MOSCOW,MOSCOW, (RIA Novosti):

nbsp;

Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin are Russiarsquo;s most unpopular leaders of the past century, according to a survey by Russiarsquo;s state-run VTsIOM pollster published on Thursday.

Only 14 percent of respondents named Soviet President Gorbachev and 17 percent mentioned his successor, first president of the Russian Federation Yeltsin, when asked whose policies in the past 100 years made Russia develop in the proper direction. Their results are largely similar to a VTsIOM survey held in 2007.

A total of 61 percent of Russians described Vladimir Putinrsquo;s policies during his two presidential terms in 2000-2008 as ldquo;generally positiverdquo;, down six percentage points from 2007. About 54 percent of respondents were positive about incumbent Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Russiarsquo;s last Tsar Nicholas II received a positive assessment from 31 percent of respondents.

Leonid Brezhnev, who presided over the ldquo;stagnation periodrdquo; with a ruling group characterized as a ldquo;gerontocracy,rdquo; was the most popular Soviet leader with the support of 39 percent of respondents.

Best-known Communist Leaders, 1917 October Revolution architect Vladimir Lenin and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, gained 28 percent each. Nikita Khrushchev, who steered Soviet Union through the Cold Warrsquo;s peak, the Cuban Missile Crisis, received the support of 24 percent of respondents.

The survey, involving 1,600 respondents, was held on October 29-30, 2011 in 46 Russian regions. The margin of error is below 3.4 percent.

13:58 02/02/2012

rian.ru

Caribbean Blog International

By Alain Juppeacute;

On Monday, 10 October, we celebrated the 9th World day against the death penalty officially recognised by the Council of Europe and the European Union in 2007.

The death penalty is not justice, but rather bears witness to the failure of justice. It serves no useful purpose in combating criminality. The loss of life that it induces is irreparable, and no legal system is safe from the risk of an error of justice.



It is now thirty years since France banished this cruel, inhuman practice. Since then, it has not ceased to employ its best endeavours to abolish the death penalty once and for all and on a universal basis.



Much ground has been covered in the meantime. So far, one hundred and thirty-nine countries have adopted an abolitionist legal position or a de facto moratorium. The majority of UN member states have discarded this form of punishment and further progress continues to be made.



To me, this is evidence of veritable awareness on a world-wide scale, and reaffirmation of the universal nature of human rights.



But I cannot lose sight of the fact, despite the progress achieved, that the struggle for universal abolition must be continued on all the continents of the world.



I applaud the determined efforts of the defenders of Human Rights and the NGOs, the involvement of which is essential in the combat in which we are together engaged.

October 11, 2011

caribbeannewsnow

Caribbean Blog International

Reforming the public education system

thenassauguardian editorial

Nassau, The Bahamas

nbsp;

Two of the indispensable ingredients necessary for a childrsquo;s successful education are a home life conducive to learning and good teaching in school.

Improving the quality of family life is a rather complex matter, admitting no easy or short-term solutions.

Our concern today is the quality of teaching in our public school system.

There are many excellent teachers in the system who have dedicated their lives to the education of generations of young Bahamians.

Through mastery of their subject matter as well as a passion for imparting this knowledge, these teachers have contributed significantly to national development.

Today, many teachers find themselves in the position of having to act as surrogate parents for studentrsquo;s whose home lives are extraordinarily difficult.

Indeed, the range of disciplinary problems confronted by teachers makes an already challenging profession even more difficult.

Still, the quality of much of the teaching in our public schools is poor and weak.

Why is it that some of our students in Family Island schools with small classroom sizes and a superior student teacher ratio, still leave those schools with weak literacy and numeracy skills?

It comes back to the quality of the teaching.

Contract negotiations between the Bahamas Union of Teachers and the government usually cover salaries, conditions of service and related matters.

What the country would like to see are more discussions on the improvement of teaching in our primary and secondary schools.

This may include matters ranging from teaching materials to classroom size.nbsp; But more importantly is the quality of preparation and instruction by the teachers themselves.

One of the toughest battles Minister of Education Desmond Bannister may have to fight is the development of a more rigorous protocol for teacher evaluation.

This includes better assessment of the productivity and overall performance of teachers, utilizing a range of transparent and fair metrics.

If other jurisdictions are any indication, it is likely that the union establishment and many teachers will steadfastly resist a more rigorous evaluation of the performance of the latter.

The public increasingly wants to know what measures are being taken by the Bahamas Union of Teachers to help in the development of more rigorous evaluation mechanisms of its members.

For successful reform of public education, tackling this complex and potentially thorny issue will require deft politics and public support.

We will repeatedly return to this issue.

The campaign to improve the quality of teaching in our public school system must be joined by the public at large.

This is critical if those battling for reform within the system are to have any chance of success.

Oct 01, 2011

thenassauguardian editorial

Caribbean Blog International