Show me the money teach

This was quite interesting. Not bad, eh? for a first time teacher, the salaries are not bad at all.

h/t Alice Cook

So I mapped this to the PISA results. Unfortunately I didnt have a full set of figures from the above table. Anyhooo,

Quite an interesting comparison, eh? Luxembourg is way down in the middle of the table. Germany is 1/4th down the table, Spain is also in the middle of the table. Doesn't seem to have a big correlation between teacher salaries and actual performance, eh? Food for thought, teach.

Does greater education actually increase generational conflict?

This was quite an interesting if controversial paper. Its basically explained by the following chart.

 

 

As the authors state:

The flow chart illustrates the transition to a vicious cycle of population aging and a decline in public education. In the early phases of industrialization, compulsory schooling regulated child labor and promoted technological progress, thereby discouraging fertility. A major education reform was eventually triggered by the rise in the young's demand for skill acquisition. However, the increased population share of the old enlarged their political power to curtail the government budget for education. The resulting positive response of private education induced further fertility decline.

The authors review the Japanese, USA, British, French, German situations with respect to economic development, ageing, public education, child labour, poverty, etc. The basic premise is given above. I am not sure that this has been thought before but this requires much thought. Actually, what else can one do? Public education is required. Its important to educate society as the economic development happens to move from labour and agriculture intensive sector to intellectual property / knowledge sector employment. Increased automation will anyway force people to work on higher value add jobs or get demoted out of the labour market.

But running the statistics on the overall education spend on the OECD countries here, I am not sure that the level of educational spending is falling. I think this needs to be reviewed a bit more

Kick in the pants

Some time back on a mailing list, we were discussing violence against kids. As I mentioned there jokingly, my mum claims that she has used almost every kitchen implement to tan my backside for being a horrible kid. But corporal punishment in the west, by and large, is now illegal. Here’s a good reasoned short debate on corporal punishment for children. Here’s another site with some good evidence on this issue.

Seems like the consensus is that while children should not be physically punished as a rule, there are exceptions where a spanking might be appropriate. How about at home? good article here. US and EU legality of corporal punishment. Red: corporal punishment not prohibited, blue only prohibited in schools and green, you will not touch the child anywhere.

 

 

 

Curiously, on the wiki site, the only countries which seem to be interested in this area are the OECD countries. Other countries from say Africa, Asia, Middle East, Latam or poorer countries…, hmmm. is concern for kids a function of rich countries only?

Which brings me to the question, if I threaten to kick my nephew in his pants, is that illegal? No. I quote:

It's OK to tell a teenager he'll get good kick in the pants if he doesn't behave, Italy's top court ruled Tuesday.
The Cassation Court, whose rulings set precedents, rejected the contention of the teen's mother that the warning amounted to a real threat and a form of abuse.
''The statement cannot be deemed abusive, given the type of language used by the new generation,'' said the court, upholding a previous decision by a Sardinian tribunal.
The court said Gavino S. a 55-year-old man from the city of Alghero, could not be accused of ''threatening'' his 15-year-old nephew Pietro S. and a group of his friends who were loitering in the stairs of their condominium.
The uncle's order to stop making noise and go home and ensuing threat to kick them all in the pants was judged by the judges to be ''incapable of sparking real fear'' in the youngsters.
The uncle's scolding ''was only meant to censure, albeit rudely, the behaviour'' of the youngsters, the court said.

USA pressing the UK to expose BAE - Saudi Corruption

Yeaaahhhhh!, great news, USA is pressing the UK to expose the corrupt dealings between BAE and Saudi Arabia. Wonderful news. We need more of this kind of transparency. And no, it is not for jobs, we dont want jobs on the basis of feeding corrupt princes who in turn are ruling and funding jihadi's. Disgusting.

