STR in public schools unregulated for a decade

Bishnu Prasad Aryal
Kathmandu, June 5

The District Education Committee (DEC), a body to manage the student-teacher ratio (STR) in the government schools, has become defunct for about a decade. As a result, the STR in the public schools is randomly messed up affecting the quality of education against the hundreds of thousands students.

According to the Ministry of Education (MoE), there are 32,130 schools including primary, lower secondary and secondary schools across the country. Number of teachers constitutes a total of 147,000 including 107,000 permanent and 40,000 on relief quotas in these schools with some 7.2 million students. There are about 1.5 million students in some 800,000 institutional (private) schools in the country.

The Education Act provisions STR of 1:40, 1:45 and 1:50 in Himalayan, mid-hill and Tarai regions respectively. Ironically, a primary school at Patalechhap of Bishankhu Narayan VDC in Lalitpur district has a 1:4 STR while many public schools in Tarai districts have 1:201 STR. However, the DEC comprised of elected representatives, district education officer, teachers’ unions, local development officer and guardian’s representative has become defunct since 2001.

The government formulated policy of DEC in paper but it could not be practised at all, said educationist Prof Dr Biddhya Nath Koirala. “Officially, the authority was given to DEC, and practically, it was bestowed to the politicians and teachers unions were affected by political parties,” he said. “Both of them failed to implement the rule.”

Koirala said that STR was one of the major components for playing a role to upgrade the quality of education. “The authority to manage teachers may be given to the local bodies for its betterment. At least, STR and quality of education in public schools at a VDC must be unitary,” he added.

The quality of public schools is deteriorating day by day while private schools are vested to earn money in the name of quality education, said Suprabhat Bhandary, president of the Guardians’ Association Nepal. “The standards of public schools must be upgraded following each measure enshrined in the law,” he said. “It is the state’s negligence over its responsibility to ensure quality and enforce laws.”

Mahashram Sharma, joint-secretary at the Monitoring Division, the MoE, conceded that the STR was not maintained in the public schools effectively. “There must be political commitment and cooperation from teachers’ unions to ensure implementation of laws. The government efforts to manage are not enough though the Ministry is working on it,” he said.

Mohan Gyawali, president of the Nepal Teachers; Union, blamed the government for not working responsibly. “The government lacks will power to work on it and never raises the concern while we are demanding for it owing to the indifferent political approaches towards the issue,” he said.

“The number of schools should be reduced and the management must be strengthened to promote quality. The STR needs to be downed to 1:30,” Gyawali said. “We are ready to cooperate with the government if it takes initiatives,” he said.

Sharma said that they were mapping the real status of the schools under the school reformation programme. “We are preparing to merge schools with low number of students and distribute teachers proportionally in needy schools,” he said. “The process is on pipeline,” he added.

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Smearing soot on gurus politically motivated?

Bishnu Prasad Aryal
Kathmandu, August 7

Instance 1: Activists of Madhesi Students Front (Democratic) smeared soot on the faces of Harihar Bhandari and Tulraj Bhattarai, campus chief and assistant campus chief of Biratnagar Degree Campus respectively, on August 6.

Instance 2: Cadres of All Nepal National Free Students Union (ANNFSU) attacked Hari Prasad Parajuli, principal, Tri-Chandra Campus in Kathmandu on August 2.

Instance 3: All Nepal National Independent Students Union-Revolutionary blackened the face of Jasa Bahadur Lungeli, chief, Mahendra Multiple Campus, Ilam, on July 1.

Instance 4: Representatives of the Free Students Union badly beat up campus chief Devidatta Shah and other lecturers of Mahendra Bindeswori Multiple Campus in Rajbiraj of Saptari on June 8.

Instance 5: The Maoist students smeared tar on the faces of Tribhuvan University ViceChancellor, Prof Dr Madhav Prasad Sharma, and Rector Prof Dr Surya Lal Amatya, on April 22.

