title: Santiago Muñoz (footballer, born 2002)

text: Muñoz made his professional debut with Santos Laguna under manager Guillermo Almada on 25 October 2020 in a Liga MX match against Atlético San Luis, coming on as a substitute, winning 2–1.


title: Santiago Muñoz (footballer, born 2002)

text: On 31 August 2021, Muñoz joined Premier League side Newcastle United on an 18-month loan deal, linking up with the club's academy sides with the English club having the option to make the deal permanent. On 30 July 2022, Muñoz made his senior team debut for Newcastle in a 2–1 pre-season friendly win against Athletic Bilbao; coming on as a late substitute alongside fellow academy player Lucas De Bolle.


title: Santiago Muñoz (footballer, born 2002)

text: Muñoz was part of the under-17 squad that participated at the 2019 CONCACAF U-17 Championship, scoring five goals, where Mexico won the competition. He also participated at the 2019 U-17 World Cup, where Mexico finished runner-up.


title: Santiago Muñoz (footballer, born 2002)

text: Muñoz was called up to the under-23 team by Jaime Lozano to participate at the 2020 CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying Championship, appearing in three matches, where Mexico won the competition.


title: Santiago Muñoz (footballer, born 2002)

text: Muñoz was included in the under-21 roster that participated in the 2022 Maurice Revello Tournament, scoring two goals, Mexico finished third.


title: Education in Thailand

text: Education in Thailand is provided mainly by the Thai government through the Ministry of Education from pre-school to senior high school. A free basic education of fifteen years is guaranteed by the Thai constitution.


title: Education in Thailand

text: Education in Thailand mandates nine years of "basic education" (six years of elementary school and three years of lower secondary school). Education at public schools is free until grade 9. The government provides, in addition, three years of free pre-school and three years of free upper-secondary education. Neither is mandatory. Children are enrolled in elementary school from the age of six and attend for six years, Prathom 1 to Prathom 6. Elementary school classes is at least 7 hours per day, with a maximum learning time of 1,000 hours per year. Secondary education starts at age 12. It consists of three years of lower secondary education, Mattayom 1 to Mattayom 3, and three years of upper secondary education, Mattayom 4 to Mattayom 6. Compulsory education ends with Mattayom 3 (grade 9), after which pupils can pursue upper-secondary education in a university-preparatory track, or continue their studies in vocational school programs.


title: Education in Thailand

text: Homeschooling is legal in Thailand. Thailand's constitution and education law explicitly recognize alternative education and considers the family to be an educational institution. A homeschool law passed in 2004, Ministerial Regulation No. 3 on the right to basic education by the family, governs homeschooling. Families must submit an application to homeschool and students are assessed annually.


title: Education in Thailand

text: The Human Rights Measurement Initiative finds that Thailand fulfills 86.7% of what they should be able to fulfill for the right to education, based on their level of income.


title: Education in Thailand

text: Basic education in Thailand is free. It is divided into three levels: pre-primary, primary, and secondary. Pre-primary education was introduced in 2004 and made free in 2009. State schools offer two years of kindergarten (; ) (three- and four-year-old) and one year of


title: Education in Thailand

text: pre-school studies (five-year-old). Participation in pre-primary education is "nearly universal". At the age of six, education begins. It lasts for nine years, consisting of primary, "prathom" () (grades P1-6), and lower secondary, "matthayom" () (grades M1-3), starting at the age of 12. Upper secondary education, grades M4-6, is also not compulsory. It is divided into general and vocational tracks.


title: Education in Thailand

text: Ninety-nine percent of students complete primary education. Only 85 percent complete lower secondary. About 75 percent move on to upper secondary (ages 16–18). For every 100 students in primary schools, 85.6 students will continue studies in M1, 79.6 students will continue until M3, and only 54.8 will go on to M6 or occupational schools.


title: Education in Thailand

text: There are academic upper secondary schools, vocational upper secondary schools, and comprehensive schools offering academic and vocational tracks. Students who choose the academic stream usually intend to enter a university. Vocational schools offer programs that prepare students for employment or further studies.