They take our money on oil, then they take our money for jobs and then they buy our stufff and dont pay for it. It is a flaming joke that our Government has reduced us to. How on earth can they sleep at night knowing that they are willingly protecting a thief? Or are they into the scam as well? Quite possible, what on earth can be the reason specially since the "national security" reason has been well proven to be utterly rot in this blog and elsewhere?

Read and fume!

I quote:

US corruption investigators have gone behind the back of Downing Street to fly a British witness to Washington to testify about Saudi arms deals with the UK arms firm BAE Systems, the Guardian can disclose. In a hitherto secret move, Swiss federal prosecutors have also agreed to hand over to Washington financial records linked to the Saudi royal family.
The US is seeking - but has so far been refused - more than a million pages of documents seized from BAE, its bankers, Lloyds TSB, and the Ministry of Defence during an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office.
Prince Bandar, the former Saudi ambassador to the US, who says there was no impropriety about a £1bn payment he received for brokering arms deals with BAE, has hired a former head of the FBI and a retired British high court judge to defend his position. The British government has been attempting to block all investigations into payments from BAE to members of the Saudi regime.
British ministers are refusing to grant a six-month-old official request from the US department of justice for mutual legal assistance, in defiance of the UK's anti-bribery treaty obligations. This follows the suppression of Britain's own Serious Fraud Office investigation, which was abandoned last year on the grounds that the inquiry might jeopardise national security. The move, following Tony Blair's intervention, infuriated anti-corruption campaigners.
There was further uproar when the Guardian published the SFO's findings - that £1bn had been paid to Bandar with UK government acquiescence, and another £1bn had been sent to Switzerland to agents acting for other Saudi royals. Bandar, who was also presented with a new Airbus jet by BAE, does not deny receiving the money, but says it was for authorised purposes.



All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

The fight against corruption in 4 countries

First, UK gets publicly humiliated that it's fight against corruption is pathetic, no convictions, prosecutions or investigations. Heck, forget about investigations, they give up open and shut cases of corruption such as that of BAE. Solution? Why doesn't the OECD demand documents and have a public inquiry?

Second, the World Bank defers approval of a $232million loan because of alleged corruption in infrastructure spending. This country is one of the poorest and steadily getting poorer in corruption scales. Then this kind of stuff happens. What shame! Solution? Give the money to a private company to build operate and transfer. Have open, public tendering. Publish invoices and payment slips on the web!

A kickbacks scandal last month forced Mrs Macapagal to cancel a $330m government supply contract with a Chinese telecommunications group and order a review of all Chinese government-funded projects.

Third, small signs of hope in Kenya where the Kenyan Tax Agency, a hotbed of small scale corruption, has been cleaned up a bit and its revenues have nearly doubled since 2003.

Anti-corruption activists and diplomats say hundreds of millions of shillings collected by the KRA are still being “leaked” in other parts of the administration due to high-level corruption which, they say, remains rife under the Kibaki government, even though new measures have made it more difficult.

Fourth, ex President Chirac was under formal investigation as a suspect for embezzlement of public funds when he was the Paris Mayor. VERY GOOD!, you cannot escape! throw the guilty into jail!

Four of Mr Chirac's chiefs of staff from this period are formal suspects in the investigation, which began nine years ago. In 2004 Alain Juppé, former prime minister and ex-deputy mayor of Paris, was given a suspended prison sentence for his role in the affair. The punishment was reduced on appeal.

Technorati Tags: Corruption , OECD , United Kingdom , France , Philippines , Kenya

The OECD wakes up in 2007

The OECD has an interesting history. Typical of the Anglo Saxon Western World just after the World War II, it was for the western economies and countries. So in 2007, the same institutional contradictions that you see in the United Nations, World Bank, IMF, etc. are also shown up in the OECD.

The OECD brings together the governments of countries committed to democracy and the market economy from around the world to:
• Support sustainable economic growth
• Boost employment
• Raise living standards
• Maintain financial stability
• Assist other countries' economic development
• Contribute to growth in world trade

All very fine and good but all this without the presence of the huge economically big and important countries of Chile, Baltic , Israel, Russia, Slovenia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and South Africa. See the current list and think about the contribution that these countries are making to global growth. Can you imagine excluding the BRIC countries?

