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"What is the relationship between education and natural disasters? Can education play a role in ameliorating and mitigating them, preparing people in how to respond, and even helping to prevent them? If so, how? Drawing on research carried out in a number of different countries, including Australia, China, India, Japan, the UK and the USA, the contributors consider the role of education in relation to natural disasters. The case studies expand conceptual and empirical understandings of the understudied relationship between education and natural disasters, uncover the potential and the limitations of education for mitigating, responding to, and potentially preventing, natural disasters. The contributors also consider the extent to which so-called natural disasters, such as mudslides caused by deforestation and flooding areas built on known flood plains, are linked to human behaviour and how education can impact on these"--

In educational research literature the role of education as a means for social upward mobility is quite well accepted. However, there are examples where education conserves and perpetuates social class. Each year, after the campus placements, one comes across a familiar situation where some students get selected and some others with equal academic achievements get rejected. This event occurs when one has nearly completed one's education. The problem that lies at the root of this observation is that students do not enter school/college with equal cultural, social and economic capital. Teachers with their egalitarian values treat them as equals, making no distinctions among them. They ignore the obvious distinctions among students rather than addressing them, thereby, helping preserve these differences. The school teachers ignore, the college teachers ignore and finally the professional teachers also ignore the differences. Consequently, the differential in the cultural and social capital of students continues. To find out whether education preserves or bridges these differences the author studied the impact of annual family income, level of father's education, level of mother's education, father's profession, mother's profession, area of location of school and the medium of instruction at school on the preparation and performance of students in three different types of engineering colleges. Her sample consisted of 740 students studying in the third year of their 4-year engineering degree course. She compared the performance of students from highest income group with the students from lowest income group, performance of students whose fathers were uneducated with students with professionally educated fathers, students with uneducated mothers and those with professionally educated mothers, students whose fathers were engaged in agriculture with those whose fathers were in profession, students whose mothers were not working and those with mothers in profession, students from rural schools with those from urban schools, and performances of students from English medium schools and students from regional language medium schools through independent sample t-tests and found that though the means of students from high income families, from English medium schools, from schools located in urban areas were higher on all subjects in class ten and class twelve board examinations and higher Semester Grade Point Averages but some differences were not statistically significant. The findings are discussed along with educational implications. The paper is concluded with suggestions for the educators and their renewed responsibilities in the light of findings.

Discusses the politics and likely outcomes of privatizing public education. Conservatives decry the state of public education, but ignore causes such as underfunding of schools in disadvantaged areas. They also exploit political divisions on the left over school vouchers.

Intro -- Contents -- Introduction -- Tip 1 Learn the child -- Tip 2 Assess the impact of the child's history on her education -- Tip 3 Gather information about the child's education history -- Tip 4 Get to know the carers and work with them -- Tip 5 Find out as much as possible about the school -- Tip 6 Form a relationship with key school staff members -- Tip 7 Facilitate the links between the carers and the school -- Tip 8 Ensure the child has information that makes sense to her -- Tip 9 Support the child through transitions -- Tip 10 Assess the network for areas of positive impact -- Conclusion -- References -- Useful organisations -- Useful resources.