Word: states
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...problem with using development funds for education is that results are difficult to quantify over short periods of time. Even with a state-of-the-art teacher-training college, something desperately needed in Afghanistan, it would take at least four years to see qualified instructors placed in rural schools. But there is another way to spend money on education that is quantifiable, sustainable and quickly effective. In the 1970s, the Soviet Union provided thousands of university scholarships annually to Afghan students. The only condition - set by the Afghan government - was that each of those students return to Afghanistan immediately upon...
...recent morning, a crowd filled a downtown Detroit courtroom for the sentencing of a 19-year-old ninth-grade dropout caught breaking into a public school, apparently to steal computers. The hearing's main attraction was not the guilty man or the judge but Robert Bobb, the state-appointed emergency financial manager of Detroit's public schools. In the last six months of 2009, Bobb told the court, nearly 500 computers were stolen from schools, costing his system some $600,000. "The Detroit public-school system isn't an electronics store," he said...
...system's miserable academic performance. Again, the situation is dire. Last month brought news that more than three-quarters of the 900 eighth-graders who took a national math exam scored at "below basic" levels. In October 2008, some 57% of Detroit third- through eighth-graders essentially failed a state writing test. Detroit's graduation rate is 58%. "The system is academically bankrupt. This is almost academic homicide," Bobb says. (See pictures of a public boarding school...
ACOR, which says it will appeal the ruling, has derided the case as yet another attempt by Russian leaders to manipulate the Orthodox Church for political and nationalistic purposes. Under the Soviet regime, communist leaders enlisted Russian Orthodox officials to fan patriotism and encourage support for the state among the population, in return for which the authorities held back from stamping out the religion for good. Now detractors say that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his government allies are similarly seeking to gain public support by reclaiming relics of Russia's former greatness abroad to stoke patriotism among voters...
...festival, located in the desert of the Indian state of Rajasthan, is a star-studded literary event, but with a breezy, shoes-off feel. Held almost entirely outdoors, during the daylight hours overflow crowds sit cross-legged at the entrance of the Mughal tent. Turbaned waiters serve tea in clay cups. When the day cools in the evening, women in saris sip on Indian wine and tables with mixed accents relax as the vibe morphs from seminar to rock concert. (See pictures of India...