ABRACADABRA
Most UK school kids are violent, foul-mouthed!
London: Such is the state of school children in schools across Britain that they have to temporarily send off around 900 violent and foul-mouthed students every day, while 65 are permanently expelled every week, says a new official report.
The report for 2009-10 published by the Department of Education – says school children were suspended on 166,900 occasions for assault or abuse, which is equivalent to 878 pupils a day.
Pupils were expelled on 2,460 occasions, IANS reported a ‘Daily Express’ report as saying.
The students were sent off for physical assaults against other pupils and adults, verbal abuse and threatening behaviour and racist abuse.
Children aged four and under were suspended from school 1,210 times in total, and were expelled 20 times. Five-year-olds faced 3,020 suspensions and 40 expulsions.
Across all of England’s primary, secondary and special schools, boys were four times more likely to be expelled than girls, the report said.
Boys accounting for 78 percent of permanent exclusions. The suspension rate was also three times higher for boys than for girls, with 75 percent.
In primary schools alone, 120 pupils were suspended every day, in secondaries 713 students, while in special schools, 45 pupils a day were suspended.
On 80,400 occasions, pupils were charged with physically assaulting an adult –including teachers, teaching assistants and others in the school –or class-mate.
There were 82,600 suspensions for verbal abuse or threatening behaviour against a pupil or adult, and 3,900 for racist abuse.
Schools Minister Nick Gibb said: “With thousands of pupils being excluded for persistent disruption and violent or abusive behaviour, we remain concerned that weak discipline remains a significant problem in too many of our schools and classrooms.”
“We have already introduced a series of measures to put head teachers back in control of the classroom-including clearer guidance and increased search powers.
German city to tax the oldest profession
London: The German city of Bonn has reportedly introduced “sex tax” meters for street prostitutes in an attempt to tax the world’s oldest profession, PTI reports.
Prostitutes working on the streets of the erstwhile West German capital would now have to buy a ticket from converted roadside vending machines before starting their working “day” – prostitution is legal in Bonn between 8.15 pm to 6 am. A night’s ticket will set a sex worker back 5.30 pounds, irrespective of the number of clients they have, “The Daily Telegraph” reported.
Like parking meters, the vending machines – that once dispensed tickets to the city’s drivers – also tell users the times of day when a ticket is necessary: in this case between the hours of 8.15 pm and 6 am, Monday to Saturday.
If a police officer catches a sex worker without ticket, they will be fined or banned from working, the newspaper said.
Monika Frombgen, a spokeswoman for Bonn city council, said the ticket machines would bring street prostitutes into fiscal line with their peers in registered sex establishments.
“This is an act of tax fairness. Prostitutes in fixed establishments such as brothels and sauna clubs already pay tax,” she was quoted by the British newspaper as saying. Some 200 prostitutes work in Bonn. This is the first time tax tickets have been sold on the streets in Germany.
Britons ‘apologise nearly 3,000 times a year’
London: Britain seems to be a nation of over-apologetic people, for a new survey has revealed that an average Briton says “sorry” nearly 3,000 times a year- most of the times for things that are not their fault.
According to the survey, Briton’s apologise up to the eight times a day ie, around 2,920 times a year or about 2.3 million times in a lifetime, the ‘Daily Express’ reported. And, one in eight people polled admitted saying sorry more than 20 times a day. The research , by the New York Bakery Co, revealed that the apology is often used as a response to someone else’s mistake-43 percent admitted apologising to a person who knocked them and 17 percent say sorry when someone else treads on their toes. The word is also used for excuse me in 30 percent of cases or when interrupting someone (67percent). It is most used at work, with 39 percent using it to tiptoe round an issue or colleague, or for fear of causing offence, then when shopping (33 percent) and at home (31percent). Almost half those polled wanted to be more straight-talking but feared the result. Victoria Willis, of the New York Bakery Co, said: “We suspected Britons were over-apologetic and our results prove it. What better way to bring a little straight talking-and no nonsense-- to the country than with a New Yorker and a slice of brashness”.
What’s in a name?
Rs 2 lakh a day for the government, to be precise
Mumbai: What’s in a name, you might think. Well, names can earn Rs 2 lakh a day for the Maharashtra government, to be precise.
In 12 months, from April, 2010 to March, 2011, nearly 1.5 lakh people from across the state applied to have their names changed and the state government has made a massive revenue of around Rs 4 crore by changing people’s names and printing them in the government gazette.
And the trend doesn’t look like it’s going to fade away. Everyday, 300-400 applicants queue up at the Government Printing Press at Charni Road to make changes in their names.
While the form for name change is free of cost, the government charges Rs 120 per name change. But here too people are in a hurry to change their name and want to go through the Tatkal route that costs Rs 620 per name change. Increasing applicants, who opt for the tatkal route, add to the government’s coffers.
Last year, while there were around 1 lakh routine applicants, there were close to 40,000 applicants who wanted their names changed urgently.
