Timor-Leste Mother Tongue Based Multilingual Education Policy

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Introduction

For the fulfilment of the individual assignment in the course of Educational Policy and Management Process, course number SHED 546, the Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education Policy of Timor-Leste is chosen. In this study, the assign student go through the current evidences of the Timor-Leste’s Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education Policy and implementation. As the Timor-Leste, being a youngest nation, facing with the educational reconstruction since 2 years before the independence was announced by the United Nations 2002. It is a potential evidence to see and encourage the nations or community who are in the diversity of languages and cultures like Timor-Leste, and with the experiences of colonization and conflict between the ethnicities due to the marginalizing and dominating by a language or a culture can be taken as example. A short background information of Timor-Leste will be told in the coming section and the policy and implementation process will be discussed.

Background of Timor-Leste

Timor-Leste is the youngest sovereign nation in Southeast Asia. Almost 400 years bound under the Portugal colonization and again invaded by Indonesia within 10 days after Portugal left them in 1974. Indonesia occupied from 1975 to 1999, and became fully independent in May 2002. Timor-Leste is a small country with 5641 sq. mi (14609 sq. km) and over one million population. Timor-Leste is historically well recognized as linguistically most complex and promoted. They have two official language; Portugal and Tetum, and two languages; Bashasa Indonesia and English are used in the work place. Sixteen languages are well recognized as indigenous languages including Tetum. In addition, there are a number of other smaller indigenous languages (Hajek 2000).

Figure 1  Map of Timor-Leste

 

Linguistic Situation

Linguistic situation in Timor-Leste is to be shown as an example of Multilingualism practices. Even though this country is a very small but rich language about thirty languages are seen as home used languages.

“Indeed, many families and communities use more than one. Estimates of their number differ according to ways of classifying languages and dialects.” (Bowden and Hajek 265)

Figure 2  Map of Language Use in Timor-Leste

According to 2004 Census, Timor-Leste has 32 ethnic languages (National Bureau of Statistics 80). The variety of Tetun, Tetum-Praça, is functioned as a lingua franca almost all country and used as first language in Dili. Timor-Leste also experienced, colonized by two countries; Indonesia and Portugal and two years of transitional administration by United Nations (UN) that left three dominant foreign languages, Portuguese, Indonesian and English. In 2002 Constitution, four languages such as Portugal, Tetum, Indonesia and English are made as official and co-official languages.  Indonesian and English are mainly considered to be used as working languages in the civil services.

Language Issues in Education

In Timor-Leste, language is main issue to be considered in education sector. At the very beginning of time, there are many issues involving in which language supposed to be official language. For the Timor-Leste, Portugal to be official language but it is very difficult young generation because Portugal langue is new for them. The language can be a barrier for study. The education must be taught and teach the subjects that gain more knowledge for the children’s new life experiencing with changes and successfulness in their lives. Mostly young generations quit from school and continue with extra course such as English course or the computer course.

General Background of Education in East Timor

The education system of Timor-Leste was destroyed during the conflict to achieve independence from Indonesia. Now they are working with UNICEF to rebuild the education system. Child-friendly schools are considered the key strategy to improving basic education. Timor-Leste strongly believe that all Timorese children have the right to complete nine years of free basic education. However, high repetition rates, dropout rate and poor learning outcome remain a key challenge. UNICEF’s child friendly schools will drastically improve education for the children of Timor-Leste.

The Child Friendly School Strategy is:

• Child centeredness

• Democratic participation

• Inclusiveness

East Timor has faced the new millennium as the new country in the 21 century. Nine East Timorese organizations have formed the East Timorese Network of Popular Educators. The formation of this network grows from the recognition of the critical role of education in the process of East Timorese democratization. The majority of the population was marginalized during Indonesia’s occupation and during this transitional period, there has not yet been much significant change. The formal education that now exists is a legacy of the Portuguese and Indonesian systems and does not include liberating principles. The goal of popular education is to empower all people to be able to participate in decision making processes. Popular education is a collective act, not an individual one.

Mother Tongue Based Multilingual Education Policy

Mother tongue based multilingual education is widely separated out in multilingual settings. And the term mother tongue is also described by many scholars and researchers as first language or the best know, understand language by a person. Dr. Kimon Kosonen and Young had made a good definition of mother tongue for educational purpose –

“a language one speaks and understands competently enough to learn academic content at the appropriate age level.” (Kosonen and Young 2012)

Children should start their learning process through what they have really known and learning academic content should be appropriate with children’s age and progress accordingly.

