| Key policy plans laid out, but will MSPs back them?
JOHN Swinney had more than £100 billion to play with yesterday - and he spent every last penny. But there were still departments and organisations that missed out. The budget sets the spending levels for each one of the five main government portfolios: finance and public services, education, health, rural affairs and justice. .
Language of bureaucracy
A 70-YEAR-OLD German applying for Swiss citizenship was told to go back to school to learn his own native tongue, a Swiss newspaper said. The Swiss town of Dielsdorf ordered Ulrich Kring - who had lived in Switzerland his entire life - to take a German course costing 250 Swiss francs (£109), Tages-Anzeiger said. The course was obligatory for all foreigners seeking a Swiss passport and the town would not make an exception. Mr Kring has lodged an appeal against the decision. Two-thirds of Switzerland's 7.5 million inhabitants are German speakers. This article: http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1811052007 Last updated: 16-Nov-07 00:55 GMT .
District easing leap to first grade
UNION CITY At the start of this academic year, Evelyn Owusu's son struggled to make the transition from kindergarten to first grade. He had to adjust to longer school days and more difficult course work. "The curriculum is quite intensive. ... There's so much students need to know before first grade," said Owusu, who has decided that the traditional half-day kindergarten class isn't enough to prepare children for the next level of schooling. So Owusu hopes to enroll her daughter, Yaa Serwaa, in the New Haven school district's new midyear kindergarten class. Billed as a readiness program, the midyear, or "junior kindergarten," class is tailored for children who will turn 5 between Dec. 3 and March 23, to prepare them for kindergarten the following school year. She then plans to place Yaa Serwaa in an all-day kindergarten program next year so that when the time comes, the switch to first grade won't be as difficult for her as it's been for her brother.
Taleban murder young teacher for giving English lessons
TALEBAN militants murdered a teenager in Afghanistan for teaching English to his classmates, officials said yesterday. Armed men stormed into a school in the south-eastern province of Paktia, where 16-year-old student Tawaub held separate extra classes for both boys and girls - in defiance of death threats. .
Whig.com
SHOPPING: For baseball fans, Opening Day is always a special occasion, an unofficial national holiday. The hot dogs taste a little better, there's a one-of-a-kind kind sensation in the air and every team is beginning the season on even terms. For the hardcore shopper, Black Friday brings out that same kind of passion. The day after Thanksgiving Black Friday has come to be as much of an American institution as baseball, apple pie and surfing the Web. DOWNTOWN MEETING: Some business owners worried about the future of Quincy's central business district are planning to meet Monday night to discuss ways to improve the outlook downtown. Andy Nickelson, the longtime owner of Dame & Hurdle Jewelers and the Maine Center, sent an e-mail invitation to downtown business and property owners and others with ties to the central business district earlier this week.
The Fergus Falls Daily Journal
After a lukewarm report card from the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) in late August, Fergus Falls administrators have developed a plan to improve the school district's grades. Each year, the MDE uses test results from the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs) to rate reading and math proficiencies in state schools. Schools must show they are making adequate yearly progress (AYP) by meeting a certain set of benchmarks, with the task of meeting the federal No Child Left Behind goal of 100 percent student proficiency by the 2013-2014 school year. AYP is calculated by subgroups, including students in special education, English language learners, ethnic groups and students receiving free or reduced-price lunches. A school district must make AYP among all subgroups to make AYP as a whole.
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