title: Education in Thailand

text: Admission to an upper secondary school is through an entrance exam. On the completion of each level, students need to pass the NET (National Educational Test) to graduate. Children are required to attend six years of elementary school and at least the first three years of high school. Those who graduate from the sixth year of high school are candidates for two tests: O-NET (Ordinary National Educational Test) and A-NET (Advanced National Educational Test).


title: Education in Thailand

text: Public schools are administered by the government. The private sector includes schools run for profit and fee-paying non-profit schools which are often run by charitable organisations — especially by Catholic diocesan and religious orders that operate over 300 large elementary/secondary schools throughout the country. Village and sub-district schools usually provide pre-school kindergarten and elementary classes, while in the district towns, schools will serve their areas with comprehensive schools with all the classes from kindergarten to age 15 and separate secondary schools for ages 13 through 18.


title: Education in Thailand

text: Due to budgetary limitations, rural schools are generally less well equipped than the schools in the cities. The standard of instruction, particularly for the English language, is much lower, and many high school students will commute 60–80 kilometres to schools in the nearest city.


title: Education in Thailand

text: The school year is divided into two semesters. The first begins in the beginning of May and ends around mid September and early October; the second begins around late October and early November and ends around late February and early March.


title: Education in Thailand

text: Formal education has its early origins in the temple schools, when it was available to boys only. From the mid-sixteenth century Thailand opened up to significant French Catholic influence until the mid-seventeenth century when it was heavily curtailed, and the country returned to a strengthening of its own cultural ideology. Unlike other parts of South and Southeast Asia, particularly the Indian subcontinent, Myanmar (Burma), Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Malay Peninsula, Indonesia and the Philippines which had all benefited from the influence of countries with centuries of educational tradition, Thailand has never been colonised by a Western power. As a result, structured education on the lines of that in developed countries was slow to evolve until it gained new impetus with the reemergence of diplomacy in the late nineteenth century.


title: Education in Thailand

text: It is possible that one of the earliest forms of education began when King Ram Khamhaeng the Great invented the Thai alphabet in 1283 basing it on Mon, Khmer, and southern Indian scripts. Stone inscriptions from 1292 in the new script depict moral, intellectual and cultural aspects. During the Sukhothai period (1238–1378), education was dispensed by the Royal Institution of Instruction ("Rajabundit") to members of the royal family and the nobility, while commoners were taught by Buddhist monks.


title: Education in Thailand

text: In the period of the Ayutthaya kingdom from 1350 to 1767 during the reign of King Narai the Great (1656–1688), the "Chindamani", generally accepted as the first textbook of the Thai language, collating the grammar. The prosody of Thai language and official forms of correspondence was written by a monk, Pra Horatibodi, in order to stem the foreign educational influence of the French Jesuit schools It remained in use up to King Chulalongkorn's reign (1868–1910). Narai himself was a poet, and his court became the center where poets congregated to compose verses and poems. Although through his influence interest in Thai literature was significantly increased, Catholic missions had been present with education in Ayutthaya as early as 1567 under Portuguese Dominicans and French Jesuits were given permission to settle in Ayutthaya in 1662. His reign therefore saw major developments in diplomatic missions to and from Western powers.


title: Education in Thailand

text: On Narai's death, fearing further foreign interference in Thai education and culture, and conversion to Catholicism, xenophobic sentiments at court increased and diplomatic activities were severely reduced and ties with the West and any forms of Western education were practically severed. They did not recover their former levels until the reign of King Mongkut in the mid-nineteenth century.


title: Education in Thailand

text: Through his reforms of the Buddhist Sangha, King Rama I (1782–1809), accelerated the development of public education and during the reign of King Rama IV (1851–1865) the printing press arrived in Thailand making books available in the Thai language for the first time; English had become the "lingua franca" of the Far East, and the education provided by the monks was proving inadequate for government officials. Rama IV decreed that measures be taken to modernise education and insisted that English would be included in the curriculum.


