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A downtown middle school catering to boys and girls with single-gender instruction was launched in Los Angeles Monday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, the first of its kind in the United States.

Students who attend the Young Oak Kim Academy don’t have classes together, according to local television channel KABC.

Inside a new high-tech building, girls and boys are placed in separate classrooms studying science, technology, engineering and math. They are however allowed to mix during breaks.

The middle school students sat in the auditorium, girls on one side and boys on the other.

The goal is to build confidence in the girls and get the boys to focus, according to school officials.

The concept of the sex-segregated classes stems from studies, cited by administrators, showing middle school students process information differently and are easily distracted in a mixed gender environment.

Researchers also found that girls start losing their interest in math and science, and by high school their skills drop off precipitously.

Administrators say parents can opt to send their children to traditional mixed-gender school if they do not like the concept of gender-separated classes.

The principal says he already sees a difference with calmer classrooms.

(Source: xinhuanet.com)

Myanmar is building good surroundings of education for youth in order to enable them become precious gems for the country, Brigadier-General Kyaw Myint, deputy minister of the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, said here on Tuesday.

“With equitable access to education in rural and urban areas the government was nurturing outstanding youth,” the deputy minister told a three-day meeting of the 15th ASEAN Youth Day being held in Nay Pyi Taw.

Kyaw Myint said Myanmar was working closely together with member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the fields of economy, social welfare, education and culture with harmonious efforts. Regional peace and stability was gaining a good momentum in the course of development through ASEAN’s united efforts.

He attributed the ability of the member nations in tackling difficulties of regional challenge to their constant united endeavors.

He pointed out that the ASEAN Social Culture Community (ASCC), which was drawn and is being implemented, places special emphasis on conducting workshops and courses, and holding of youth meetings for exchanging views.

He said that the ASEAN youth meeting plays a leading role in the implementation of the ASCC, stressing that ASEAN youth represents the most important part of the entire population of regional grouping.

A ceremony to present prizes for outstanding regional youth was held on the occasion.

Youth delegates from Brunei, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore and Thailand took part in the meeting which will continue up to Wednesday.

In April this year, a five-day ASEAN workshop on youth, culture and development, hosted by Myanmar, was held in the country’s second largest city of Mandalay.

The workshop, jointly organized by Thailand-based Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization, Regional Center for Archaeology and Fine Arts, and ASEAN Foundation, was attended by dozens of youth delegates from the Myanmar Ministry of Culture, National Culture and Fine Arts Universities and some social organizations.

Meanwhile, ASEAN’s culture- and arts-related ministers agreed to enhance the regional cooperation in the areas of culture and arts at a meeting of ASEAN Ministers Responsible for Culture and Arts (AMCA) held in Nay Pyi Taw in January last year.

The areas of cooperation was outlined as human resources development, protection, preservation and promotion of ASEAN cultural heritage, and development of small and medium cultural enterprises.

ASEAN ministers endorsed the work plan of the working groups set up by related ASEAN senior officials, agreeing that funding for cultural cooperation activities be streamed and broadened.

The regional ministers resolved to enhance the cultural profile of ASEAN among the member states and internationally, then report said, adding that at the AMCA+3 (China, Japan and South Korea) meeting attached, the regional ministers supported China’s proposal to expedite the drafting of an implementation plan for cultural cooperation between ASEAN and China, welcoming the prospect of a memorandum of understanding between ASEAN and South Korea to formalize cultural cooperation and Japan’s initiatives on such cooperation with ASEAN including the proposed ASEAN+3 computer graphics art gallery.

The AMCA met in Nay Pyi Taw to promote a deeper understanding of the region’s civilization, arts and culture, and was aimed at contributing towards the emergence of an ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community by 2015. The roadmap for the community called for preservation and promotion of the region’s cultural heritage and cultural identity.

Meanwhile, an ASEAN Youth Leader Conference was launched in June this year in Jakarta, Indonesia, which discussed the world’s economy, held exchange of experiences and reviewed the impact of the life style and future condition.

A cultural festival also took place on the occasion with each ASEAN member demonstrating its traditional music and dances.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

(Source: xinhuanet.com)

Padang city of Indonesia’s West Sumatra province that was devastated by a 7.6 Richter scale earthquake last Wednesday, intends to prioritize education amidst poor facilities, the private radio Elshinta reported on Wednesday.

“Education will keep running although students have to study in mosques and emergency tents because their schools are ruined by the earthquake,” said Fauzi Bahar, Padang’s mayor told the radio station.

The local government recorded that 64 percent of schools in Padang were ruined by the massive quake.

Fauzi also urged citizens not to be drifted by the impact of the disaster.

“Those who have to go to rice fields, go! Those who have to fish, go to the sea! And those who have to trade, go to markets,” he said, adding that people should not stand still and just wait for help.

West Sumatra province was rocked by the earthquake that killed more than 700 people and the hardest hit are Padang, Pariaman and Padang Pariaman regencies.

(Source: xinhuanet.com)