Make English optional medium: Tripura’s ruling Left

September 4th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Making the Class 10 board examination optional is a good move, but it could add to the stress of students who would then take a public exam for the first time in Class 12, a psychologist said here Friday. The decision (to make Class 10 board exam optional) can be a problem for the students later because now they will sit for the first public examination in Class 12 which decides their career.

August 31st, 2009 NEW DELHI - From the current academic year, the tens of thousands of students studying in Class 10 need not burn the midnight oil or get stressed over the board exams -- the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Class 10 examination has been made optional. Making this announcement here late Monday evening, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal told reporters: "The CBSE Class 10 exams are optional from the 2009-10 academic year." I have said this earlier too," Sibal said after the 56th meeting of the Central Advisory Board on Education (CABE) here, attended by education ministers and officials from states.

August 31st, 2009 NEW DELHI - The government Monday announced a number of educational reforms ranging from making the Class 10 examination optional to setting up a central madrassa board and an educational tribunal to handle educational malpractices and urged state governments to make education "a non-political agenda". "If we can make educational a non-political agenda, we can not only change the future of students but also change the country, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said after a Central Advisory Board on Education meeting attended by state education ministers.

July 13th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Much before Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal aired his views, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) had plans to make Class 10 board exams optional, parliament was told Monday. The National Curriculum Framework (NCF) - 2005 has recommended that the board should consider, as a long term measure, making the class 10 examination optional, thus permitting students to continue in the same school, Minister of State for Human Resource Development (HRD) D.

July 4th, 2009 AGARTALA - The Left Front government in Tripura Saturday voiced its unhappiness over the railway budget, saying Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee had ignored the northeast by announcing no new schemes or projects for the region. "No new scheme or project was announced in the railway budget.

June 25th, 2009 Court eases oversight of Ariz. English programPHOENIX — The Supreme Court on Thursday handed a partial victory to Arizona officials who are challenging federal court supervision of a program to educate students who aren't proficient in English.

June 25th, 2009 KOLKATA - West Bengal's Left Front government Thursday criticised the educational reforms outlined by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, dubbing them as efforts aimed at "absolute centralisation" and "privatisation" of the education system. State Secondary Education Minister Partha Dey said having a single board exam in standard 12 across the country will make "the entire thing absolutely centralised".

June 25th, 2009 NEW DELHI - With an aim to reform the examination system and de-traumatise the education, the government is planning to make the Class 10 exams "optional", Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said Thursday. We will reform the examination system and Class 10 examination will be optional, Sibal told reporters here while outlining his 100-day plans for the education sector.

May 18th, 2009 KOLKATA - Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Monday said all Left parties are 'not bad', in what is seen as an overture to some partners of West Bengal's ruling Left Front which has suffered major reverses in the 2009 Lok sabha polls. 'We have said the Left is not bad.

April 16th, 2009 NEW DELHI - If the Samajwadi Party thought that its anti-English and anti-computer stance will strike a chord with the Hindi-speaking poor, it may have to do a re-think. Many from poorer sections of the society maintain that the language was 'all too important'.

April 12th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Facing indignation and shocked disbelief over its election promise to curb the use of English language and computers, the Samajwadi Party Sunday was at pains to clarify that the party was not blind to modern day needs but maintained they could not be promoted at the cost of jobs for the masses. Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh told mediapersons that the party was not against computers and English per se 'but they cannot be promoted at the cost of jobs' for the masses.

April 12th, 2009 LUCKNOW - The Samajwadi Party leadership Sunday got into a damage control mode after embarrassment over their stand in the election manifesto against 'unmindful use of computers' and against proliferation of 'expensive English-medium schools'. The party leadership denied they had any intention to ban computers or to abolish English-medium educational institutions in the state, and chose to blame it all on the media.

April 12th, 2009 LUCKNOW/NEW DELHI - Outrageous, illogical and regressive - these are some of the angry reactions from people in Lucknow and other metros of the country to the Samajwadi Party's manifesto that promises to curb English medium education and the use of computers. Party chief Mulayam Singh's stance against the compulsory use of English language in education, administration and judiciary, and his claim that the use of computers was creating unemployment has been trashed by a cross-section of people, saying the move would only cut job prospects.

March 31st, 2009 BHUBANESWAR - The Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have been campaigning against Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, saying he doesn't know the state's language Oriya - a charge rubbished by the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD). Ever since Patnaik entered politics in 1997, his rivals in the state have criticised him for not being able to speak Oriya fluently or write in the state's official language.

March 24th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The US-India Education Foundation is seeking applications from young Indians, currently teaching English at college level or training to be English teachers, to train them in the US universities. In return, they would be required to teach one of four Indian languages.