title: Education in Thailand

text: King Rama V (1868–1910) continued to influence the development of education and in 1871 the first relatively modern concept of a school with purpose constructed building, lay teachers and a time-table was opened in the palace to teach male members of the royal family and the sons of the nobility. The Command Declaration on Schooling was proclaimed, English was being taught in the palace for royalty and nobles, and schools were set up outside the palace for the education of commoners’ children.


title: Education in Thailand

text: With the aid of foreign - mainly English - advisers a Department of Education was established by the king in 1887 by which time 34 schools, with over 80 teachers and almost 2,000 students, were in operation and as part of the king’s programme to establish ministries, in 1892 the department became the Ministry of Education. Recognizing that the private sector had come to share the tasks of providing education, the government introduced controls for private schools.


title: Education in Thailand

text: In 1897 on the initiative of Queen Sribajarindra, girls were admitted into the educational system. In 1898, a two-part education plan for Bangkok and for the provinces was launched with programmes for pre-school, elementary, secondary, technical, and higher education. In 1901, the first government school for girls, the Bamrung Wijasatri, was set up in Bangkok, and in 1913, the first teacher training school for women was set up at the Benchama Rajalai School for girls.


title: Education in Thailand

text: Further developments took place when in 1902 the plan was remodeled by National System of Education in Siam into the two categories of general education, and professional/ technical education, imposing at the same time age limits for admission to encourage graduation within predetermined time scales.


title: Education in Thailand

text: The first Thai university, Chulalongkorn, was named after King Chulalongkorn (Rama V). It was established by his son and successor King Vajiravudh (Rama VI) in 1917 by combining the Royal Pages School and the College of Medicine.


title: Education in Thailand

text: Thailand has a particular interpretation of education for sustainable development (ESD) as the ‘philosophy of sufficiency economy’ has played a leading role in shaping policy, including the National Economic and Social Development Plan and the National Education Act. ESD is highly integrated into the curriculum of primary and secondary education in Thailand through the framework of sufficiency economy. The National Curriculum of Thailand, which integrates the country’s ‘philosophy of sufficiency economy’, is an important case in point. Since 2002, the country’s education plan has promoted the inclusion of ESD in five distinct ways. First, ESD topics and content are incorporated into the eight main subject areas of the curriculum, with ESD learning standards defined in a scaffolded manner for each subject area. Second, student character development is defined by eight characteristics including active learning, sufficiency lifestyle and public mindedness. Third, the plan aims to provide specific project-based learning activities, such as natural preservation and environmental clubs and camps. Fourth, ESD-specific learning modules are developed and incorporated, such as renewable energy or the philosophy of sufficiency economy. Fifth, following structural reforms in 2008, Thailand now has a 30 per cent inclusion rate across the entire curriculum for decentralized, locally based subjects and teaching. These should address topics pertinent to the local context and often include issues relating to sustainable lifestyles and the sufficiency economy.


title: Education in Thailand

text: In 1995, the minister of education, Sukavich Rangsitpol, launched a series of education reforms with the goal of achieving educational excellence by 2007.


title: Education in Thailand

text: Prayut Chan-o-cha, Thailand's prime minister and junta leader, said in 2017 that school reform was urgently needed. Following the military takeover of May 2014, Prayut, in a televised broadcast in July, ordered schools to display a list of 12 "Thai" values he composed. They are:


title: Education in Thailand

text: Authorities instructed public schools and state agencies to hang a banner listing Gen Prayut's teachings on their premises. State agencies have also produced a poem, song, and 12-part film based on the teachings. In late-December 2014, the Ministry of Information, Communication, and Telecommunications (MICT) released a set of "stickers" depicting each of the Twelve Values for users of the chat application LINE.


title: Education in Thailand

text: The military government under Prayut Chan-o-cha instituted a "land defender battalion" program to teach uniformed children aged four and five to do push-ups, crawl under netting, salute, and eat from metal trays on the floor. "Soldiers showed children military operations and taught them patriotic values to love the nation, religions, and the Thai monarchy through the...12 Thai Values," according to the Thai-language news outlet "Matichon Online". The news site reported that this is the second time that the Royal Thai Army has run the program, and said that many more schools and kindergartens will join the program in the future.


