Our Educational Issues Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Our Educational Issues - Research Paper Example Due to this, there is a great variation in terms of subjects, courses and other activities between schools of different states. Despite the variations, there are some common features in all schools regardless of their location. One of the common points is the three level division of the education system. The three levels include the elementary or primary education, the secondary education and the higher education. Formal schooling lasts for an average of 12 years when an individual is around the age of 18. This is not the case though in most states as compulsory schooling may end when an individual is 16 years. All American children have access to the free public education American educators use the term K-12 and sometimes PK-12 to refer to primary and secondary education. Most of US children start their education prior to entering the PK-12 education. The parents of such children have to privately finance these institutions. After pre-school and elementary school, the children then enter formal school at the average age of six. Although most American schools are well funded, they are still performing poorly based on the standardized testing, graduation rates, college admissions and national rankings. Many scholars and individuals have tried to look at the issues as to why schools are performing poorly and most of them agree that money is not one of the issues (Friedman25) A report from the International summit of Teaching rated America as an average compares to other nations. This is despite the fact that US invests in education more compared to other countries such as Canada. In the report, it was noted that America spends over $800 billion in a year. This amount is five times more than Japan which is the second highest spender. However, evidence from the summit revealed that one of the major causes of problem in the education system is the spending of the allocated money ((Peter26) American teachers have been obtaining little support in terms of money. Most of them go into debts so as to start their career. They are not motivated in terms of their salary making them to be less productive in school. Productivity of teachers is partially reflected in the grades of his or her students. Teachers who end up working in poor communities usually make less than those in more affluent areas. As a result, most of this teachers end up paying for many of their supplies. Additional evidence shows that the US is willing to lower educational standards rather than raising teachers’ salaries. In addition, the teachers of American schools have very little opportunities for collaborating with each other making most of them quite within their first five years. Countries such as Finland and Singapore pay their teachers very well and provide an enabling environment for them to collaborate effectively. One of the good news for America is that this problem is in the public eye and Obama’s administration is trying to stimulate improvements. In ord er to solve this problem, teachers need more support from the government and the local administration. The support should not only come in form of higher salaries but also in form of grants for those pursing teacher-related careers as well as providing a supportive environment for teacher collaboration

The Panama Canal and Its Expansion Research Paper

The Panama Canal and Its Expansion - Research Paper Example Panama canal was before under the Colombian management, then came the French and America before the panamian management took over in 1999. The canal had been faced by various challenges including ships traffic jam as the number rose from 1,000 in 1914 when it was opened to 14,702 in 2008. By the year 2008, more than 815,000 ships had used the panama canal most of them bigger than the initial plans that had been made (ACP, 2009). Panamax is the biggest ships that travel through the canal at the present time. The canal was named by the American society of civil engineers as among the seven worlds wonders. Due to the increased rate of international maritime trade, increase in volumes in trade and levels of containerization, there has been a keener plan of investment of more funds in canals and the ports by the shipping lines in order to curb the growing rate of demand and needs. Since the Panama Canal does not have the capacity to accommodate all this pressure, it has been faced by several issues mostly relating to traffic congestion of the ships. The canal is known to hold a great record in the maritime trade but at the same time it has been known to lose its market shares to Suez canal,which is another route used in the same type of trade, and this is because the panama canal cannot accommodate ships more than 5,000 TEUs. The canal has also been hit by several problems,which include: a decrease in demand of transit, an old model and structure of the canal, the saturation point is reached early, lack of potential to redirect traffic congestion to other potential alternatives with longer routes, their development is unsustainable and also their level of trade in the maritime industry has been low. These problems led to the proposal for the expansion of the panama canal by the panama canal authority as it was the best solution for the business of shipping,rather than ignoring,so that,by 2014, the capacity would be doubled allowing more ships to pass through the canal. The components that make up the programme of the expansion o f the Panama Canal include: 1. Widening and making the Atlantic entrance deep. 2. Construction of the panama locks of the Atlantic post. 3. Increasing the working conditions of Lake Gatum to a maximum level. 4. Widening and making the steering channels of Culebra Cut and Lake Gatun deep. 5. Digging up the access channel of the post panamax locks. 6. Constructing locks on the pacific post panamax. 7. Widening and making the entrance of the pacific deep. Panama canal expansion will double its capacity come 2014 as it will allow larger ships to pass through. The plan for the canal expansion was presented on 24th April, 2006 by martin torrijos who was then the president of panama. The proposal was approved by the citizens of panama through a national referendum that was carried out in October 2006, and it was voted in by 76.8% of the population (ACP, 2009). The citizens of panama approved the expansion of the canal as it would allow larger vessels to transit and increase the level of ma ritime trade. The project has started to be executed by the Panama Canal authority, and it will take at least eight years to be fully implemented as they are following a well illustrated plan and it will cost them 5.25 billion US dollars. As much as this project is of much assistance to the citizens and the republic of panama, there will be a direct benefit to the maritime industry internationally through