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Students of secondary schools in Rajshahi are facing problems due to crisis of textbooks caused by short supply.
   Market sources said students of secondary schools and their guardians crowd the bookshops every day but they return to home empty-handed.
   Booksellers said books on only Bangla, English
   and Mathematics from Class VI to Class IX are available with the markets. But other books are yet to be supplied in the markets, they added.
   Bookshops are still selling notebooks on different subjects illegally even after the law enforcing agencies had conducted separate drives against bookstalls in the Rajshahi city and seized a huge number of notebooks recently, the sources said.
   Uttam Kumar, owner of Binapani Book Depot at Sonadighi Market, told New Age that they received almost all the books during this time last year, but they have yet to get all the books this year.
   ‘We have got books only on Bangla, English and Mathematics from Class VI to Class IX,’ he said, adding that they fail to supply books to the students who crowd bookshops every day to buy books. ‘Students are returning their home empty-handed,’ he said.
   Krishna Chandra, manager of Aligarh Library, told New Age that due to crisis of textbooks in Dhaka, they were failing to supply textbooks to the students.
   Visiting different bookshops in Sonadighi, New Market and Samabay Market on Wednesday
   and Thursday, it was
   found that a good number of parents were returning home without buying any book.
   Tahera Khatun, a housewife, said she and her husband were trying to buy books on different subjects for their son, a student of Rajshahi Government Model School and College, but they failed.
   She also urged the education ministry and the authorities concerned to take initiative immediately to resolve the existing problems.
   Ayesha Sultana, a class IX student of Government PN Girls’ High School, said she has yet to get textbooks although their classes have already started.
   Bookshops, however, are still selling notebooks illegally even after the law enforcing agencies had recently conducted drives against bookstalls in the city and seized a huge number of notebooks.
   Bookshop owners said the students of secondary level at various schools in the district are buying the notebooks as they have yet to get textbooks.
   Abul Khayer, owner of the Prime Books, said notebooks are available from bookshops in the markets. ‘Students are buying notebooks as they did not get textbooks to date.’

Two German universities have showed their eagerness to launch a joint educational project with Dhaka University to exchange teachers and researchers among the universities.
   Hans-Peter Muehlbach, professor of Hamburg University, and Professor Engineer Saifullah Khandaker of Berlin University of Technology of German discussed this issue when they called on Dhaka University vice-chancellor AAMS Arefin Siddique at his office on Thursday.
   During the meeting, they discussed different bilateral educational issues between the two countries and feasibility of the project, said a press release.
   Professor Arefin Siddique thanked the visiting German professors for their eagerness to DU and Bangladesh under a joint exchange programme.
   Mesbah Uddin Ahmed, a physics professor of Dhaka University, and Shah Mohammad Keramot Ali, professor of Institute of Nutrition and Food Science, were also present at the meeting.

Two busy roads in the metropolitan area are in poor shape for long due to numerous potholes as well as stacks of bricks lying on the roads in pieces, causing sufferings to city dwellers.
   Some traders and locals said vehicles run on the two roads cautiously as parts of Sonadanga bypass from KDA bus terminal to Gallamari bus terminal and Jabbar Sarani from Power House crossing to Khulna railway station remain in dilapidated condition.
   They said buses and other vehicles, plying the nine routes in southern districts from and to KDA bus terminal, use Sonadanga bypass while vehicles, including trucks laden with construction materials, use Jabbar Sarani where there are a good number of wholesale shops of rod and cement.
   Local people said potholes were filled with pieces of bricks by the city corporation authorities after the rainy season but the brickbats have surfaced the roads at places.
   Vehicles often go on wrong sides due to many potholes and stacks of bricks lying on the roads in pieces.
   Mohammad Abdul Jalil, 30, puller of a pushcart, said they are suffering a lot as it is very difficult for them to pull the pushcarts on Jabbar Sarani which is full of potholes.
   An engineer of the Khulna City Corporation told New Age that work on part of Sonadanga bypass has already been completed while the repair work on the remaining part will start soon. ‘A tender to repair Jabbar Sarani is under process,’ the engineer said.

President Iajuddin Ahmed on Thursday stressed the need for strengthening the capacity of the University Grants Commission to ensure quality education at the university level.
   ‘The monitoring capacity of the UGC needs to be more strengthened and vigilant for further improvement of quality education at the higher level,’ he said when a delegation of the UGC, led by its chairman Professor Nazrul Islam, handed over the ‘34th Annual Report 2007’ of the commission to him at Bangabhaban.
   Professor Nazrul informed the president that the UGC was providing funds to the universities for research purposes and it also offers scholarships for doing PhD and MPhil degrees.
   He said that the World Bank under a project titled ‘Higher Education Quality Enhancement’ would disburse about Tk 681 crore to the UGC in next five years for providing funds to the public and private universities for carrying out research works.
   The UGC chairman also informed the president that 32 public and 54 private universities are presently operating in the country where nearly 15 lakh students are being enrolled in different undergraduate and postgraduate courses.
   Of the total, about 1.5 lakh students are in public universities, 1.3 lakh in private universities, 9 lakh under National University and 3 lakh under Open University, he added.
   The president gave them a patient hearing and expressed his satisfaction over the activities of the UGC.
   The eight-member delegation also includes Professor Ehsanul Huq, Professor M Abdul Hakim, Professor M Tajul Islam, Professor Amena Begum and Professor Atful Hai Shibli.
   Secretary of the President’s Office Md Sirajul Islam, military secretary to the president Major General Mohammad Ruhul Amin and press secretary to the president Abdul Awal Howlader were also present.

