Unit 3. Spending on Education

Lead-in:

Exercise 1. Starting up:

1. How can you comment on the phrase “investing in brains”?

2. How can one benefit from such investments?

Exercise 2. You represent the Investment Planning Sector of the Government. Work in two teams: make up a list of the areas you would invest in the priority order.

Vocabulary and Listening

Exercise 3. You are going to listen to the report “Spending on Education”. Match the English phrases from the report with their Russian equivalents:

1. to take unpaid leave	достижениe в образовании
2. a trade union	ощутимое улучшение
3. educational outcomes	смехотворно несерьезный
4. ridiculously superficial	безденежное государство
5. a think-tank	брать неоплачиваемый отпуск
6. an educational attainment	технические работники
7. a measurable improvement	результаты образования
8. support staff	аналитический центр
9. a cash-strapped government	профсоюз

Exercise 4. Listen to the report on the problem of education spending and name the countries that have recently cut their education spending (“The Economist”, January 23^rd 2010).

Exercise 5. Listen to the report for the second time and complete the following statements.

1. The state's governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has cut $______ billion, some 20% of the University of California's budget.

2. Fees may rise by a fifth, to over $__________.

3. That is part of a global picture in which cash-strapped governments in the rich world are scrutinising the nearly _________of GDP they devote to education.

4. Just before Christmas the British gov­ernment said it planned to reduce spend­ing on higher education, science and re­search by £6oom ($980m) by _________.

5. The trade union that represents academic staff claims that up to ______ universities could close with the loss of ____________ jobs.

6. Amer­ica's $787 billion Recovery Act passed by Congress nearly a year ago included $_________ billion for education.

7. More than half is to be spent this year, meaning that the budget will have to be cut in ______.

8. A study by the Centre for the Study of Education Policy at Illinois State University, published on January 18th, found that half of American states will have spent all of their stimulus money for education by the end of _____.

9. Ja­pan, for example, is reducing university spending by a flat _____ over each of the next five years.

Reading

Exercise 6. Read the text “Investing in Brains” and decide if the following statements are true (T) or false (F):

1. In California the students are revolt­ing against their teachers.

2. In California universities support staff are being fired and academics must take unpaid leave.

3. The OECD study does not link education spending to eco­nomic success – or even to educational outcomes.

4. The OECD study convinces the sceptics.