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Finland, Canada and South Korea rank highly for education – Full Fact

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By Richard Braham   Sept 16, 2015

In brief

Claim

Finland, South Korea and Canada, which all have the most comprehensive systems, have been repeatedly shown to have the best educated children in the world.

Conclusion

Finland, South Korea and Canada have done consistently well in tests that compare 15 year-olds internationally, although these tests aren’t a perfect guide to the relative performance of different education systems. We haven’t seen definitive evidence that the success of these systems is due to the fact they’re comprehensive.

“If you look at the countries that have the best educated children around the world, there are three countries that come up again and again and again… Finland, South Korea and Canada. And they have the most comprehensive systems.”

Alastair Campbell, 15 September 2016

Finland, South Korea and Canada have done consistently well in tests that compare 15-year olds in different countries.

We compared the last three rounds of rankings from 2006, 2009 and 2012. Finland, South Korea and Canada were consistently placed in the top 10 for Science and Reading globally, although Finland and Canada slipped to 12th and 13th for Maths in 2012.

They’re not the only countries that have done consistently well in these tests. Looking at 2009 and 2012, four other regions have scored consistently within the top ten in reading, five others in science and seven others in maths.

As we’ve discussed previously, these tests aren’t a perfect guide to the relative performance of different education systems.

Finland’s state schools are comprehensive and unstreamed until pupils are 16.Canada has mainly comprehensive schools to 18, since the majority of upper secondary schools offer vocational and academic streams. South Korea’s schools are comprehensive until pupils are 15, which is the end of compulsory education.

So far, we haven’t seen any definitive evidence that the success of these systems is due to the fact that their systems are largely comprehensive. We’ll be looking into this further.

Source: Finland, Canada and South Korea rank highly for education – Full Fact

Paramount Pictures, Skydance and Bad Robot’s Star Trek Beyond spent over $69 million in British Columbia and created 3,925 jobs

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VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA – July 22, 2016 – Paramount Pictures, Skydance and Bad Robot’s Star Trek Beyond, out in theatres today, provided a significant boost to British Columbia’s economy.

New data released today shows that over the course of 78 days of filming, the production was responsible for over $69 million spent in British Columbia.

From the construction of the U.S.S. Enterprise at Vancouver Film Studios to filming at the beautiful Squamish Boulders, British Columbia continues to benefit from the economic boost of local productions like Star Trek Beyond.

Over $40 million was spent on local cast, crew, and extras hired for the period of filming. Some of the production’s other local expenditures include:

  • Over $17 million on rentals, including transportation, truck and car rentals;
  • More than $1.75 million on hotels and catering;
  • More than $1.6 million on hardware and lumber supplies; and
  • Almost $600 thousand on local wardrobe and dry cleaning services.

“The film and television industry is a creative and economic engine for British Columbia, benefiting local businesses, thousands of cast and crew, and communities across the province,” said Wendy Noss, President, Motion Picture Association-Canada.

“The data released today demonstrates the significant impact the industry continues to have both provincially and nationally.”

“Filming Star Trek Beyond in Vancouver and the surrounding areas provided us diverse filming locations and outstanding film studios, but beyond that we had access to amazing local cast and crew,” said Lee Rosenthal, President of Physical Production, Paramount Pictures.

“We are thankful for British Columbia’s hospitality and the numerous local businesses and vendors who were great to work with.”

“Vancouver Film Studios was thrilled to provide state of art production facilities for the filming of Star Trek Beyond,” said Peter Mitchell, President & Chief Operating Officer, Vancouver Film Studios and Board Member, Motion Picture Production Industry Association.

“With 12 purpose-built sound stages on 35 acres in the City of Vancouver and over $200 million invested, we have established our reputation as a leading film and television studio facility. British Columbia has become a key destination for film and television investment and we are excited to play our part in that success.”

“Congratulations to the more than 3,900 British Columbians who helped bring Star Trek Beyond to audiences around the world!” said Shirley Bond, Minister of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training, and Minister Responsible for Labour.

“British Columbia has a talented workforce, world-class infrastructure, and stunning diverse filming locations and because of these advantages, B.C. has earned its reputation as one of North America’s busiest centres for screen entertainment production.”

