Report card: Punjab school attendance indicators ‘stagnant’.

ASER report says learning levels of private sector better.PHOTO:FILE

LAHORE: 

The Punjab has failed to control the number of out of school children between the ages of six and 16, the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2013 says.

The report was revealed on Monday at GOR-I. It says that the out-of-school percentage in the province currently stands at 15.7 per cent, almost exactly the same as it was in 2012.

The government had started a Jahalat Say Azadi enrolment drive back in August 2013, under which 3.5 million children were enrolled by October 2013, official figures had stated.

The ASER 2013 survey was carried out across the province. Enrolment data was collected on all age groups along with learning levels and competencies for children in the six to 16 age group.

Nearly 1,067 public schools and 729 private schools were surveyed.

Managed by the Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi, the ASER survey was conducted by the National Commission for Human Development (NCHD), the Sindh Education Foundation (SEF), and the Democratic Commission for Human Development (DCHD).

Enrolment

The ASER 2013 report pointed that the out of school children (OOSC) percentage, the drop out rate and never-enrolled percentages had nearly stagnated at the previous year’s level.

In 2012, the province had an OOSC percentage of 16 per cent with a 7 per cent dropout rate and 8.6 per cent children who had never been enrolled.

The year 2013 followed the same pattern. Of the 84.3 per cent enrolled in schools in the province, 54 per cent are enrolled in government schools, the other 28 per cent are enrolled in private schools and 1.2 per cent in seminaries.

The enrolment of boys was higher in both public and private institutions; there are 59 per cent males and 41 per cent females enrolled in public schools and 57 per cent boys and 43 per cent in private schools.

In the three to five age group, an enrolment of 52.8 per cent was calculated, of which 28.4 per cent are enrolled in public schools and 23 per cent in private schools.

As many as 47.2 per cent children in this age bracket have been reported out of school.

Attendance

Private schools had a better teacher attendance (91.6 per cent) as opposed to 88.5 per cent in public schools. Student attendance was reported slightly higher in public schools (89.1 per cent) as opposed to 88 per cent in private schools.

Learning levels

The ASER survey indicates that learning levels of students in private institutions is better than those in public schools. The survey examined student learning levels for English, Urdu and mathematics on class two competencies.

Of children in class five at public schools, only 63 per cent could read a story in Urdu as compared to 71 per cent in private schools. 58 per cent students of public schools could read in English; the number stood at 70 per cent in private schools.

Teacher qualification

Government schools across the province have a greater number of teachers who possess a master’s degree as compared to teachers at private schools. 43.8 per cent of public school teachers have an MA degree and 22 per cent have masters in Education.

Missing facilities

In 2013, the survey recorded 14 per cent of primary public schools without toilets compared to 13 per cent in 2012.

In private schools, 8 per cent private primary schools remained without toilets in both 2012 and 2013.

Only 5 per cent of public primary schools did not have drinking water in 2013, a 3 per cent decline from 2012.

Similarly, 20 per cent of public primary schools were without complete boundary walls as compared to 19 per cent in 2012. The survey also stated that 43 per cent of public primary schools had playgrounds as to only 32 per cent in private primary schools in 2013.

US relaxes strict rules on potential immigrants with limited terrorist links

Immigration regulations had imposed restrictions that 'no rational person' would find reasonable. Photograph: David Franklin/Getty Images

The Obama administration has eased the rules for would-be asylum-seekers, refugees and others who hope to come to or stay in the US and who gave “limited” support to terrorists or terrorist groups. The change is one of President Barack Obama’s first actions on immigration since he pledged during his State of the Union address last month to use more executive directives.

The Department of Homeland Security and the State Department now say that people considered to have provided “limited material support” to terrorists or terrorist groups are no longer automatically barred from the US.

A post-September 11 provision in immigrant law, known as “terrorism related inadmissibility grounds”, had affected anyone considered to have given support. With little exception, the provision has been applied rigidly to those trying to enter the US and those already here but wanting to change their immigration status.

The Homeland Security Department said in a statement that the rule change, which was announced last week and not made in concert with Congress, gives the government more discretion, but will not open the country to terrorists or their sympathisers. People seeking refugee status, asylum and visas, including those already in the United States, will still be checked to make sure they do not pose a threat to national security or public safety, the department said.

In the past, the provision has been criticised for allowing few exemptions beyond providing medical care or acting under duress. The change now allows officials to consider whether the support was not only limited but potentially part of “routine commercial transactions or routine social transactions”.

