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Wednesday, July 6, 2011

File:Student’s giving exam.jpg

Only 44.47 percent of Romanian high school students passed last week’s 2011 baccalaureate exam, according to the results published by Romanian education authorities on Sunday. The baccalaureate exam in Romania is the secondary school educational qualification test, and passing it attests that a student has graduated high school and may be admitted to a university. This is dramatically different from 69.3 percent last year and 81.4 percent in 2009.

Sunday’s passing figures are a record low since the exam was introduced in Romania and comes after new anti-fraud measures cut back on student cheating. These included installing cameras in examination centres and forbidding students from paying teachers to obtain higher scores. For this exam, 665 high school students were caught cheating, double the number from last year, and at one high school it was found that the exam answers were given to 111 pupils prior to the exam.

Caras Severin County reported the lowest rate with 24.82 percent graduation, and Suceava reported the highest with 65.03 percent, down from 87.39 percent in 2010. In Bucharest the rate was 42.03 percent, the lowest since the 1989 revolution.

The release of the results started a national debate on the possible causes of the drastic drop in scores, from the failure of parental participation, poor teacher pay and pay cuts, to student disinterest and lack of motivation. Critics say the educational system depends on rote learning and students are not taught to think independently. Students say the school curriculum is boring and out-of-date.

At a press conference on Monday, Education minister Daniel Funeriu said, “These results are a mirror of our society. Romania is now at a crossroads…The nation should choose to encourage people who like to work rather than those who prefer cheating”.

Cristian Alexandrescu, chief education inspector for Bucharest, argued that the exam was not taken seriously by students and the results prove that a student cannot obtain a diploma without effort.

“The moment of truth has come,” Liliana Romanciuc, a school inspector in north-eastern Romania, told Mediafax. “Success rates topping 80 percent were not possible. We were simply deluding ourselves.”

Thursday, February 3, 2005

Tararua Ranges, New Zealand — In an attempt at a world first twenty short-tailed bats are to be moved by the New Zealand Department of Conservation from the Tararua Ranges to Kapiti Island. If the transfer to predator-free Kapiti works, it will become the first time that bats have ever been trans-located.

All previous attempts at moving bats have failed due to their natural homing instincts. However scientists with the Department of Conservation, are aiming to overcome this by shifting juveniles. The young bats, which weigh in at only 14 grams each, were born in the week around New Year and were raised at Pukaha Mount Bruce National Wildlife Centre near Eketahuna.

Conservation Minister Chris Carter said that while the trial was risky, it was also worthwhile. “A willingness to push boundaries and try new things is exactly what conservation in New Zealand needs,” he said.

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Demonstrations took place across the UK over the holiday weekend, echoing the message personally delivered to Iain Duncan Smith at a Capita-sponsored talk last week. Chants of “Axe, axe, axe the bedroom tax” could be clearly heard throughout Edinburgh’s demonstration. At the end of his minute-long tirade at the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Willie Black labelled Duncan Smith a “ratbag”; several people turned up with this printed on their tee shirts.

Wikinews photographed the march from Edinburgh’s St. Andrew’s Square to the Scottish Parliament. Various estimates put the number in-attendance between 1,200 and 1,600.

Other protests took place in London, with an estimated 1,000 at Trafalgar Square and Downing street. Glasgow saw around 2,500 take to the streets. Those demonstrating equated the package of changes that see benefit rises at a below-inflation 1%, and housing benefit cut by 14% for those with one spare room, 25% if they have two or more spare rooms, with the ‘poll tax’ which saw riots in England during Margaret Thatcher’s time as Prime Minister.

Head of the UK’s National Housing Federation David Orr commented: “It’s bad policy, it’s bad economics, it’s bad for hundreds of thousands of ordinary people whose lives will be made difficult for no benefit — and I think it’s about to become profoundly bad politics.”

With the policy coming into effect now, protesters are intent on a “can’t pay, won’t pay” civil disobedience campaign.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

On November 1, 2006 the old five, ten, twenty and fifty cent coins will be illegal tender, but the Reserve Bank of New Zealand says there are still at least 100 million still to be returned.

According to the Reserve Bank, most of the old coins have been lost in drains or buried in rubbish. “We think there is still another 100 million sitting around in people’s homes,” Brian Lang, currency manger for the Reserve Bank, said.

Lang said: “So far, just over 280 million coins have been returned, but there are more out there. Since 1967 the Reserve Bank has issued more than a billion of the old ‘silver’ coins. So if you don’t want to be stuck with loads of old coin – there’s never been a better time to empty your coin jars, sweep the car glove box and rummage behind the couch cushions.”

The coins still awaiting to be handed in, by either spending them, taking them to a bank or donating them to charity, are estimated to be worth between NZ$5 million and $50 million.

