Another 40 percent said they did not have a bird bath, table or nest box.

As per the survey for pet food store and insurers Pets at Home, 47 percent of the children could name only three birds – most commonly the robin, blue tit and swan.

But despite their lack of knowledge, 70 percent of the children said they feed birds in winter.

Zulu is spoken by more than three million pupils at home, while only seven percent of students — about 852,000 — speak English at home.

At the foundation phase in primary schools, most pupils would choose African languages.

As early as grade four, many would transfer to English or Afrikaans in their lessons, according to the survey.

The trend of the rising number of English-learning pupils is mainly due to social and cultural processes, it said.

English was the most common spoken language in official and public life in South Africa, it added.

The international curriculum, available to students from Class 1 to 12, would be taught totally through e-books. The CBSE-I students would also have an edge over the normal CBSE course students as they would have more foreign languages and different syllabus for other subjects.

“This will be an option for students who want to go out of India for higher studies after Class 12,” Sibal told reporters.

CBSE chairman Vineet Joshi added that the course has already been started in about 25 schools in the Gulf and south Asian countries, and expression of interest has been invited from schools in India to start the course from the coming academic session.

“The pilot programme in India will include some Kendriya Vidyalayas and other government and private schools,” Joshi said.

“Expression of interest has been invited from schools, it will be discussed and then the schools will be finalised,” he said.

The government plans to launch the pilot programme in nearly 50 schools across India.

The annual course registration fee as proposed by the ministry is Rs.1.5 lakh.

Sibal said the course being totally online was a special feature of the CBSE-I and the government planned to expand this in coming days.

“We want to give Akash tablets in the hands of every student, then this will be useful,” Sibal said.

The minister added that the attempt was to manufacture all components of Akash indigenously.

“We had a meeting with Bharat Electronics, we are looking for manufacturing all components of the Akash tablet indigenously. Otherwise, it will not be possible to distribute it as widely as planned,” Sibal said.

The lobbyists will approach NBC, which broadcast the Leno show, to provide a forum to a panel of Sikh scholars and notables to educate media and American public about the sanctity and sensitivity of the temple, it said.

NBC will also be asked to run a documentary on Sikhism during prime time to help spreading the true identity, image and message of Sikh religion.

Also since Sikhs have been victims of hate crime after 9/11 due to misinformation about Sikh religion and identity, lobbyists will approach the US media to run segments showing authentic message of Sikhism.

Educating the international media about true information regarding Sikhs is much needed to spread the true message of Sikhism and to put an end to the decade long spree of violent “hate crimes” against Sikhs, SFJ legal advisor Gurpatwant S. Pannun said.

The new flight of Teacher Liaisons will serve as advocates for space-themed education across the curriculum and will use Space Foundation-provided training and resources to further integrate space principles into the classroom, the Colorado Springs based non-profit leader in space awareness activities, educational programmes announced.

The highly regarded Space Foundation Teacher Liaison programme has more than 270 active participants.

The teachers are selected by a panel comprising experienced Teacher Liaisons and representatives from the space industry and the military.

The 2012 Teacher Liaisons will be publicly recognized at the Space Foundation’s 28th National Space Symposium, which is being held April 16-19 at The Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

In addition to the recognition activities, the 2012 Teacher Liaisons will participate in workshops and education programmes at the 28th National Space Symposium.

Following the symposium, Teacher Liaisons can take advantage of specialised training and instruction at Space Foundation and NASA workshops with optional graduate-level credit; exclusive science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) professional development experiences with optional continuing education credit; and special space-oriented student programmes created just for Teacher Liaisons.

“We at Jamia Milia Islamia want to hold a special convention for conferring an honorary doctorate on Aung San Suu Kyi,” Jung said during his welcome address at the seminar.

“Once we get to meet Suu Kyi, we will convey to her our intent to confer her the doctorate. If she accepts and and finds time to visit us here, we will hold the special convocation to confer her the doctorate,” he said.

Jung also noted that he wanted Jamia Milia Islamia to become a repository of knowledge and information on Myanmar in the near future so that it became the reference point for all scholars wanting to study the neighbouring country.

He also noted that this was the third such Myanmar-related event that his university is organising since November 2010, when Myanmar held its first democratic elections in two decades.

In that election, the Union Solidarity and Development Party of erstwhile military rulers won nearly 80 percent of the seats to Myanmar parliament and Thein Sein formed the government as the country’s civilian president in March 2011.

Thein Sein has visited India, in his first state visit here, in October 2011 when the bilateral ties of the two nations got a boost.

Suu Kyi’s party National League for Democracy did not participate in the November 2010 elections.

But after the civilian government took over and talks between her and the president, her party has now registered itself with the election commission and decided to contest the parliamentary bye-polls to be held on April 1.

Hague said this while inaugurating the India Institute at the King’s College in London on the occasion of India’s Republic Day.

The institute would be devoted to promoting intellectual and practical engagement with contemporary India, Hague said.

India “enriches our shared culture in innumerable ways — from the prize-winning novels of Aravind Adiga to the sporting prowess of Sachin Tendulkar”, the foreign secretary said.

“For this century will be shaped by India more than any other that has come before it. Now is the time to study India, to invest in India and to work with India,” he said.

Seeking a stronger, wider and deeper relationship between India and Britain, Hague said Britain would be increasing its mission staff in India by at least 30 officers, and plans to open new British Trade Offices and new Deputy High Commissions.

As India develops its economy, Britain’s want to be its “partner of choice”, he said.