Such news of assaults and misbehaviour with the teachers are commonplace in the media lately. But, what are the reasons the students have been turning on their own gurus, who, according to the Hindu tradition, are revered that like of gods?
Prof Dr Mana Prasad Wagle says such acts are utterly shocking. "Such indiscipline is rife in the educational institutions mainly due to encouragement by the political parties the assailants are associated with," said Wagle. "At the same time, the students are indulged in such negative and violent act as a result of dissatisfaction and frustration."

It is also because of the political parties' failure to tame and guide their affiliated students on discipline and responsibility, says Wagle. "Unnecessary politicking of students and education sector, which has massively deteriorated the education standard of Tribhuvan University, is also another cause of such anarchy."

"Student unions put unnecessary pressures on the campus administration for enrolling students, just to garner votes in the union election. To say frankly, such unions in the universities, which are hardly concerned about the betterment of education, are not needed at all" Wagle argues.

VC Dr Sharma, one of the victims, says that the university and schools were not the right place for one to do politics. "We're sad to say that such incidents are recurring largely due to the prevalent impunity."

Pradip Paudel, president, Nepal Students Union agrees that humiliating and disrespecting the teachers are not acceptable. "We opt for other means to solve problems."

Paudel, however, attributes the culture of violence in academia to the Maoists and its student body. "But, university teachers, who often seek political back up, are also to be blamed." Himal Sharma, general secretary, ANNISU-R, says: "Students are ultimately compelled to do so after all other available means fail to yield outcome."

He, however, maintains that the students should be availed of the rights to do politics.

Sheltering those involved in such crimes by mother parties and letting them scot free are the reasons behind such incidents, according to Gagan Thapa, CA member, who is also the former general secretary of NSU. "Besides, the education sector should also change itself in order to accommodate to the aspirations of the changing times."

This feature news was published in The Himalayan Times on August 8, 2009.

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A bulk of people in capital without lights

Bishnu Prasad Aryal
Kathmandu, July 22

A big number of people at the centre of the capital of Nepal remain under the shadow of lights. The number of illiterate people is shocking here.

According to the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC), 8,130 illiterate and 24,143 literate people were recorded from a sample survey recently carried out in 8,175 households of 35 wards in the KMC.

Among them, 5,552 were women and 2,104 men aged between 15-60 years, said Hari Kunwar, branch chief at the education and sports section under the social welfare and development division of the KMC. “Rest of them were of other ages,” he told this daily.

Total number of population the survey covered is 34,456 among which 16,779 were females and 17,677 males. “The number of illiterate in the capital city where everything is available is shocking,” said divisional chief Dr Babu Ram Gautam.

The high rate of illiteracy were recorded by 1,921 persons in 1,174 households of ward no 33, 274 persons in 142 households of ward no 27 and 120 persons in 66 households of ward no 12.

There are about 2 million people and 100,000 house holds living in the KMC. According to the national population Census 2001, the literacy rate of Nepal stands at 53.74 per cent and female literacy at 42.49 per cent.

Dr Gautam said that the high illiteracy rate owed to the migration from other parts of the country, traditional and ethnic values, and sexual discrimination.

Renu Lama, volunteer teacher of the literacy campaign at ward no 15, said that the illiteracy rate was higher in ethnic families such as Newars, Tamangs and Sherpas. “My mother was also illiterate even if she were KMC citizen,” she said.

As part of the government’s literacy campaign, the KMC has been running literacy classes of 3-month period each time three classes in all the 35 wards. In January, there were 98 class centres operated in 32 wards excluding 19, 21 and 24. A total of 2,335 persons of all ages including 28 men were enrolled in the classes.

Second phase of the literacy programme has been recently started in the respective wards. “The students are being enrolled,” said Lama. “Wives of advocates, army and police officers, and business persons as well as domestic helps also have been enrolled in my centre,” she added. “A woman, who is founder of Read Model Secondary School, has got admission in my centre now.”

The government provides about Rs 800,000 including stationary, books and allowance for volunteers in each phase. One volunteer, who is paid Rs 1,000 only, is assigned in each centre with about 30 students and three inspectors to monitor all the centres. Kunwar said that the records of second phase was yet to be collected and updated as the students were still being admitted.

