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India’s Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister has announced the establishment of a national database of academic credentials, including degrees and certificates from secondary school through professional degrees.  This electronic database would allow educational institutions, students, and employers to access the qualifications online for easy verification and retrieval.   It is expected to greatly reduce forgery as well as remove the need for direct contact with the schools.  This database is still in the initiation phase, and a task force is already examining it with recommendations expected in late March.

http://news.indiaid.com/blog/_archives/2010/1/12/4426540.html

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Last month, the U.S. Department of Education’s Inspector General recently came down hard on the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (HLC) – the largest of the six regional accrediting bodies in the U.S. – for granting accreditation to a for-profit online university, American InterContinental University.  The Inspector General’s examination of HLC’s standards for credit hour and program length measurement identified that American InterContinental did not meet the Commission’s criteria, but full accreditation was granted to the university anyway.  The Inspector General has stated that this decision calls into question HLC’s ability to do its job as an accrediting authority and that the Commission should be penalized, with the most severe punishment being a termination of their status as a regional accrediting body.

The background on the issue is that HLC had identified a problem with American InterContinental’s credit awarding (the Commission felt that too much credit was being awarded for certain courses).  HLC put the University on notice, stating that a site visit would be made in the 2010-2011 school year to focus specifically on that issue, and the University is unable to create new degree programs or distance education programs without prior approval.  While HLC admits that this credit awarding problem is a big one, neither HLC nor the Council for Higher Education Accreditation feel that it is a situation deserving of severe action against HLC.

American InterContinental had previously been accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and School’s (SACS) Commission on Colleges, where it was placed on a 12-month probation for failing to meet minimum standards, including academic integrity and accuracy of recruitment/admissions practices.  However, the University had been back in good standing by the time it had applied for accreditation by HLC.  It’s worth pointing out that SACS and the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) were also both called out recently by the Inspector General about their lack of clearly defined standard, credit hours.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/12/18/hlc

http://chronicle.com/article/Inspector-Generals-Warning-to/63206/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/12/14/southern

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French elite schools known as grandes ecoles are being ordered by President Nicolas Sarkozy to reserve 30% of new admissions places for poor students, many of whom are immigrants.  The schools have refused to adhere to this new policy of taking in more low-income students on the basis that it would lead to an unavoidable drop in academic quality.  The broadening of admissions to these elite schools – which produce leaders in politics and industry – is seen by the government as equal opportunity but is seen by the schools as an admissions quota.   The Ministry met its prior goal of carving out 30% of places in entrance exam prep classes for poor students, and now the President wants to go a step further by having elite schools reserve nearly 1/3 of their first-year seats for low-income students on scholarship.

http://www.france24.com/en/20100106-french-elite-schools-under-fire

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Here’s a set of summaries on education-related news events in the year 2009 for India.  In sum, these are the topics covered (most of which have also been posted here throughout the year):

- New Human Resources Development (HRD) Minister making sweeping changes to all levels of education

- Dropping the Class X Board Exams in favor of continuous evaluation

- Introduction to new grading systems and semesters

- Free and compulsory education for all children from ages 6-14

- Violent racial attacks on Indians in Australia

- Computerized administration of the Common Admissions Test (CAT) to replace numerous higher education admissions tests (alas, there were many glitches in this implementation)

- Protests and strikes over pay/promotion issues and fee hikes

- Creation of the National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER) to ultimately replace the UGC, AICTE, NCTE, and DCE; there is also a plan to create a national accrediting body

- Mandatory accreditation for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs)

- Lots of examination of “deemed” and “deemed to be” university status

- Opening India to external providers of higher education and enacting laws to facilitate that

- Expanding Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs)

http://nanopolitan.blogspot.com/2009/12/education-in-india-year-in-review.html

http://beta.thehindu.com/education/article71633.ece?homepage=true

http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/a-testing-year-for-students-despite-reforms/380916/

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The Ministry of Education in Ontario, Canada, has recently revised its report card system to replace the fall report card with a less formal progress report.  The new policy will reduce the number of formal reports cards each year from 3 to 2 for Grades 1 through 8.  Students will receive formal report cards in late January/early February and then again in June.  The progress report, with information about student learning skills, will be issued in late November/early December in conjunction with parent-teacher interviews.  The MOE has promised that teachers and principals will receive training on both the new report cards and how to use less educational jargon and make all the report cards more meaningful for parents and students as well as more personalized.  The new policy also lends itself more towards regular feedback and communication between parents, students, and teachers.

http://www.theliberal.com/News/Regional%20News/article/101075

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The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is embarking on another banner year for education by announcing an education and training budget of almost US$37 billion, an increase of 13% compared to last year’s fiscal budget.  This new budget will fund the King Abdullah Project for Development of Public Education.  The Project aims to create 1200 new schools and complete almost 4000 school buildings already in progress.  The Higher Education sector will be able to build four new universities, expand existing universities, and increase scholarships abroad, among other goals.  Currently, the Kingdom offers more than 60,000 scholarships to enable Saudis to study abroad while the Kingdom grows its educational system in both scope and quality to meet the ever-increasing demands of its increasing population of young people.

http://newsx.com/story/69121

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Jamaica’s Ministry of Education (MOE) is rolling out a new Career Advancement Programme (CAP) designed to ensure that secondary school leavers are both literate and numerate and have some kind of vocational/technical qualification for post-secondary studies or work.  The Minister says that a major goal of this program is to reduce the problem of poorly trained/educated youth.  He says that approximately 26,000 students leave secondary school currently without any sort of credential, and that almost half of that number leave secondary school after grade nine.  The other half either never sat any secondary exam or failed all of their Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) subjects.  CAP aims to reverse this trend by giving more skills and training at the secondary level that can channel them into a career while also having access to diagnostic testing, career counseling, apprenticeships, and non-standard class hours.  The end of the program incorporates job orientation and placement.  The current phase of this program is being rolled out as a pilot in 11 high schools focusing on 2,000 students.

http://www.jamaica-star.com/thestar/20091218/news/news17.html

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Rwanda’s Ministry of Education (MOE) has delayed the start date of classes until February 1, 2010, while it continues to train its 40,000+ teachers in English.  The MOE plans for all academic lessons to be conducted in English beginning in 2010, and the last batch of teachers will finish up their training at the end of January.  As a result, the first term of the 2010 academic year will be 2 months instead of the usual 3.  Nearly 4,000 new classrooms have also been constructed to accommodate hundreds of thousands of new students expected to begin lower secondary school this year, now that the first three years of lower secondary education are taken at the primary schools.  This is all part of Rwanda’s new Nine Year Basic Education (NYBE) plan, aimed at decreasing student dropouts.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200912240050.html

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