education

Buy your bribe online

Team Observers — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:46:41 +0100

Published on the website "mstaml".

"Looking for well-connected person ready to accept a bribe for a job in telecommunications. Serious applicants only". In Saudi Arabia, this type of online classified ad is nothing out of the ordinary – it’s just another way to find a job.

The Saudi classified ad website "mstaml" (usager) is one of the most popular in the country, with up to 570,000 daily visitors. At first sight, it’s the Arabic version of any mainstream classified ad site, with postings for real estate, cars, jobs, electrical appliances and the like… On closer inspection, however, the site is peppered with hundreds of ads blatantly advertising all types of corruption, whether it be to obtain a job, a visa or government funding of some kind. According to our Observer, the practice is so common it is almost official.

"Looking for a work certificate for the period going from July 2003 to July 2008 in a large company. Name your price, as long as you get it for me"

Published on the website "mstaml".

Expelled for wearing a miniskirt… in Brazil

Team Observers — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:08:39 +0100

A 20-year-old tourism student has been expelled from a Sao Paulo university after chaos broke out on campus when she turned up in a short dress.

The photos above show Geisy Arruda sitting in class at Bandeirante University (Uniban) on October 22. So outraged by her outfit, her classmates took photos of her to post online. When she left the class, a group of boys started following and taunting her. One student is heard shouting "Shout at her people!" The situation escalated to such a point that the police were called to escort her from the premises in a professor's white coat. As she's being led out, the crowd chants "Puta!" (whore) repeatedly. The incident was filmed by several students on mobile phones; who then posted the footage on YouTube.

Amateur images compiled by TV IG.

On November 8 Arruda's university placed a public notice (below) in Sunday newspapers. Entitled "Educational Responsibility", the ad explained that Geisy Arruda had been expelled for disrespecting "ethical principles, academic dignity and morality". It also said that the university would be temporarily suspending some of the students seen heckling the 20-year-old in the videos.

The decision has caused outrage across the country. Both the national student union and Brazil's top official for women's policy, Nilcea Freire, have publicly condemned it.

UPDATE (11.11.09 - 9.30am): Arruda was officially readmitted to the university in a statement made on Nov. 10 by vice chancellor Ellis Brown. The location of her class will have to be changed however to make her return "more relaxed", he said.

Egypt’s biggest Islamic university bans the niqab

Sophie Team Observers — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:42:05 +0200

During a visit to a secondary school a few weeks ago, Egypt's highest Sunni authority came across a teenager wearing the full veil. Flabbergasted, he humiliated the girl, asking her "Why wear the niqab in a class full of girls?!" He then forced her to remove it.

"Wearing the niqab is a custom, not part of religion", explained Sheik Mohammed Tantawi, long-time dean of Egypt's prestigious and ancient al-Azhar University, founded in 969 and considered one of the world's number one references in the teaching of Islamic studies.

Tantawi hasn't wasted any time. He's strictly forbidden students, pupils and teachers from wearing the niqab in the al-Azhar university and its adjoining schools. And it's not unlikely that we'll see the decision followed by institutions throughout the country. Sheik Tantawi's decision comes just after the Minister for Higher Education banned students who wear the niqab from living in student halls.

Islamic opposition group the Muslim Brotherhood has seized upon the move to vehemently criticise the government. Since the beginning of the week, numerous demonstrations outside universities have been staged in protest.

In 2001, the American University in Cairo banned girls from wearing the niqab on campus for security reasons, but in 2007, the decision was overruled by the Supreme Court. Girls who wear the full veil were thereafter required to identify themselves to a female watchman before entering the campus.

Is Farouk Hosni worthy of leading UNESCO?

Sophie Team Observers — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 09:43:00 +0200

Posted on the Facebook group "Farouk Hosni NO for UNESCO"

UNESCO will choose its new general director this evening. It's Farouk Hosni, Egyptian Culture Minister since 1986, who looks set to succeed Koïchiro Matsuura at the head of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation. But will the man who pledged to "burn" Israeli books really fit the bill?

Hosni's anti-Semitic accusations weigh heavily on his chances for the appointment. Last year for example, he responded to a query about Israeli books appearing in an Alexandria library by saying "Burn these books; if there are any there, I will burn them myself in front of you".

They are declarations which Hosni now regrets saying. Writing in French newspaper Le Monde on Wednesday, he expressed "solemn regret" but asked his critics to "focus on the 27 years of public service devoted to culture, (...) mankind, creation, The Book and books in general".

We asked our respective Egyptian and Israeli Observers if UNESCO should have looked elsewhere.

Cheating their way into uni, Bond style

Sophie Team Observers — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:19:24 +0200

Cheating is as old as exams themselves. In China however, cheating involves a cunning blend of technology, innovation, and acting. Rubbers with miniature screens, rulers with inbuilt cameras, earpieces... we're a long way from cheat sheets and writing on the inside of your pencil case.

Each June more than 10 million students pass their gaokao exam in order to get into university. It's a crucial test for degree hopefuls - 40% of those who take the test fail, and the remaining are chosen by institutions depending on their results.

The secret to passing the test has been discovered in Songyuan College in Jilin province, north of the country. As revealed by daily paper China Youth, the students in the exam hall transmit the questions to those on the exterior using mini cameras or mini microphones implanted in a rubber or a ruler. They then receive the answers through an earpiece or a mini screen built into a piece of stationary.

The extent of the phenomenon is difficult to determine. According to the local press, the Songyuan police identified 33 college students who cheated during their exam and subsequently arrested 34 people suspected of fitting stationary with equipment.

Left, the rubber which shows the answers, right, one that transmits the candidate's voice. Source: Xinhuanet.