The change does not specifically address “freedom fighters” who may have fought against an established government, including members of rebel groups who have led revolts in Arab Spring uprisings.

In late 2011, Citizenship and Immigration Services said about 4,400 affected cases were on hold as the government reviewed possible exemptions to the rule. It is unclear how many of those cases are still pending.

Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, said the rule change will help people he described as deserving refugees and asylum-seekers.

“The existing interpretation was so broad as to be unworkable,” Leahy said in a statement. He said the previous rule barred applicants for reasons “that no rational person would consider”.

Republican lawmakers argued that the administration is relaxing rules designed by Congress to protect the country from terrorists. Representative Bob Goodlatte, chairman of the House judiciary committee, called the change naive, given today’s global terrorist threats.

“President Obama should be protecting US citizens rather than taking a chance on those who are aiding and abetting terrorist activity and putting Americans at greater risk,” Goodlatte said.

Meanwhile, on the prospects of broader immigration reform legislation this year, Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat and one of chief architects of the Senate’s bipartisan immigration plan, offered what he said was a simple solution to address concerns expressed by the House leader, John Boehner, that Obama would not fully enforce any laws that might be approved.

“Let’s enact the law this year but simply not let it actually start until 2017 after President Obama’s term is over,” Schumer said on NBC’s Meet the Press programme.

“Now, I think the rap against him that he won’t enforce the law is false. He’s deported more people than any president but you could actually have the law start in 2017 without doing much violence to it.”

Schumer said it would be difficult to pass immigration reform in 2015 or 2016 when the next presidential election season opens because Republican candidates would be staking out conservative positions on immigration in order to differentiate themselves from Democrats.

Napolitano plays down US fears over Sochi Olympic Games security

Former homeland security secretary Janet Napolitano, second from left, leads the US delegation to the opening ceremony in Sochi. Photograph: David Goldman/AP

Janet Napolitano, the leader of the US delegation at the Sochi Winter Olympics, on Sunday tried to draw a line under domestic criticism of the Games by defending Russian security and saying gay athletes appeared to be welcome.

The former secretary of homeland security played down concerns overterror threats, heavy-handed security and state-sanctioned homophobiain an upbeat assessment which contrasted with sniping from some US politicians and media organisations.

“The level of security is quite appropriate and it’s very good and I hope the attention of the media and the world turns now more to what the athletes are going to do instead of the threats that are being made,” she told CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday.

On Saturday, Russian special forces killed five suspected militants in a raid on a house in Makhachkala, the capital province of Dagestan, police said. The suspected militants were allegedly part of the Buynaksk terror group, which carried out two bombings in Volgograd that killed 34 people in December.

Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee, used his Sunday talkshow appearance to fault Moscow for not sharing intelligence.

“We were hoping the Russians would share more information on internal security threats, of which the operation in Dagestan is a great example,” he told ABC’s This Week. “That obviously had some nexus to the Games. It would have been helpful if we’d had a full and robust relationship and shared that information.”

Napolitano, who is currently president of the University of California, said the absence of President Barack Obama and other senior administration officials was not a snub to the government of Vladimir Putin and added that Russia’s anti-gay laws had not impacted directly on the Games. “I have not seen any such signs,” she said.

The US ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, also in Sochi, echoed Napolitano’s emollient tone, saying the US government’s threat assessment had not changed. “We’re quite satisfied with the security over these Games right now,” he told NBC’s Meet the Press.

McFaul, who will soon leave his post, said the US delegation had had a “fantastic” time in Sochi. “It’s a great atmosphere here,” he said. “The US team is feeling very confident.”

Russia has deployed 70,000 security personnel and rocket batteries in a “ring of steel” to deter terror threats against an event that is widely seen as a political showcase for Putin. He has staked his prestige on Russia’s ability to safely host athletes and dignitaries in a region that is threatened by Islamist insurgents.

US media coverage has irked the Games’ hosts by focusing on security threats, unfinished hotels and other glitches, even after Friday’s colourful and widely praised opening ceremony. Sunday’s US network talkshows focused largely on the issue of security.

Rogers said physical security in Sochi appeared to be good but added that averting an attack from so-called Black Widow bombers or other militants would hinge on the quality of intelligence available.

“We can only hope that they find those individuals before they can penetrate any of the security rings,” Rogers said. “I don’t think those individuals have to strike at the Games, I think they can hit an event somewhere. And that makes them dangerous.”

