By: Artur Victoria

Each school must be divided into work units. The pupils within each work unit are divided into classes and also, for their everyday work, into groups of various sizes.

The work unit need not comprise classes from the grade. A unit can, for example, be formed comprising pupils from grades I, 2 and 3. The work unit may also comprise classes from different levels.

An arrangement of this kind can often present great advantages. Senior pupils can help junior pupils.

Work units must be more than an administrative division. The aim is for them to be developed into a small school within the framework of the large one.

They must be conducive to close co-operation between staff and pupils.

Essential goals of school work are more easily attained if certain duties within school management districts are delegated to the work units. Duties of this kind include the following.

- The work units have an important part to play in educational planning.They should plan basic training in skills, the work to be done by remedial teachers, the timing of project studies and so

- The work unit is a natural framework for the discussion and planning of support for pupils in difficulty. No problem need be referred to the school pupil welfare conference unless it cannot be solved within the work unit, for example by consultation with parents, by the application of different methods, by the coverage of different subject matter, or by work in smaller groups, individual assignments etc.

- In many cases the work unit is the natural unit in which to agree concerning the scope of the pupils’ own responsibilities and their own contributions to the environment, and also to plan free activities. it is often a suitable unit for information to and discussions with parents concerning various matters.

Consultation concerning educational planning and concerning activities during the school year or the term should result in a working plan for the work unit. The Education Ordinance contains provisions concerning the duty of planning instruction and pupil welfare work within the work unit.

The working plan must outline a program and define goals and aims in such a way that it is possible at the end of the school year or term to evaluate activities and agree on any alterations that are to be made to working methods or aims for a future period of activities.

In this way schools are to advance by means of co-operation and consultations between pupils, staff and school management.

The organization of a school into work units makes it easier for teachers to co-operate in teaching teams. Co-operation of this kind between the adult members of the school community is an important example to the pupils of democracy in operation, and it is essential with a view to the consistent and purposive development of skills in different subjects.

Younger pupils can form hobby societies and class societies, and older pupils can develop societies covering a wide range of activities, e.g. sports, music, reading, drama, photography and various ideological topics such as temperance, religion and politics. The vitality of these societies very often tends to fluctuate, but schools can support and activate them by enabling them to participate in various contexts - for example, by contributing programs to school assemblies, publishing articles in a school magazine, putting on exhibitions etc. By giving them financial assistance, by giving various assignments to individual members and, if possible, by letting teachers who are particularly interested become members of the societies. School societies should have extensive powers of initiating free activities within their several spheres.

By: Anupama Madhuri

The Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan (CSFP) is an international programme under which Commonwealth governments offer scholarships and fellowships to citizens of other Commonwealth countries. The plan was originally proposed by Canadian statesman Sidney Earle Smith in a speech in Montreal on September 1, 1958 and was established in 1959, at the first Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (CCEM) held in Oxford, UK. Since then, over 25,000 individuals have held awards, hosted by over twenty countries. The CSFP is one of the primary mechanisms of pan-Commonwealth exchange.

There is no central body which manages the CSFP. Instead, participation is based on a series of bi-lateral arrangements between home and host countries. The participation of each country is organised by a national nominating agency, which is responsible for advertising awards applicable to their own country and making nominations to host countries.

In the United Kingdom, which is the biggest contributor to the Plan, this process is managed by the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the United Kingdom, a Non-Departmental Public Body, and funded by the Department for International Development and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The UK offers:  Scholarships for postgraduate study  Academic Fellowships for staff in developing country universities  Split-site Scholarships for PhD students to spend up to one year in the UK  Professional Fellowships for mid-career professionals in developing countries  Distance Learning Scholarships for developing country students to study Master’s degree courses

Traditionally, most of the awards were offered for the masters program as well as the doctorates and taught courses. Nevertheless, there are some exceptions in few countries, markedly in the UK, offering Fellowships intended to provide established university staff in developing countries with an opportunity to modernize their skills. The selection of the applicants is a partnership between the home and host country. When a country decides to offer awards, this is notified to those countries whose citizens will be eligible. It is then for those countries to advertise the awards, and to make the required number of nominations. It will then be sent to the host country, who will select the final recipients from nominations received. Often this will involve competition between the nominations of different countries.

The participation of each country is organised by a national nominating agency. Agencies are responsible for advertising awards applicable to their own country and making nominations to host countries. Applicants should apply to the nominating agency in their own country in the first instance. In most cases, the agency is part of - or appointed by - government agencies. In the case of some award categories, however, the functions are filled by other bodies, such as individual universities or their representative bodies. As a result of decisions taken at the 14th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers in November 2000 it is likely that some countries will accept nominations from a wider range of sources in future years, whilst retaining existing agencies as the main channel. Further details will appear on individual country pages as announced.

Impel is the Global Education Consultancy that provides all the information about Study Abroad.

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