“A last-minute burst of publicity may convince people to bring the coins in. It’s a bit of a hassle though. Human nature being what it is, people just don’t care,” Lang said.The Karori Wildlife Sanctuary located in Wellington say that they have collected over $9,000 in old coins. Sanctuary spokesman, Alan Dicks said: “The campaign was particularly fitting because the old coins depicted tuataras and kiwis, both of which can be found living at the sanctuary. The money will go towards supporting general ecological restoration of the sanctuary. We want to get over ten grand, but the more the better.”

Lang said: “Though the coins will no longer be legal tender, banks will continue to exchange them until at least the end of the year,” and the Reserve Bank will always exchange them. “We are still getting people coming in with two-dollar notes,” Lang added.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Controversial and explicit Canadian workplace safety ads have been pulled from television, and paper ads from some bus shelters for the Christmas season. However, the ads will return to air in January.

“It’s totally erroneous to suggest we’re pulling anything,” chairman of the Workplace Safety and Information Board of Ontario, Steve Mahoney said. “Our plan from Day 1 was to stop the ads around the middle of December when most of the advertising that’s in the media is focused on Christmas and purchasing gifts. We just didn’t want to be competing with all that stuff.”

In one of the TV ads a woman accidentally slips on grease on the floor and a large steaming pot falls onto her face, and she starts screaming to death. The ads end with the message “There really are no accidents”.

A paper ads shows a construction worker who is in a pool of blood with a forklift operation manual stuck in his chest. Another with a man who is slit by a “Danger” sign with his leg stuck in a machine. They show the messages: “Lack of training can kill” and the other “Ignoring safety procedures can kill”.

“The critics amount to about 25 per cent rating, and I’m delighted they’re upset about the ads because I wouldn’t want anyone to enjoy watching them.”

The videos have been viewed more than 70,000 times on the Board’s website and are gaining large amounts of views on YouTube.

The transit authorities of Hamilton and Mississauga will show modified advertisements. The transit authority of Guelph will show the ads in bus shelters, but the transit authority of Windsor will not because of the graphic nature.

“We’re not against workplace safety, but this is too graphic,” said Caroline Postma, chair of the Transit Windsor board.

Mississauga city councillour Carolyn Parrish said: “My son-in-law was telling me that they shouldn’t be on in prime time because when [my grandson] watches them he just about bursts into tear. Now he follows his mom around the kitchen to make sure she doesn’t spill grease. And he’s only four. There’s too much of a chance that … people are really badly affected by it, and can’t really do anything about it anyway.” She suggested the ads only be aired to workers with the jobs shown in the commercials.

Mahoney changed the earlier promise to air the ads only after 8:00pm to after 9:00pm at last nights meeting with Mississauga city council.

Mahoney said the commercials and paper ads are not “too graphic at all”. And they are “absolutely appropriate and they’re doing what they’re intended to do, they’re creating what I call a water cooler topic of conversation.”

Ninety-eight Canadian workers so far have been killed on the job this year.

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

On Monday, Texas police identified Rodris Webster, 25, as a person-of-interest in the recent disappearance of a 19 year-old woman. The woman, Alicia Benefield, of DeBerry, Texas, was reported missing on Friday.

Webster is described as Benefield’s boyfriend. He was arrested in January and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Benefield was the complainant in that charge according to media reports. Webster remained jailed until Benefield dropped the charge on March 5.

Police investigators inspected a trash dumpster located in the nearby town of Waskom on Sunday morning. In it they reportedly found Webster’s wet, muddy hoodie with Benefield’s keys in the pocket. Police interviewed Webster for 5 hours on Sunday, but released him around 6pm. The woman, still missing on Tuesday morning, is described as petite size, about 110 pounds, with a nose piercing and a tattoo on one arm saying “Wanda Ree”. She was last seen wearing a white sweater and brown tights.

A police official told reporters Webster had not confessed to any criminal activity: “The story is out there that he has confessed and we do not have a confession”. Benefield’s mother told reporters she expects her daughter to call her. “She is going to call. I’m going to be the first one she calls, matter of fact. I don’t care how mad she think[s] I am. She’s going to call me.”

Monday, January 16, 2006

Israeli media is reporting that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon opened his eyes for the first time since he suffered a major stroke on January 4, 2006.

However, hospital officials said the reports were generated by the Sharon family’s “impression of eyelid movement, whose medical significance is unclear.”

“He was listening to a tape of his grandson and you could see tears in his eyes for a matter of seconds before he closed them again,” a doctor treating Sharon told AFP news agency on condition of anonymity.

Army Radio, citing unidentified close associates of Sharon, say the Prime Minister could “recognize people around him.”

However, hospital officials state that it is “too early to tell whether the development represented a significant improvement or was just a temporary reflex.”

Sharon had undergone a tracheotomy on Sunday to help with his breathing and to help prevent infection from his respirator tube.