In principle, MTB-MLE programs enable learners to begin their education in the language they know best. Learners are gradually introduced to additional (official) languages and learning to communicate in these languages. The most effective programs develop both multilingualism and multi-literacy by building on L1 oral and literate competence, while teaching additional language(s) (Benson, “How Multilingual” 329). These programs are known as strong or additive MTB-MLE programs.

Timor-Leste, the youngest nation, today proposing with strong effectiveness of the MTBMLE guidelines for the education policy. The MTB-MLE policy recommends using first languages for initial instruction with the gradual introduction of Tetum and Portuguese and the later additional languages such as Indonesian and English can be used.

Policy Background

Post 1999, Timor-Leste focused on the educational planning challenging with many changes. The challenges involved not only changing curriculum content but also the medium of instruction but claiming that it was a key goal to reform. Tetum is considered the L2 for most children, although it is acknowledged that Tetum should be regarded as L1 for teaching purposes in some communities; Portuguese is regarded as L3, English as L4 and Indonesian as L5. English and Indonesian are not prioritized until the third cycle of basic education, where it is recommended that English is introduced as a compulsory subject in Grade 7.

In 2008, the Basic Education Act was introduced and a major structural change to the system, acknowledging the role of mother tongues as languages of teaching and learning, and of Tetun as a second language of instruction. TLNCU was main to develop a language-in-education policy based on international best practice from various research. The MTB-MLE National Policy was launched in 2011, on mother language day. The policy planning was made as 2011-2013 plan. At the same time curriculum and materials for teaching Tetun as a language were being developed by the Ministry of Education. This policy took place by doing pilot programs launched in 12 schools in the districts of Lautein, Manatutu and Oekusi.

Policy framework

MTB-MLE pilot was evaluated based on the three important principles:

·         The use of a mother tongue for early education.

·         The additive multilingual principle, whereby the mother tongue provides a foundation of competencies which are transferred to additional languages (TLNCU 2010, p. 1).

·         Child-centered pedagogy.

These three principles are interlinked in MTB-MLE. MTB-MLE is part of an education sequence, available to and compulsory for all young people of Timor-Leste, which aims to ensure mastery of the co-official languages and enable the learning of a first foreign language (as stated in the Base Law of Education Article 12).

A mother tongue-based program for early education employs the first or home language (L1) for children who do not understand the languages of instruction. The mother tongue-based multilingual policy for Timor-Leste defines mother tongues as “the home languages of learners”.

Policy Development

The policy development was started in 2009 with coordination of MOE and with the help of National Education Commission (NEC) and key advisory body. In 2010, the MOE mandated the NEC to form a working group for the preparation of language-in-education policy guidelines and planning strategies. The Timor-Leste Strategic Development Plan (TLSDP) was made up with two statement as social policies which include educational development planning for 2011-2030.

The 2 statements are as follow;

1.      To improve access to education, and build a solid foundation for future literacy and numeracy in both Portuguese and Tetum, local languages will be employed as languages of teaching and learning in the first years of basic education, providing a smooth transition to the acquisition of Timor-Leste’s official languages, in accordance with the recommendations of the mother tongue-based multilingual education policy for Timor-Leste. (TLSDP 16)

2.      Given the diversity of national and local languages in Timor-Leste, the National Education Commission has initiated studies on mother tongue-based multilingual education for Timor-Leste. These studies aim to ensure that children are not disadvantaged and that all have equal access to an education, providing a smooth initial transition to the acquisition of TimorLeste’s official languages. (TLSDP 25) 

Both statements become the MTB-MLE policy initiation.

Policy Goals

The Ministry of Education set up the goals for midterm and long term. The medium term goal to be achieved by 2015 including the ongoing program MTB-MLE in demonstration schools. The key long term goal to be achieved by 2020 includes the expansion of mother tongues as subjects and as medium of instruction in the basic education.

Policy implementation and enforcement process

As Timor-Leste Strategic Plan Development declaration has been made, there are many activities that disseminate the policy implementing and providing training, promoting traditional knowledge, and pilot project gone through.

