· June, 2007

Stories about Education from June, 2007

Iran:Appeal for Iranian Students

In CityBoy we read “this is an appeal by bloggers against the detention of 9 Iranian students from the Amir Kabir Polytechnic University in Tehran who are been kept and repeatedly tortured at the notorious Evin prison.”The blogger has published the photos of these 9 jailed students too.

Afghan Whispers:Education, music, wonderful nature and freedom

Sun Leaf talks about the painful situation of Afghanistan's education system. The blogger says Compared to other countries in Asia, the Afghan education situation is startling. The statistics below show that tremendous challenges remain. One of the poorest measures includes funding or implementing short-term education projects, which are abrubtly brought...

India: Theatre in Education

  18 June 2007

Tolubommalata & Koodiyattam are few amongst the variegated theatre forms in the sub-continent. While this ancient art is slowing fading away, modern Indian theatre is taking stage. It now is not only a form of entertainment but a beacon for educating young minds. Umesh from ‘Theatre in Education’ explains that...

More on iSummit Dubrovnik 2007

  17 June 2007

Global Voices author Renata Avila adds another timely update to proceedings at the iCommons Summit in Croatia. There is commentary from non-English speaking sources, which has helped close the information gap for those whose first language is not English.

Singapore: Ancient Scripts of South East Asia

  17 June 2007

Noelbynature recommends an exhibition on Malay scripts current being hosted at the National Library in Singapore. “this is indeed a rare opportunity to see the epigraphy of ancient Southeast Asia in one collection.”

The English language debate in the Philippines

  17 June 2007

The government wants English to be the medium of instruction in schools. A group of educators is opposed to this policy, and in fact has petitioned the issue in the Supreme Court. What ensues is a lively debate as to what language should be used in Philippine schools.

Ukraine: Want an “A”? Pay $30!

When Ukrainian news site Korrespondent.net reported last week that Kyiv street cleaners would be receiving $400 a month beginning this June, a number of readers confessed that they were earning less working as college lecturers or medical doctors. How some skilled Ukrainians manage to survive on their meager salaries was highlighted five days later, when Korrespondent.net ran a piece about a college lecturer who had told her students they were to pay her to pass their exams. To the readers who have commented on the story, corruption at Ukrainian colleges appears to be a familiar subject: hardly anyone was shocked by the lecturer's crime, but many found it surprising that the woman was charging very little.

Bahrain: Don't Press ‘Forward’, Press ‘Search’

What do Bahrainis think of conspiracy theories? How pleased are they with the services their ministries offer and the statements coming out of their ministers' mouths? And what does a Bahraini studying in Japan have in common with a homeless man? To answer these questions read this week's review of Bahraini blogs by Ayesha Saldanha.

Kyrgyzstan: Manas Curriculum

Bonnie Boyd discusses the inclusion of Kyrgyzstan's national epic into the national curriculum. The epic, Manas, is nearly half a million verses long and tells the deeds of the hero Manas and his descendants to secure Kyrgyz independence.

Pakistan: India and the IT-BPO Sector

  13 June 2007

The Pakistani Spectator has a conversation with a friend about India's IT-BPO sector, and points to India's secular years and investment in education as the factors that helped the success.

Trinidad & Tobago: Road Carnage

  13 June 2007

Now is Wow reprints a Letter to the Editor that she wrote out of concern about irresponsible driving practices on Trinidad and Tobago's roads, while Trinidad and Tobago News Blog agrees that the carnage on the streets is not normal.

Touring Libyan Blogs: Is the Arabic Language Dead?

Libyan bloggers mourn the death of the Arabic language as more Libyans resort to blogging in English. What makes them blog in a language other than their mother tongue? What do they think of the phenomena? And what is the relationship between language, religion, globalisation and terrorism? Fozia Mohamed summarises the raging debate going on in her blogosphere here.

Barbados: Mercury Alert

  12 June 2007

Barbados Free Press is all for saving electricity – but believes that consumers should be educated about the potential risks of using Compact Florescent Lamps: “The problem is mercury – a toxic element with a long history of causing death, insanity and incurable health problems. Where will the mercury-laced CFLs...

Singapore: Improving Notations in Maths

  12 June 2007

squareCircleZ gives examples of situations where students struggle with the way maths is written. The blogger proposes an alternative notation for the way parentheses are used in some functions.

Ukraine: Kyiv Street Cleaners Get a Raise

Kyiv street cleaners - all 6,000 of them - will be getting $400 a month from now on. This raise, city administration officials hope, will help hire 3,500 more people needed to keep the Ukrainian capital tidy. Judging by a discussion that erupted after the Ukrainian news website Korrespondent.net ran an item on this salary increase initiative, Kyiv's laborer corps might soon become overstaffed - and many of the new recruits are likely to be overqualified for the humble yet arduous work of a street cleaner.

St Vincent & The Grenadines: Beauty or Brains?

  11 June 2007

Abeni cannot help but recall West Indian poet Paul Keens-Douglas’ parody on beauty shows while watching a local beauty pageant: “We learnt from one contestant that global warming is a good thing for any country in the world. Another seemed to not understand the meaning of the word extracurricular.”