Education

French President Emmanuel Macron is closing the elite French university École Nationale d'Administration, or Ena for short, as he announced on Thursday. The elite cadre school is to be replaced by the Institute of Public Service (ISP).

The aim of the reform is to make the French civil service "more efficient, more transparent and more benevolent", according to sources close to the president. In addition, more young people from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds are to be recruited for the civil service. The "social lift" works "less well today than it did 50 years ago", Macron had complained at the beginning of this year.

The Republican-led Texas' Board of Education voted Friday that students will be taught about "the central role of the expansion of slavery in causing sectionalism, disagreements over states' rights and the Civil War." University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley historian David Fisher was part of a work group that gave the board suggested revisions. Lawrence Paska, executive director of the National Council for the Social Studies, says what those students learn in school has a big impact on how they understand history and current events.

Schools in Zimbabwe are not allowed anymore to expel pupils who get pregnant. Women's rights campaigners said this would help tackle gender inequality in schools and stop many girls from dropping out of school.

Cain Mathema, the education minister in charge of schools, has stated that "I'm expecting every parent and guardian and everyone else to understand that every child must be assisted by all of us to go to school" as many parents of pregnant girls, or the girls themselves, decide to quit schooling due to the pregnancy, and schools do not always do enough to encourage them to stay.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a call to reopen schools, two weeks after President Trump called the agency's previous recommendations on the reopening of school's "very tough and expensive."

"Reopening schools creates opportunity to invest in the education, well-being, and future of one of America’s greatest assets — our children — while taking every precaution to protect students, teachers, staff and all their families," so the CDC's statement published on Thursday.

The statement further states that " best available evidence indicates that COVID-19 poses relatively low risks to school-aged children," and lists the benefits of in-person attendance.

Google has announced that it will fund 100,000 scholarships for career certificates of their own "Google Career Certificates" program in order to "help Americans get qualifications in high-paying high-growth job fields".

The goal is to educate people on a need-basis through their online program in order to "help America's economic recovery". In addition, the technology company has announced that it'll commit $10 million in job training Google.org grants distributed through multiple organizations for communities throughout America.

Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, announced that he and his wife Patty Quillin would be donating a total of $120 million to three HBCUs, historically black colleges and universities. Morehouse College, Spelman College and United Negro College Fund will receive $40 million each.

In their statement, the pair said that they have "supported these three extraordinary institutions for the last few years" because they believe that "investing in the education of Black youth is one of the best ways to invest in America's future" and adding "generally, white capital flows to predominantly white institutions, perpetuating capital isolation. We hope this additional $120 million donation will help more black students follow their dreams."

More than 500 schools in South Korea closed just days after they reopened, due to a new spike in virus cases. Thousands of students had returned to school earlier on Wednesday, as the country began easing virus restrictions.

The chairman of the National Association of Parents for True Education Na Myung-joo said:  "Except for the lower grades of elementary schools and kindergarteners who are in urgent need of emergency care services, and high school seniors ahead of the national college entrance exam, it will be safe for the rest of the students to conduct remote classes for the time being.".

Starting with Grades 7 and 12 and small schools, the reopening process of the educational sector has started in South Africa. Minister Angie Motshekga urged schools to follow safety protocols which will be provided to students, teachers and other staff. The National Coronavirus Command Council and Cabinet is also working with the Department of Social Development to help with "the needs of learners with disabilities and those in special schools [...] to ensure that no child is compromised".

Cho Hee-yeon, superintendent of Seoul's education office, calls for postponement of reopening schools. All schools, as well as kindergartens, were supposed to reopen this week, as per governmental decision. In a post to Facebook on May 11, he stated that "if the current trend of concerns over a second wave of COVID-19 continues, (I) believe there is a need to review the school reopening schedule." Hee-yeon suggests postponing the reopening by a week.

School buses in various American cities are being equipped with WiFi to provide free WiFi to communities that are lacking proper internet access. The initiative gets help from companies like Google, AT&T and the Duke Energy Foundation. WiFi school buses are currently deployed in many states, among them North Carolina, Texas and Ohio.

In a statement, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper stated “In many communities, school buses are already delivering meals to students and their families. Now they’re delivering Wi-Fi for online learning".

Announcing a "National Emergency Library" the non-profit organization Internat Archive makes 1.4 million books online for free. The organization stated that the measure was taken in order to provide "a global community of displaced learners" with access to learning materials. The collection mainly contains digitalized books that don't have an ebook version available.