Medical Science to take Advantage of E-learning

Healthcare is a very important issue all over the world and everyone everywhere needs to be aware of it. In underdeveloped or lesser developed countries and cities people need to study about health care and medicine so that they can make sure that treatment of diseases is proper and detected at the right time.

As health issues are becoming serious we must learn how to tackle diseases. Awareness about different sorts of diseases is very important in order to control them. For doctors and nurses working in rural areas a constant upgradation on the subject is required. Therefore the Liaquat University of Medical & Health Sciences in Jamshoro has made a decision to start an online programme called “e-Family Health Care Certificate Course” for the doctors and medical staff of hospitals in Sindh.

Courtesy: kcumb.edu

Why e-Learning?

Some less fortunate and underdeveloped districts and towns in some countries do not have good colleges to provide proper medical education. The faculty of medicine is weak or too expensive for doctors who want to upgrade themselves. Distance learning is fabricated to use electronic communication to spread knowledge across the world especially to those who cannot afford to go to formal colleges to receive proper education.

Education in distance learning programmes is not restricted to any one place. You can live anywhere in the world and study at prestigious universities across the globe. Distance education is cheaper than formal college and therefore more affordable. Now people living in rural areas can have access to universities without crossing borders.

As medical science is a very important subject, it is now important for doctors to keep up with the newest inventions and methods of treatment. Distance learning has flexible timings and therefore suit doctors the best as they can schedule their classes whenever they are free.

Mashhoor Alam Shah, the Vice Chancellor Professor, said in a meeting that this programme is aimed to improve the health care system in various parts, especially rural areas of Sindh. These programmes are meant to train and teach doctors to better the quality of health care in underdeveloped parts of the country. Distance learning medical courses are cost efficient and designed keeping in mind the busy schedules of doctors.

The Vice Chancellor Professor also added that the system of online education is better than formal college as the format of teaching is appropriate for teachers and students alike, the student-teacher interaction level is high and teachers also get to communicate with students better and on provide them with solutions on time. 

UN appoints Malala's father as an Education adviser

Ziauddin Yusufzai

Gordon Brown, the UN Special Envoy for global Education broadcasted the appointment of Ziauddin Yusufzai as the UN education advisor. His task is to see that every female child gets the right to education by the end of 2015. He is the father of Malala Yousafzai, the 15 year old brave girl who raised her voice to make education for girls compulsory in the area that is under the control of the talibans.

It has been estimated that more than 32 million girls are deprived from going to school. Yusufzai has taken up the challenge to abolish this injustice done to girls and has promised to give a new face to the education discipline in the country.

Gordon Brown had requested all adherent of girl’s education to stand up for the auspicious event of appointment of Yusufzai. They had met in Paris for the big event with UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova and President Zardari of Pakistan.

Brown also claimed that the courageous decision of the girl has encouraged everyone to spread education for every single girl child all over the world. He also made it sure that whichever country is lagging behind in this kind of commitment, he would take a step to solve the problem.

The Talibans had destroyed 600 schools as they felt girls did not have the right to education. When Malala protested against this she was brutally shot by a gunman when she was traveling by bus to school.

She did not fear at all when the gun man had inquired for her but bravely proclaimed who she was and was shot for no big crime but for a human right that she deserved. Taliban’s plan was to conquer her voice so that she could not stand up for her right in the future anymore.

The Taliban’s shot her but failed to completely kill her and this has now given courage to every girl child in Pakistan to stand up for their educational right. They are now confident that the government will take a step to improve the educational scenario in this country.

Now, Ziauddin Yousafzai has become a special educational activist and he makes it sure that every girl child has access to proper education worldwide. Malala have decided to join the campaign once she recovers. It has been also declared that on Malala’s birthday i.e. next July 12^th she will ask children walk out on to the streets to protest against the heartless Taliban people who had destroyed the school decorum.

Teachers to Clear an Exam to become Eligible to Teach!

Why should only student’s clear exam to be promoted to the next class and why not teachers take an exam to be regarded as qualified to hold the post of a teacher in a school or college? Well with time transformation is taking place that is changing the academic scenario gradually.

Recently the President of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten came up with one of the best Education Reform Policy that has made it mandatory for teachers to crack the exam that judge whether they are fit to hold the designation of a facilitator.

This proposal was long due and finally a step has been taken to give a fresh outlook to the global academic setting. We have often seen teachers who are not familiar with a particular subject have been assigned that subject to teach the children in the school. It is one of the worst ways of imparting knowledge to the learners as they fail to give the right kind of information to the pupils.

It was found that 34% of maths teachers, 25% of English teachers and 25% of science teachers were not fit to teach those particular subjects as they did not hold any proper qualification. More worse was that there were quite a number of under qualified teachers who were teaching in schools that were concentrated under the marginal student bodies.

