Search Page

In South Africa, an incident at a school in Soweto revived the debate over false teacher qualifications. This week, a former primary school teacher stabbed a director who had suspended him. The teacher was dismissed after the school discovered, following a complaint from parents, that he had lied about his qualifications and had no diploma. According to the South African Council of Educators, dozens or even hundreds of teachers lie about their qualifications.

The state of Egypt’s public schools is an essential indicator of the ways in which the Egyptian revolution has not reached its citizens. In fact, private tutoring has now become Egypt’s de facto education system. A number of teachers have admitted, unofficially, that they teach the strict minimum in class so as to be able to recuperate these same students in private tutoring sessions. According to some estimates, Egyptian families spend over 1 billion dollars in private classes to compensate for the poor level of education: a cost which comes to almost a quarter of the family income.

With each teacher taking an average of 6.6 sick days per year, the non-replacement of absent teachers is a source of tension with parents. In the public sector, substitute teachers cover 97% of long-term absences at the secondary level. This rate falls to 38% for shorter absences. However, when it comes to replacing teachers, be it for longer or shorter periods, the private education system is more efficient than the public sector.

Many instances were witnessed across the country, where parents arrived at schools to return free uniform material vouchers which were invalid. There were also instances where parents complained of the insufficient value attached to these vouchers, and where parents were unable to purchase quality material for a specified price. Against this backdrop, several teachers and principals’ associations staged a joint media briefing in Colombo, highlighting the fact that teachers, students and parents, have been inconvenienced by the new voucher system.

Information related to students, teachers and schools will be a click away, from this academic year. The information will soon be available on a website hosted by the National Informatics Centre. The student database will help teachers and parents concentrate on learning levels. The online database will also be used to arrest the drop-out rate among students.

Between the end of year fête and the start of the summer holidays, it is traditional for teachers to receive small gifts from parents and students as a thank-you for the past year. To the delight of chocolate makers, florists and many more.

Gross moral turpitude on the part of a few teachers in the form of sexual assault on female students and deviation from professional ethics by a section of teachers in different tiers of education have become a subject matter of discussion, not only among the guardians but also with almost everyone concerned with education in Bangladesh.