title: Education in Thailand

text: A 2015 survey by the Ministry of Public Health found the average IQ of Thai students to be 93, down from 94 in 2011, and below the international standard of 100.


title: Education in Thailand

text: In July 2015, the Thai Department of Health initiated a program to provide better nutrition and health education at Thai public schools. Its aims are to increase average IQ from 94 to 100 and boost the average height of children. Currently boys measure on average 167 cm and girls 157 cm. Over the 10-year life of the program heights are targeted to increase to 175 cm and 165 cm respectively. Children at schools across the country will receive healthier meals and more instruction on healthy living and exercise.


title: Education in Thailand

text: In 2015, a World Bank study concluded that "...one-third of 15-year-old Thais are 'functionally illiterate'", including almost half of those studying in rural schools. The bank suggested that Thailand reform its education system partly through merging and optimising its more than 20,000 schools nationwide. The alternative is hiring 160,000 more teachers for up-country schools in order to match Bangkok's teacher-student ratios. "The Economist" notes that, "Thailand's dismal performance is not dramatically out of step with countries of similar incomes. But it is strange given its unusually generous spending on education, which in some years has hoovered up more than a quarter of the budget. Rote learning is common. There is a shortage of maths and science teachers, but a surfeit of physical-education instructors. Many head teachers lack the authority to hire or fire their own staff."


title: Education in Thailand

text: In May 2012, parents and students at the prestigious Bodindecha (Sing Singhaseni) School, commonly referred to as "Bodin", in Bangkok staged a hunger strike to protest what they viewed as admissions irregularities. The issue arose when 200 Bodin students were denied the right to continue their studies at the school at the end of the 2011 school year. The students suspected that school executives had taken away their seats to give to children of parents willing to pay huge sums of "tea money" or bribes. Admission to popular schools can cost "tea money" sums up to seven figures. The greater the competition, the higher the amount of donations the parents believe they have to offer in exchange for their children's chances to get a good education at a quality school.


title: Education in Thailand

text: Thai society holds teachers in high regard as evidenced by naming one day of the year as "Teacher's Day." "Thai teachers, as well as university lecturers, are not as well paid as their colleagues in Malaysia or Singapore, not to mention those in the United States or Europe," according to the "Bangkok Post". This has led to the finding that each Thai teacher may be up to three million baht in debt. The government is taking steps to ameliorate the plight of teachers by refinancing loans owed to institutional lenders.


title: Education in Thailand

text: Thailand has had 21 education ministers in the past 18 years (2000–2018). Each lasts an average of nine months.


title: Education in Thailand

text: The complexity of administration of Thai education gives rise to duplication among the many ministries and agencies providing education and establishing of standards. In 1980, at the recommendation of the Minister of Education, Dr. Sippanondha Ketudat, responsibility for basic elementary education was moved from the Ministry of Interior to the Ministry of Education. Both the Ministry of University Affairs and the Ministry of Education have been actively involved in teacher training.


title: Education in Thailand

text: For FY2019 the budget of the Ministry of Education is 487,646 million baht. The Thai national budget allocates considerable resources to education. In FY2017, educational expenditures represented almost 20 percent of the national budget, or four percent of GDP. This is high in comparison with the educational expenditures of other countries, especially developing countries, with China at 13 percent, Indonesia 8.1 percent, Malaysia 20 percent, Mexico, 24.3 percent, Philippines 17 percent, the United Kingdom and France, 11 percent. Although education is mainly financed by the national budget, local funds, particularly in urban areas, are spent on education. In the area governed by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA), up to 28.1 percent of the educational budget has been provided by local financing. Loans and technical assistance for education are also received from Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, and the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF) (Japan).