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HSEB fails to maintain exam system

Bishnu Prasad Aryal
Kathmandu, June 8

The checking system of answer sheets of Grade 12 under the Higher Secondary Education Board (HSEB) is said to be unethical as per its rules. The checking began last week immediately after the examinations of Class 12 completed.

The HSEB has set certain norms while checking the answer sheets at its head office in Bhaktapur. An examiner is given nearly 200 sheets to check in a week. The norms provisions to check 200 copies in at least five days, according to the HSEB

However, a teacher completes around 100 copies each day without reading the sheets thoroughly, said an examiner, requesting anonymity. “One of my colleagues told me he completed 100 copies in six ours,” he told this daily. “I finished 110 copies in 12 hours,” he added.

He knows this was against the rules and negligence to the future of the students. “Nobody cares about their responsibility if they earn more money by checking copies rapidly,” he said. Rs 15 per copy is paid to the examiner. “If the HSEB violates norms and issues 25 marks as grace to the students who fail in two subjects, will it fall under the responsible act?,” he questioned. "We have heard the HSEB taking money and influencing the results."

As soon as one examiner completes a bundle of sheets in two days, one stays at home freely or work at his office. The examiner comes on the sixth day from the beginning and takes another bundle. There are about 700-800 examiners checking the copies this time. “The checking of copies will complete in about a month,” he said.

According to the HSEB, about 260,000 students appeared in the exams of Grade 12 this year and the results will be published by mid-July.

Ram Bahadur Khadka, member secretary of the HSEB, said that they were strictly implementing the exam norms of coding-decoding, checking copies, scrutiny, and an examiner should be a college teacher who completed Master’s Degree before 2006. “However, we do not keep records of daily checking,” Khadka said. “We cannot blame all but some might have been misusing this loophole.”

“We will not provide more than two bundle of sheets to an examiner. Second bundle is given after seven days,” Khadka said. “We believe the educated persons. If the intellectual circle does such an irresponsible and dishonest act, what can we do?,” he wondered. “We will take action against them if reported,” he added, requesting to provide the name of those teachers. He denied all other allegations.

Nearly exams of about a dozen of subjects in the HSEB were cancelled about a month ago. Its credibility was under ring in the past years too, according to the academicians.

This news was published in THE HIMALAYAN TIMES, June 9, 2009.

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10-15% pvt schools sans legal documents

Bishnu Prasad Aryal
Kathmandu, May 8

Some 10 to 15 percent of the private (institutional) schools in the Kathmandu Valley are still running without registration to the concerned authorities.

There are 193 private schools in Bhaktapur, 274 in Lalitpur and 1,200 such schools in Kathmandu. According to the Education Act, primary schools are registered to the District Education Offices while lower secondary and secondary schools are registered to the Regional Education Directorate. Registration charges of primary, lower secondary and secondary levels are Rs 50,000, Rs 150,000 and Rs 200,000 respectively.

“We have found 10-15 percent of the private schools are operating without legal documents from the concerned authorities,” said Suprabhat Bhandary, member of the permanent monitoring body under the Ministry of Education (MoE). “About 50 percent of the private schools are yet to follow the legal systems,” said Bhandary, also the president of the Guardians’ Association Nepal.

The monitoring team comprising of departmental heads, guardians and representatives from private school organisations have been scrutinizing the schools presently. “As we cross-checked we found that some schools having license of primary are running lower secondary level, lower secondary schools running secondary schools and others filling up their forms for School Leaving Certificate exams from other schools,” Bhandary said.

On the one hand, private schools are blamed of commercialization. On the other, about half of them are running illegally. “Owners of the private schools are using luxurious cars while its teachers are less paid and guardians are high charged,” he said.

He said that the government should fund upto at least class eight for checking exploitation and bridging gap of the quality education between the private and government schools. “The government must take responsibility and ensure quality education. It will be better to allow the private institutions to run higher education,” he added.