Liberation War Museum will arrange ‘Freedom Festival’ for schoolchildren at Dhanmondi Club ground today aiming to acquaint the new generation with real history of war of independence.
   The festival will be held at 9:00am, said a press release. The museum authorities expect that 12,000 school and college students of Dhaka city will take part in the festival. Ferdous Ara, Bappa Mojumder, Momtaj and Omar Ali will render songs in the festival.
   The festival features documentary films on war of liberation, visit to Liberation War Museum, learning about the UN human rights charter, participation in quiz competition and view-exchange programmes.
   Every year since 1997, the participants also meet the celebrated artistes, sportsmen, freedom fighters and family members of the martyred freedom fighters.

Sylhet and Rajshahi cities wore a deserted look as many city dwellers left for their village home in different districts to cast votes in the upazila elections held on Thursday.
   Our New Age correspondent from Sylhet reports attendance at the offices of different public and private organisations including banks was very thin.
   Although, all the city corporations have been kept outside the purview of public holiday on Thursday, many staff of public and private organisations went to their respective villages to exercise their voting rights.
   In Sylhet city, almost all the business establishments remained closed till the evening as the owners and their employees left for their village homes to cast votes or to help their candidates contesting in the polls, sources at a city market said.
   City streets, including lanes and by-lanes, also got emptied as most of the vehicles, excepting for a few rickshaws, CNG-run auto-rickshaws and private cars, went off the roads till the evening.
   A few long-distance buses departed from the central bus terminal at Dakshin Surma and Kumargaon bus terminal at Uttar Surma in the city till 4:00pm.
   Sazzad Ali, an official of a private bank in the city, said they had passed time during office hours through gossiping as they had got a few consumers and visitors.
   ‘We were in a holiday mood in the office as there was no rush of clients,’ he added.
   ‘We could not do 10 per cent business compared to other days’ due to the upazila elections,’ manager of a restaurant said.
   Monir Hosen, owner of a grocery shop at Bandarbazar said he had kept the shutters of his shop down till 5:00pm as all the three employees went to their village homes to exercise their voting rights.
   Rickshaw-puller Rahmat Ali of the city’s Kazitula area said a large number of rickshaw pullers left for their village several days before the upazila elections.
   Our New Age correspondent from Rajshahi says the city witnessed the impact of upazila polls with a large number of people leaving for their village homes to cast votes.
   Attendance at the offices of public and private organisations was remarkably poor.
   The commercial banks also witnessed a sharp fall in the number of customers, official sources said.
   Most of the vehicles went off the city roads till evening.
   The rickshaw-pullers, who were staying in the city, were charging extra fare fare due to absence of sufficient number of three-wheelers.
   Many office-bound people were found going to offices in the morning on foot.
   The roads were almost empty and the traffic police were seen standing idle at the traffic islands.
   Besides, biting cold coupled with dense fog forces many city dwellers to stay in their houses.

The admission test of Bachelor of Education under the Institute of Education and Research of Dhaka University for the academic session 2008-09 will be held today at 10:00am.
   The seating plan for the examination is: roll no 0001 to 2285 at Business Studies Faculty, 2286 to 8031 at Arts Faculty, 8032 to 8879 at IER and 8880 to 9000 at University Laboratory School and College.
   For the detailed seating plan, students may visit the university’s web site at www.univdhaka.edu.

A security guard was stabbed to death allegedly by a gang of criminals at Pallabi area in the Dhaka city at early hours on Thursday.
   The deceased was identified as Liton, 45, a security guard at the residence of a businessman Selim Mia at Mirpur Section 6.
   The police said they arrested three people in connection with the killing of the security guard.
   The arrested were identified as Billal Hossain, Abul Kalam Azad and Mohammad Selim. They were being interrogated by the police at the Pallabi station, police sources told the news agency.
   A case was filed with the Pallabi police station in this connection.

The results of the practical examinations of the 3rd paper of the Bangladesh Civil Service (telecommunications) cadre were published on Thursday.
   The candidates having the following roll numbers have come out success-
   ful in the 3rd paper of
   the BCS practical exams for promotion to senior scale.
   The roll numbers are: 000773, 000774, 000775, 000782, 000784, 000789 and 000798.

Weather is likely to remain dry with partly cloudy sky over the country in the next 24 hours till 6:00pm today.
   Moderate thick fog may occur over Rajshahi division and the river basins of
   the country and light to moderate fog elsewhere over the country during midnight till morning, Met Office said, predicting that night temperature may remain nearly unchanged over the country.
   Country’s highest temperature on Thursday, 29.5 degrees Celsius, was recorded at Cox’s Bazar and lowest 10.7 degrees at Srimongal.
   The sun sets in the capital today at 5:39pm and rises tomorrow at 6:42am.