In today’s talking points: Chinese education mode sets sail to find new opportunities abroad; Chinese teachers fill skills gap in the NT; New unit announced to bolster NSW schools; Time is ripe for WA to scoop up international students
Chinese education mode sets sail to find new opportunities abroad
The seminar of the Chinese and English version of Portraits of Chinese Schools was held in Beijing on April 23, 2017. The book was published by the Higher Education Press and Springer last year. The seminar was organized by the Higher Education Press and Institute of International and Comparative Education, Beijing Normal University. Officials, professors and scholars from well-known universities, headmasters of Chinese schools, experts and researchers in the education field as well as publishing editors were invited to the event. The book reveals vividly a real picture of China’s primary and middle schools. Foreign readers who are interested in Chinese education will get a further knowledge of tremendous achievements of schooling system. Also it will increase the international influence of our nation’s teaching methods and promote the cooperation and dialogue between East and West.
Read more at China Daily
Chinese teachers fill skills gap in the NT
Chinese teachers have been recruited to teach Mandarin to Territory students, despite concerns about their pay conditions raised by the NT branch of the Australian Education Union. Four Chinese teachers are due to begin a year-long exchange in July with Darwin Middle School, Palmerston Senior College, Rosebery Middle School and Bakewell Primary School. The recruitments are a respone to a “severe” shortage of qualified Chinese teachers and prompted the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between China’s Anhui Provincial Education Department and the NT Education Department in March this year. AEU NT president Jarvis Ryan told the NT News that he was concerned the union had not been contacted by the department about the teachers’ recruitment. An Education Department spokeswoman said all costs associated with the teachers would be paid for by Chinese Government. Over four years, 20 Chinese teachers are set to work in the Territory for a year at various schools.
Read more at Education HQ
New unit announced to bolster NSW schools
A new NSW government unit tasked with building, maintaining and planning state public schools will be set up to deal with soaring student enrolments over the next 15 years. SYDNEY, April 27 – The NSW government is expected to spend $5 billion on the new Education Infrastructure NSW, which will take the responsibilities of planning and looking after infrastructure away from the education department. With public school enrolments expected to grow by 12 per cent by 2031, NSW Education Minister Rob Stokes says the initiative will allow the existing department to focus on teaching and student outcomes.
Read more at Education HQ
Time is ripe for WA to scoop up international students
The US election of Donald Trump and Britain’s decision to exit the European Union together represent a seismic shift in international relations. Old alliances are being recast and the freedom of travel of citizens from one nation to another is now less clear than just a year ago. These are uncertain times but for Australian universities there is an opportunity. In 2015, there were 498,155 international students who came to this country to further their education and as a nation we rank third in the world for attracting tertiary students. So why should Australia look to become a viable alternative for students who might otherwise have targeted the US and Britain? International education is worth $18.8 billion to Australia, making it our third largest export. The sector supports130,700 full-time equivalent employeesin Australia, nearly 10,000 of them in WA.
Read more at The west Australian