Two other Republican congressmen used the Sunday talkshows to voice their concerns. “I’ve never seen a greater threat certainly in my lifetime,” the House homeland security committee chair, Michael McCaul, said on Fox News Sunday. “I think there’s a high degree of probability that something will detonate, something will go off, but I do think it’s probably most likely to happen outside of the ring of steel and the Olympic Village.”

Representative Peter King, a New York Republican who sits on the House homeland security and intelligence committees, addressed the issue of intelligence sharing.

“There has been some more sharing than there had been, still not what it should be,” he said on CBS’s Face the Nation. “[The Russians] are still reluctant to give intelligence that they feel would allow us to determine their sources and methods. And also, there’s a certain amount of pride. I believe that they feel they can handle a lot of this on their own.” 

These are the first Olympics since the 2000 summer Games in Sydney at which a president, vice-president or first lady has not represented the US, reflecting tensions between Moscow and Washington over the National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, Ukraine, Syria and other issues.

President Obama made a riposte to Russia’s anti-gay laws by including two gay athletes in the 10-member US delegation.

Napolitano said: “I think President Obama has been very clear about the United States and our position with respect to human values, human rights, free expression, tolerance and diversity. These are things we hold dear in the United States and this is an area where we have some disagreements with Russia.”

“They got the message, they know exactly where we stand on that issue,” McFaul told NBC.

However, an opening ceremony which soft-pedalled Russian nationalism and elided the cold war appears to have helped soothed some of the tension.

“We don’t have an interest in embarrassing the Russians,” said McFaul.

Snowden used simple technology to mine NSA computer networks

Edward Snowden, in a still from a Wikileaks video, speaks in Moscow last October after his leak of secret NSA files. Photograph: Uncredited/AP

The National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden used inexpensive and widely available software to plunder the agency’s networks, it has been reported, raising further questions about why he was not detected.

Intelligence officials investigating the former contractor, who leaked thousands of documents to media outlets including the Guardian last year, determined that he used web crawler software designed to search, index and back up websites to “scrape” highly classified files, the New York Times reported on Sunday.

The unusual activity triggered a brief challenge from agency officials but Snowden persuaded them it was legitimate and continued mining data.

“We do not believe this was an individual sitting at a machine and downloading this much material in sequence,” an unnamed official told the Times. The process, the official said, was “quite automated”.

Web crawlers, also known as spiders, move from website to website, following links embedded in each document, and can copy everything they encounter. Snowden is believed to have accessed about 1.7 million documents.

The NSA has a mandate to deter and rebuff cyber attacks against US computer systems but Snowden’s “insider attack” was relatively unsophisticated and should have been detected, investigators said, especially since it came three years after Chelsea Manning used a similar technique to access State Department and military data which was then passed to Wikileaks.

Snowden was a technology contractor working at an agency outpost in Hawaii that had yet to be equipped with modern monitors which might have sounded the alarm. The NSA’s headquarters in Ford Meade, Maryland, had such monitors, raising the question whether Snowden was “either very lucky or very strategic”, said one intelligence official.

According to The Snowden Files, a new book by Guardian journalist Luke Harding, Snowden moved to a job in Honolulu with security company Booz Allen Hamilton because it afforded even greater privileges.

Some members of Congress have accused Snowden of being a spy for Russia, where he has been granted asylum. He has denied the allegation.

Michael McFaul, the US ambassador to Moscow, declined to be drawn on the subject in an NBC interview on Sunday.

“What I can say,” he said, “is we want Mr Snowden to just come home, face the charges against him, and have a court of law decide what he has and has not done.”

Barclays report exposes £1.8bn drop in profits as figures exposed early

Barclays boss Antony Jenkins faces controversy over awarding higher bonuses to staff despite a fall in profits. Photograph: Stephen Chernin/AFP/Getty Images

Antony Jenkins, the boss of Barclays, is expected to set out eight new benchmarks on Tuesday by which the bank's future performance will be measured as he faces controversy over awarding bonuses to staff despite a fall in profits.

In a move which confused the City on Monday, the bank released figures 24 hours earlier than expected showing a reduction in underlying profits to £5.2bn from £7bn. But on a statutory basis the profits will rise from £246m – a figure hit in 2012 by an accounting requirement to include the cost of buying back its debt - to £2.9bn.

His presentation of the figures will go ahead as scheduled on Tuesday when analysts are forecasting a scaling back of the investment bank – the powerhouse of the bank under his predecessor Bob Diamond – as it seeks to reduce costs and cut back on its use of expensive capital.