So they finally decided to wake up in May 2007 and I quote:

16/05/2007 - OECD countries agreed to invite Chile, Estonia, Israel, Russia and Slovenia to open discussions for membership of the Organisation and offered enhanced engagement, with a view to possible membership, to Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and South Africa. Extract from the Council Resolution on Enlargement and Enhanced Engagement (adopted by Council at Ministerial level on 16 May 2007)

Well, I suppose better late than never but tut tut!

Technorati Tags: OECD , Emerging Markets

If you think education is expensive, try ignorance

The above quote is from Derek Bok, an American educator and lawyer, and a former president of Harvard University. Quite an impressive chap and what he said was spot on. Getting an education is absolutely vital, and this survey from the OECD proves it.

You can see the full report here but here are the summary high level points.

• More than 40% of young people now complete university courses in Australia, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Poland, with graduation rates tending to be highest in countries where programmes are of short duration. By contrast, in Germany and Austria, where programmes are longer, only around 20% of young people get degrees.
• Higher education enrolments continue to grow, with more than 50% of high school graduates – and in some countries more than 75% -- going on to higher education.
• Even with this continued expansion, the earnings advantage of those with university degrees has not deteriorated and in many countries has in fact increased.
• Moreover, in countries where university education has expanded most, this has not gone hand in hand with deteriorating employment prospects for the lesser qualified, contrary to what many predict. Between 1995 and 2004, France, Ireland and Korea had the fastest growth in higher education attainment and saw unemployment among the less-well qualified decline or rise only marginally. By contrast, Germany, the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic had little or no growth in higher education attainment between 1995 and 2004 and substantial growth in unemployment among the less-well qualified.
• In all countries the penalties for not completing upper secondary education are significant. On average, unemployment rates among people who do not complete high school are five percentage points higher than people who complete upper secondary education and seven points higher than people with university degrees.
• The successful integration of immigrants into schooling systems is a major equity challenge in many countries. The poorer performance of first generation immigrant students compared with their native counterparts represents more than a year’s worth of study.
• Countries are collectively spending more than they have ever done on education, with expenditure increasing in real terms by more than 40% since 1995. But the results gained from that investment are far from maximized. Analysis suggests that given current levels of expenditure, learning outcomes could be increased by 22%.

Just few posts back, I talked about the challenges in Greece for example. And now the OECD says, "In contrast, many Continental European countries are not investing more public money in their universities nor are universities allowed to charge tuition fees, with the result that the European average for spending per higher education student is now well below half that of the U.S."

There are some major issues with immigrant children with the report noting, "Among the 14 OECD countries with significant immigrant populations, first-generation students lag an average of 48 score points – equivalent to more than a school year’s progress –
behind their native counterparts on the PISA mathematics scale. The performance disadvantage of second-generation students is a still-significant 40 score points. In Canada, Luxembourg, Sweden and Switzerland and the partner economy Hong Kong-China, second-generation students perform significantly better than first-generation students, with the performance gap reduced by 31 score points in Switzerland and 58 score points in Sweden."

If the OECD countries want to compete in a knowledge economy, then they have to work very hard and improve their education systems. It is no longer necessary to just invest in education or ask 50% of school leavers to go into education. See the review of the British Educational System results from the Guardian.

And if you think we are spending too much on education, see this report. This states that, "Education is worth more to UK exports than financial services or the automotive industry, according to a report published by the British Council today. A total of £28bn in 2003-04 was earned from overseas students by a sector ranging from world famous universities to small English language colleges, from independent schools to publishers and broadcasters."

It is vital that you ask about the efficiency of education and whether the education is relevant for the needs of society. For people who refuse to change, they will fall behind. Quite an interesting time ahead of us, I am afraid.

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!

Technorati Tags: Education , Schooling , University , OECD