Providing Training

Seven Modules of theory and practice for adult literacy constituted the core of a training provided to the National Directorate for Recurrent Education (NDRE) to enhance their techniques on the pedagogy of adult learning (Dili 2327 April 2012). The modules included topics on the management of adult learning, effectiveness of education for new and advanced literates, managing adult learning groups, techniques to motivate adult learners, assessment systems for adult learners, and the development of a professional portfolio for adult teaching-learning activities.

A 5 day capacity building workshop held in Dili (February 6 – 10, 2012) was organized for the National Directorate of Education (NDRE) personnel and leaders of Community Learning Centers (CLCs) with the objective of strengthening their problem solving and decision making skills. The workshop aimed specifically at enhancing participants’ knowledge in understanding problem solving methods and decision making in the organization; acquiring knowledge and skills on different types of problem solving methods and decision-making models; identifying gaps and problems in problem solving and decision making skills and the abilities of decision-makers in recurrent education; and, improving problem solving skills and decision making practices at NDRE.

Promoting Community-Based

In order to have effective policy implementation Timor-Leste took hold the communities knowledge promoting their perception. UNESCO has supported, since 2011, activities to promote traditional knowledge systems and linguistic, cultural and biological diversity of Timor-Leste.

Following a year-long research, consultations and public debate, on 10 May 2012, the first edition of the book on local knowledge in Timor-Leste was launched “Matenek Lokal, Timor Nian” (Local Knowledge of Timor!).

Pilot Project

The pilot program was undertaken for the implementation of Mother Tongue Based-Multilingual Education Policy (MTB- MLE) in three districts in the country: Lau- tem, Manatuto and Oecusse.

Two pre-schools and two primary schools per district were selected to participate in the pilot program making a total of 12 pilot schools. Continuous training is being conducted for trainers and teachers administering the project.

At pre-school level, and from grade 1- 4 in primary school, children use their mother tongue as the language of instruction. It is through their mother tongue that the official’s languages (Portuguese and Tetun) are gradually introduced. They (Tetun and Portu- guese) then become the languages of instruction in Grade 4 and 5. The generic plan for implementation of the MTBMLE pilot program was presented to and approved by the Ministry of Education on 13th December 2011.

The language progression plan shown as following is used to teach the languages and subjects in the curriculum.

Pre-school year 1	Pre-school year 2	Grade 1	Grade 2	Grade 3	Grade 4	Grade 5
-Oral	-Basic reading and writing in the first language	-Pupils go through fluency reading and writing of their first language/ mother tongue. -the second language (Tetun) is introduced orally as a subject	-Introduce basic reading and writing in the second language (Tetun). -The third language (Portuguese) is introduced orally at this stage as a subject	-Pupils go through fluency reading and writing of -the second language (Tetun). Basic reading and writing of Portuguese is introduced using equally the mother tongue	-Pupils go through fluency reading and writing of Portuguese using both the mother tongue and Tetun -English is introduced orally using the mother tongue and Tetun	-Portuguese and Tetun become the principal -Languages of instruction and education and deploy the first language/mother tongue whenever necessary to reinforce comprehension
MOI - MT	MOI - MT	MOI - MT	MOI - MT	MOI - MT	MOI – MT & T	MOI – P &T (MT)
MT 100%	MT 100%	MT 95% T 5%	MT 80% T 15% P 5%	MT 70% T 20% P 10%	MT 50% T 25% P 20% E 5%	MT 20% T 35% P 35% E 10%

Table 1  Language Progression Plan used in Timor-Leste's MTB-MLE Policy

Results after the implementation of the policy

Policy Impacts

According to UNDP estimates, the population aged 6 years and above who had no formal schooling fell from 45 to 40% while adult literacy rose from 38 to 51%; primary school completions increased from 31 to 43% and secondary Kerry Taylor-Leech 57 school completions from 12 to 15% (“The Millennium Development Goals”). These improved indicators are encouraging but Timor-Leste still have challenges to achieve EFA. The present children attend the pre-school only 11% and, according to the 2010 Census, net primary school enrolment is 70.8%. The pilot program has been running for one year and the evidence shows outstanding success. There are considerable evidences pointed out from the pilot program as follow;

·         Teacher assistants Language of instruction

·         Parents and the community involvement

·         Teachers and teaching style: TPR and DTA.

·         Classroom interactions

·         Classroom management

·         Literacy materials

Obstacles and Challenges

Timor-Leste teachers are still need to understand the principles of the policy. Especially, the principle of combining mother-tongue literacy with a staged progression to the co-official languages of Timor-Leste. The issues of teacher training and the resources are needed to address. The limitations need to be corrected before any extension of the policy takes place.

