At Home: Saskatchewan Revamping Teacher Regulation
Did you know that, currently, complaints about teacher competence and behaviour are handled internally by the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation? This is the union that is supposed to represent teachers to management.
The Saskatchewan government has some understandable concerns about this system, and so has appointed a “transition committee” to create a new, arms-length body that will handle these complaints, according to a new report by CBC. The government has suggested that this new body might be modelled after groups such as the Law Society of Saskatchewan or the College of Physicians and Surgeons?groups that are supposed to advocate for the profession as a whole, not the individual members of it.
Around the Globe:EU Student Funding System Under Threat
If you’re an international student studying at AU, you may be interested in the recent report from PIE News. The report suggests that, with 43% of EU student loans outstanding, the entire state funding system of post-secondary is under threat. For every £1 the UK government lends, it loses about 45p. This has lead to about £111 million less being collected than was expected during 2011-2012, and a potential £330 billion by 2044. Created by the Business, Innovation, and Skills Committee of the UK House of Commons, the report suggests that unless the government begins to make plans to examine the student loans system, it could leave the entire post-secondary system unfunded as the budget hole becomes too big to ignore.
Adrien Bailey, chair of the committee, said, “the financial funding system for higher education is looking increasingly fragile, coming under the strain of unfunded commitments and poor debt collection.”
