Tri Valley: Radio tags removed from three more Indian students

Washington:  The US Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) have removed radio tags from three more Indian students of the now shut-down Tri Valley University (TVU) in California and also returned their passports.

Susmita Gongulee Thomas, the Consul General, Indian Consulate San Francisco, said ICE has returned the passports of these three students along with the two others, from whom radio tags were removed last week.

In all radio tags so far has been removed from five of the 18 Indian students. These students were taken to ICE by two immigration attorneys, Kalpana Peddibhotla and Manpreet Gahra.

Encouraged by the positive development, Thomas said 10 more students would be taken to ICE next week by these two immigration attorneys and they are very optimistic of the same positive outcome.

"Five of the 18 students are now free of the radio tags. Students were feeling very badly about. It was humiliating to go around with these tags," Thomas told PTI.

The Consul General said, three of the students who have radio tags have gone to their own lawyers, so she has no information about them.

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The two immigration attorneys -- Kalpana Peddibhotla and Manpreet Gahra are from the South Asian Bar Association, who in association with the Consulate had held free legal aid camp for the Tri Valley Students.

"Our primary concern and priority was to get these radio tags removed," she said.

Thomas said community organisations in the Bay area, especially the Telugu Association of North America, have been supporting these students in distress. She urged other community organisations to come forward with their resources to help these students.

The Consul General said the TVU students are from various parts of the country, not only from Andhra Pradesh alone.

"There are students from Kerala; some are from (West) Bengal. Some are from Madhya Pradesh. Some are Gujaratis," she said.

Source:-http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/tri-valley-radio-tags-removed-from-three-more-indian-students-85957

Coming soon: India's biggest mosque in Kerala

India's largest mosque is set to come up near Kozhikode in Kerala, covering an area of 12 acres on the sprawling 'Knowledge City' complex of Islamic religious and Cultural Jamia Markazu Ssaquafathi Ssunniyya.

Estimated to cost Rs 40 crore for construction, the mosque would be able to accommodate 25,000 people for prayer at a time, Markazu sources said.

The Jama Masjid in Delhi is the largest mosque in India currently.

Source: Coming soon: India's biggest mosque in Kerala - Rediff.com News

Primary school intake drops, UP prime culprit?

NEW DELHI: The mysterious decline in enrolment of more than 10 lakh children in class I to V in Uttar Pradesh alone over a year has pulled down India's primary admission by over nine lakh in 2009-10 as compared to 2008-09.

However, there has been an increase in enrolment of Muslim children both at primary (class I-V) level at 13.48% in 2009-10 from 11.03% in 2008-09, and upper primary (class VI-VIII) level 11.89% in 2009-10 from 9.13% in 2008-09.

Karnataka has shown a big improvement from 14.67% in 2008-09 to 35.52% in 2009-10. Muslim girls form nearly 50% of the community's enrolment at both primary/upper primary level. Enrolment of children belonging to Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, Other Backward Class has seen a marginal decline.

There has been improvement in percentage of schools with computers — Kerala, Punjab, Puducherry, Chandigarh, Lakshadweep and Delhi schools have computer coverage ranging between 85% and 100%. Bihar brought out the rear. The state has only 2.5% schools with computers. Mid-day meal is being provided in 87.45% schools. Karnataka fared poorly on this count, where the coverage extended to only 45.87% schools.

The exhaustive statistics on primary/upper primary education by National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA) — to be released on February 1 — says in 2009-10, 13.34 crore children were in class I-V. In 2008-09, the corresponding figure was 13.43 crore.

While Uttar Pradesh made the maximum contribution, marginal decline was noticed in Uttarakhand, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and a few other states. While maintaining that decline in UP is a cause for concern, experts in NUEPA attribute the marginal decline to stabilization in enrolment at primary level, but point to parallel increase in upper primary (VI-VIII) admissions. "Enrolment at primary level has almost become constant nationally at 1.34/1.33 crore, but at upper primary it will go on increasing," said Arun Mehta of NUEPA.

In 2009-10, enrolment in upper primary was 5.44 crore — an increase of 11 lakh — as compared to 5.33 crore in 2008-09. Enrolment in government and private management schools stood at 69.51% and 30.42%, respectively.

Bihar and Lakshwadeep have almost 100% enrolment in government schools. But private schools (aided by government as well as unaided) dominate in Goa, Kerala, Puducherry, Meghalaya and other states. Percentage of private share to total schools was 19.49%.

Between 2002-03 and 2009-10, the government added 1.32 lakh primary and 58,720 upper primary schools. More than 40% primary schools have pupil-teacher ratio of more than 30:1 and 33.17% upper primary schools have pupil-teacher ratio of more than 35:1. Survey also showed that 14 days were lost on account of teachers being asked to perform non-teaching jobs.

Source:-http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Primary-school-intake-drops-UP-prime-culprit/articleshow/7368964.cms