The 2008 report “Core Problems” claimed that there were many out-of-field instructors who were in charge of the prime academic programs. The students who were subjected to this kind of injustice and partiality were generally from the low income families and those pupils who were of colour. It is very clear that people who belonged to the minority group were discriminated.

It is also true that teachers who have earned innumerable degrees have got to do nothing with their teaching skill in school. To an extent the way a teacher teaches the pupils also depends on their individual inherited teaching skill. But the ‘new found’ reformation is a big achievement for the educational field.

An Education Model to Look up to

“Upon the subject of education, not presuming to dictate any plan or system respecting it, I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people can be engaged in”

- Abraham Lincoln.

March 9, 1832 First Political Announcement

American Public Education system has stood witness to the modernization of Education through various educational reforms whereby America took efforts so that all children deserve equal opportunities in the school house.

Reforms arising from the civil rights era:

From the 1950s to the 1970s, many of the proposed and implemented reforms in U.S. education stemmed from the CivilRights Movement and related trends; examples include ending racial segregation, and busing for the purpose of desegregation, affirmative action, and banning of school prayer.

Reform efforts in the 1980s:

President Regan’s efforts for the promotion of education are reflected in the book “Nation at Risk”. In the latter half of the decade, E. D. Hirsch advocated “cultural literacy” and launched attacks on the versions of progressive education.

Reform efforts in the 1990s and 2000s:

By the time 90’s came most the districts and states had adopted the Outcome-BasedEducation (OBE) which was later followed up by the NoChild Left Behind Act of 2001, which is still in a mandate stage.

Contemporary issues:

In the first decade of the 21st century, several issues are salient in debates over further education reform:

• Longer school day or school year
• After-school tutoring
• Charter schools, school choice, or school vouchers
• Smaller class sizes
• Improved teacher quality
  • Improved training
  • Higher credential standards
  • Generally higher pay to attract more qualified applicants
  • Performance bonuses ("merit pay")
  • Firing low-performing teachers
• Internet and computer access in schools
• Track and reduce drop-out rate
• Track and reduce absenteeism
• English-only vs. bilingual education
• Mainstreaming special education students
• Content of curriculum standards and textbooks
• Funding, neglected infrastructure, and adequacy of educational supplies.
  
  

Florida’s Achievements in Implementing Education Reforms:

However, inspite of all the contemporary issues, Florida has managed to become one of the few states that have responded well to the concept of truly educating the child through a comprehensive system of school reforms. Through school accountability measures those schools performed badly and fell in the rank of D’s and F’s have now moved up the ladder and are performing well with B’s and A’s.

Florida also created new opportunities by providing the low income family members to transfer their children to private schools through scholarships, charter schools and all. Moreover Florida promoted early literacy. Children who did not perform well and remained illiterate till the 3^rd standard were not promoted. On the contrary they were provided with intensive reading instruction so as to improve their reading and writing skills.

Not only in schools, Florida is also taking initiatives at the college level by introducing Advanced Placement classes and is encouraging the students to appear for the college entrance exams. Infact the SAT scores of the African American and Hispanic Community improved a lot in comparison to the other countries.

Although a huge gap still persists before it can be claimed that achievement is nearby but still at least we know which direction needs to be followed. Florida’s contribution in the education system is looked up as a national model of “what works”. It has opened up a middle avenue for both the centre-left and centre-right parties.

This powerful bipartisan convergence was on display at the NationalSummit on Education Reform this week in Washington DC, where former New York City School Chancellor Joel Klein and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice joined in agreement on the education reform measures needed to ensure national security. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush also joined in supporting strong school and teacher accountability as well as measurable student outcome-based approaches to education reform.

President Obama declared that "it is time for us to work together, just like Jeb and I are doing — coming from different parties, but we came together not as Democrats and Republicans but as Americans."

Right Time To Bring About Changes In Higher Education

The importance of higher education is gaining prominence all over the world these days as people are starting to understand the value of a good education. With the job market becoming more and more challenging by the day, students are now queuing up to get college degrees that will help them accelerate their careers.

Joseph E. Aoun, president of Northeastern University said that America’s “higher-education” system has hit a high in recent times as citizens now want to take education’s aid to get better jobs and fulfill incomplete dreams. They also want to compete at a global level and a high school graduate or a bachelor’s degree holder cannot do that, they need to be more prepared.

He also said that, people these days want flexible or online education options and opportunities to learn experientially. They also want to expose themselves to global experiences and certain changes need to be made in the higher education system to accommodate the requirements of students. Aoun also noticed how people were concerned about rising costs, competition on a global basis and finding jobs after graduation.

Students these days say that they have fewer job opportunities than their parents’ had.