Conclusion and Analysis of Policy Adaptation

In this section, I would like to make some notes on Timor-Leste’s multilingual education policy that is taken place as example for the countries in multicultural and multilingual settings. The Timor-Leste had been suffered from abused and marginalized by colonies in terms of language used in education although Timorese are the majority. It is often the case in countries with colonial histories that former colonial languages continue to be privileged over indigenous languages in formal schooling, a policy often justified by the supposed neutrality and international reach of these languages. As Myanmar was one of the colonial countries, colonial language, English has been influenced and Burmese as an only official language dominate other ethnic languages at post-colonial period until present. Nevertheless, it is noteworthy in learning Timor-Leste leaders stood up with full understanding of previous problem. Looking back to their histories of education and people recognizing that they extremely need to take challenges to be able to achieve bright future and for their generation.

The MTB-MLE policy recommendations for multilingual countries offer the best guarantee that schools will produce literate citizens and competent speakers of the languages; mother tongue(s), national language, and international language as well. The MTB-MLE policy proposals provide a structured approach to the teaching and use of languages in education that can invigorate policy and support both learners and teachers. If the proposals are given the opportunity to be effectively implemented and extended, the policy has the potential to improve learning and strengthen engagement in schooling. By recognizing children’s right to learn in the language of their home or learning community, teachers can promote social inclusion, instil pride in their pupils’ ethnolinguistic identities and build a strong sense of national identity, one which valorizes the languages and cultures of all citizens.

There is a concern that MTB-MLE creates social division and threatens national unity. However, successful MTB-MLE programs can help promote social inclusion and national integration through their recognition of diverse ethnolinguistic identities that can be learned from other Asian countries like Srilanka and India. Policymakers should therefore take on board the critical role that linguistic exclusion plays in denying access to the educational resources which can help combat poverty. Moreover, it is vital for policymakers to appreciate that it is not only former colonial languages that can threaten diversity. The privileging of one local indigenous language over others can also have devastating effects on minority languages. This process encourages people to shift to the use of these lingua franca from indigenous minority languages, a process that eventually results in a reduction of linguistic diversity. Loss of diversity leads to the weakening and eventual loss of local, indigenous knowledge, culture and traditions. Therefore language-in-education policies should treat linguistic diversity as a resource and a development asset rather than a problem or liability then the continued vitality of the local languages is to be ensured.

For EFA and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to become a reality, it is essential to reach out to people in their own languages. Timor-Leste’s experience shows that effective MTB-MLE not only enhances the learning of official languages but also helps increase enrolment and retention, improve educational achievement and involve local communities in the life of the school. MTB-MLE policy implemented in Timor-Lest is a shining example for others to follow in showing the steps that can be taken to protect linguistic diversity and achieve multilingual education for all. Eventually, having studied Timor-Leste’s mother tongue-based multilingual education policy implementation process with challenges and achievements give us substantial and convincing evidence that it provides the best means of achieving universal education and literacy.

References

Caffery, J., Coronado, G., Hodge, B., & Kerry. (2014). Timor-Leste Mother Tongue Based Multilingual Education Pilot Project: A Strategic Evaluation.

Langford, K., Caet, A., & Hajek, J. (2011). Languages in Education in East Timor. Brunswick Town Hall, Melbourne.

Malone, S. (2007). Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education:Implications for Education Policy .

MOE. (2015). Timor-Leste Education for All: National Review.

Nicolai, S. (2014). Rebuilding Timor-Leste’s education system.

Ross, M. A. (2013). Language Attitudes and Multilingual Education in East Timor: Multilingual Education Conference. Bangkok, Thailand: University of Hawai’i at Manoa.

Talyor-Leech, K. (2012). Language Planning in Primary Schools in Asia. (B. B. Richard, Jr, K. B. Robert, K. M. Nkonko, & P. Bryant, Eds.) New York: Routledge.

Taylor-Leech, K. (2015). Timor-Leste: Multilingual Education for All? Griffith University, Queensland, Australia: Griffith Institute for Educational Research.

UNESCO. (2012). Annual Report. Jakarta: UNESCO Office.

UNESCO. (2015 ). Education for All: National Review .

