Isreali classrooms among the world’s most crowded

This article published in YnetNews.com on the 10th of May exposes the extent in which classrooms in Isreal are over crowded and, it can be assumed; less effective in teaching approaches.

Over-crowding in Isreali Schools Photo: Ilan Mizrahi, Ynet.com

According to the OECD’s study, there is an average of 32.8 students per class in Israeli middle schools, compared to an average of 23.8 in other developed countries. Israeli elementary school classes contain an average of 27.5 students, compared to 20.2 in other developed countries.

The article is split into two sections. First; the basic information; the who, what, when, where, why, and how. The next session is about the governemntal responce to the claims, and the steps needed to improve education in Israel.

The article finished with Knesset’s Education Committee Chairman MK Zevulun Orlev, calling for an ‘emergency meeting’; so heaps of potential for follow stories. Furthermore, there is a link into a story about decline test results, underpaid techers and more on the overcrowded classrooms. Stories comparing the state of education in Israel to other Middle Easter nations would be interesting, especially in light of current conflicts through the region.

This publication caters to a Jewish audience who’s;

…intent is to provide you an information and leisure service that will be a tool for decisions, studies, entertainment and management of your daily lives. Ynet will be at your service all the time, in every place.

so seeing stories about education in this publication, is not so much a big deal, and actually a point of interest for its’ target audience.

Student’s face burnt in science accident

Posted on the ABC on the 6th, the article is a short news story on a chemestry accident went wrong.

An 18-year-old man is in hospital with acid burns after a chemistry experiment went wrong at a Melbourne school.

The student was taking part in the experiment in the yard of the South Yarra school, in Melbourne’s inner south-east, when a container of acid was dropped and he was splashed in the face.

He is being treated for minor burns to the forehead.

The 3 sentence article covers the who, what, where and how, but the reader is left without a when. It was interesting have this tagged as education, even though it happened at a school, it does not really have that much to do with education. However, soem follow up stories would be an investigation into saftey in school science labs and any other similar incidents that have occured in the past.

Tests a turn-off for teachers

So, firstly, before I start on this article, I want to change my opinon on the previous artcle about it being short. Being an article on the interent, space is not an issue, so I guess stories can be as long (or as short) as the writer wants.

So now: this article, published on ABC News on the 2nd of May about the teacher’s reaction to news of a reccomendation made by the government to test new teachers on numeracy and literacy before joining the profession.

Queensland students. Picture from: ABC TV news

The union’s Terry Burke says it is a knee-jerk response.

“It doesn’t encourage anyone to remain a teacher and it also disencourages, I would think, those people who may be contemplating becoming a teacher,” he said.

“If you’re so little regarded as a teacher that you have to do a maths and science test before you can become a teacher then there’s not too much attraction in staying in the profession.”

As this is a fairly recent story, there is heaps of room for follow up stories. Stories could be done on the results that cuased this reccomendation (the poor results by Queensland students). Also, the process that new teachers have to take to get into the proffession.

Conflict is a major element in this article as well as playing on the prospect of not having fresh teachers willing to educate the next generation.