Global Issues That Affect Everyone

In researching the situation in the Chechen Republic, I stumbled across a web site called Global Issues That Affect Everyone. The author, Anup Shah, has set up a blog-like site compiling articles he has written concerning issues from Third World debt to global conflicts to global warming. Good place to bone up on the facts regarding these issues.

East Asian Economy to Experience Slow-Down

IHT reports (from Bloomberg) that the World Bank is predicting an economic slowdown in East Asia.

The East Asia region excludes Japan and India, and sees China's slowing of its own economy, higher oil prices, and lessened demand for electronics and consumer products as the main causes. The IMF and ADB (Asian Development Bank) both cut predictions for growth by about 0.3%.

Slowed down economic growth can impact government revenues for education, as well as re-prioritize economic goals over other goals (such as education). It may also affect the status of investment indicators into these countries. Overall, not great news, but not decidedly bad news for the pursuing of EFA goals in the region.

UNESCO Publishes EFA Global Monitoring Report for 2005

UNESCO has published the EFA Global Monitoring Report for 2005, the third such report. The focus is on educational quality, affecting cognitive development and responsible citizenship.

The number of children out of school is declining too slowly to meet UPE by 2015. Furthermore, no country outside of the developed world has achieved all four "measurable" goals of EFA (ECCE, UPE, literacy, and gender parity). There's a nice summary of the latest results called Headline Messages.

Education Reform Should Consider Workplace Skills

An editorial in USA Today argues that US education reform should consider curricular redesign to focus on critical thinking and practical skills and extracurricular activities.

Some sample recommendations are the focusing of science on health issues and the environment, and an emphasis in math curricula on statistics. Another proposal is for English courses to be electives and oral and written communication courses to become compulsory. Extracurricular activities should follow New Jersey's reform called "Option Two" where students receive credit for internships, community service, and extracurricular activities.

History of Education in the Twentieth Century

From Saima (a friend): a web page documenting selected moments in the history of education in the 20th Century from the University of Toronto.

An incredibly substantial list of events, by year, and links to documents (looks like a mixture of student and faculty papers) describing each event.