title: Education in Thailand

text: At elementary levels, students study eight core subjects each semester: Thai language, mathematics, science, social science, health and physical education, arts and music, technology, and foreign languages. At age 16 (Matthayom 4), students are allowed to choose one or two elective courses. The science program (Wit-Kanit) and the mathematics-English language program (Sil-Kamnuan) are among the most popular. Foreign language programs (Sil-Phasa) in (Chinese, French, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, and German) for example, and the social science program (sometimes called the general program) are also offered.


title: Education in Thailand

text: Both elementary and secondary levels have special programs, the English Program and the Gifted Program. In the English Program students learn every subject in English except for Thai and social studies. The Gifted Program is mathematics-science focused.


title: Education in Thailand

text: Grade of enrollment for immigrant students is determined by their birthday. In a study about Thailand's education policy on children of migrants, Thai schools often required migrant students to be proficient in the Thai language and to have gone through a learning center before enrolling into a public school. If a student was younger than 7, they would be placed in kindergarten, and if they were older, they would be placed in a first grade class. Therefore, students that were 15 could still enroll as a first grader. The purpose for these methods was to ensure that migrant students were better prepared to start school, but it did cause some issues for both the student and the teachers. The study found that even though older students placed in first grade classrooms were more obedient, the students had trouble connecting with their classmates and teacher had to address them differently due to their age. Thai public schools attempted to address this issue by some implementing a rule that a student could not be older than 9 to enroll, but this led to learning centers not given recommendations to public school for older students.


title: Education in Thailand

text: The Vocational Education Commission manages 416 vocational institutions of higher learning in Thailand.


title: Education in Thailand

text: Technical and vocational education (TVE) begins at the senior high school level where students begin to follow either general or vocational education tracks. At present, around 60 percent of students follow the general education programmes. However, the government is endeavouring to achieve an equal balance between general and vocational education.


title: Education in Thailand

text: Three levels of TVE are offered: the Certificate in Vocational Education ("Por Wor Chor") which is taken during the upper secondary period; the Technical Diploma ("Por Wor Sor"), taken after school-leaving age; and the Higher Diploma on which admission to university for a bachelor's degree programme may be granted. Vocational education is also provided by private institutions.


title: Education in Thailand

text: In 2016, Thailand's first technical vocational education and training (TVET) hub started in the northern province of Chiang Mai. TVET is a model that provides knowledge and skills required for workplaces, using formal, non-formal and informal learning.


title: Education in Thailand

text: the Department of Vocational Education launched an initiative to introduce dual vocational training programmes which involve the students in hand-on training at selected organisations in the private sector.


title: Education in Thailand

text: DVT is a regular element of the DoVE "certificate" and "diploma" program. The training is for a period of three years with more than half of the time devoted to practical training on-the-job, spread over two days a week, or for longer periods depending on the distance, throughout the semesters.


title: Education in Thailand

text: Two levels of DVT are offered: the three-year certificate level for skilled workers where students and trainees are admitted at the age of 15 after completing Matthayom 3 (Grade 9); and the two-year diploma technician level for students who have graduated with the Certificate of Vocational Education after 12 years of formal education.


title: Education in Thailand

text: In the scheme, vocational, unlike regular internships, where students may be assigned to work on unpaid irrelevant jobs, the cooperative education programme enables students of the vocational schools to do field work while benefiting from an allowance to cover living expenses or free accommodation, and compensation for their contributions made to the company's income and profits as temporary employees.


title: Education in Thailand

text: Schools collaborate directly with the private sector in drafting action plans and setting goals for students to meet. Generally, the company will offer permanent employment to the trainees on graduation and successful completion of the programme. Conversely, companies that recruit trainees from among young people who have completed a minimum of nine years at school may enroll their employees with a technical or vocational college where they are taught vocational subjects as the theoretical background to the occupational field in which they are being trained.


title: Education in Thailand

text: Shiro Sadoshima, the Japanese ambassador to Thailand, believes that the Thai government must invest more in education to produce a labour force that can meet the demands of Japanese industry. He noted that while Thailand has a policy to improve vocational skills and cultivate skilled labour, the skills exhibited by Thai workers are not up to Japanese standards. The ambassador's remarks echoed those of major Japanese manufacturers such as Toyota, which has been investing in Thailand for decades. Shuichi Ikeda, chief representative of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), also voiced concerns that even though Thailand has produced a lot of vocational graduates to serve rising demand for factory workers, those graduates lack required skills. Thailand is expected to produce around 67,000 vocational graduates over the next 10 years but only around 3,100 of them can meet labour standards and get a job, he said.


