Dutch teachers support school phone ban

The majority of Netherlands teachers are in favour of a Government-imposed ban on mobile phones in class, a survey among some 8,400 educators has shown.

While just 54 per cent and 57 per cent of primary and trade school teachers back a ban, 73 per cent of secondary school teachers said they wanted the phones to go.

General Education Union official responsible for secondary education, Jelmer Evers said the membership had made their views crystal clear.

“Our members are saying that mobile phones are having a detrimental effect on pupils’ ability to concentrate. That, in turn, affects the effectiveness of the teaching,” Mr Evers said.

“Of the teachers voting against the ban, 21 per cent said they preferred schools to make their own arrangements about phones in class, while six per cent said they wanted to decide the matter for themselves.”

He said the implementation of any ban would have to be up to the school “for instance banning them throughout the school, or allowing pupils to bring them but to put them in a locker”.

“We are in favour of schools deciding what works best for them, but one thing is clear: Most teachers don’t want them in their classrooms.”

Some schools already have a ban in place, with Alfrink College English teacher, Gert Verbruggen saying the school had had a ‘leave it at home or in the locker’ policy for the past four years.

“The phone stays there all day, including during breaks. Our pupils are actually talking to each other,” Mr Verbruggen said.

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New Agency to tackle Japan's slumping birth-rate

The Japanese Government has established an Agency charged with overseeing child policies as the country’s birth-rate hits a new low.

The Children and Families Agency, under the direct supervision of Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, will tackle a wide range of challenges, including the perilously low birth-rate, child abuse and poverty.

Mr Kishida said it would be the “control tower” in compiling policies, while eliminating sectionalism.

The Agency, the first Government body to be established since the Digital Agency in September 2021, brings together relevant experts from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, as well as the Cabinet Office.

 

Combined with people from the private sector and Local Governments, the Agency will have a workforce of around 430.

 

It will be headed by Yumiko Watanabe, a senior bureaucrat in the welfare area of the Ministry.

 

Its launch comes as new statistics show the number of babies born in the country last year fell to below 800,000 for the first time since record-keeping began in 1899.

 

Mr Kishida has warned that Japan is “on the brink” of losing its social function against a backdrop of the falling birth-rate.

 

Aside from tackling the birth-rate problem, the new Agency is also tasked with supporting pregnant women, children with disabilities, and ‘young carers’ — children who routinely look after their family members.

 

Among new measures, the Agency plans to introduce a system requiring a certificate of no criminal record for people assuming jobs linked to children in the wake of a series of sexual abuse cases by babysitters that have come to light in recent years.

 

Although the Agency has been designed to eliminate sectionalism among Government organisations, schooling — a key area related to children — will remain with the Ministry of Education.

 

About ¥4.8 trillion ($A500 million) has been allocated to the Agency for the fiscal year starting April, but critics say it may be difficult to secure a sufficient budget for child policies in a stable manner.

 

Mr Kishida has expressed willingness to double his Government’s spending on child policies, but he has not specified its starting point, or how to secure the increased amount, fuelling speculation the Government will have to increase taxes to finance the costs.

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UK Ministers caught out with false claims

Senior United Kingdom Public Servants and Ministers have been criticised for failing to provide evidence for claims allegedly supported by statistics and not correcting errors once they had been established.

The annual report of fact-checking charity, Full Fact highlighted the Home Office, the Department for Work and Pensions, and officials at the Prime Minister’s Office with calls for change in attitudes to boost the quality of information provided to the public.

Full Fact said that in 2022 as many as 50 Members of Parliament, including two Prime Ministers, Cabinet Ministers and Opposition front benchers, failed to correct false, un-evidenced or misleading claims, despite its requests to do so.

It said 2022 had been a “damaging year for standards in public debate” and urged Permanent Secretaries to take a keener interest in ensuring data and other supporting information was available to evidence claims made by Ministers and their Departments.

High-profile concerns flagged by Full Fact included claims related to migrant-boat crossings of the English Channel made last year by then-Home Secretary, Priti Patel and Minister for Immigration, Robert Jenrick.

The report gave examples that either turned out to have been incorrect or remained unsubstantiated, prompting the Office for Statistics Regulation to intervene.

Full Fact said a September claim made by Ms Patel in Parliament that the majority of arrivals in small boats from France were Albanian nationals had not been backed up by Home Office data and was subsequently shown to be wrong in a Freedom of Information Act response.

It said assertions made by Mr Jenrick (pictured) about the true ages of asylum seekers arriving at one asylum-processing centre had not been supported by any published Home Office figures, and that the situation had not been rectified.

A false claim about employment levels that was made by then-Prime Minister, Boris Johnson and repeated multiple times was also referenced by Full Fact.

It said the claim that 500,000 more people were in work following the COVID-19 pandemic than had been before, remained uncorrected despite numerous challenges.

In fact, there were 588,000 fewer people in work than there had been two years earlier.

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Russian court sides with reluctant draftee

A Russian court has upheld the right of a man called up to fight in Ukraine to perform an alternative form of public service due to his religious beliefs.

The ruling sets a precedent that could persuade more reluctant draftees to try to get out of military service.

The Regional Court in St Petersburg upheld a ruling of a lower court that deemed the drafting of Pavel Mushumansky to be unlawful and said he was entitled to fulfil his duty in another way.

Russian President, Vladimir Putin (pictured) ordered a call-up of army reservists in September. Although officials said 300,000 men were drafted as planned, the mobilisation also spurred resistance.

