AIZAWL, March 25 – A government press release said the government is reverting to the old school academic year after careful consideration of opinions put forward by various organizations and prominent citizens, reports NEPS.
According to the release, the academic session that is to commence in May 2003, now will commence on April 23, 2003 with promotion exams being completed by the early part of March 2004. Accordingly, the government hopes to get back to the old school calendar year starting from January to December by January, 2005.
After receiving criticisms from the various NGOs in the state when the government suddenly took up the academic session being used by elsewhere in the country in 2001, the state government reconsidered its move, convening a meeting to hear about their views from the people recently. The decision to revert to the old academic year was made by the Council of Ministers.
Meanwhile, answering a starred question from MLA F Lalthanzuala, Health Minister F Malsawma said there were 13 HIV positive cases among babies and children in the state. The Health Minister further said as of October 1990 to January 2003, there were 468 HIV positive cases identified of which 295 were males and 173 were females. The Aizawl Civil Hospital has screened a total of 66,588 blood samples, according to the Minister, and of these, 468 cases were identified as HIV positive. This, however, is not accepted officially as the blood screening did not conform to National AIDS Organisation guidelines.
“A total of 66,588 blood samples, have been tested for HIV virus, Hapatitis B and Malaria as is mandatory. However, since the screening of these bloods did not conform to the guidelines set out by the National AIDS Organization, it cannot be accepted as the official figure for tests carried out to detect HIV virus. According to the guidelines, which needs pre- and post-counseling, only 9625 blood samples have been screened,” the Minister said.
There is a slow rise in HIV positive cases in the state, according to F Malsawma.“ The Health Department has detected a slow rise in HIV positive case in the past few years. However, this may be due to the fact that more blood screening are now taking place than in the past,” the Minister explained to the House.