"A good diplomat needs to interact with locals"

Diplomats who speak the language of their host nation have a better understanding of the issues they have to deal with on the ground. Photograph: Soe Than Win/AFP/Getty Images

When I was a young diplomat, excellence in a “hard” language, such as Arabic, Mandarin or Russian, was seen as a prerequisite for early promotion. In recent years, by contrast, hard language skills have been seen as too niche and, if anything, harmful to your career prospects.

Nothing epitomised this downgrading more than the decision, in 2007, to close the language centre of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). The results were predictably dire: by 2012, language allowances – paid to those who are fluent in the language of their host country – were only being paid to 48 diplomats, out of 1,900. You could go so far as to attribute the decline in Arabic as a contributing factor in the Arab Spring.

A good diplomat needs to have the language skills to communicate and interact with locals on the street. It is not sufficient to be able to speak to the country’s leaders. It is, of course, an important part of a diplomat’s job to report, accurately, exchanges with the host government; but to anticipate trends and to detect straws in the wind you need diplomats who can mingle with those outside of government who may yet influence public opinion.

The decision by William Hague to reopen the FCO language centre is welcome, as is the belated recognition by the FCO that a language and cultural awareness are key skills for British diplomats. Yet, amazingly and uniquely among European diplomatic services – most, if not all, of which require excellent knowledge of two European languages as an entry requirement – language skills form no part of promotion criteria. It is as though an electrician’s ability to rewire was not considered a core part of their job.

Interestingly, the intelligence agencies, faced with the rise of international terrorist threats, have recognised the centrality of language skills to their work. Other parts of government involved in security are also reallocating resources towards language work. But this fragmentation is damaging.

Britain needs a strategic approach if it is to provide an overarching policy for the learning of languages in schools and universities; only then will we be able to improve language capacity among those charged with diplomacy and national security.

"A good diplomat needs to interact with locals"

If you talk to the locals in their language, you understand their needs

Development perform in countries such as Nicaragua is drastically enhanced by neighborhood language knowledge. Photograph: Antonio Olmos

Ajaz Khan, 45, is the microfinance advisor for CARE Global

I was born in the Uk, but my dad came right here from Pakistan in 1955, so we spoke Punjabi at property. Expanding up bilingual absolutely gives you a headstart. When I was younger, I’d go to a Sunday college for Muslim youngsters, exactly where I discovered Urdu, and I also had to learn Arabic script at the mosque which I attended 5 days a week soon after school.

As a little one residing in two languages, moving amongst them is a given: it really is not complicated. I’ve noticed it with my very own children, they just switch dependent on whom they’re speaking to. At secondary school, I studied French, German and Latin, but oddly, looking back, I grew up thinking I was not quite excellent at languages. That is possibly a outcome of how we were taught. It was all about conjugating verbs – but of program, when you went abroad no a single ever asked you to conjugate a verb!

By the time I was in my early 20s, I knew I wished to work in international development, and I also knew I’d need to have language abilities. So right after a knee operation, I spent the six months’ recovery time finding out Spanish.

In 1992, aged 24, I went to Nicaragua and worked in two jobs, one particular at an agricultural university and the other as an economist for a group of trades unions. And nobody spoke any English at all. I would truly received stuck in to understanding Spanish and was at a rather excellent conversational degree. Becoming ready to demonstrate that was a large benefit in receiving individuals jobs. The candidates I was up towards were older than me and most likely far more skilled, and I was informed later on that possessing Spanish produced the distinction.

For the duration of the nine many years that I worked in Latin America – in Ecuador and Honduras, as properly as Nicaragua – practically no a single I came across spoke English so I was completely immersed [in Spanish]. Functioning with a women’s agricultural co-operative in a rural region, living between regional people all the time rather than expatriates, enjoying football with the neighborhood guys – I was ready to get deeply involved by means of speaking to men and women in their personal language. It meant they opened up and I was steadily ready to grow to be component of their neighborhood. Alcoholism, domestic violence and a culture of machismo are large problems in Latin America, and so when the women’s organisation I was seconded to found they had a bloke advising them, it was observed as very unusual.

Ajaz Khan’s languages have taken him across South America. Photograph: Guardian

We went through some extremely challenging instances, difficult nearby landowners and government authorities. A male colleague operating in the same organisation was murdered, and I was there with them by way of all of that discomfort, dread, and mourning. I did my PhD in Ecuador, on microfinance and women’s empowerment, and did all the 300 interviews required for my thesis with local females, encounter-to-face, in Spanish. It gave me a depth of access and insight that would have been unattainable if I would had to go by means of a translator.

