President Elect- Donald Trump On Educational Policies

president-elect-donald-trump-on-educational-policiesEver since Donald Trump won the presidential election, there is deep worry, interest and curiosity about his policies and how they will impact the nation. More specific information is being rolled out each day that grabs headlines and eyeballs not just in the United States but the world over. Even before he has officially assumed office, Donald Trump, as president elect has begun affecting key policies, one such that gained attention was their education policy.

Donald Trump’s team is of the belief that their public education system has collapsed because the system offers them no competition. To change this, their policies will center around 3 points – end Common Core, providing parents with choice of school and removal of the federal government hand from the student loaning system.

The way they see it, this empowers parents to choose a school right for their children from the existing president-elect-donald-trump-on-educational-policies2private, charter or public schools and create healthy competition for public schools to excel. They have no other choice but to shape up ship out.

The new policy plans to re-appropriate $20 billion amassed as education funds into vouchers of around $12,000 for parents to avail at a public, private or charter school. The policy also expects the state to chip in with funds nearly five times more than what the federal government doled out towards education.

This system has been affected in Indiana by the Vice-President elect, Mike Pence. Consequently some positive changes were noticed. The overall grade of the state had increased in the National Assessment of Educational Progress. But there is no study correlating the two and may well be an independent accomplishment by schools. No findings revealed that the voucher policy impacted the health of the school system.

There are some initial studies confirming however those students who switched from public to private schools had scored poorly in math.

People have no clues what to conclude. Discussions are still very much underway about its pros and cons. There are no predictions from experts whether the stand taken by the policy makers will pay off.

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Zanzibar’s Quiet Miracle Has Benefitted Children!

zanzibars-quiet-miracle-has-benefitted-children2Indeed Tanzania has something to look up to – a brighter future. After years of staying behind in the field of education due to the immense poverty the citizens live in, there is a reason to smile. The silver lining in the cloud is that larger bodies such as the education stakeholders and the government of Tanzania have joined hands to promote free education among the children and thereby make an investment in the future of the country.

January 2014 marked Zanzibar’s 50th Revolution anniversary. In July 2015 the president Ali Mohammed Shein restarted the zanzibars-quiet-miracle-has-benefitted-children1Free Education Policy. The biggest achievement is that despite all odds of not having enough desks or benches, new schools have reported a huge rise in student enrollments.  However for the free education policy to thrive a lot more is required than what exists currently. There is an acute shortage of facilities, classrooms, benches and desks and most importantly, qualified teachers to take the movement forward.

Nursery education was made compulsory after implementation of Free Education Policy. According to this policy the parents of children from nursery to Standard Six need not contribute anything towards fees. And Dr.Shein’s election manifesto had stated that the secondary education fees will also be abolished including exam fees. It needs to be seen if this will be implemented.