Main Page                                                                     Archives

 

No change in NCERT history books this session: Arjun Singh

         New Delhi: The NCERT has decided not to change the history textbooks for the current academic session keeping in view students' interest, the Lok Sabha was informed Tuesday. The Council also decided to `de-saffronise' them from the next session. The decisions to this effect were taken by the NCERT Executive Committee which met here for two days last week to consider the recommendations of the panel of historians, which said that the history books were "biased, badly written and full of inaccuracies rendering them unsuitable for continuation", Human Resources Development Minister Arjun Singh told Lok Sabha. "Because of the already advanced stage of the current academic session, it was, unfortunately, not practical to change all the books at this stage. It was, however, decided that from the academic session 2005/06, the earlier books of history will be restored with appropriate modifications in line with the existing curriculum and minor corrections wherever required," he added. He further said: "It was also decided that the NCERT textbooks which were replaced by present textbooks will be printed in sufficient numbers to enable at least five copies to be sent free to each school taking the CBSE syllabus."

K Rehman likely to be next RS Deputy Chairman (Go To Top)

          New Delhi: Union Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilisers K Rehman Khan is set to be appointed as the new Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha, for which election is to be held on July 22. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, on Tuesday announced that the minister was chosen on the basis of consensus among the leaders of the various political parties, including former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Leader of the Opposition L.K. Advani and Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Jaswant Singh.

Maoist rebels abduct 50 school children, teachers in Nepal (Go To Top)

          Chaimale Village (Kathmandu): Maoist guerrillas have abducted at least 50 students and a dozen teachers from a school near Kathmandu over the weekend to try to force them to back a campaign against the constitutional monarchy. The rebels dragged the children, aged between 13 and 16, and their teachers at gunpoint from the school in Chaimale village on Sunday afternoon, officials said. In the past the Maoists have kidnapped school and university students from the countryside, but have sent them back after one or two days of indoctrination, analysts said. Villagers in hilly Chaimale village, 25 km south of Kathmandu, on Monday said that about nine heavily armed guerrillas entered the two-storey school building and took away students and teachers. Most of the kidnapped students were girls. Sunday's kidnapping of school children was the first in Kathmandu Valley. "Well, if this happens like this - 15 to 20 minutes drive from Kathmandu, what happens elsewhere in the country," said a man, whose son was one of those abducted. Another woman could only cry and kept repeating, "I want my children back." The guerrillas have heavily mined the mountainous road leading to Chaimale and its surrounding areas. Nepali troops cleared mines as they combed forests on Tuesday for the hideouts of guerrillas, a senior military official coordinating the operation told Reuters by telephone. In the past the guerrillas, seeking to set up a communist republic in one of the world's poorest countries, have ordered village families to send one child each to join their armed struggle.

Foreign nurses facing racial discrimination in UK: Report (Go To Top)

          London: Foreign nurses working in Britain's National Health Service (NHS) are facing (institutional) racial discrimination in as much as they do not get due promotions, a report in the Independent said Tuesday. Most of these nurses come from India and South Africa, it added. Quoting a research by the health policy think-tank "King's Fund", the report said it found that internationally recruited nurses are being denied full careers. A separate study by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) shows that black and minority ethnic (BME) nurses from Britain and abroad are far less likely to win promotion than whites, but are twice as likely to be given extra responsibilities for which they are never paid. The research findings said that one in five BME nurses was doing the job a grade above the one he or she was being paid for, compared with one in 10 of white nurses. More than half of Afro-Caribbean nurses have a second job compared to 26 per cent of white nurses, it said adding that only a quarter of BME staff feels they are graded appropriately, compared with half of white nurses. Quoting another study, the report said that the ill practice could threaten government promises to improve the health service. Expressing concerns at the practice, the report quoted Pippa Gough, who researched the study, as saying: "These nurses are finding it very difficult to progress up the career ladder. If we do not do something about this, these foreign nurses are going to be lured to other countries, such as America, and the NHS will be left unable to attract and retain international staff. That could be disastrous."