Many many years later, I’ve been away and come back and we nevertheless have a wonderful relationship they request me to visit and advise them on what they’re doing now. It really is fantastic to see that some of the younger ladies are now [in] senior [roles]. When I request:”What on earth do you want me for?”, they say: “We trust your advice.” That indicates a lot.

In 2000, I moved to the Balkans. After nine many years in Latin America, I necessary to get expertise in one more element of the globe. As nation director for Islamic Relief, the world’s most significant Muslim charity, I was based in Bosnia and Herzegovina and made normal journeys to Kosovo. English was much far more broadly spoken in the Balkans, and individuals who did not talk it learned it swiftly, so however I enrolled in language lessons the 1st week I got there, I located Bosnian hard to understand. After 6 years, there I went to Sudan, and once more, learning the regional language was hard: we had 400 employees, loads of international NGO offices, and so many big worldwide meetings that English had to be employed as the typical language. Any type of immersion was unattainable.

Moving for perform to Pakistan, where my family members is from, I used Punjabi and Urdu pretty significantly all the time unless of course yet another foreigner was existing. Growth function is about striving to enhance the lives of the poorest men and women. In Pakistan, I spoke with individuals in refugee camps, and they advised me directly what they required, so we didn’t have to go by way of a third party. Utilizing translators is a difficult factor, I have identified. I have to use them at occasions, but there is often a problem that is subtle and difficult to counter, and that is that translators tend to be from the greater off sections of society. Even if they are regional, it can be that they’re far much less relaxed going to refugee camps than I am. And there can be a tendency be for them to translate what they want to translate, rather than necessarily precisely what has been mentioned.

Following being in senior management for more a decade, I produced a aware choice to move back to being a technical adviser and functioning in the discipline. I’m primarily based in the United kingdom now for CARE Global, but spend about four months a 12 months working in seven or eight different nations overseas. And I am immersed once again in foreign languages, which is fantastic.

Absolutely everyone can learn languages if they function hard ample. I place a great deal of hard work in when I was younger, constantly carried a notebook with me and if I noticed a indicator I didn’t realize, I would create it down and verify it out later on. It’s clear to me that I would not have had the job options I have had with out the language capabilities, nor been able to do this kind of an powerful occupation.

If you talk to the locals in their language, you understand their needs

To Improve, Namibia Needs To Broaden, Differentiate Higher Education

Namibia need to differentiate increased schooling if it is to transform into a understanding-based economic system, according to Professor Rolf Stumpf. This recommendation was produced by Stumpf for the duration of a public lecture hosted by the National Council for Larger Schooling (NCHE) in October in the Namibian capital of Windhoek.

Stumpf is a former vice-chancellor in South Africa, ex-president of the Human Sciences Analysis Council and at the moment a leading consultant. He delivered the lecture, “Higher Schooling Landscape in Namibia with Specific Reference to Increasing Access even though Strengthening High quality and Growing Institutional Diversity,” on institutional diversification to increase greater education access and improve quality, efficiency and effectiveness, writes Moses Magadza of University Globe Information.

Stumpf urged the Namibian government to strengthen training and coaching to increase accessibility to a much more various method that will greater meet the requirements of the developing Southern African nation. NCHE hosted the public lecture to evaluation Namibia’s greater training program against the targets and goals of the country’s advancement blueprint, Vision 2030.

Diversification means the selection of entities in a higher training program at any provided time, even though differentiation refers to the approach by which diversity is achieved. Institutional diversification advocates mentioned that a diversified technique provides much more differentiated access to greater schooling and is better suited to meeting the diverse demands of students in building countries.

Stumpf touched on the 2011 assessment of Namibia’s larger education system, which employed a framework that identified eight core problems for larger schooling to contribute to sustainable advancement and a knowledge economic climate. With respect to tertiary education participation, it emerged that the gross enrolment ratio for Namibia – the proportion of twenty-24 12 months olds in higher education – was ten.five% in 2011.

If Namibia set a gross enrollment target of 48% by 2030, it would need ten% development of enrollment per annum for virtually twenty many years, or ten,000 new students in the method per 12 months, in accordance to Stumpf.