Field Trip Report

Last week, 16th of February, on Tuesday, two private schools (Lertlah International School and Roong Aroon school) were visited and explored as course work from education department combining doctorate students and master students. Both schools are located in Bangkok with different qualities and different approaches though they have the same vision to growth their children. We could have chance to learn their school policies and implementations to fulfill their goals. 

Lertlah International School

Lertlah International school is huge and successful school. In Thailand, three Lertlah schools are successfully established. Namely, Lertlah School Petkasem Road, Lertlah School Kanchanapisek Road, and Lertlah School Kaset-Nawamin Road. Lertlah School Petkasem Road was established in 1994 and after about 8 years Lertlah School Kanchanapisek Road was established in 2002, and Lertlah School Kaset-Nawamin Road was established in 2006. The Lertlah International School is English Program and also known as bilingual school using Canadian Curriculum.

After we had a looked, we also had question and answer for more information. Then I could have chance to ask about the children's learning in English since most of them are Thai speaking children. My question was whether they have difficulties or not in terms of communication with children and if they have then how the teachers usually deal with? The school directors and teachers who have responsible for information sharing answered that they do not have such big difficulties but somehow in kindergarten Thai teachers have to help them understand some words. The answer was quite enough to catch my point. They do have Thai teachers who can speak both English and Thai, and not only that foreign teachers could speak Thai language. Why this question was seriously asking is the successful bilingual school do not use 50:50 at the beginning, since the children need to develop their knowledge in their mother tongue first. However, it is also depend on children's background. But the Lertlah International School has most of Thai speakers, and it should not be called 50%-50% of language used. 

Roong Aroon School

Now, Roong Aroon School we could visit, which is one of the successful alternative schools using the Holistic education approach in Thailand. Roong Aroon school was established in 1997 with the initiative of Associate Professor Prapapat Niyom. It is situated in No. 391, Rama 2 Soi 33 (Soi Lairem) Road Fords Area Bangkok, Thailand. In particular, the school compound is about twenty acres of land and provides a natural environment and creative practices for each age and level of students in order to promote the individual learning styles and fulfill the needs of different learning styles. The two-story and three-story buildings are assembled by each department which is airy and widely accessible landscape for all students and suitable for not only outdoor but also indoor learning activities and other supplemented physical sport activities.  The aim of Roong Aroon School is to form the learning community which encourages everyone to learn and then share their experience and learning with others providing a natural open environment in which students can explore and discover the inherent relationship between themselves, their own culture and the natural world. 

   

There are four visions stated by Roong Aroon school which are: Bodhisatta: Beliefs in human’s ability to develop themselves and enlighten by wisdom Human Life is a learning process: The processes which help develop the behaviors, conscious and wisdom as the three fold learning Holistic Education: The integration of both external (sciences) and internal (life) factors is a natural learning process for human. Kalyanamitta: The learning culture is the basis of a harmonious society. Roong Aroon school always seek to follow the stated visions and fulfill the needs of students in accordance with their potential and learning styles. 

  

  

Roong Aron School is comprised of three independent departments:  The kindergarten and the first level (K1 – K3) The Primary School (P1-P6) The Secondary and Upper Secondary School (M1- M6) 

With the aim of promoting a cooperative working team, a headmaster is assigned in each department in order to work closely with own team. Moreover, the team has to work on integrating content into teaching, the holistic learning, working in a joint meeting of the subclasses and school specific subject line.

The ratio of teacher to student is 1:8 so that there are 140 numbers of teachers per 1,000 students and there are 25 students in one classroom. Parents, teachers and staff work closely together so as to support the warm and lively surroundings for students to improve their all round development.  

Unlike the management of common schools, in the educational management of Roong Aroon school, the parents and communities are supposed to participate and support the school to ensure that the target is to develop the ultimate potential of each child both learning the subject focusing on child-centered learning and whole child development.

The operation system manuals have been used for the teachers in order to support designing learning units. Moreover, thematic approach in three semesters is applied and teachers are able to choose the topics and integrate subjects into that. Unlike other common schools, the assessments are mainly focused on cognitive achievements and learning skills which account for 50% and value and attitude achievement which is for another 50%. The teachers from each department are given the guidelines to read to use these goals of assessment. Consequently, the report of each student is sent to the parents and feedback from the parents are requested and appreciated.

