Right - your three-minute warning. Just enough time to grab a cuppa' and get comfortable before @GavinWilliamson makes his announcement on replacing GCSE and A-level exams this year

@GavinWilliamson .@GavinWilliamson says this isn't a decision the government wanted to take. 'Our schools have not suddenly become unsafe, but limiting attendance essential when Covid rates are climbing'
@GavinWilliamson He will set out the contingency plans he'd 'prepared but hoped to have never implemented'
@GavinWilliamson 'We're far better placed to cope with disruption than last march', Williamson adds we're better at delivering online learning and they will support parents
@GavinWilliamson Williamson says if parents feel they aren't getting suitable remote education they they should raise concerns first with the headteacher, and "failing that report the matter to Ofsted".
Ofsted will inspect schools where it has concerns
@GavinWilliamson Williamson says they've learnt lessons on exams. 'Although they are the fairest way, the pandemic means it's now not possible to have them this year. GCSEs, A-level and AS levels will not go ahead. We'll put our trust in teachers not algorithms'
@GavinWilliamson Breaking: Williamson says a 'form of teacher assessed grades' will be used this year, with training and support for teachers to 'ensure these are awarded fairly and consistently across the country'.
However details will need to be 'fine tuned'.
@GavinWilliamson Williamson says 'understandably concern' about free school meals. Extra funding to support schools to provide food parcels or meals to children. Where schools can't do this, there will be a national voucher scheme for every eligible child can access FSM will school remains closed
@GavinWilliamson He says mass testing 'won't be wasted'. Still used on teachers and staff.
Williamson adds: 'Testing is going to be the centre of our plan to return schools back to the classroom as soon as possible'
@GavinWilliamson .@GavinWilliamson says: 'The moment the virus permits all our children will be back in school. 'Until then we have put in place the measures we need to make sure they continue to progress.'
And that's that (well, on to Qs now)
@GavinWilliamson . @KateGreenSU says wherever Williamson goes, incompetence follows.
She says she wanted exams to go ahead, but said a Plan B had to be in place.
Also 'failed to show leadership' on BTECs - leaving it up to schools
@GavinWilliamson @KateGreenSU Williamson has pledged to get 750k of laptops out by the end of next week (I think he might have said earlier how many have already gone out, but it was 500k before Xmas)
@GavinWilliamson @KateGreenSU Williamson seems to be getting quite emotional in his address to parliament: 'I will give everything to ensure schools are the first things to be open because that is what is best for all children'
@GavinWilliamson @KateGreenSU OK - finally - some details on when we'll get the details:

Ofqual will launch a "detailed" consultation on the plans next week. It will run for two weeks.
@GavinWilliamson @KateGreenSU Williamson says he would like to thank the NEU and Unison for recognising the fact the advice they gave their members on Sunday was incorrect and they've now withdrawn that advice.

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I was a recipient of KGSP for my Msc from 2013-2016

Korean Government Scholarship Program (KGSP) Application made easy

Application period- 1 February 2021- 31 March, 2021

MS- 3yrs (1 year Korean language + 2 years MS)

PhD- 4yrs (1 year Korean language + 3 years PhD)

How to navigate the
https://t.co/6Ne99JDfyv page

1. Type https://t.co/ow51lWVKcQ in your browser and hit the enter button

2. Click on scholarships and select GKS notice as attached in the picture👇

3. Play with the notice dashboard to see various announcements from NIIED.


4. E.g in 2020, the Global Korea Scholarship for Graduate Degrees was announced on 11, February as indicated by no 205. You can click to download the application materials to get familiar with what is expected. I attached series of links in this thread to assist too.

Category- All fields

Benefits

1. Visa fee

2. Airfare: Actual cost (To and fro from your home country to Korea and upon completion to your home country)

3. Resettlement Allowance: KRW 200,000 (Given upon arrival in Korea)

4. Monthly stipend: Graduate (MS/PhD)-KRW 1000,000 (362,610.35 Nigerian Naira) per month ,Research Program including Postdoctoral fellow and visiting Professors - 1,500,000 KRW (542,824.78 Nigerian Naira) per month
Time for some thoughts on schools given the revised SickKids document and the fact that ON decided to leave most schools closed. ON is not the only jurisdiction to do so, but important to note that many jurisdictions would not have done so -even with higher incidence rates.


As outlined in the tweet by @NishaOttawa yesterday, the situation is complex, and not a simple right or wrong https://t.co/DO0v3j9wzr. And no one needs to list all the potential risks and downsides of prolonged school closures.


On the other hand: while school closures do not directly protect our most vulnerable in long-term care at all, one cannot deny that any factor potentially increasing community transmission may have an indirect effect on the risk to these institutions, and on healthcare.

The question is: to what extend do schools contribute to transmission, and how to balance this against the risk of prolonged school closures. The leaked data from yesterday shows a mixed picture -schools are neither unicorns (ie COVID free) nor infernos.

Assuming this data is largely correct -while waiting for an official publication of the data, it shows first and foremost the known high case numbers at Thorncliff, while other schools had been doing very well -are safe- reiterating the impact of socioeconomics on the COVID risk.

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I'm going to do two history threads on Ethiopia, one on its ancient history, one on its modern story (1800 to today). 🇪🇹

I'll begin with the ancient history ... and it goes way back. Because modern humans - and before that, the ancestors of humans - almost certainly originated in Ethiopia. 🇪🇹 (sub-thread):


The first likely historical reference to Ethiopia is ancient Egyptian records of trade expeditions to the "Land of Punt" in search of gold, ebony, ivory, incense, and wild animals, starting in c 2500 BC 🇪🇹


Ethiopians themselves believe that the Queen of Sheba, who visited Israel's King Solomon in the Bible (c 950 BC), came from Ethiopia (not Yemen, as others believe). Here she is meeting Solomon in a stain-glassed window in Addis Ababa's Holy Trinity Church. 🇪🇹


References to the Queen of Sheba are everywhere in Ethiopia. The national airline's frequent flier miles are even called "ShebaMiles". 🇪🇹