Louise Casey says Birmingham demonstrations have been put in ‘all-too-difficult box’
The former integration tsar, Dame Louise Casey, has accused ministers of “radio silence” over protests against the teaching of LGBT equality at a Birmingham school.
Casey said the government had failed to act on what she described as homophobic demonstrations because it was in the “all-too-difficult box”.
Continue reading...Visa system for researchers is hostile and costly and risks jamming a pipeline of talent, universities warn
After eight years researching music history at Glasgow University, Elizabeth Ford hoped her request for a visa extension would sail through this summer. Instead, the Home Office gave the American academic two weeks to pack up her life and leave the country.
Ford has held a research fellowship at Edinburgh University – which, like Glasgow is in the elite Russell Group – and is due to begin a new research fellowship at Oxford University. But this is in jeopardy after a letter from the Home Office in July, which said that her leave to remain, granted a year before, was erroneous, and that she must leave within two weeks.
Continue reading...Joi Ito exits after reports claim lab worked to hide extent of financier’s donations
The president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has ordered an independent investigation of the ties between a prestigious research lab at the school and Jeffrey Epstein, the influential financier and convicted sex offender.
Joi Ito, the director of the influential MIT Media Lab, submitted his resignation on Saturday, in the wake of continued scrutiny over the center’s financial relationship with Epstein, the university announced in a statement.
Continue reading...Decision will cut dramatically the time MPs will have to take action to prevent no-deal Brexit
Boris Johnson has confirmed he has asked the Queen for permission to suspend parliament for five weeks from early September.
The prime minister claimed MPs would have “ample time” to debate Brexit, as he wrote to MPs on Wednesday, saying he had spoken to the Queen and asked her to suspend parliament from “the second sitting week in September”.
Continue reading...Lecarrow, Tahilla and Scoil an Ghleanna will reopen as multi-denominational schools
Three schools in Ireland are expected to make history this week by becoming the first to abandon their Catholic ethos and become multi-denominational state-run schools.
The transfer in patronage reflects an ebbing of the Catholic church’s dominance in education – it runs about 90% of primary schools – and efforts by small rural schools to attract more pupils to avoid closure.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Hannah Fry says ethical pledge needed in tech fields that will shape future
Mathematicians, computer engineers and scientists in related fields should take a Hippocratic oath to protect the public from powerful new technologies under development in laboratories and tech firms, a leading researcher has said.
The ethical pledge would commit scientists to think deeply about the possible applications of their work and compel them to pursue only those that, at the least, do no harm to society.
Continue reading...Laurie Sheck, who teaches at the New School, says inquiry followed a complaint that she had discussed Baldwin’s use of the slur
The Pulitzer-nominated poet Laurie Sheck, a professor at the New School in New York City, is being investigated by the university for using the N-word during a discussion about James Baldwin’s use of the racial slur.
The investigation has been condemned by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (Fire), which is calling on the New School to drop the “misguided” case because it “warns faculty and students that good-faith engagement with difficult political, social, and academic questions will result in investigation and possible discipline”.
Continue reading...Schools may have to close, exams could be disrupted and fresh food for pupils’ meals could run short because of panic buying with prices soaring by up to 20%, according to a secret Department for Education analysis of the risks of a no-deal Brexit obtained by the Observer.
The five-page document – marked “Official Sensitive” and with the instruction “Do Not Circulate” – also raises the possibility of teacher absences caused by travel disruption, citing schools in Kent as particularly at risk.
Continue reading...Ethiopia’s conflicts are reflected at universities but, by walking in each other’s shoes on stage, students learn to do so in life
Rainy season has begun in Ethiopia’s south. On a stormy morning at a university in the town of Wolkite, students are using drama to break down entrenched ethnic barriers.
Understanding between groups is a rarity in a country where violent conflict is common. Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, has promised greater stability, but tensions remain high in various regions and the education system is no more immune to deep-rooted tribal differences than anywhere else.
Continue reading...Staff say decision is ‘blowback’ as a result of worsening relations with US
Russia has denied visas to teachers of the Anglo-American school in Moscow, in a move described by one teacher as “blowback” over worsening US-Russian relations.
The US ambassador, Jon Huntsman, called the decision to deny visas to 30 teachers at the Anglo-American school “unfortunate” and said it would “affect over 1,100 students and their families, who represent over 60 countries, including Russia”. The day school is popular among the children of western diplomats and businessmen.