Roong Aroon is funded by Roong Aroon Foundation and financially cooperated by the other organizations such as Fresh Sri Foundation, Research Fund, National Securities Finance Co.,Ltd (Thailand), The Bangchak Petroleum Public Company Limited and Plan by Teerapol Popular. It is believed in Roong Aroon school that the school belongs to Thailand instead of one person or a group. Roong Aroon is recognized by the Ministry of Education in Thailand and work together with both public and private sectors. Roong Aroon could be regarded as not for profit organization or non-profit organization which earn not for the profit but for the sustainability of the school and resources.

   

The policy of Roong Aroon school based on Buddha's Dharma Approach, which links factual knowledge to the learners’ life. Learning by Doing,integrative learning contexts will nurture the insight learning awareness and cultivate the sustainable relationship to others. It is also emphasized on Thai tradition culture education, meanwhile improve the students’ foreign language skills. There are some important educational policies following in Roong Aroon school in order to reach the holistic learning practices: 

(1)Deeper learning which aim to nurture one’s inner learning capacity in order to promote wisdom-based learners by practicing mindfulness cultivation, self reflection, mediation, spiritual arts, public volunteer services, etc. 

(2)Learning by Doing policy aims to practice with hands-on activities in the real situation, through activity-based, problem-based, project-based, and research-based though learning unit integrated with real life experiences, to promote the self-directed and self-reliance learner.

(3)Communicative learning policy aim to the sharing of knowledge and understanding in building up learning organization or community of practices, through group learning, discussion, dialogue, knowledge-management, community sharing, group meeting, people mapping, ICT presentation, to promote the social engagement and learning partners with sustainability.

Roong Aroon do not follow the national curriculum for the whole, they use the Japan math curriculum and Thailand national curriculum for their science class, which can help students get the best and most suitable knowledge for them. The most inspiration was children age of 6-7 take care of themselves by cooking, washing, and maintaining their equipment. The teachers and parents help the kindergarten students in cooking and washing but from grade 1 the students have to take care themselves. Roong Aroon School will be remained as an example to promote and practice in the future.

  

REFERENCE

http://social.nesdb.go.th/social/Portals/0/Documents/Education_final.pdf

http://www.ismtec.in.th/ismtec2014/files/RoongAroonSchoolofDawn.pdf

http://student-kiosk.eltzone.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Holistic-Learning-forSustainable-Development.pdf

http://www.gpiatlantic.org/pdf/educatingforgnh/educating_for_gnh_proceedings.pdf

http://tdri.or.th/en/

Finland's Education

Finland is the most successful country in the world in terms of educating children. There are three secret reasons to success their education
1. The Finland considers and believe educating their children and learning is their culture. Education must be a respected and admired part of your culture. Finland built and secured its national identity in the 19th century through investing in education for all and when independence was achieved, the base was there to develop further.

2. The policy run over as every child must be educated, “Leave no child behind” was a slogan adopted in Finnish schools long before it became popular in the US. Pupils with learning difficulties are patiently brought up to the average level of their classmates by teachers and assistants who give them the extra attention and support they need to catch up.

3. Highly qualified teachers with compassion are used. Only 11% of applicants to the teaching profession are accepted, which means that the most motivated are selected. Here again, respect for the vocation of teaching ensures that talented students choose the profession.

The Education Policy in Canada

Canada

I am most familiar with Canadian Education Policy since I have been working for more than 6 years to have a better education system in Myanmar (my country). Since 2014, Myanmar government, MOE is trying to adopt the education systems from Singapore and Canadian curriculum, and I was among them as ethnic leader working with National Curriculum Development Team.

Canada is a confederation country with diverse language and culture. Especially, English and France are spoken as their national languages. In additions, there are many more languages such as Spanish, polish, Italian, and Aboriginal language (red Indian). As being known by history of Canada, they have permitted to teach in each language and free to develop their child with different sources of knowledge. Therefore, nowadays, the Canada is one the top countries who success in Education in the world.

Education in Canada is for the most part provided publicly, funded and overseen by federal, provincial, and local governments. Education is within provincial jurisdiction and the curriculum is overseen by the province. Education in Canada is generally divided into primary education, followed by secondary education and post-secondary. Within the provinces under the ministry of education, there are district school boards administering the educational programs. Education is compulsory up to the age of 16 in every province in Canada, except for Manitoba, Ontario and New Brunswick, where the compulsory age is 18, or as soon as a high school diploma has been achieved. In some provinces early leaving exemptions can be granted under certain circumstances at 14. Canada generally has 190 (180 in Quebec) school days in the year, officially starting from September (after Labour Day) to the end of June (usually the last Friday of the month, except in Quebec when it is just before June 24 – the provincial holiday).

