Here’s the irony. Our new “data-driven world” has created unprecedented demand for workers with skills in collecting, processing, analyzing and understanding data. But it has also done the opposite. More than ever, businesses need people with skills at the other end of the spectrum, such as creativity, emotional intelligence, empathy, and collaboration. These were once called soft skills. Now, they’re “power skills.” …

Engineering students from the Scheduled Tribes (ST) and the Scheduled Castes (SC) learn at a faster rate than those from the general category, according to a study carried out by Stanford University, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the World Bank. The study on learning assessment outcomes, which was carried out between October and November 2017, and …

Too many parents are underestimating their children’s ability to learn language, according to a report. A poll of parents by charity Save the Children revealed nearly half of those polled (47 per cent) had low expectations of their children’s ability to learn  reckoning they would know 100 words by their third birthday – just half the number recommended by the …

There are well-established regimes for rating schools and healthcare providers. Those that work best are stable, detailed and easy to compare How well will metrics do the job of an inspector? Photograph: Alamy We all know now that the government wants to assess the quality of teaching in higher education through a new Teaching Excellence Framework (Tef). What’s less clear …

he refugee crisis has seen schools in many countries having to accommodate new arrivals. But the OECD’s education director, Andreas Schleicher, says the evidence of international tests suggests migrants are as likely to become an asset to their new schools rather than a problem. Immigrant children are often highly motivated and have ambitious parents. And these clever, hungry-to-learn youngsters often …