The sustainability of such development costs given Namibia’s current expenditure of .six% of gross domestic product on increased schooling was deemed questionable.

The evaluation showed that nearly 49% of students had been enrolled in vocational packages, 36% in skilled applications, and about sixteen% in basic applications. Stumpf stated the University of Namibia (UNAM) had a huge percentage of enrollments in what would generally be called vocational programs.

The survey showed that about 54% of college students have been enrolled in vocational courses, 42% in specialist applications and four% in standard programs offered by Polytechnic of Namibia (PoN).

Stumpf gave 4 possibilities that Namibia could take into account to strengthen increased schooling. The initial choice, which he called the effortless way out, would entail UNAM paying distinct interest to enrolling far more college students in the humanities and advancing postgraduate analysis at masters and PhD degree ranges. UNAM would then commence to phase out some certificate and diploma plans. The polytechnic would enroll more certificate and diploma college students and emphasize more SET enrollments.

The 2nd option, called in between a rock and a challenging location, would involve partial re-establishment of schools of schooling for principal teacher instruction. NCHE would produce a high quality assurance help technique for the colleges. This choice would also involve expanding the Namibia College of Open Learning’s (NAMCOL) open and distance understanding mandate considerably to let it to offer you reduce-degree increased training qualifications, certificates, and diplomas.

The third option, named all eggs in one particular basket, would entail consolidating all public open distance studying into a single institution like NAMCOL.

The final selection, named numerous eggs in several baskets, mixed the ideal elements of all the other choices. It would involve establishing two university colleges outside Windhoek.

Stumpf said right after careful examination, his view was that only selection four would increase entry to increased training in Namibia. It would also permit for a broad assortment of diverse sorts of institutions that would meet the various student requirements of the population.

To Improve, Namibia Needs To Broaden, Differentiate Higher Education

When it comes to special educational needs, the government is helping a few but ignoring thousands of others

A class for children with specific educational wants. The new legislation aims to integrate solutions. Photograph: Andrew Fox

The legislation on unique educational wants functioning its way by way of parliament has obtained broad support and has even been described as landmark legislation. I hope this proves to be the situation. But the troubles of attaining its principal objective, which is to carry collectively wellness, training and social solutions, shouldn’t be underestimated. Prior attempts to alter the culture of the different organisations concerned haven’t been effortless.

Success could lead to better education for youngsters as nicely as bringing an end to the bureaucratic nightmare faced by so a lot of families when they attempt to secure the assist they need.

There are two massive confessions by the government, though, behind this legislation. The 1st is an acceptance by the government that de-regulation does not resolve almost everything. The proposals are at odds with its typical technique to education policy. Preceding adjustments have eliminated several duties and responsibilities from schools – from behaviour partnerships and Ofsted self-evaluation kinds to nutritional specifications and, in the situation of academies, the want to make use of completely qualified teachers. At the quite core of the SEN legislation in the children and households bill is a fresh set of legal duties and obligations to force schools, regional authorities and the health providers to operate with each other. The most vulnerable young children and youthful individuals require far more safety than the government’s typical market-led method can ever provide and I presume that the government recognises this.

The second confession underlying the alterations is an acknowledgement that if vulnerable kids are to do properly it will require much more than schools to perform their element. The skills of all those pros doing work with youngsters will be known as for.

Now, if this is proper for the two% of young children with statements of specific needs, why isn’t it right for the twenty% of young children also with special wants who do not have statements, not to mention the 1000′s of other vulnerable young children in mainstream schools who are also dependent on the support of providers past education to overcome their barriers to studying?

Even though the government is legislating for integrated companies for one particular group of kids, it is undermining it for others. From the closure of Confident Start centres to the narrowing of the curriculum and achievement targets in schools, the secretary of state would seem dismissive of the broader children’s providers agenda.

Some colleges have usually been ready to efficiently support their most vulnerable kids they have the knowhow and the capacity to get what they need from other companies. However, a lot of colleges uncover it extremely hard to make the method operate – specially in which the level of deprivation of their pupils makes the need for support from other providers so fantastic. The hard work that is essential and the disappointment that can result grow to be all-consuming – and take teachers’ time away from educating.

