Education

Pasifika voices needed for research project on literacy and numeracy skills

The New Zealand Work Research Institute began a 5-year-long study in October 2019 and this month have started to focus in on Pacific people.

AUT University lecturer Dr Betty Ofe-Grant is leading the Pasifika component of the project and she said Pacific people in Aotearoa are over-represented when it comes to low literacy and numeracy skills.

According to Literacy NZ, one in four adults have literacy difficulties in their everyday life.

Open VEMIS PSET MIS training for providers

VEMIS stands for Vanuatu Education Management Information System, and it is a software that allows the Director General of the MoET, all directors, provincial officers, principals, and school managers to use information based on evidence, and up-to-date data.

“Open” refers to its live, transparent, and online access to all relevant stakeholders in Vanuatu.

The workshop was conducted in collaboration with the Tertiary Education Department (TED) and the Policy and Planning Unit of the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET).

Vanuatu PSET MIS – Training of Trainers

The training was organised by the Tertiary Education Directorate (TED) in cooperation with the Vanuatu Qualification Authority (VQA) and the Policy and Planning Unit (PPU) of the Ministry of Education and Training.

The participants were trained on the PSET MIS that all the Post-School Education and Training (PSET) providers will start using by February 2020.

The PSET MIS records the courses each registered PSET provider is delivering, and the learners that are enrolled in those courses.

Vanuatu principals and teachers advised to be in schools on 4 Feb

“This date is not for students to start getting to schools. Instead it should be time for orientation, induction, awareness and to get students into classrooms and to begin to have the first lessons,” Obed said.

He has also encouraged parents and guardians to prepare their children and get them to travel to schools.

Obed added that schools must prepare for disasters which may occur this year.

Study: Caesarean births linked to developmental delays in primary school children

Using NAPLAN test results of 5,000 year 3 students, researchers from the University of Melbourne found the delays were equivalent to a child missing about 35 days of a school year.

Melbourne University's Cain Polidano described the findings are relatively small but significant.

"There is already a bit of evidence that shows that caesarean birth is related to a number of negative childhood health outcomes, including risks of ADHD, autism and also asthma", Dr Polidano said.

Zombie crime scene helping kids learn about science

The amateur detective program was designed by teachers at Penrith Valley School, a facility for children with behavioural problems or complex emotional needs who have struggled with mainstream learning.

"A lot of them have had a lot of poor experiences in the classroom so they've got an expectation of failure that they're bringing in," principal Nic Danta said.

"And so the first stage is just to re-build that trust and connect them with education."

Ten tips for raising tech-savvy and tech-safe kids

But fast-forward to 2017 and you're now responsible for raising a child whose life will revolve around digital technology, and who will have to be tech-smart, tech-savvy, and tech-safe to survive out there in the wild.

So what are some tips to help you along the way?

We asked for your experiences, and expert Joanne Orlando — an analyst and researcher in technology and learning who has worked as an advisor for the Government, for Apple, and for the children's television show Play School — for her best pieces of advice.

The lifelong implications of telling children they can’t sing

Telling a child they can’t sing has life-long implications. But there are ways to reverse it.

Singing is a natural human interaction that transcends cultures, socio-economic groups, ability, gender and education level, but many people are so scarred from their childhood experiences of singing that they won’t sing as adults.

Northwestern University choral music expert Steven Demorest says this comes from a focus on talent rather than skill. “It creates a huge stigma for kids and becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy,” he says.

Harvard student submits a hip-hop album as his final dissertation

Twenty-year-old Obasi Shaw called the 10-track album Liminal Minds and says it combines "elements of Middle English poetry with issues of racial identity in America".

He says it was inspired by Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales and his own hobby of writing rap music and spoken word poetry.

It took him a year to write.

Last year Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly and Nas' Illmatic were both added to the Harvard Library to signify their cultural significance.

California lawmakers want to mandate internet for kids in juvy

But youth in the criminal justice and foster care systems often don't have access to it. That's why some lawmakers in California want to make it their right.

Earlier this year, Democrat Assemblymember Mike Gipson introduced legislation that would mandate "reasonable access to computer technology and the internet" for kids in juvenile detention programs and foster care.