"I think the single most important thing that higher education has to do is do what it does best, and that is 'think.' Thinking is the essence of what universities have been doing for a thousand years, and as we think, we should be unafraid to disrupt the received wisdom. That's also been a great strength in the advancement of knowledge."

• John Sexton, President of New York University

Sexton also added that higher education must find ways of being innovative and creative. Also, the role technology plays in higher education was brought into the forefront.

"One of the things that has emerged from the use of technology in education is that the questions of what exactly are people learning and how do we assess it has to come to the front and center of how these new courses are constructed. For courses with thousands of people in them, it's not possible to just use the traditional, somewhat ad hoc assessment mechanisms that we've employed in higher education."

• Daphne Koller, co-founder of Coursera

Higher education has to be modified to meet the needs and changes of the present generation, where time is short and necessities are high. And if certain modifications are not made the higher education won’t be able to help us progress in life.

Are High School students College Ready?

The new statistics of the Department of Education claimed that only 29% of high school students are eligible for college studies. Last year only 28% students were qualified, this implies that there has been no improvement at all.

The grades achieved by the students exposes the real scenario of the city schools, educational experts declares that only a group of children in the school are guided well to produce good results whereas the rest of them are overlooked. This tremendously affects their final year high school result.

In fact it has been estimated that in more than 500 high schools less than the average number of students were prepared for graduation level studies. And it is indeed surprising that in total of 25 schools only 70% students were fit to study in the college.

To come out of this problem schools must make sure that the students are well prepared to take the SAT exam and perform well in it. Strict regulation must be introduced to take test of the students to see whether they really deserve to fit into a good institution.

Now, it has become necessary for the school administration to look into the performance of the students in their institutions so that all of them pass with flying colors and make their way in good colleges. There is tough competition among all students these days so there is a dire need for quality education at school level.

It was also predicted that almost one third of the students in school are still not proficient in English. This is one major problem that hampers a student’s studies as most of the subjects are taught in this language. So school as well as family of the kids must take care and see that they are able to learn the important language.

The education department should take the initiative to figure out the problem that the average students are facing and there will be gradual upgrading in the education system. In fact in the year 2012 there has been quite an improvement. Thus students have become aware of the fact that only good grades in school will get them enrolled in good colleges.

The Difference A Person Can Make To Empower Girls In Less Developed Countries

There are very few people in this world who go out of their way to help people in need. We are yet to realize  that the “power of one” is not just a mere saying because one person can actually make a huge difference. There are so many people in this world, children, women and the elderly who need help. All they ask for is a helping hand and all we need to do is reach out.

Philanthropists all over the world work towards the betterment of societies in need. They work for the greater good. There are charities which help the needy worldwide, many celebrities help with raising money for various causes but seldom do we find regular people, the ordinary man, involving themselves in selfless acts like helping out the poor, not just monetarily but also by providing them with a good education and helping them out of exploitation.

The lack of education for the girl child is something that should receive a great deal of attention. Katie Meyler, age 30, a woman from Bernardsville is a living example of how a ‘common person’, with the help of a few genuinely interested people, can make a huge difference.

The Power of One

Meyler, who had a disturbed past and troubled childhood, now runs her own non-profit organisation, “The More than Me Foundation” with the commitment to educate and empower young girls in Liberia who are at risk of being sexually exploited. Meyler’s work has been appreciated by many. She has been called:

“The most passionate person we’ve ever met”- Bono’s ONE Foundation.

“Social Media Role-Model”- at a UN sponsored Mashable event.

“Outstanding Woman of the Year”- N.J. Commission on the Status of Women.

When she was in the senior year of high school, Meyler got the chance of going to Haiti. She learned how to raise money, so that she could sponsor her trip. On Haiti, Meyler said:

“In Haiti, I was meeting people who didn't have clean drinking water, and who were sleeping in their cars to stay warm. I found out I wasn't really poor, and I became obsessed with people in poor countries.”

Her hard work paid off as she won a service scholarship award from the former US president, Bill Clinton. This helped her attend college. In 2006, when she was working for a relief agency, she decided to visit Liberia, West Africa, to help out the people there. About her choice of country, Meyler said:

“No one chooses Liberia, Liberia chooses you. I got there after a brutal revolution, with one in three women getting raped.”

In Liberia

When she was in the distressed country she found a lot about their state, especially the state of young girls. She said that the girls their wanted only one thing:

“They would answer by saying ‘I just want to go to school, I want an education, that’s what I want more than anything.’”

She put her heart and soul into working for the benefit of young girls in Liberia. She started by getting them into school first. Currently, her objective is to build a lot of school so that she can help empower girls with education. Now, Meyler has the opportunity to win a million dollars with which she will help develop the state of girls in Liberia. She is now trying to win the American Giving Awards competition and is seeking everyone’s help to reach her aim.