title: Education in Thailand

text: The National Educational Tests are tests developed by the National Institute of Educational Testing Service (NIETS) which used to also organise university admission tests such as GAT, PAT, and the General Subject Tests. The National Educational Tests include:


title: Education in Thailand

text: The O-NET used to be mandatory for Secondary 6 students and used in university admissions but as of 2022, the O-NET is optional and not used in university admissions.


title: Education in Thailand

text: There are 170 institutions of higher education in Thailand, both public and private, offering 4,100 curricula. For the 2015 academic year, the universities could accommodate 156,216 new students, but only 105,046 applied to take entrance exams. Exacerbating the student shortfall, the National Economic and Social Development Board projects that the number of Thais in the school-age group 0–21 years will fall to 20 percent of the population by 2040, a drop from 62.3 percent in 1980.


title: Education in Thailand

text: Many public universities receive financial support from the government for research purposes. Over half of the provinces have a government-run Rajabhat University (formerly Rajabhat Institutes) and Rajamangala University of Technology, which were traditionally teacher-training colleges.


title: Education in Thailand

text: Thai universities do not score highly in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University rankings and they are losing ground when compared with other Asian universities. Thailand's top three universities, Chulalongkorn, Mahidol, and Thammasat, are trending down. When it was first ranked by QS, Chulalongkorn came in at 201. In 2018 it was ranked 271. Several years ago, Mahidol was ranked 255 but now is ranked 380. Thammasat in 2012 was ranked 561 but has consistently been in the 600s since then.


title: Education in Thailand

text: Most bachelor's degree courses are four year, full-time programs. Exceptions are education and architecture that require five years, and the doctor of dental surgery, medicine, pharmacy, and veterinary medicine that require six years of study. Master's degree programs last for either one or two years and the degree is conferred on course credits with either a thesis or a final exam. On completion of a master's degree, students may apply for an admission exam to a two to five year doctoral program. The doctorate is conferred upon completion of coursework, research, and the successful submission of a dissertation. There are at least 1,000 PhD programs offered at 33 Thai universities. The number of PhD students rose to over 25,000 in 2015, up from just 1,380 in 2008.


title: Education in Thailand

text: At present, Thai university admissions are done through the "Thai University Central Admission System" or TCAS, a central admissions system developed by the Council of University Presidents of Thailand (CUPT). This system includes four rounds of admissions: portfolio admissions, quota admissions, joint admissions, and direct admissions.


title: Education in Thailand

text: Universities accepting students in this round have a lot of freedom in setting admission requirements but generally look at the extracurricular activities and achievements of a student, so a portfolio containing the student's basic information along with their extracurricular activities and achievements is expected by most universities. However, some programmes (especially international programmes) will also accept and use international standardised examinations in consideration such as the SAT, IELTS, BMAT, etc.


title: Education in Thailand

text: This round of admissions is intended to provide more opportunities in education for students in areas outside of Bangkok, the capital. This round is similar to round 1 in that programmes accepting students in this round have freedom in setting their requirements. However, scores such as the TGAT, TPAT, and General Subject Tests are usually required.


title: Education in Thailand

text: In this round, universities accept students with exam scores of TGAT, TPAT, and General subject tests. Round 3 admissions are handled by the CUPT rather than the universities.


title: Education in Thailand

text: In round 4, universities have total freedom in setting their requirements and criteria. Universities can require scores in TGAT, TPAT, General subject tests, or other exams such as the SAT, and IELTS. They can also require the student's portfolio and set requirements of the student's area of origin.


title: Education in Thailand

text: Presently, there are TPATs for five fields: medicine; liberal arts; science, technology, and engineering; architecture; and education.


