Student+Commentary+(Question+4)

=Standards, Funding and Vocational Training=

1) Educational standards on a global scale--should one international organization decide, or should it be done on a country-by-country basis?

2) How can both developed and developing countries allocate their finances towards education in a way that is efficient, helpful, and makes sense?

3) What should societies base their teaching on--vocational training, liberal arts, or religion? With changing technology, how can educational systems be agile and versatile enough to maintain viability?


 * (Discussion 4, October 7th 2007)**

3) Each society should give the students the right to choose what they want to do. (Gabriela Dziki)
 * 1) I believe that one organization should write out the outline of educational standards, but each country should use them according to their believes and financial status.

developed countries, should collaborate with countries that need help in improving their educational system. the developed countries, should also play a prominent role in this, allowing the developed countries to do so, and assessing, regions that most need a literacy boost. I think that societies should base their teaching on more technical themes and, liberal arts. technical themes, like technology, as with the rapidly growing world, the students would have to compete. Liberal arts, because they help an individual develop personality and understand issues, and improve their general understanding, which helps them make decisions, and improve their thought process when they are older (Manas Bajaj)
 * I think that education, should be done on a country-by-country basis, because ever country has different educational requirements, an example is, America would need a different kind of education than Burkina Faso.

3) I think it should be based on religion because that it very important within countries and is sometimes based on what is taught in that country because of their religious views. (Monica Salgaonkar)
 * 1) I think educational standards should be based on an international organization because the if the country has not already taken the initiative to educate the children than I am not sure they are capable of determining their educational standards. I think an organization might not know what is best for that country but might do better than the country itself
 * 1) 2 might be hard for some countries to maintain so, I don't like that one too much

2. Nations should allocate their finances towards staff that is capable to teach a required curriculum, and in nations such as India, the effective supervising of educational facilities is vital. Governments should also allocate monetary funds with perspective towards less developed regions within a nation. 3. Societies should base their education differently depending on the progress of a nation. In India, for example, the less developed areas should focus more on vocational training however, the "higher classes" will not give up an education focusing more on liberal arts. Religion, however, will bring about an unnecessary divider between the people of a nation. Some might even argue that education is great way to bring people of different religions together. (Ankit S.)
 * 1. Yes, I feel that the best way to maximize education levels in under developed nations is to standardize the required curriculum however this should not hold back private schools from offering more intense programs.

This question seems to have the most scope as it is an international issue rather than one that a specific country has. 2) Hard to answer as it will be specific to a country 3) Try and add this to 1 and combine them to have the final question. (Aniket Kotnis)
 * 1) I believe that education should be more global and regulated by an international organization to ensure that everyone receiving an education has the skills required to succeed in the world. However, the local traditions and language should not be forgotten and children should also have the option to learn their native language in school.

3) Societies should base their teachings on vocational training. Since there is a lot of new technology for different job fields, people should be trained in what they choose. One has to keep up with all the new technology to succeed. So, by using vocational training people can succeed, not only generally but in the certain job field they prefer as well. (Ambika Chand Lall)
 * 1) I think that educational standards should be done on a country-by-country basis so that the standards vary. The only reason for this is because some countries don't have proper schools, therefore the standard is already lower than others. By having it done using country-by-country the standards are easier to live up to than a higher standard set by a more well off country.

This question is really interesting to think about, because each country has a different culture, which keeps them from educating different parts of society and this makes it difficult to find a solution or at least a proposal how to break the barrier and provide education for all. 2. This question is really interesting to discuss, because we see money disappearing in different ways. So first of all these ways have to be blocked in order to have the money for the goal to provide education. And the second thing is how this could be done. Then people can discuss about how to distribute money to education. (Piet Schoettler)
 * (3) I think that they should use the vocational training because it seem like the most helpful to help people get a certain job on that topic they choose. I also think that vocational training is the best because it will at least give the students a fall back job so if they want to further their education and it goes badly then they will have some sort of income of the job that they took up in vocational training. well the only way that it can stay with tech is by funding and donation of comps by people. (Premal Jay Shelat)
 * 1. I think that each country should decide on its own how to educate the people. But it has to make sure that the basic skills like reading, writing and calculating are taught.

2) Give up their pride! 3) Societies should either base their educational system on al three areas but in countries with less money, which ever area will significantly help the masses-which means getting over themselves and stop being lazy and selfish. (Justin Martin)
 * 1) I think that if each country decided to fill their own standards of and for education, there would be a decline in the peace of the world and a common misunderstanding of certain subjects-if not all. A certain perspective on the outlook of life and common welfare would change also and possiblally a war might start. So no I don't think each country should have their own way of education. The only way the world will have peace is if it has a common understanding of at least one thing- then possibly it will unite further.

3) Societies should make up their education differently. they should depend on their progress of a nation. (Alon Sivan)
 * 1) I think that the organization should decide an outline of educational standards. However I think that each country should use according for them.

3) What should societies base their teaching on--vocational training, liberal arts, or religion? With changing technology, how can educational systems be agile and versatile enough to maintain viability? I think that societies should base their teaching on vocational training because there is some unnecessary information that you do not need to know. And there is so much to learn on one topic, you should basically concentrate on that. (Aliya Modi)
 * 1) Educational standards on a global scale--should one international organization decide, or should it be done on a country-by-country basis? I think it should be done country-by-country because for example how can Africa live up to American school standards. Each country should have their own education standards, but at the end they should all end up covering the needed information, in order to go into the world and be able to know the same amount of things that a others do. And to have that opportunity, to learn the what others are learning, you shouldn’t be put at a disadvantage if you are coming from a third world country.

3) Mostly, societies should base their teachings on primarily the needs of the individual students. It should direct its teachings in a way that it helps the student reach his/ her dream or goal rather than base it on group matters. (Jun Yoon)
 * 1) I think that standards of education should be done in a country-by-country basis due to the fact that there are places in the world, which want their students to have more success than others in the world and give them hard-course education courses (mostly in under-developed or developing countries) and for those countries, they actually need harsh educations due to the huge competition that is happening in the educational world and the future developmental process that the students would probably burdened with later on.

Even in a country like India existing cultural norms may color the possibilities of education for girls. Then there are some Islamic countries where it is equally negative for girls. In the developed world the question may be more about the percentage of girls who take science vs. humanities. I think it is important to be aware of these variables as we propose a solution to the existing problems (Sushmita Hodges)
 * I agree with you that religion can have a divisive influence while education can be an equalizer. However what can a country or a group, which is dictated by religious morals, and laws do to provide educational opportunities to all?