It is always to concern the children and run after them. The education must be based on children's needs so that they would interest and learn what they want. Canada is doing all these. Thank you very much for reading this short message.

Source: Quoted from Wikipedia.

Our Iceberg is Melting

Book Critique on “Our Iceberg is Melting” 

This story is all about life. It can be happen in the individual or in the community organization. Nothing is constant, everything is in each challenges. But we must accept it and use is as it is way of developing and improving our life. This book talks all about by using penguins' community as characters.I read but I still want to read it again since this book always encourage me think about my own community (Lahe Town).

I also remember the books "One Minute Manager" by Ken Blanchard and "Who Moved My Cheese" by Spencer Johnson, which is very similar with the way this book is written. A story telling style is used to illustrate John Kotter's eight principles of change outlined in another book, Leading Change by the same author. The characters in this book are, surprisingly penguins and the premise is a threat to the lifestyle of the penguins because their current habitat, the iceberg where they live is melting. The book goes through how the penguins discovered the problem which highlights a need for change and how they then go through the change process using Kotter's eight principles for change.

There are many things to pick up from the writing of the book. I would here end up by summarizing the main steps of penguins work. 

# Created a sense of urgency in the colony to deal with a difficult problem.

# Put a carefully selected group in charge of guiding the change.

# Found the sensible vision of a better future.

# Communicated that vision so others would understand and accept it.

# Removed as many obstacles to action as was practical.

# Created some sort of success quickly.

# Never let up until the new way of life was firmly established.

# Ensured that the changes would not be overcome by stubborn, hard-to-die traditions.

Thank you!

Max Henri Boisot (1943-2011)

Boisot (1943-2011)

Max Henri Boisot was born in 1943 and died in 2011 by cancer. Boisot attended Gordonstoun boarding school in Moray, Scotland. and later studied architecture at the University of Cambridge and city planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, before taking his PhD in technology transfer at Imperial  College London.

He was a Professor of Strategic Management at the ESADE business school in Barcelona. known for his ideas about the information economy, the information space, social capital and social learning theory.

After working as a manager for construction firm Trafalgar House, in 1972 Boisot co-founded an architectural partnership, Boisot Waters Cohen, and from 1975 to 1978 acted as a consultant on projects in France and the Middle East. From 1983 to 1989, he was Director and Dean of China Europe Management Institute in Beijing China.

Afterwards Boisot was Professor of Strategic Management at the ESADE business school in Barcelona. Associate Fellow at Templeton College, University of Oxford, and Senior Associate at the Judge Institute of Management Studies at the University of Cambridge. He was also a research fellow at the Sol Snider Center, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

His book Knowledge Assets was awarded the Ansoff Prize for the best book on strategy in 2000. The I-Space framework which is central to his work is an acknowledged early influence on the development of the Cynefin framework.

I learned that his KM model is based on the key concept of an "information
 good“ that differs from a physical asset. Boisot distinguishes information from data by emphasizing that information is what an observer will extract from data as a function
of his or her expectations or prior knowledge. Boisot (1998) proposes the following two key points:  

The more easily data can be structured and converted into information, the more diffusible it becomes.

The less data that has been so structured requires a shared context  for its diffusion, the more diffusible it becomes (Dalkir, 2011, p.82). 

Boisot's model can be visualized as three dimensional cube with the following dimensions:

Ø  from uncodified to codified, 

Ø  from concrete to abstract,

Ø  from un-diffused to diffused.

He also proposes a Social Learning Cycle (SLC) that uses the I-Space to model the dynamic flow of knowledge through a series of six phases:

Ø  Scanning: insights are gained from generally available (diffused) data

Ø  Problem-Solving: problems are solved giving structure and coherence to these insights (knowledge becomes 'codified')

Ø  Abstraction: the newly codified insights are generalized to a wide range of situations (knowledge becomes more 'abstract')

Ø  Diffusion: the new insights are shared with a target population in a codified and abstract form (knowledge becomes 'diffused')

Ø  Absorption: the newly codified insights are applied to a variety of situations producing new learning experiences (knowledge is absorbed and produces learnt behavior and so becomes 'un-codified', or 'tacit')

Ø  Impacting: abstract knowledge becomes embedded in concrete practices, for example in artifacts, rules or behaviour pattern