Source: http://www.mpa-canada.org

 

Household debt seen as South Korea’s potential time bomb

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By Lee Joon-seung       2015/11/24

SEOUL/SEJONG, Nov. 24 (Yonhap) — Soaring household debt that could exceed 1,200 trillion won (US$1.03 trillion) by year’s end is becoming a serious liability to South Korea’s long-term economic well-being, local observers said Tuesday.

The alarm bells are going off as the Bank of Korea (BOK) announced earlier in the day that the country’s household credit hit an all-time high of 1,166.4 trillion won as of end-September. This is up 3 percent from 1,131.5 trillion won tallied three months earlier.

What is more worrisome is that the pace of credit growth in the third quarter. In the July-September period, money borrowed by households grew by 34.5 trillion won vis-a-vis the previous three month period. This is an acceleration from the previous record of 33.2 trillion won reported in the second quarter of this year.

“At this pace, there is a chance that the total will top the 1,200 trillion won mark as of end-December,” said a government official, who declined to be identified.

The recent rise in household debt comes as the central bank began lowering its key interest rates from last year, to cope with falling growth. The key rate stands at a record low 1.5 percent.

It also reflects measures taken by the government to prop up the local property market, and steady rise in local rent costs that forced many people to buy a home, instead of opting for a lease arrangement.

In August 2014, state policymakers eased rules governing debt-to-income (DTI) and loan-to-value (LTV) ratio that facilitated borrowing.

Market watchers said that the rise in household debt comes at a time when the U.S. Federal Reserve is widely expected to mark up it key policy rates next month, which can trigger an outflow of capital from emerging markets and fuel financial market volatility.

Domestic retail banks have been marking up interest rates slightly from September onwards in expectations that the BOK may eventually raise key rates, if the United States takes such a step, to prevent money from leaving the country.

A rise in rates can add more burdens to borrowers and low income earners, who will be forced to cut back on spending, especially if people borrowed money on floating rates.

Besides the overall rise in credit, local experts said a spike in loans taken out by secondary banks, like savings banks, shot up by 6.32 trillion won in the third quarter. This is the second largest quarterly increase since the second quarter of 2014.

Interest rates at savings banks are relatively high compared to regular banks and people who borrow money from these institutions generally have lower credit ratings.

More money taken out from these banks can burden borrowers and generally weigh down the economy in the long run.

In addition, data showed there has been a steady rise in borrowing by small-time, self-employed entrepreneurs who may not have the capability to pay back debt.

Reflecting on this, Lee Jun-hyup, a research fellow at Hyundai Research Institute (HRI), said of the 1,600 trillion won in debt, about 700 trillion may be money borrowed from self-employed people.

“As a rule, people spend money after they’ve covered their expenses, that includes interest paid to banks, so a rise in rates will lead to weakening on consumption,” the economist said.

This is a serious problem for Asia’s fourth-largest economy whose exports have contracted this year. In the first 10 months of 2015, South Korea’s cumulative exports reached $440.2 billion, down 7.6 percent from a year earlier,

On the positive side, the BOK has maintained that while household debt has been on the rise, so has income.

In its financial stability report published in June, the rate of disposable income to debt stood at 138.1 percent as of late March, an improvement from 135.4 percent tallied for September of last year.

In addition, the government and local lenders said that moves to curb borrowing, like getting people to pay back both interest and the principal, should restrict future spikes in debt.

“The government already asked lenders to tighten oversight on borrowing as of July with local banks putting the finishing touches on their own loan practice for implementation in 2016,” a finance ministry official said.

He said starting in January, it will become much harder for people to borrow money using homes as collateral.

Local banks have said that they will use new “stress tests” to more precisely determine if a person can handle excessive loans, and not issue loans if DTI levels exceed 80 percent.

The government, meanwhile, said that it is weighing various options on the table to deal with the debt problem, but made clear any further action will take into account the need to keep the current economic growth momentum alive and in particular, not cause serious problems for the real estate market.

Sung Tae-yoon, an economics professor at Yonsei University in Seoul, said government actions seem to be focused on maintaining the health of financial institutions.

“This approach, while a step in the right direction, is not enough and more must be done to push for economic and income growth,” he claimed.

Source: (News Focus) Household debt seen as S. Korea’s potential time bomb