Local news

Tongue-tied

Foreign language to be excluded

Foreign language teachers stated on March 1 that they are upset about the 2010 university entrance exam, which excludes foreign languages other than English.

They demanded that the Council of University Rectors rethink the idea, or else they would mobilise high school and university students to protest.

The call came at a meeting of academics and 150 experts in French, German, Chinese and Japanese languages.

Former culture minister Khunying Khaisri Sri-aroon said that the council could not explain such a backwards step.

The council claimed that testing students in other foreign languages would lead to problems because exam organisers would have to write 17 different language test papers.

The teachers say that the stand is selfish and unacceptable.

Hot cakes

FDA turns up the heat on bakeries

Examples of baked products with illegal labels were put on display at the Food and Drug Administration�s bakery clinic, held late February.

Many products sold at bakeries in the Bangkok area are incorrectly labelled and some contain contaminants, the Food and Drug Administration warned on March 2.

Random checks found expiry and manufacturing dates were missing from up to 80 percent of items, FDA official Niphon Popattanachai said.

�The demand for bakery products has been increasing, leading to a rapid growth in the number of bakeries,� he said. �However, only 300-400 bakeries have registered legally.�

Due to competition, many manufacturers have been more concerned with label design to attract buyers rather than the product information that is required on the label.

Niphon said that it is difficult to keep track of bakeries because they distribute products to several vendors. Once they buy the baked goods, sellers each use different packaging and labels.

[EASY NEWS FOR M1-3]

Left out

Students miss O-Net exams

About 1,000 high school students were not allowed to sit the O-Net exam on February 29. One school forgot to register the names of about 200 students.

Many other students didn�t know that they had to register themselves. They thought that their schools would do it for them.

	exclude (v): to deliberately not include something in what you are doing or considering rector (n): a person who is in charge of a university, college or school mobilise (v): to organise a group of people to work together towards a particular aim selfish (adj): caring only about yourself rather than about other people contaminant (n): a substance that makes something dirty or impure register (v): to record somebody�s name on an official list