Lilamani Paudel, acting chief of the District Education Office, Kathmandu, admitted that there were still some schools not registered to the concerned departments. “If they have applied for the permission, it will not be illegal,” said Paudel. “The trend of neglecting the laws has decreased compared to the last year though it was prevalent since long.”

Paudel said that the government took action against New Advance English School, Bagalamukhi last year for forcing the students to appear in the SLC exams without registration.

Bhandary, however, said that the implementation of the laws from the MoE was less effective. “The schools are violating the rules as they are backed by hidden powers,” he added. “It is the weakness of the ministry.”

Lakshya Bahadur KC, senior vice-president of the Private and Boarding Schools’ Organisation Nepal conceded that the schools were running without legal permission. “I’ve seen many schools outside the Valley operating without any registration. Some schools in the valley also don’t have complete documents. This must be taken seriously,” he added. “The government should investigate into it and the schools also must be responsible to the state.”

This news article was published in THE HIMALAYAN TIMES on May 9, 2009.

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Hurdle to quality education: Age-old chalk & talk method

Bishnu Prasad Aryal

The classroom teaching largely emphasises on lecture methods. This is a big deterrent to quality education. It needs to be linked to practical knowledge in this day and age
— Dr Dinesh Raj Bhuju, chief, Faculty of Science, National Academy of Science and Technology


Kathmandu, April 30
The quality of education in the country will always remain a major concern unless the faulty teaching methods are not overhauled on a war footing.
“The classroom teaching largely emphasises on lecture methods. This is a big deterrent to quality education. It needs to be linked to practical knowledge,” said Dr Dinesh Raj Bhuju, chief, Science and Technology Division, National Academy of Science and Technology. “Ironically, science is still being taught by chalk and talk method. For example, though objects like ponds and plants are available in our natural surroundings, teachers continue to draw its portraits on blackboards. That’s why we are still lagging behind in this day and age,” he explained. According to the Department of Education, 6.1 million students are enrolled in 28,000 schools across the nation. While, the number of teachers is pegged at 151,075. Around 10,000 private schools supplement the government-run institutions. Besides, there are six universities and a higher education board, which impart knowledge to around 800,000 students.
Bhuju pointed out that field-oriented education was sorely missing in the curriculum.
“UNESCO has dubbed the 21st Century as one of knowledge-based society. In that light, if we fail to acquire quality education, then we cannot compete in the international arena. Lack of proper knowledge doesn’t augur well for the nation’s growth and progress,” he added.
Bhuju felt that the outdated curriculum was the biggest problem.
“Science, environment and tourism are subjects that call for practical classes,” he reasoned.
Dhruba Prasad Niure, who is associated with Central Department of Education, Tribhuvan University, agreed with this perception. “It’s true that theoretical approach is dominant in almost all institutions. A practical method is, indeed, suitable for teaching. But, teachers need to be groomed for this purpose,” he added.
The strength of a class is also an important factor to impart quality education. “Ideally, the number of students in a class should not exceed 30. But, the fact of the matter is, I end up teaching between 150 and 300 students in a class in the university,” said Niure.
He expressed concern about the state of affairs. “If we cannot nurture the students, then the next generation will suffer immensely,” he warned.
But, neither the government nor the teachers alone can bring about these monumental changes.
Perhaps, a visionary education policy can only help to tide over the looming crisis. Lekhnath Paudel, joint-spokesperson, Ministry of Education, has a different take on the issue. “Teachers’ attitude is largely to be blamed. Even if we change our policy, then it doesn’t necessarily mean that there is a change in their behavioural pattern. They need to be accountable to their
profession,” he alleged.
Paudel, however, conceded that the monitoring of institutions could not be carried out in a proper manner. He felt that the politicisation in the education sector was the genesis of the problem at hand.
“We need a suitable policy to attract good manpower that will improve the quality of education across the institutions,” he added.