I had some doubts about the role of director of children’s companies, which was launched by the last government. The work demanded a broad assortment of skills and knowledge in one man or woman. Yet the underpinning rationale, collectively with the Each and every Little one Issues agenda, was correct. It was designed to offer an infrastructure in every single college, bringing with each other distinct experts in the interests of the youngster. Local authorities have been accountable for bringing companies together so colleges did not require to do so themselves. Now no one is responsible.

Every single Youngster Matters tried to do for all children what this bill is trying to do for a number of. It helps make a potent argument for an integrated service for statemented youngsters.

The tragedy is that at the same time, the government’s dismantling of children’s providers, in all but identify, has largely gone unnoticed, except in the schools where it was generating a distinction – and that truly ought not to have been allowed to happen.

When it comes to special educational needs, the government is helping a few but ignoring thousands of others

Shortfall in the languages the UK needs the most

Only six% of the Uk population can speak German to a conversational degree, a British Council report has found. Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian

Three-quarters of the Uk public are unable to communicate one particular of the ten most critical languages for the country’s potential, a British Council report has identified.

The British Council has referred to as on government and enterprise to function collectively to build educational policy and priorities relating to languages. This follows a YouGov poll commissioned by the British Council, which found that of 4000 Uk grownups polled, 75% are unable to hold a conversation in any of the languages highlighted as essential to the UK’s financial standing.

The Languages for the Future report recognized those languages, in buy of relevance, as: Spanish, Arabic, French, Mandarin, German, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Turkish and Japanese.

“The dilemma is not that we’re teaching the wrong languages, simply because the most extensively taught languages like French, Spanish and German all characteristic in our best ten,” John Worne, director of method at the British Council, explained. “But the Uk demands far more people to take up the opportunity to find out and, crucially, get employing these languages – along with new ones like Arabic, Chinese and Japanese.”

The report discovered French to be the only language spoken by a double-digit percentage (15%), followed by German (six%), Spanish (4%) and Italian (2%). Arabic, Mandarin, Russian or Japanese are every single only spoken by 1%, whilst Portuguese and Turkish are every spoken by much less than 1%.

The languages in the record have been selected in accordance to financial, political, educational and cultural indicators. They take into account variables this kind of as the present United kingdom export trade, the language wants of business, government’s long term trade priorities and emerging large-growth markets.

Teresa Tinsley, co-author of the report, stated the essential takeaway for the public is simply “to discover a language”. For policymakers the report is meant to inform their choice-generating and correct misconceptions.

Tinsley explained one of the most essential recommendations manufactured in the report is the require for schools, educators and parents to utilise the language expertise of the UK’s diaspora and minority communities.

“We’re wasting sources at the second,” Tinsley explained. “Youngsters require to retain their initial languages. It really is essential for the total nation but it is also crucial for their intellectual and cultural improvement.”

Other recommendations in the report include:

• Languages must be held in the identical regard as science, technologies, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects.

• Companies need to invest in the improvement of the linguistic capabilities from which organisations will straight benefit.

• The teaching and understanding of languages must be enriched by the inclusion of new languages in the curriculum, and an improved concentrate on the require to recognize other cultures.

• Schools should fully exploit the variety of free of charge or funded sources available to help language studying, which are obtainable locally, online or by way of global links. These consist of language assistants, exchanges and overseas journeys, and global cultural institutes in the United kingdom.

As well as the 10 languages identified in the report, a additional 4 also emerged as important for the Uk: Dutch, Polish, Indian languages and Korean.

Worne extra: “If we don’t act to tackle this shortfall, we’ll get rid of out the two economically and culturally. Colleges have their work to do, but it really is also a dilemma of complacency, self confidence and culture – which policy makers, businesses, mothers and fathers and every person else in the Uk can help to repair. Languages aren’t just an academic problem – they are a sensible route to chance for the Uk in business, culture and all our lives.”

Shortfall in the languages the UK needs the most

Education in brief: Harris in special needs row with parents

Some dad and mom say 1-to-one particular and 1-to-two emotional support has been withdrawn at the former Roke principal in Kenley, Surrey, which was taken over by the Harris academy chain in September

Academy row over SEN

Some dad and mom at a major school taken above by the Harris academy chain in September are complaining the school has drastically cut support for their children’s particular educational demands. Mother and father who have spoken to Education Guardian have explained one particular-to-a single and a single-to-two emotional help has been withdrawn at the former Roke principal in Kenley, Surrey.