A ruler fitted with a screen for displaying answers. Source: Xinhuanet.

An earpiece used for passing the answers to the candidate. Source: Sohu.

This is an illustration of how the system works: students who need help in passing the exam obtain an earpiece, which they then hook up to the airwaves of a "cheat gang" who send the answers in return for money.

Border dispute: Mexican residents attending US state-funded schools

Sophie Team Observers — Thu, 28 May 2009 16:37:33 +0200

This video claims to show dozens of Mexican residents crossing the border into Arizona and being driven by bus to a school in the town of Douglas, where they allegedly attend a state-funded school. The document has caused a furore in the southwestern state.

The video was released on the state's education department website last Thursday. It was filmed by a staff member of the department, which is run by Republican Tom Horne. He insists that the footage "demonstrates conclusively" that the Omega Alpha Academy school in the town of Douglas is accepting students who reside in Mexico, at a cost of $300,000 [€217,000] per year to Arizona tax payers, and that the school is doing so knowingly:

"Since these vans operate either on school property or in areas immediately adjacent to the property, in full view of school staff, in order to pick up and drop off students, it is impossible that school leadership is unaware of this practice."

The school's leadership responded to the accusation the very next day. Director Jose Frisby scoffed at the alleged "evidence" and pointed out that the Arizona Department of Education had audited the school twice and found it to be in compliance with the law:

"This [is] an edited video that is neither time nor date stamped. Where a student goes before or after school is entirely up to the student, [...this accusation] ignores the reality of cross border traffic that occurs every day in our community. [...] Every student at Omega Alpha Academy has presented evidence, in a form approved by the Arizona Department of Education (ADE), demonstrating residency. (...)"

Giving birth on the school field

Sophie Team Observers — Thu, 21 May 2009 16:21:20 +0200

This video of a UK teenager giving birth on a school field has been blocked by YouTube.

It looks as though it was filmed with a camera phone, and it's pretty convincing. That's why a local health service in the UK put it online. It's part of a campaign to shock teens into the realities of unprotected sex - a tough challenge in the midlands city of Leicester, where around five percent of girls aged between 15 and 17 become pregnant each year. In fact the scene is really played by actors. Despite the campaign's good intentions, however, YouTube decided to ban the video 24 hours after it went online on 14 May.

Pakistan’s ghost schools… "partly funded by the World Bank"

Team Observers — Mon, 04 May 2009 10:52:00 +0200

A school which serves as a barn for animals. Photo published on the front page of daily Dawn 30 April 09.

One of our Observers in Pakistan tells us that in the Sindh province alone, there are more than 7,000 schools - partly financed by the World Bank - which don't actually exist. The money is pouring into the local authorities, but the schools are never opened.

Another of our Pakistani Observers, Awab Alvi alerted us to this story.

Murdered by her own teacher. Why?

Sophie Team Observers — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 14:13:08 +0200

Two years ago, 11-year-old Zhang Yaoyin was beaten with a metal bar and thrown from her fourth-floor classroom by her history teacher. On Monday a Chinese chat forum dug up and posted a graphic news report about the incident, reigniting the debate about how such a tragedy came to pass.

The girl, from Yongzhou City, Hunan province, was brutally killed as her secondary school classmates looked on. Her 28-year-old assailant, Li Hengyi, was convicted of murder, but evaded a jail sentence because he was found to be schizophrenic. Although his parents were made to pay a 20,000 yuan medical bill (around €2,100) for the research into their son's mental condition, there was no criminal charges. Eleven-year-old Zhang Yaoyin's mother disputed the sentence, demanding to know how a "mental patient" got a job looking after children. Which is what webusers are asking after a news report originally posted on Youku.com was picked by dzh.mop.com on Monday. The clip contains footage of bloodstains in the classroom where the girl was attacked, and images of her clothes, covered in flies, lying outside the school. It has provoked an emotional response online, where webusers have taken on the investigation themselves, asking whether Chinese schoolteachers are properly vetted for psychopathic tendencies. A secondary school teacher in the country says no.

WARNING, THIS VIDEO CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES.

The news report, by Shanghai Oriental Television, shows images of Zhang Yaoyin's shoes, hair and clothes and teeth lying on the ground. A child in the class said that Li Hengyi pulled out Zhang Yaoyin's hair when he banged her head against a desk several times.

Mum's not married? No school for you then

Sophie Team Observers — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 13:40:42 +0200

Seven-year-old Xiao Qing's parents weren't married when she was born. Considered illegitimate by the state, she's not allowed to go to school until her mother pays a €900 fee. Not so easy when you're unemployed...

The parents of children born out of wedlock are forced to pay a hefty fine to make them "legitimate" citizens. Without this, the children can't go to school until they get their "hukou", a kind of residency permit delivered by the local authorities' family planning department. The permit comes at a cost of 9000RMB (€900) - a high price for the potential consequences of sex before marriage.

Xiao Qing's mother, unemployed and abandoned by Xiao's father, couldn't afford to pay the fine. For the past two months she appealed to every relevant authority in Zhuhai (south China) to get her daughter into school. But her plea went unheard by the family planning department, the education department, the sub-district office and the local council. So the single mother tried to catch the attention of the local media. Xiao Qing stood outside Gongbei Xiawan Primary School with a sign that read "I am a local child. I want to receive compulsory education, too!" A local journalist did take pity on the seven-year-old, but when he suggested the idea to his paper they refused it. So Han Tao posted the pictures on his blog. He managed to drum up enough support that the local authorities pledged to allow Xiao to go to school. But when she arrived for her first day, the school refused her, saying they didn't have enough places.