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TU writ runs large as multi-varsity fails to take off

Bishnu Prasad Aryal

Kathmandu, April 15
The lofty concept of multi-university across the nation has been a non-starter. Several proposed varsities are still awaiting the government’s approval. “We are busy scrutinising four proposals. University regulations have already been promulgated,” said Lekhnath Paudel, joint-spokesperson, Ministry of Education (MoE).
Mid-Western University, Agriculture, Forestry and Animal Science University, Far-Western University and Open University are the ones that are likely to see light of the day soon.
“It has been two decades since we raised the issue of granting permanent affiliation to the Tribhuvan University-affiliated public campuses or allow them to run a separate public university. The government is yet to act on that,” said Baikuntha Neupane, president, Nepal Public Campus Association (NPCA).
At present, Nepal boasts of six universities. They are Tribhuvan University (TU), Nepal Sanskrit University, Purbanchal University, Pokhara University, Kathmandu University and Lumbini Buddha University.
While, about a dozen is still awaiting the MoE’s approval.
Neupane raised pertinent issues like the rush of students to the existing varsities and severe infrastructure inadequacies that plague them.
“Why cannot we run a separate university? If the multi-university concept has been adopted, then the MoE needs to grant us permission,” he said.
NPCA records revealed that 561 campuses are affiliated to the TU, which also has its own constituent campuses. A staggering 117,000 students are enrolled in the TU that started granting temporary affiliation to
private campuses about three decades ago.
“NPCA, on the other hand, boasts of 300 public campuses that have 109,000 students and 7,000 employees on its rolls. TU has approved the affiliation of 167 campuses this year alone. While, more are in the pipeline,” said Neupane.
The irrational spurt in the number of affiliated campuses shows that the TU is allegedly interested in raking in money by issuing temporary permission.
The varsity charges Rs 10,000 as registration fee, Rs 50,000 as supervising charge, Rs 20,000 as departmental registration. On top of that, the additional charges vary between Rs 300,000 and Rs 500,000 for faculty permission. TU has been in the line of fire for its failure to check the physical infrastructure of these ad-hoc campuses.
“We have been clamouring for a separate public university for long,” added Neupane. Dhruba Prasad Niure, a teacher at Central Department of Education, TU, agreed. “TU has failed to maintain its quality due to its unmanageable size. To maker matters worse, political intervention is largely to be blamed for the sorry state of affairs,” said Niure.
Hem Raj Sharma Poudel, founder chairman, Balewa Painyupata Multiple Campus, Baglung, knows a thing or two about the infrastructure hindrances in remote areas.
Public campuses have been established by the locals by collecting donations since many cannot afford to send their wards to bigger urban centres due to financial constraints. What has been the TU’s role in these areas? “It has done nothing save setting question papers,” said Poudel.
Ambubhawani Karki, principal, Tejganga Multiple Campus, Kavre, had to contend with gender bias when she took the initiative to run a campus. “Neither the district body nor the municipality came to my aid,” she alleged.
Kedar Giri, chairman, management committee, Kankai Multiple Campus, Jhapa, admitted that public campuses were not in the pink of health. “Poor physical infrastructure, low salaries of teachers and
lack of government aid have been the major problems,” said Giri.
University Grant Commission gives an annual grant between Rs 100,000 and Rs 500,000. “But the inequitable distribution of the aid has not helped our cause” said Pradip Katuwal, chairman, Lampantar Multiple Campus, Sindhuli.
“For instance, the World Bank has provided Rs 160 million each to nine better equipped campuses,”
pointed out Poudel.
Agitating teachers, who want to run a public university, got the wrong end of the government stick in the capital a few weeks ago.
Representatives of NPCA and Public Campus Teachers’ Association have been staging a series of protests for long.
“We will be forced to shut down all public campuses in the near future, if our demands are not met,” said Katuwal.
“Deemed universities can become operational only if they meet the eligibility criteria,” maintained Paudel, joint spokesperson, MoE.