He is likely to face questions about the theft of confidential customer files- 2,000 names, addresses, phone numbers, passport numbers and details of personal finances – which is now the subject of regulatory scrutiny. The theft of the information only emerged on the weekend and is said to be part of the now defunct Barclays Financial Planning business.

The curt statement to the stock market outlining the profit numbers appears to have been sparked by forecasts by Morgan Stanley in research published last week but reported by the Financial Times on Monday.

In the research note, the Morgan Stanley analysts also predict that Jenkins will scale back the bank's balance sheet further by £150bn. This would compare to the £65bn to £80bn snip announced at the time of the £5.8bn cash call in the summer caused by a demand from the Bank of England that it reduce the risks or bolster its capital position.

At the time of the rights issue Jenkins had to admit some of his promises to shareholders would no longer be achieved on schedule but also promised to pay out between 40% and 50% of its profits as dividends from 2014 – a year earlier than planned.

Ian Gordon, analyst at Investec, said the figures released by Barclays were a "small miss" on the consensus forecast for £5.4bn and that he assumed the shortfall came from the investment banking arm.

Jenkins, who was promoted from running the retail bank in the wake of the £290m fine for rigging the Libor rate that forced changes at the top of the bank, has set out to turn Barclays into the "go to" bank.

He will set out eight commitments in an attempt repair its reputation, only two of which are related to financial performance. One of the benchmarks will target the promotion of women to executive roles in the bank.

When he edited the BBC's Today Programme on new year's eve it emerged that one of his eight commitments would be to make the bank more trustworthy among its customers by 2018.

The bank's shares rose 3.3p to 275p after the profit figures were released.

UK floods: Cameron gives lukewarm backing to Environment Agency boss

Prime minister says now is not the time to change personnel as he tours flood-hit south-west

David Cameron talks to Environment Agency workers on Chesil beach in Dorset. Photograph: Andrew Matthews/PA

David Cameron has given lukewarm backing to Lord Smith, the chairman of the Environment Agency, over his response to the flooding, saying now is "not the time to change personnel".

As he began a 24-hour tour of the flood-hit south-west, the prime minister rejected the idea that Smith, whose term ends in July, should resign but said there would be "time later on to talk about these things".

It came as the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, condemned the "disgraceful" finger-pointing between various government ministers and the Environment Agency over their reaction to the storms, which have been devastating parts of the country since before Christmas.

Cameron has blamed a lack of dredging in the Somerset Levels, with Eric Pickles, the communities secretary, apologising "unreservedly" and criticising the failure of experts at the Environment Agency.

However, writing in the Guardian, Smith has hit back at those playing politics with the crisis, pointing out that Treasury spending rules are responsible for the failure of the agency to spend more on dredging last year. In a retort to Pickles, Smith said his staff knew 100 times more than any politician about flood defence protection.

A car lies half submerged after the Thames flooded in Datchet, Berkshire. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

Meanwhile, Owen Paterson, the environment secretary, has reportedly complained to the prime minister about "grandstanding" by Pickles, who took over responsibility for leading the government's action on flooding while he is recovering from an emergency eye operation.

In a further bout of back-biting, an anonymous cabinet minister described Paterson as "stupid" for failing to take the risk of climate change seriously since his appointment as environment secretary in 2012.

Downing Street sought to play down the cabinet splits at a briefing with journalists on Monday morning. The prime minister's official spokesman insisted Paterson was doing an "excellent" job and also said Cameron fully "associates himself" with Pickles' apology for mistakes made in the past.

However, he was unable to say who was now leading the response to the flooding on behalf of the government. Asked who was in charge, the spokesman said it was a cross-party effort to tackle the storms, with different cabinet ministers likely to chair each meeting of the Cobra disaster committee.

Cameron will stay overnight in the west country, which is the area worst affected by the floods, as parts of the south-east brace for more badweather to come.

Rescuers take people to safety in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey. Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images

Speaking on his trip to the south-west, Cameron stressed the need for the government to focus on action rather than blame at this point. However, he appeared to give only qualified support to Smith, who has vigorously defended the role of his staff "working their hearts out" to deal with the floods.

Cameron told Sky News: "This is not the time to change personnel. Everyone's got to focus on the job in hand. I'm only interested in one thing: everything the government can do is being done to help people, help businesses, help farmers.

"There will be time later on to talk about these things [resignations]. Right now everybody has got to focus on the job in hand."

