– Spies snare cheats: Lithuania’s intelligence service has been called in to snag students trying to cheat on graduation exams. ‘Education Mnister Algirdas Monkevicius has requested the special investigation service and national police to report to him any cases identified of exam questions being sold,” the ministry said in a statement. The measure is aimed at restoring confidence in the country’s secondary school exams. In previous years offers have appeared on the Internet and among students for advance copies of the exams, but most are apparently scams as authorities have never uncovered the sale of real exam questions.
– No more Redskins: California may become the first state in the United States to force public schools to drop American Indian team names. Indians have taken their fight to the legislature, where a Bill to outlaw such names was approved. The Bill will force name changes at schools, community colleges and state university. Outlawed would be Redskins, Indians, Braves, Chiefs, Apaches and Comanches, as well as any other American Indian tribal name. A state commission would then add to the banned list any other names it decides are ‘derogatory or discriminatory against any race, ethnicity, nationality or tribal group”.
– Goodbye Asian languages: The Australian government has scrapped a R1.3-billion 10-year programme for teaching Asian languages in schools, four years before it was intended to end. The programme, introduced in 1996, was designed to promote the teaching of four key Asian languages: Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Bahasa and Korean. The programme’s aims were to ‘support enhanced and expanded Asian languages and Asian studies provision through all school systems in order to improve Australia’s capacity and preparedness to interact internationally, in particular with key Asian countries.”
– Muslim girls to sue: The families of four Muslim schoolgirls suspended for wearing headscarves to class plan to take the Singapore government to court in a fight over constitutional rights, their lawyer has said. Singapore barred three young girls from school after a highly publicised stand-off over issues of religious freedom, the state’s concern for social cohesion and the right to enforce a school dress code.
– Scared at school: Israeli parents say they fear not enough is being done to protect their children at school from potential suicide bombings. This has sparked a national debate about how much security is enough. At one school, parents have pooled their money to hire an additional security guard. The school encourages teachers with firearm licenses to wear their weapons in the classroom.
– Parent of truant jailed: A 43-year-old British woman was sentenced to 60 days in jail last month for failing to ensure that her teenage daughters regularly attended school. A judge later reduced her sentence, and she was released after serving 14 days. She is believed to be the first parent imprisoned under a new anti-truancy law, part of Prime Minister Tony Blair’s campaign to return order to schools.