It was supposed to be a day like any other for Amanda Alexander. The District’s chief of elementary schools ran 3½ miles on the treadmill and arrived at work with plans to visit two schools and meet with some of her deputies. But then Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) summoned Alexander in the morning with a startling question: Would she be willing to run the entire D.C. Public Schools system? Chancellor Antwan Wilson was being forced to resign, and Bowser needed someone immediately to take charge for the rest of the school year. Alexander accepted and, by late Tuesday afternoon,…
Author: Loknath Das
Increasingly, Canadian universities seem to be more concerned about political correctness than educating students. A prominent illustration of this is University of Toronto psychologist Jordan Peterson’s public battle with university administrators, professors and some students over his refusal to use gender-neutral pronouns when referring to students with varying sexual orientations. A less well known but arguably much more serious example is the increasing tendency for Canadian faculties of education to use admissions criteria that are unrelated to the characteristics and skills needed by effective classroom teachers. At the University of Windsor, for example, special consideration is being given to candidates who reflect “the ethno-cultural and…
There’s no longer any question at all: Russians meddled in the 2016 U.S. election, and they relied on social media tools we can all use. Facebook and its photo-sharing site, Instagram, are mentioned dozens of times in the indictment handed down Friday by special counsel Robert Mueller. Twitter, YouTube, and PayPal are also mentioned at various points. SEE ALSO: The 9 craziest things from latest Mueller indictment against Russian trolls Mueller, for those catching up, was appointed by the Justice Department in May 2017 to investigate alleged foreign meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. The Friday indictment is only the latest…
Internet sensation and Malayalam actress Priya Prakash Varrier, who has shaken the social media by one wink, surely became an internet sensation but now it’s some other astonishing beauty who has been winning over millions of hearts in India by her striking appearance and charming smile. Himanshi Khurana, a famous Punjabi actress who has become the latest national crush of India. The stunning beauty and her mesmerizing pictures have taken the internet by storm in no time. You’ll not be able to take your eyes off her once you look at her gorgeous pictures. Himanshi is a successful Punjabi actress…
Clinical psychologist Carol Balhetchet has seen first-hand how the Internet wreaks havoc on young lives. One of her patients suffered from severe depression and another became suicidal after being criticised online. “The impact such emotional experiences can have on the youth can be long-lasting,” said Dr Balhetchet. Anorexia or even adult psychological issues can stem from incidences that occur in one’s youth, she added. Results of a study done by Singtel and global digital literacy group DQ Institute released this month showed that 54 per cent of children aged eight to 12 are exposed to cyber risks. These risks include…
Theresa May will temporarily set Brexit aside and try to repair her image with young voters with a speech on education, an issue where the opposition has the upper hand. To be clear, free tuition is not on the menu. Echoing the tone of her first public address as prime minister in 2016, May on Monday will call for a system with fairer funding that opens up “opportunity for everyone,” while warning against an “outdated attitude” that favors academic over technical qualifications. The reboot comes after a disastrous June election in which her Conservative Party lost its majority, with Labour leader Jeremy…
The UP Special Task Force (STF) on Sunday unearthed a fake education board that had been running in Lucknow under the name of Uttar Pradesh State Open School Board (UPSOSB) since 2013 and had study centres in seven states. The STF raided the fake board’s office in Indira Nagar and arrested seven people, including two brothers. Rajman Goud and Jitendra Goud – two brothers from Azamgarh were the masterminds behind the fake board that was being operated from a rented building ‘Raheja House’ in Indira Nagar’s Faridinagar locality, said Triveni Singh, ASP, STF. He said five others arrested along with…
A Department of Education reorganization plan whose broad themes were shared with employees last week would collapse multiple units with higher ed functions into one office whose leader would answer directly to the secretary. The plan also calls for eliminating the office of the under secretary, which has played a key role in shaping higher education policy during the previous two presidential administrations. Those moves would be part of a larger shake-up of the department that officials say is intended to make lines of decision making more clear, improve policy coordination and reduce the total number of political appointees. It…
More “variety” is needed in the price of university education, the secretary of state said ahead of a government review of the system. Damian Hinds also suggested tuition fees should reflect each degree’s value “to our society as a whole”. It comes as a committee of MPs said there was no justification for such “high interest rates” on student loans. Labour said another review would not solve the problems posed by interest rate increases and fee rises. A day of reckoning for tuition fees? 10 charts showing the effect of tuition fees The review, to be launched by Prime Minister…
Theresa May is to press ahead with attempts to force universities to charge less for some courses based on their costs and potential graduate earnings, despite critics within her own party and the higher education sector branding the move incoherent and unworkable. Announcing a long-awaited review of education funding for over-18s in England, the prime minister will say that reserving university for the middle class and vocational training “for other people’s children” is outdated. Her comments come after the new education secretary, Damian Hinds, hinted on Sunday that the review would recommend that some universities cut their fees for social science and humanities…