Federal

Dispatches

January 01, 2004 2 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

MALAYSIA

Striking Legislation: Malaysian educators need spare the rod no longer. The government of this Southeast Asian nation approved caning as a form of school discipline in October, the Malaysia General News reports. Under the new regulations, principals may grant specific teachers the right to cane undisciplined students. The teachers must comply with certain conditions, such as not meting out punishment in public, because, as education minister Tan Sri Musa Mohamad explains, “Teaching through shaming someone, to me, is not the right thing to do.”


GERMANY

Manpower Problem: A group of German education officials are looking for a few good men. In some areas of the country, about 80 percent of primary school teachers are females, and Lower Saxony education minister Bernd Busemann attributes boys’ poor performance on recent international assessment tests to this “feminization” of education, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. Busemann and colleagues are calling for quotas that would force primary schools to employ teaching staff that are 30 percent to 50 percent male, providing boys with more role models and motivation. Not everyone agrees with Busemann’s reasoning. “I find it outrageous to shove the blame on female teachers,” says Brigitte Pothmer, Lower Saxony’s Green Party leader. She and others say reading material and educational quality, not teacher gender, explain male students’ lower marks.


CYPRUS

Shrine Time: A leading figure in the Cyprus Orthodox Church wants to place confessionals in state schools, reports the Greek Cypriot daily Phileleftheros. According to his proposal, Bishop Athanassios and the Limassol Diocese would pay to provide small chapels or shrines for children to privately worship, confess their sins, and be forgiven during school hours. Teachers’ unions oppose the idea, arguing that state schools educate children of many faiths and that providing benefits for one group will breed intolerance while violating the constitutional separation of church and state.


NEW ZEALAND

Corporate Perk: Administrators at a secondary school in Auckland have come up with a sporting way to thank their hardworking teachers. Rangitoto College pays more than $6,000 a year to rent its own corporate box at North Harbour Stadium, the city’s professional rugby venue. The private lounge, with bar, television, and waiters to serve dinner and drinks, is used as a reward for teachers who devote their free time to helping with school activities and coaching sports teams, the New Zealand Herald reports. “Teachers get knocked around a lot these days,” principal Allan Peachey explains."I thought it would be nice for them to experience what others in the corporate world experience.”

—Aviva Werner

Related Tags:

A version of this article appeared in the January 02, 2004 edition of Teacher Magazine as Dispatches

Events

Artificial Intelligence K-12 Essentials Forum How AI Use Is Expanding in K-12 Schools
Join this free virtual event to explore how AI technology is—and is not—improving K-12 teaching and learning.
Federal Webinar The Trump Budget and Schools: Subscriber Exclusive Quick Hit
EdWeek subscribers, join this 30-minute webinar to find out what the latest federal policy changes mean for K-12 education.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Curriculum Webinar
End Student Boredom: K-12 Publisher's Guide to 70% Engagement Boost
Calling all K-12 Publishers! Student engagement flatlining? Learn how to boost it by up to 70%.
Content provided by KITABOO

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Federal Opinion Trump's Barrage of Executive Orders for Education: How Significant Are They?
A Washington insider discusses the immediate—and long-term—implications of the administration's education goals.
8 min read
The United States Capitol building as a bookcase filled with red, white, and blue policy books in a Washington DC landscape.
Luca D'Urbino for Education Week
Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks Trump Admin. From Dismantling Library Services Agency
The president referred to the agency as "unnecessary" in a March executive order, after which it started winding down many operations.
2 min read
President Donald Trump arrives at Tuscaloosa National Airport, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
President Donald Trump arrives at Tuscaloosa National Airport, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. A federal judge blocked the president's attempt to dismantle the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
Federal Opinion We’re All to Blame for What Has Become of the U.S. Dept. of Education
The trouble started decades ago with a flawed plan to improve America’s schools, writes a former New York superintendent.
Michael V. McGill
5 min read
Illustration of pointing fingers.
DigitalVision Vectors<br/>
Federal Trump Ends $1 Billion in Mental Health Grants for Schools
The Education Department told grantees that their awards reflected the Biden administration's priorities.
5 min read
Guests listen as President Joe Biden speaks during an event to celebrate the passage of the "Bipartisan Safer Communities Act," a law meant to reduce gun violence, on the South Lawn of the White House, July 11, 2022, in Washington.
Guests listen as then-President Joe Biden speaks during an event to celebrate the passage of the "Bipartisan Safer Communities Act," a law meant to reduce gun violence, on the South Lawn of the White House on July 11, 2022, in Washington. The U.S. Department of Education on April 29 told grantees that had received money to train and hire more mental health professionals in schools that it wouldn't renew their grants.
Evan Vucci/AP