London: Such is the state of school children in schools across Britain that they have to temporarily send off around 900 violent and foul-mouthed students every day, while 65 are permanently expelled every week, says a new official report.
The report for 2009-10 published by the Department of Education – says school children were suspended on 166,900 occasions for assault or abuse, which is equivalent to 878 pupils a day.
Pupils were expelled on 2,460 occasions, IANS reported a ‘Daily Express’ report as saying.
The students were sent off for physical assaults against other pupils and adults, verbal abuse and threatening behaviour and racist abuse.
Children aged four and under were suspended from school 1,210 times in total, and were expelled 20 times. Five-year-olds faced 3,020 suspensions and 40 expulsions.
Across all of England’s primary, secondary and special schools, boys were four times more likely to be expelled than girls, the report said.
Boys accounting for 78 percent of permanent exclusions. The suspension rate was also three times higher for boys than for girls, with 75 percent.
In primary schools alone, 120 pupils were suspended every day, in secondaries 713 students, while in special schools, 45 pupils a day were suspended.
On 80,400 occasions, pupils were charged with physically assaulting an adult –including teachers, teaching assistants and others in the school –or class-mate.
There were 82,600 suspensions for verbal abuse or threatening behaviour against a pupil or adult, and 3,900 for racist abuse.
Schools Minister Nick Gibb said: “With thousands of pupils being excluded for persistent disruption and violent or abusive behaviour, we remain concerned that weak discipline remains a significant problem in too many of our schools and classrooms.”
“We have already introduced a series of measures to put head teachers back in control of the classroom-including clearer guidance and increased search powers.
German city to tax the oldest profession
London: The German city of Bonn has reportedly introduced “sex tax” meters for street prostitutes in an attempt to tax the world’s oldest profession, PTI reports.
Prostitutes working on the streets of the erstwhile West German capital would now have to buy a ticket from converted roadside vending machines before starting their working “day” – prostitution is legal in Bonn between 8.15 pm to 6 am. A night’s ticket will set a sex worker back 5.30 pounds, irrespective of the number of clients they have, “The Daily Telegraph” reported.
Like parking meters, the vending machines – that once dispensed tickets to the city’s drivers – also tell users the times of day when a ticket is necessary: in this case between the hours of 8.15 pm and 6 am, Monday to Saturday.
If a police officer catches a sex worker without ticket, they will be fined or banned from working, the newspaper said.
Monika Frombgen, a spokeswoman for Bonn city council, said the ticket machines would bring street prostitutes into fiscal line with their peers in registered sex establishments.
“This is an act of tax fairness. Prostitutes in fixed establishments such as brothels and sauna clubs already pay tax,” she was quoted by the British newspaper as saying. Some 200 prostitutes work in Bonn. This is the first time tax tickets have been sold on the streets in Germany.
Britons ‘apologise nearly 3,000 times a year’
London: Britain seems to be a nation of over-apologetic people, for a new survey has revealed that an average Briton says “sorry” nearly 3,000 times a year- most of the times for things that are not their fault.
According to the survey, Briton’s apologise up to the eight times a day ie, around 2,920 times a year or about 2.3 million times in a lifetime, the ‘Daily Express’ reported. And, one in eight people polled admitted saying sorry more than 20 times a day. The research , by the New York Bakery Co, revealed that the apology is often used as a response to someone else’s mistake-43 percent admitted apologising to a person who knocked them and 17 percent say sorry when someone else treads on their toes. The word is also used for excuse me in 30 percent of cases or when interrupting someone (67percent). It is most used at work, with 39 percent using it to tiptoe round an issue or colleague, or for fear of causing offence, then when shopping (33 percent) and at home (31percent). Almost half those polled wanted to be more straight-talking but feared the result. Victoria Willis, of the New York Bakery Co, said: “We suspected Britons were over-apologetic and our results prove it. What better way to bring a little straight talking-and no nonsense-- to the country than with a New Yorker and a slice of brashness”.
What’s in a name?
Rs 2 lakh a day for the government, to be precise
Mumbai: What’s in a name, you might think. Well, names can earn Rs 2 lakh a day for the Maharashtra government, to be precise.
In 12 months, from April, 2010 to March, 2011, nearly 1.5 lakh people from across the state applied to have their names changed and the state government has made a massive revenue of around Rs 4 crore by changing people’s names and printing them in the government gazette.
And the trend doesn’t look like it’s going to fade away. Everyday, 300-400 applicants queue up at the Government Printing Press at Charni Road to make changes in their names.
While the form for name change is free of cost, the government charges Rs 120 per name change. But here too people are in a hurry to change their name and want to go through the Tatkal route that costs Rs 620 per name change. Increasing applicants, who opt for the tatkal route, add to the government’s coffers.
Last year, while there were around 1 lakh routine applicants, there were close to 40,000 applicants who wanted their names changed urgently.
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