One mother or father tells us: “All particular needs young children utilized to get emotional and social support at Roke. All help has been withdrawn.” Harris says it has actually improved SEN provision, and not withdrawn any of it. Harris took above the college in a “forced academy” move pushed through by ministers in the face of parental opposition.

1 mother or father says: “It looks that we are struggling against Harris to get the fundamental help our child calls for.” Yet another says: “SEN children are observed as a ‘nuisance’ because they consider up also considerably time.”

The transcript of a meeting Harris held at Roke final March exhibits Sir Robin Bosher, Harris’s head of main, reassuring a mother or father that SEN help would not be cut “if it is as efficient as it can be”. The parent had mentioned their child’s present assistance was “fantastic”.

Harris says it is completely committed to SEN young children and that whereas help used to be generally presented out-of-class just before it took above, now it is normally in-class, the place it can be far more closely aligned to the curriculum. The overwhelming majority of mother and father, it says, are supportive of the adjustments, and it tells us of the parent of a 12 months four little one who mentioned the little one had never ever prior to acquired this kind of targeted and private help.

A parent informed the Guardian this was the first she had heard of the causes for the alterations. Proven Harris’s response, one more explained: “I’m so angry I could scream.”

Norfolk college battle

One more school takeover prepare, this time in Norfolk, is becoming more and more controversial, with opponents now buoyed by the assistance of their Liberal Democrat MP and a petition signed by much more than one,000 men and women. The county council eliminated Cavell principal school’s board of governors just two days just before Ofsted inspectors had been due to check out.

Final week, the local MP, Simon Wright, stated the council should “get its foot off the accelerator” rather of forging on with forced academisation of the Norwich school.

Cavell was failed by inspectors in March but was stated to be generating progress in its improvement ideas following a return visit by Ofsted in July, and sources say it now has record Sats results. Its governors wanted to form a co-operative believe in with five other schools, but this appears to have clashed with Norfolk council policy, which is for all schools in specific measures to turn into sponsored academies.

Campaigners are also wondering whether double requirements are being applied by the Division for Education (DfE). In a site, mother or father Rachel Ward highlights comments reportedly manufactured by the training secretary, Michael Gove, to headteachers in Surrey that heads in that county would not be forced to flip their schools into academies, no matter what their functionality.

In an e mail to Ward, Mick Castle, the Labour councillor in charge of schooling policy in Norfolk, appeared to shift blame for the policy of forced academisation from his council to the DfE. On Cavell’s circumstance he mentioned: “It is not my fault and it’s undoubtedly not my idea of what is right,” but “we are exactly where we are”.

Figure of speech

Has Gerard Kelly, the combative former editor of the Instances Educational Supplement, been acting as speechwriter to Sir Michael Wilshaw, the chief inspector of colleges? It would seem so, with two sources telling us that Kelly had been open about his new freelancing position. Kelly seemed to hint at this himself two weeks in the past in a tweet linked to Wilshaw’s latest comment that there was a “pervasive resentment” of heads’ authority amid teachers. Kelly tweeted: “Really agree! Could not have put it far better myself.”

A single of the dominant themes of Kelly’s TES editorial columns was his baiting of instructor union leadership, his valedictory piece in August describing the NASUWT union as a “vast grumble of janitors” who must recognise that teaching now provides “stratospheric fulfillment levels”.

In a separate tweet, Kelly accused parents involved in the Cavell campaign in Norwich (see over) of “bleating” about the school’s failure.

With Ofsted now churning out press releases that frequently use the word “failing” in the headline – a pretty latest modify of tone – is this a match created in heaven?

Kelly did not react to a request for comment and Ofsted says that, in drafting his speeches, Wilshaw “draws on a variety of sources”. It does not reveal whether these “sources” included Kelly.

Ranking U-turn?

Rumours attain us that Gove could be about to do another of his U-turns, this time abandoning the controversial thought to rank eleven-12 months-olds primarily based on their functionality in Sats exams. We are informed of a DfE official saying that the government is going to ditch the prepare – unveiled in July by the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg – which would inform mother and father into which of ten national overall performance “deciles” their little one completed in English and maths from 2016.

A consultation on this and other main assessment ideas has provoked widespread opposition, especially above the “deciles” notion – deemed “as subtle as reintroducing the ‘dunce cap’” by a union – and also the notion of new “baseline” tests for four-year-olds. A formal DfE response is not anticipated ahead of up coming month.

Education in brief: Harris in special needs row with parents