title: Education in Thailand

text: These exams are intended to test a student's knowledge of each subject and his/her ability to apply that knowledge. The General Subject Tests include:


title: Education in Thailand

text: The ministry of education defines international schools as, "...an educational institution providing an international curriculum or international curriculum which its subject's detail has been adjusted or a self-organised curriculum, which is not the Ministry of Education's. A foreign language is used as the medium of teaching and learning and students are enrolled without restriction or limitation on nationality or religion or government regime, and are not against the morality or stability of Thailand."


title: Education in Thailand

text: Prior to 1992, only a very small number of international schools existed in Thailand, and they catered entirely to the children of expatriates, as Thai law prohibited Thai nationals from enrolling. When the first international school, International School Bangkok, relocated to a new campus outside of the city proper, a group of parents worked with United Nations staff to lobby the Ministry of Education to change this law and open the first new international school in decades. This led to the establishment of New International School of Thailand (later changed to NIST International School), and the repeal of the prohibition against the enrollment of Thais. Due to the high demand for private international education, this change also sparked the opening of dozens of other international schools over the subsequent years.


title: Education in Thailand

text: The curriculum is required to be approved by the Ministry of Education and may be an international one, an international curriculum with modifications, or a curriculum established by the school itself. Thai language and culture constitutes a core subject and is mandatory at every level for all Thai students registered as Thai nationals. Non-Thai citizens are not required to study Thai language or culture. International schools must operate within a framework of requirements and conditions established by the Ministry of Education, that stipulates the ownership, location and size of the plot, design and structure of buildings, ratio of students to classroom surface, sanitary installations, administration and educational support facilities such as libraries and resources centres. Within one year from their commencement, elementary and secondary schools must apply accreditation from an international organisation recognised and accepted by the Office of the Private Education Commission and accreditation must be granted within six years. Managers and head teachers must be of Thai nationality though frequently there will also be a foreign head teacher to oversee the international curriculum and implement school policy.


title: Education in Thailand

text: Approximately 90 international schools operate in Thailand, of which about two-thirds are in the Bangkok area.


title: Education in Thailand

text: Established in 1996, DLTV (Distance Learning via TV) broadcasts 15 educational channels from Klai Kangwon Palace School, Hua Hin. It broadcasts via the Ku-band beam on the Thaicom 5 satellite to 17,000 schools and other subscribers across the country. In December 2008, Thaicom Public Company, the operator of the Thaicom satellite, announced it has renewed a 10-year contract with the Distance Learning Education via Satellite Foundation of Thailand (DLF) to broadcast DLTV channels using one Ku-band transponder on the Thaicom 5 satellite.


title: Education in Thailand

text: On 13 May 2020, The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission's (NBTC) board approved the sequencing of 17 new digital TV channels for education run by the Education Ministry, channels 37-53, along with Thai PBS TV station using a frequency band to run an active learning TV programme on channel 4. These were planned to run on a temporary basis starting on 1 July 2020 and lasting for six months.


title: Education in Thailand

text: In recent years, the number of fresh graduates from teacher-training schools has ranged from 50,000 to 60,000 annually, raising concerns about quality and oversupply. The government is trying to reduce the number of graduates from teacher-education programmes to no more than 25,000 a year and direct those graduates to underserved localities. "We need to focus on quality, not quantity," a spokesperson said. In September 2015, the Office of the Higher Education Commission (OHEC) put forward an initiative to provide 58,000 grants to student-teachers over a 15-year period. The bulk of the grants would go to those who would be sent to work in areas with a shortage of teachers.


title: Education in Thailand

text: In 2010 the Office of the Basic Education Commission (OBEC), for the first time, tested secondary schools teachers on the subjects they teach. A grade of less than 59 percent was considered to exhibit a low standard of knowledge. OBEC said up to 88 percent of 3,973 computer science teachers failed the test. The same was true in biology (86 percent of 2,846), math (84 percent of 5,498), physics (71 percent of 3,487), chemistry (64 percent of 3,088) and astronomy and earth sciences (63 percent of 529). Teachers at the junior high level earned higher marks. OBEC said 58 percent of 14,816 teachers teaching math had marks of more than 80 percent, while 54 percent of 13,385 teachers did well in sciences. School directors did not fare well: about 95 percent failed tests in information and computer technology and English.


