Future Trends and Opportunities of the M.B.A

For the last ten years or so, obtaining an M.B.A. guaranteed graduate students a more profitable and challenging career path. The business sector has been working hand in hand with top graduate schools to create new M.B.A. programs that will prepare students to fill specialized leadership roles. What is the future of the M.B.A. and will it continue to be a worthy 'investment'? The relationship between the corporate and academic sector is likely to strengthen. More and more students will enroll in one-year programs. The nature of teaching methods will change as technology-based media replace class time. As for new opportunities, graduate students will be more encouraged to jump into the market as entrepreneurs. Software and telecommunication industries will be the new areas for future development and growth.

The Students Who Fought Milosevic

The whole world watched recently as Serbian leader Slobodan Milosovic seemingly lost the presidential elections. What few people saw was the role played by a student movement known as ‘Otpor’ (“Resistance”) in trying to rid their nation of a ruthless leader. A group with no one person in charge, Otpur went from being a campus organisation at Belgrade University a year ago to being a nationwide group with 2,500 activists and 120 chapters – one that is respected by fellow citizens and depended upon by the opposition. Mothers and grandmothers have their own chapters within the movement and some moms have even been arrested alongside their children, says Mother Jones. Otpur members want Milosovic to be punished for ruining their youth and their country. In one attempt to get their message through, some of the students put up banners in town squares all over Serbia on the occasion of the leader’s birthday. It read “Happy birthday, Mr. President, may you celebrate the next one with your nearest and dearest on a deserved holiday in the Hague”.

Sheikh of Al-Azhar denounces French School in Egypt

Shiekh Sayyid Tantawi, the head of the Azhar clerics, took a stand against a French school in Alexandria that is preventing one of its female students to attend classes because of her hijab. Last week, Azza Amr Zaki was dismissed from her classroom because she refused to stop wearing a hijab, and now she has to spend her days in the school library. Azza’s parents, who are enraged by their child’s dismissal, refuse to pull her out of school. Still, the Champlion School will not budge either. The cleric advises the school to remember that it is located in Egypt and that the country “does not accept naked culture”.

Special education - a failure on many fronts

In California, children are being classified as “learning - disabled” because they have difficulties in reading. The state has 651,000 special education students, and 63% are not emotionally, physically or mentally handicapped - they just may have never been taught to read. According to the LA Times, research has proven that the reading difficulties that these children experienced could have been reduced, “had they received systematic, intensive instruction”. In order to measure unexplained gaps in performance, schools used to give their students IQ tests and simultaneously measure their reading performance. If IQ results were higher than reading scores, a child would be labeled as disabled. The special education system as a whole has problems. In California, one in three of the teachers assigned to special education lack full credentials.

Do Computers Belong in Early Childhood?

With the recent improvement of computer technology, child-friendly features such as full-colour graphics, human voice simulation and interactive features, computers could meet the needs of children. Computers support and improve children's creativity and help develop a cheerful attitude towards learning. As a teacher, you can try to incorporate the computer within the classroom to help students discover, explore and share ideas, and then give them a head start to meet the challenges of the Information Age.

Parents and Teachers Cross Wires Over Mobile Phones

Most parents want their children to own a mobile phone. But most schools ban its use for fear that it will distract the children or be used by bullies to intimidate other students. According to a survey conducted by the Parents Information Network (PIN), 80% of parents want their children carrying mobile phones for personal safety benefits, regardless of the fact that recent reports warned against the harmful effects of phone radiation on users. PIN has published a list of guidelines on its website www.pin.org.uk advising parents on some safety issues relating to mobile phones, such as that a child should not hold the mobile phone close to his/her head when sending and receiving text messages