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Oldest varsity yet to update its system

Bishnu Prasad Aryal
Kathmandu, April 11:

Tribhuvan University, the government-owned oldest university of the country, is yet to overhaul its older and traditional systems of curricula and exams as per the international standards, and interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches. It has failed to include semester system and a four-year Bachelor’s Degree programme in many faculties and departments.

Recently established two state-owned universities--Purbanchal University and Pokhara University, and another private-run Kathmandu University have already adopted the updated exam systems and curricula, meeting the international values and standards.

“Though TU has well maintained its quality in Medicine and Engineering, it is yet to update systems in other faculties,” said Dhruba Prasad Niure, teacher at the Central Department of Education at TU. “Neither it has adopted a four-year Bachelor’s programme in many departments and faculties nor implemented semester system,” said Niure, who is doing MPhil in Curriculum from TU. “Students are compelled to sit in the exams once a year.”

According to the Curriculum Development Centre (CDC), TU, the semester system and four-year Bachelor programme have been applied only in the Faculties of Medicine, Engineering, Forestry and Agriculture, and Bachelor in Business Administration and Bachelor in Information Management.

“However, these systems are yet be put into practice in the Faculties of Science, Humanities, Education and Management,” said Dr Keshav Kumar Shrestha, executive director at CDC. “We don’t have any plan to reform and enforce these programmes immediately.”

About 300,000 students are annually enrolled in TU and its affiliated campuses across the nation. TU, established five decades ago, developed its own curriculum in 1974 and revised it three times. “We are modifying it now after 12 years of last amendment and implementing from this year,” said Shrestha. “If it is demanded, we can think upon modernising it.”

Sixteen-year education is mandatory to get admission in Master’s Degree in Europe and American universities. “Our degrees are not internationally recognised. Nepalese students must complete additional one-year course prior to get admission in European and American universities,” said Niure.

“There is a need of drastic change in our education system based on the outdated traditional courses,” said Ram Bahadur Bakhati, retired deputy administrator at Equivalent Section of CDC. “Fifty percent of the present system is unscientific and does not meet even national need,” he said. “It is the age of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary concepts in education system, adopting micro and macro practices with specialisation but TU is all slow for this.”

Shrestha said that they were facing resource and manpower crunches for developing the internationally recognised courses. “But there is a lack of national policy for adopting semester system presently,” he added.

Lekhnath Paudel, sub-spokesperson at the Ministry of Education, denied the lack of policy and said that autonomous body TU was responsible for not implementing the programmes. “Ministry can support TU if it takes initiative on this matter,” he said, adding politicisation in the university has marred it.

This news article was published on THE HIMALAYAN TIMES on April 12.

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Govt apathy brings a trend of brain-drain

Bishnu Prasad Aryal

Owing to the government’s least priority to invest in research and development (R&D) sector, the national progress has fallen lagging farther behind the developed countries. This trend has forced the science and technical manpower, backbone of the developmental infrastructure, flying to the developed nations from Nepal.
“One of the prominent reasons for failing to develop the country is inadequate investment in the R&D and to link each other,” said Dr Dinesh Raj Bhuju, Chief at the Faculty of Science, Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST), government apex body of science and technology. “Thus, it has encouraged our technologists to drain into the developed countries.”
There are more than 30,000 science and technical graduates in the country. It is said that almost all the Science products of government-funded Budhanilkantha School, Kathmandu go to the developed countries. About 80 percent products of Physics and Chemistry, Engineering and 25 percent of IT products of Tribhuvan University migrate to America, Europe and other developed Asian countries, according to a NAST expert.
“However, a large majority of the science graduates are engaged in non-research fields,” said Bhuju, who refused to stay in Japan as a scientist. “Some came with great zeal to do something for own country. However, they are in teaching profession. This is an irony of the country.”