Tens of thousands of men fled the country, and some of those who stayed ignored their summons.

Others contested enlistment in the courts, including by claiming a right to alternative service, which entails taking up a paying job at State-run institutions or organisations.

Those opting for alternative service often work in hospitals, care homes or Post Offices.

Mr Mushumansky’s lawyer, Alexander Peredruk said the ruling was the first of its kind since the mobilisation began amid Moscow's increasingly bogged-down military operation in Ukraine.

The publicly known attempts by other draftees to opt for alternative public service have failed, even though the right to be assigned to civil labour if military service goes against a person's beliefs is guaranteed under the Russian Constitution.

Enlistment officials argued that only regular conscripts were eligible for substitute service and that Russia does not have a law allowing such an option during a mobilisation.

Mr Mushumansky, an evangelical Christian, contested the decision to call him up on the grounds of his religious beliefs.

“He was allowed to carry out alternative civil service in 2019 instead of a mandatory stint in the military as a conscript and worked for almost two years in a psychiatric care home,” Mr Peredruk said.

In a statement, the Kremlin said the call-up process had been completed and had now ceased.

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NZ analyst accused in China spy drama

A senior analyst for the New Zealand Government has been accused of providing privileged information to the Chinese Government.

Yuan Zhao, who also goes by the name of Jason, said he and his family were “detained” at Wellington Airport in October by New Zealand’s Security Intelligence Service (SIS) as they were returning from a holiday in Australia.

His phone was seized, and his son’s laptop was searched.

Mr Zhao (pictured) works as a senior analyst at New Zealand’s Public Service Commission and has been accused of passing information to the Chinese Government, an allegation he denies.

The Chinese-born New Zealand citizen said on a fund-raising website, which has since been removed, that he was then accused of being an “insider threat risk”.

He said this was because he provided “privileged insights” and reported to the Chinese Government and held “close personal relationships” with officials of a foreign Government in New Zealand.

He has been suspended from his job at the Public Service Commission. His colleagues at the Commission noticed he disappeared from the workplace late in 2022.

Mr Zhao, when approached, denied he had provided the Chinese Government with information and said the SIS had no evidence to substantiate the accusation.

“I’m innocent. Someone framed me up,” Mr Zhao said.

An SIS spokesperson said the Agency had “a long-standing approach of not discussing what may or may not be specific areas of operational focus or individuals”.

A Commission spokesperson said that due to “standard security intelligence practice, we do not comment on individual security matters”.

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Former officials slam Public Service ‘group-think’

Two former senior New Zealand Public Servants have told a conference at Waikato University that there are serious problems in the current bureaucracy.

Former Secretary of the Treasury, Graham Scott who presided over the ‘Rogernomics’ reforms in the 80s, lamented the lack of strong debate within Departments and the tendency to group-think.

“There seems to be a lack of creative tension. People are so busy being polite to each other they don’t argue much anymore,” Dr Scott (pictured) said.

“Whereas the Public Service I remember was actually a pretty hard school, and that had its downsides — but you didn’t go into a meeting if you hadn’t done your homework, or if you did, you didn’t say anything.”

He said one of the consequences of the current situation was a lack of careful institutional analysis about how to deliver services, “which has been crippling for the present Government, in my view”.

Former diplomat and Chief Executive of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Sir Maarten Wevers said the Public Service had “got off the boil”.

“I think there’s been a reduction of focus. The butter has been spread too thinly, and there’s been a lack of focus on the things that really matter, the ones that would have big multiplier effects, and I think education and immigration are two that have already come up,” Sir Maarten said.

“There’s a lack of urgency in the way in which a lot of the public sector Agencies respond to changes in circumstances.”

Sir Maarten said there was also a general aversion to outside advice.

“I think there’s a general issue that openness to external voices is not as strong as it should be in the system that is providing advice, and that can be improved,” he said.

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Korean workplaces vetted for sexual exploitation

South Korea’s Ministry of Gender Equality and Family is to conduct an inspection of sexual exploitation in the workplace, aimed at protecting children and adolescents from harmful environments.

 

In a statement, the Ministry said it would conduct a crackdown on businesses deemed inappropriate for adolescents to visit or work.

 

“We will first clarify the type of facilities and businesses that teenagers should stay away from, and then conduct a joint Government inspection on new harmful businesses,” the statement said.

 

“To strengthen the countermeasures against digital sex crimes targeting teenagers, a survey on child and youth sexual exploitation will be conducted during 2023, and internet service providers will receive governmental support to install filtering technologies and software in their business.”

 

The Ministry said it also planned to expand support for internet addiction diagnosis tests and treatments, as well as coming up with measures to prevent excessive personal information exposure.

 

“We will support the needs of teenagers when it comes to diverse education programs, especially programs related to coding or artificial intelligence, which is necessary for the digital era,” the statement said.

 

“Programs for career exploration, culture, art and physical education will also be provided.”

 

Although South Korea’s overall youth population is decreasing due to the low birth rate and aging population, the number of teenagers who need support and protection is increasing.

 

Among teenagers aged nine to 19, the number living outside of their family households has increased from 20,875 in 2020 to 28,643 in 2022, based on runaway reports confirmed by the police.

 

The Ministry plans to establish an integrated information system for vulnerable adolescents by 2024 to effectively identify and manage teenagers in need.

 

It also plans to build additional nationwide youth counselling welfare centres and boarding shelters, in addition to expanding mental health programs.

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