Page 66 - EducationWorld Aug 2020 Flipbuilder

International News

perceived threats by China over its students. Chinese stu-
dent fees make up 25-30 percent of income at some top
Australian universities. While that figure is lower at British
universities, Chinese students are still worth an estimated
£1.7 billion (Rs.16,490 crore) to the UK’s higher education
sector. They also heavily subsidise public higher educa-
tion in the US and Canada. The one place where mainland
China has implemented an actual ban on student outflows
is Taiwan, a self-governed island with a population of 23
million that Beijing considers its territory. The ban came
after Taiwan shut its borders in February to everyone who
was not a Taiwan resident, including mainland Chinese. It
has been in essence free of Covid-19 since April.

UNITED KINGDOM
History revisionism debate Education secretary Michael Gove: history wars woes

IN HIS FOUR YEARS AS UK’S EDUCATION sec- identify with the protagonists makes for “more passionate
retary, Michael Gove has learned that no subject historians”. Hannah Cusworth, head of history at a school
on the curriculum is as contentious as history. As with a sizeable minority of black pupils, teaches children
he acknowledged in a speech in 2013, it can be an “ideologi- about Miranda Kaufmann’s book, Black Tudors, in part to
cal battleground” for “contending armies”. In the past few demonstrate “there was a history before slavery”.
months, UK’s history wars have spilled onto the streets. Re- In the end, change is likely to come organically. Teachers
visionism has required toppling statues rather than hosting are most comfortable talking about topics they themselves
seminars; the worth of literature classics and television is were taught. As university curriculums evolve, so will the
being radically reappraised. Campaigners want the curricu- classroom. And as academics like Kaufmann unearth more
lum “decolonised” and the history of black Britons made neglected stories from the past, teachers like Cusworth will
compulsory in schools. be excited to pass them on. History may be a battlefield, but
Partly in reaction to such demands, Policy Exchange, its terrain is always shifting.
a think-tank close to the government, launched a “history
matters” project on June 29, to “address the rewriting of GLOBAL
history as it happens”. But right-wingers are equally keen Massive pandemic cost
on disseminating the ‘right kind’ of history. Gove’s first at-
tempt to rewrite the history curriculum to give “a connected F THE 1.5 BILLION CHILDREN FORCED OUT OF
sense of the narrative of our islands” was widely criticised school by lockdowns around the globe, 700 million
as narrow and triumphalist. Oare in developing countries. Like pupils in rich
Yet demands to add or remove pet topics from the na- countries, their education is suffering. But the consequenc-
tional curriculum are largely pointless. Most children at- es in poor places will be far worse. Before the pandemic,
tend academy, free schools or private schools, none of more children were in school than ever before, according
whom are bound by the curriculum. In any case, it only to Robert Jenkins, head of education at Unicef, the United
applies until children turn 14, when the subject becomes Nations’ children’s fund. In its aftermath nearly 10 million
optional, and provides vague menus of suggested topics that children in 40 countries might never return to formal edu-
leave teachers plenty of choice. “The power is really with cation, estimates Save the Children, the well-known charity.
history teachers and schools,” says Michael Riley of Uni- The economic impact of the pandemic has forced many
versity College London. “They have the freedom to devise to abandon their studies in favour of work. Between 2000
the curriculum they want.” and 2020 the number of children in work around the
Many are beginning to do just that. According to a survey world fell by 40 percent, mostly because more were going
in 2019 by the Historical Association, an educational char- to school. Covid-19 is undoing that progress. In the Demo-
ity, about four in ten state schools have altered their lessons cratic Republic of Congo growing numbers are helping their
in the last two years to include a broader range of history. parents in mines, says Stephanie Shumsky of Pact, an aid
Take Jaspreet Kaur, a history teacher who likes to ask “who group. Others are being recruited into militias. In Jordan
am I ignoring?” when planning lessons. That has meant young Syrian refugees are toiling on farms.
educating her pupils about Sophia Duleep Singh, an Indi- Experts are most worried about the effect on girls. In
an suffragette, as well as Emmeline Pankhurst. She argues the handful of places that have reopened schools, such as
that teaching topics in a way that allows all her students to Vietnam and the Ivory Coast, teachers say girls are notably

66 EDUCATIONWORLD AUGUST 2020