Despite Cameron's attempt to present the government as united, Labour accused him of overseeing a cabinet fighting like "ferrets in a sack". Maria Eagle, the shadow environment secretary, has been granted an urgent question in the House of Commons over the issue, as water on parts of the river Thames in Berkshire and Surrey reached record levels.

Miliband said: "It is a disgrace that you have government ministers today pointing the finger at each other when they should be rolling their sleeves up and helping those who are affected.

"The government needs to explain why their response to the flooding has been so slow to help the victims and why their planning has been so inadequate.

"The Department of the Environment actually downgraded flooding as a key objective when the Conservatives came to power.

Evacuations in Datchet. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

"But really what the public wants is a prime minister and a government focused on them, getting on with the job, not pointing fingers at each other or other people and trying to shut off blame."

There is still a lack of clarity about exactly why the Somerset Levels were not given the money for dredging in recent years, despite warnings from farmers in the area that failure to keep this up posed a flood risk.

Writing in the Guardian, Smith also denied all knowledge of a document suggesting that in 2008 it had been EA policy to allow more frequent flooding on the Somerset Levels.

He also told the BBC: "When I hear someone criticising the expertise of my staff in the Environment Agency that know 100 times more about flood risk management than any politician ever does, I am afraid I am not going to sit idly by."

Swans on South Parade in Worcester. Photograph: Richard Vernalls/PA

He added: "The Environment Agency is bound by the rules laid down by government, so when someone says they are bound by the advice laid down by the Environment Agency, what they are actually doing was following the Treasury rules that are laid down setting out how much we can spend and how much we cannot spend on any individual flood defence scheme."

He said the rules applied to urban and rural areas. He explained: "It has to come to £8 of benefit to every £1 of cost, and that calculation determines what we can contribute to any flood defence scheme."

He added: "In Somerset the maximum we were allowed under those rules to do was £400,000. A year ago we put the maximum we can do on the table and said here it is and now we need other people to come to the table as well. That did not happen. We were not allowed to do the full dredging … The situation has now completely changed because not only has the government come up with extra money for dredging, the Treasury has said the rules will not apply for the Somerset Levels."

Treasury sources said there were limits on what could be spent according to how much benefit it would provide. However, they said there were no specific caps on what could be spent on flood defences or more specifically on dredging, and argued that flood protection scored highly in terms of benefits.

The US Box Office: Hollywood’s top 5 movies of the week

The Lego Movie tops Monuments Men to score huge U.S. box office win.

The Lego Movie, an animated film based on the colorful plastic children’s blocks, snapped up $69.1 million in ticket sales to top weekend box office charts.

The Lego Movie features toy mini-figures of Batman, a pirate and others in a Lego universe faced with destruction on Taco Tuesday. “We had a movie playing for five to 85. Five-year-olds are enjoying it, their siblings are enjoying it, and their parents and grandparents are all enjoying it,” said Dan Fellman, president of domestic distribution for Warner Brothers of the blockbuster opening, which was the biggest of 2014 thus far.

 Disney’s long-running musical Frozen took fourth place with $6.9 million. The animated film has already won 26 awards and has been nominated for two Oscars, according to IMDb. Loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale The Snow Queen, and featuring the voices of Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, Josh Gad, and Santino Fontana, the film tells the story of a princess who sets off on an epic journey to find her estranged sister, whose powers have trapped their kingdom in an endless winter. Frozen has racked up $369 million since its November debut.

 The Monuments Men, which stars George Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray and John Goodman, was second with $22.7 million in sales at U.S. and Canadian theatres. The film is based on the true story of U.S. soldiers who rescued art masterpieces from Nazi thieves. The film, based on the book by Robert M. Edsel, was written and directed by Clooney. “It was very much in line with the high end of our expectations,” said Rory Bruer, Sony Pictures’ president of worldwide distribution of the $22.7 million figure, according to REUTERS.

The Kevin Hart-Ice Cube comedy Ride Along took third with $9.4 million, after three consecutive weeks in the top spot, according to data supplied by Rentrak. The movie centres around a fast-talking security guard Ben, played by Kevin Hart, who joins his policeman brother-in-law James, played by Ice Cube, on a 24-hour patrol of Atlanta. Ben’s purpose is to prove himself worthy of marrying Angela, James’ sister.

That Awkward Moment, lastly is in fifth place, collecting $5.5 million in sales. Starring Zac Efron, Michael B. Jordan and Miles Teller, this romantic comedy is about relationships and the inevitable moment when one has to decide where the relationship is going.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 11^th, 2014.