Technologists in non-research field

PM Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, Finance Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai, Ministers Krishna Bahadur Mahara, Dev Prasad Gurung, Ram Bahadur Thapa ‘Badal’, Hisila Yami, Pampha Bhusal and Ganesh Shah; Former Chief Secretary Bimal Koirala, Chief Secretary Bhoj Raj Ghimire, Ram Chandra Man Singh-Secretary-Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation, Dipendra Bikram Thapa-Secretary-Education Ministry, Dr Udaya Raj Sharma-Secretary-Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation , Tek Bdr. Thapa-Secretary-Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Abanindra Kumar Shrestha-Auditor General-Office of the Auditor General.

“This is unfortunate that the science graduates are either only in teaching or administrative or managerial posts,” said Bhuju. “Government, which should invest in basic research, is yet to institutionalise the R&D. Private sector also must be involved in applied researches.”
Nepal’s gross investment in the sector stands by only 0.3 percent of the total GDP, which is spent on salaries and perks whereas developed countries such as Japan have more than 3 percent in R&D. “If we want to pace the sector utilising our manpower, the government should allocate at least 1 percent of the GDP,” he said. “If NASA can exploit our scientists, why shouldn’t we think upon it?”
Economic crisis, political instability and lack of vision and will power are the main constraints to hinder the exploitation of untapped human and natural resources for the development, said Shiva Prasad Koirala, principal at Kathmandu Engineering College. “Government, instead of encouraging the private sector for the development, is discouraging unnecessarily.”
The developed countries float the diplomatic strategies to attract the science and technical manpower of the developing countries without any investment, veteran scientist Bhuju said. “Germany and Japan floated 25,000 visas for free wrights from developing countries in 2004.”
According to the UNESCO Science Report 2004, 100,000 scientists have gone to the developed countries from Africa alone. “The number from Asia is unexpectedly higher than it,” said Bhuju. “Among 10 million scientists world-wide, developed countries boast of 80 percent of them and 60 percent out of them are migrants from developing countries.”

This article has been published on THE HIMALAYAN TIMES, agenda page of March issue.

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How to Write Something Accurately

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

News is any new information or current events. The reporting of news falls into the field of journalism. News is often reported by a variety of sources, such as newspapers, television and radio programs, wire services, and web sites. News reporting is a type of journalism, typically written or broadcast in news style. Most news is investigated and presented by journalists and can be distributed to various sites via news agencies. The weather is typically presented by a Weather reporter.Contents[hide]1 Newsworthiness2 Objectivity3 Etymology4 See also//

[edit] Newsworthiness To be considered newsworthy, an event usually must have broad interest in one or more news values[citation needed]:Effect (how many people were, are or will be affected?)Timeliness (did the event occur very recently?)Revelation (is there significant new information, previously unknown?)Proximity (was the event nearby geographically?)In recent years increasing weight has also been given to the following news values[citation needed]:-Entertainment (does it make for a fun story?)Oddity (was the event highly unusual?)Celebrity (was anyone famous involved?)News items and journalism can be divided in various ways, although there are grey areas. Distinctions include between hard news (serious and timely topics) and soft news (lighter topics); breaking news (immediate events); news analysis; and enterprise or investigative reporting, in which a topic is examined in great detail.News coverage traditionally begins with the "five W's and the H"—who, what, where, when, why and how.

[edit] Objectivity In democracies, news organizations are often expected to aim for objectivity: Reporters try to cover all sides of an issue without bias, as compared to commentators or analysts, who provide opinion or personal point-of-view.In the United Kingdom, limits are set by the government agency Ofcom, the Office of Communications. Both newspapers and broadcast news programs in the United States are generally expected to remain neutral and avoid bias except for clearly indicated editorial articles or segments.Many single-party countries have operated state-run news organizations, which may present the government's views. Even in those situations where objectivity is expected, it is difficult to achieve, and individual journalists may fall foul of their own personal bias, or succumb to commercial or political pressure. Individuals and organizations who are the subject of news reports may use news management techniques to try to make a favourable impression.

[edit] EtymologyLook up news inWiktionary, the free dictionary."News" developed as a special use of the plural form of "new" in the 14th century. In Middle English, the equivalent word was 'newes', based on the French 'nouvelles'.It is, as is often claimed, an acronym for "north, east, west, south".

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