

By copy of the letter to Zimsec, a request for the said police report was demanded to be made available to enable the client to get a fair platform to address them.

Majachani questioned the basis on which Zimsec made assertions that his client performed very well in one paper, then badly in another saying there was no link of having accessed a leaked paper amid a request imploring the exams group to avail concrete proof on a balance of probabilities that the student accessed the paper on social media.

Zimsec is yet to respond to the demands.