The country has also set a target of doubling trade with India by 2015. Exports to India were up more than 40 percent in 2011.

Hague stressed that British universities were a “great asset to our nation” as people from other nations came to study here. This also contributed to the economy and to Britain’s “reputation as an open society”.

He said every legitimate student, business person or visitor was welcome to hsi country. “We want the brightest and the best to come to Britain.”

The British Council and the Project English Initiative, with support from the Department for International Development, has trained around 17 million students and one million teachers in English all across India.

Hague said Britain wants to see India at the international decision-making bodies, to help address global issues.

“That is why we support reform of the UN Security Council and a permanent seat for India. It is playing an increasingly important role in the affairs of the world,” he said.

The village has a population of 7,000 consisting of 60 percent Muslims and 40 percent Hindus. Over 50 percent men are out of the village due to business, service and education.

“Earlier, it was a dream to educate our daughters, but now it is a reality,” Hasan Arif, who played a key role in establishing the school, told IANS.
“Ninety percent girls are educated here. You can’t find a single home which doesn’t have at least one educated woman, ” the 72-year-old graduate in agriculture from Deen Dayal Upadhyay University in Gorakhpur added.

The Muslimpatti Junior Niswan High School was established in 2000 with Rs.8 lakh collected through public donations. The nearest schools were just five kilometres from the village but due to the co-education system and safety fears, parents rarely sent their daughters there.

Arif said, “Here girls are more interested in education. A school bus does come, but sending them far was not safe.”

There is no way to connect 60 villages, including Muslimpatti, to state highway 34 and 30 and educational institutions. Villagers walk across a bamboo bridge each year but it is hard to cross.

Villager Naeem Ahmad felt “the only option was to send them 12 km away to Beenapara, an educational hub in Azamgarh, but it is hard to cross the Tamsa river.”

“Our legs used to shake while crossing the bridge. We had to stay home in the rainy season due to the floodwater over the bridge,” said Nazia Bano who completed her Class 10 from Beenapara.

Even now, there is no school for boys and they have to go through the same bridge for education.

Several personalities like Gen Mirza Sultan Ahmad Beg, who was a judicial member in the Uttar Pradesh Board of Revenue in 1948, and Mirza Aslam Beg, ex-chief of the army staff of the Pakistan Army, hailed from this village.

Arif wants to make the school, which is now till Class 10, grow up to Class 12 but is facing several challenges like lack of resources.

“We have laid the stone here. Let us see what happens. If our daughters are educated, then at least they can teach their own children,” he added.

The teachers’ salary is less than Rs.2,000 each per month. Mirza Shabbir, manager of the school, said: “We don’t have the earnings to pay teachers much.”

Salman Sultan, a resident of Muslimpatti who teaches chemistry and also heads the computer science department in the Shibli National Post Graduate College in Azamgarh, is hopeful about the future of the village but wants a change in the attitude of people.

“I am hopeful for my village, which was once the most educated village in Azamgarh district. However, this requires a change in the lethargic and indifferent attitude of villagers,” said Sultan.

“This is not a fight against a type of food, it’s our children’s fight against the processed food industry,” said Father J.A. Cavalho, head of the school.

Addressing the students, he explained how several brands of snacks contain banned substances such as Mono Sodium Glutamate (MSG).

“This is an engineered system. Due to these substances, our body grows habituated to such foods and craves for more of such junk food,” he said.

Anuradha Dey, a biology teacher, said it was a lifestyle issue and lifestyle changes were needed to correct it.

“Lifestyle diseases like high blood pressure and diabetes are becoming prevalent in 13-19 years’ age group due to excess consumption of junk food. Even in our school, some children face these issues,” Dey told IANS.

Members of the Student Parliament, a students’ body for self-governance in the school, shared their own experiences with junk food and how the campaign had changed their views about the issue.

“I don’t eat junk food. And nowadays, I am trying to convert my younger sister too,” Mallika Arora, a Class 11 student, told IANS.

Another student Sugandha Sharma said: “I love food but I have become more proactive about my food choices.”

The event also involved a street play on the adverse effects of junk food and a T-shirt painting competition. A postcard writing drive was also organised.

Uday Foundation, a non government organisation working for children’s health, had filed a petition against the irregularities and absence of guidelines in Delhi school canteens regarding the food being served.

“A team of our students will go to the high court on Wednesday to present the postcards to the chief justice and make him aware of the children’s wishes,” Father Cavalho added.

Eight percent of the candidates needed to take three or more re-sits before they passed the literacy test, a number that increases to 10 percent for the numeracy test. According to figures released by the department Of education, some teachers took more than 10 attempts before finally passing.

One teacher sat the literacy test a total of 36 times before finally passing, while another candidate had 39 attempts at the numeracy test, it has been revealed.

The tests, taken on a computer at a registered teacher training centre, are designed to ensure all teachers have the basic skills required to carry out their duties, such as working out class grades or writing report letters.

As per this year’s figures, a total of 6,740 teachers needed to re-sit the literacy exam and 6,440 had to have a second go at the numeracy test. Of these, 760 required five or more attempts at the literacy paper, with 40 logging 10 or more attempts to pass.

In the numeracy test, 1,290 teachers made five or more attempts to pass the computer test, with 160 taking up the exam 10 times or more.

The literacy test checks applicants on their punctuation, grammar, comprehension and spelling on words such as ‘available’, ‘immediately’, ‘receipt’, ‘argumentative’ and ‘accommodates’.