AUSTRALIA'S Education Minister Brendan Nelson proposed a plan to test pupils under the age of eight for literacy twice a year, reports The Weekend Australian. Under the plan, children in Australia as young as five will be tested for basic English reading skills, including their ability to recognize letters of the alphabet and identify words in an attempt to gauge children's progress.
Finnish colleges seek foreign MA students
芬兰高校硕士课程实行英文授课
FINLAND has begun introducing masters programmes in English, according to EL Gazette. Increasing numbers of masters degrees at Finnish universities are taught in English in order to attract more foreign students. Although Finland's Ministry of Education has nurtured the English-speaking academic community, the Ministry has urged universities to ensure English education must "under no account" affect the amount of education taught in Finland's national languages, Finnish and Swedish.
