Gaza City: Palestinian schoolboys are learning how to fire Kalashnikovs, throw grenades and plant improvised explosive devices as part of a program run by Hamas’s education ministry.
The scheme has been criticised by Palestinian human rights groups, who point out that Hamas has previously banned sport from the school curriculum on the grounds that there is not enough time for it.
Hamas authorities introduced the “Futuwwa”, or youth program into the state curriculum last September for 37,000 Palestinian boys aged between 15 and 17, conceiving it as a scheme intended to initiate a new generation of Palestinian men in the struggle against Israel. (via Kalashnikov Classes for Palestinian Students)
Rwanda: New Curricula to Streamline Teaching of Genocide
The Ministry of Education is currently revising the curricula for schools at nursery, primary, and secondary levels, a process that will streamline how best to teach students about the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, among other changes.
Under the new curriculum, the teaching of Genocide will be reinforced, in line with Genocide prevention. Teaching the younger generations about the Genocide and Rwanda’s history is widely considered as a key element in cementing the on-going reconciliation efforts and ensuring sustainable unity of the Rwandan people.
(via AllAfrica.com)
A third of children in England cannot swim by the time they leave primary school, according to research from the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA).
The research suggests many non-swimmers have never had a school swimming lesson despite its being part of the national curriculum for seven-to-11-year-olds.
The ASA says swimming is the only curriculum subject that saves lives.
The Department for Education said schools must provide lessons and pupils must be taught to swim 25m unaided. (via BBC News - Primary schools ‘failing to honour swimming obligations’)
If reading, writing and maths are not enough for young minds, some Wellington 6-year-olds are also tackling life’s great existential questions.
That’s if they are not busy meditating, of course.
Philosophy and meditation are on the timetable at two Wellington schools, which have introduced the unorthodox subjects to engage children and help them to use their minds in different ways.
The eternal question of “Why?” is addressed during philosophy at Island Bay School, while at Miramar’s Holy Cross School, meditation is seen as another way for children to feel calm and closer to God. (via Children Learn Philosophy and Meditation at School… | Stuff.co.nz)
[INDIA] The National council of teacher education (NCTE) has taken an initiative to reform and revamp teaching education system in the country. Following the implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education-2009, the government is now gearing up to reform the teaching education system with an aim to improve the quality of procedures and practices. Following the exercise, all courses of teacher education like BEd, MEd, NTT (Nursery Teachers Training), BPEd and MPEd will get revised.
[TUNISIA] A three-day national conference on how to reform Tunisia’s educational system will kick off tomorrow in the Tunisian capital.
Experts in education, members of various civil society organizations and political parties, and a high number of parents will attend the conference.
The event will discuss the way forward regarding the necessary reforms that the Tunisian educational system should implement.
According to Khaled Chabbi, the spokesman for the Ministry of Education, the goal is to “highlight the existing defects from which the current Tunisian educational system is suffering, and review its methodology in light of results learned throughout previous attempts at reforms.”
All public and private schools in Quebec will have to adopt an anti-bullying, anti-violence plan under Bill 56, presented Wednesday in the provincial legislature by Education Minister Line Beauchamp.
The minister also announced a major media campaign against bullying, in partnership with publicly owned Tele-Quebec, and Quebecor Inc., urging people to be “ordinary heroes” by standing up to bullies.
“Bullying doesn’t start at 8 a.m. and doesn’t finish at 4 p.m.,” the minister said, adding that everyone has to get involved and the new policy will extend to cyber bullying as well.
The Thai government has embarked on an ambitious nationwide programme to teach English at least once a week in all state schools as part of the new 2012 English Speaking Year project.
The initiative is intended to ease Thailand’s entry into the Asean community in 2015, when southeast Asia becomes one economic zone and a universal language is required for communication and business.
The project will focus on speaking English rather than studying its grammar, with teachers provided training through media modules and partnerships with foreign institutions, including English-language schools, according to Thailand’s education ministry. (via Thai schools urged to boost speaking | Education | Guardian Weekly)
Why chess deserves a place in schools.
(via Why chess deserves a place in schools | Jonathan Calder | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk)
KABUL — In a country where the recent past has unfolded like a war epic, officials think they have found a way to teach Afghan history without widening the fractures between long-quarreling ethnic and political groups: leave out the past four decades.
A series of government-issued textbooks funded by the United States and several foreign aid organizations do just that, pausing history in 1973. There is no mention of the Soviet war, the mujaheddin, the Taliban or the U.S. military presence. In their efforts to promote a single national identity, Afghan leaders have deemed their own history too controversial. (via In Afghanistan, a new approach to teaching history: Leave out the wars - The Washington Post)