Continue reading...In Namibia a country of meat-lovers, vital expertise is needed to stop livestock spreading diseases
Wreathed in barbecue smoke, Vetjaera Haakuria gestures at the men butchering meat and cooking it over hot coals behind his back. “What have you learned about the risks of eating this?” he asks his young audience, spotless in their white lab coats. “It might contain drug residues, right? And what about diseases?”
It’s nearly noon in Windhoek, Namibia’s capital, and the market is preparing grilled meat – known locally as kapana – for the lunchtime rush. Everyone comes here, from construction workers to members of parliament. Namibians love to eat meat, and he is no exception: his tribe, the Herero, traditionally eat nothing else.
Continue reading...Former prime minister of New Zealand Helen Clark condemns complacency as Unesco data shows one in six children won’t be in school by 2030
World leaders have “a lot to answer for” as new figures reveal that governments are failing to give all children an education, and that by 2030 one in six children won’t be in school.
The former prime minister of New Zealand and advocate for education Helen Clark said the figures showed “worrisome complacency on the part of countries which, just a few years ago, were so keen to hammer out an ambitious global agenda and make it a success”.
Continue reading...Victorian women who were prevented from qualifying as doctors are finally recognised
Seven women who were among the first females to be admitted to a British university have been awarded posthumous degrees 150 years after they started their studies.
The group, known collectively as the Edinburgh Seven, enrolled to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh in 1869. But they faced substantial resistance from their male peers and were ultimately prevented from graduating and qualifying as doctors.
Continue reading...Schoolchildren in Caldas take part in a voluntary project using a rubber doll with built-in software programmed to act like a newborn
Continue reading...Academics warn of ‘success cartel’ of powerful organisations seeking to influence aid evaluations
A “success cartel” of major donor agencies, including the UK government, is exaggerating its impact in the world’s poorest countries, hundreds of researchers have warned.
Writing in the journal BMJ global health, academics raised serious concerns about the independence of evaluations into global health and development projects, and called for greater safeguards to stop powerful bodies from influencing results.
Continue reading...Against a soundtrack of classical music, children learn social skills, dining manners and deportment – hence the books on their heads to teach them how to walk gracefully. Other exercises include how to introduce themselves and greet people, with practice in ‘air kissing’, and what topics are appropriate to discuss at the dinner table
Continue reading...Staff given panic buttons at outstanding-rated Starbank school in Birmingham
Teachers have gone on strike at a school in Birmingham rated outstanding by Ofsted where they say “feral” students are carrying knives, threatening staff and brawling in classrooms.
Staff at Starbank school, whose pupils’ ages range from three to 16, have been given panic buttons and are “scared to come out of their classrooms” between lessons, according to a teaching union.
Continue reading...Policy is disempowering and has chilling effect provoking self censorship, says Liberty
The Prevent strategy for curtailing extremism in the UK is the biggest threat to free speech at universities rather than media caricatures of “snowflake” students, according to a director of Liberty.
Corey Stoughton, director of advocacy at the human rights organisation, said the tactics of the strategy for monitoring campus activism had a “chilling effect” on black and Muslim students, provoking self censorship for fear of being labelled extremist.
Continue reading...Survey says teachers feel ill-equipped to educate pupils, as school strikes continue
A growing number of teachers want their pupils to learn more about the climate crisis and are calling for environmental training so they can prepare children for a rapidly changing world, according to a poll.
The findings from YouGov research commissioned by Oxfam come before the latest round of school climate strikes on Friday, in which it is expected that hundreds of thousands of young people will walk out of classrooms around the world.
Continue reading...Academics invited to the UK are refused entry on arbitrary and ‘insulting’ grounds
The Home Office is being accused of institutional racism and damaging British research projects through increasingly arbitrary and “insulting” visa refusals for academics.
In April, a team of six Ebola researchers from Sierra Leone were unable to attend vital training in the UK, funded by the Wellcome Trust as part of a £1.5m flagship pandemic preparedness programme. At the LSE Africa summit, also in April, 24 out of 25 researchers were missing from a single workshop. Shortly afterwards, the Save the Children centenary events were marred by multiple visa refusals of key guests.
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