title: Education in Thailand

text: Elementary and secondary school teachers do not enjoy the same long breaks as the students and are required to work through the vacations on administrative duties. They are also burdened with administrative tasks: a study by the Quality Learning Foundation found that Thai teachers spent 84 of the 200-day academic year performing non-teaching tasks such as undergoing unnecessary training, performing administrative duties, and hosting external evaluations.


title: Education in Thailand

text: Thai university applicants scored an average 28.34 percent in English in recent university entrance exams. Thailand produces a "workforce with some of the world's weakest English-language skills." In a recent IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook Thailand was ranked 54th out of 56 countries globally for English proficiency. Singapore was third, Malaysia 28th and Korea 46th.


title: Education in Thailand

text: The government has long realised the importance of the English language as a core subject in schools, and it has been a compulsory subject at varying levels for several decades. Since 2005 schools are encouraged to establish bilingual departments where core subjects are taught in English as well as offering intensive English language programmes.


title: Education in Thailand

text: Place of birth is a significant marker for predicting academic success in Thailand. Students in ethnic minority areas, predominantly rural, score consistently lower in standardized national and international tests. Students from poor families living in remote areas face limited access to quality education compared to their urban counterparts. Only 50 percent of Thai students are taught academic subjects in their home language.<ref name="GEM-2017/8"></ref> This is likely due to unequal allocation of educational resources, weak teacher training, socio-economic factors (poverty), and lower ability in the central Thai language, the language of instruction and tests.


title: Education in Thailand

text: A third of Thai students aged 13 to 15 suffered bullying at school between 2010 and 2015. Twenty-nine percent were victims of physical violence. School violence instigated by students at technical or vocational schools is an ongoing problem.


title: Education in Thailand

text: Thai researcher Wichit Wongwarithip asserts that Thailand does not deliver on sex education. It fails with regard to gender diversity, gender equality, and safe sex. "Society tends to think that 'good morals' are the solutions to all problems and that Thai culture is the best," said Wichit. Thai sex education rests on the bedrock of the traditional values of heterosexuality and patriarchy. Instead of encouraging safe sex, Thai sex education tells schoolgirls to abstain until they are ready to form a family. Some Thai textbooks characterise masturbation as deviant behaviour and recommend meditation to suppress sexual desire. Jiraphon Arunakon, Director of the Gender Variation Clinic, says that sex education as taught in Thailand lags behind or ignores scientific research. The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) removed homosexuality from the "disease" classification in 1990 and Thailand's Ministry of Public Health asserted in 2002 that homosexuality is not a mental disorder. Parit Chiwarak, an education activist from Education for Liberation Network, says that students read their sex ed textbooks in order to pass exams, but do not take them seriously. "We all know that Thai textbooks are...sexist...I don't think that students nowadays perceive LGBT people as deviants. Students these days are not stupid. It's self-destructive to write things that oppose ordinary people's belief [sic] like this...", stated Parit.


title: Education in Thailand

text: Meanwhile, Thai sex education has done little to decrease Thailand's high teenage pregnancy rate. In 2014, about 334 babies were born daily to mothers aged between 15 to 19. Teen births in Thailand have been on the rise. Of every 1,000 live births, 54 are from teen mothers aged 15–19, higher than in the US and 10 times higher than Singapore. The number of live births by Thai teenage mothers aged 15–18 increased 43 percent between 2000 and 2011. The reasons for this may be societal norms. "Women are told to protect their virginity but Thai men who have multiple sexual encounters are seen as cool," said Visa Benjamano, a commissioner at the National Human Rights Council (NHRC).


title: Education in Thailand

text: Uniforms are compulsory for all students with very few variations from the standard model throughout the public and private school systems, including colleges and universities.


title: Education in Thailand

text: University uniforms are standard throughout the country and consist of a white blouse and plain or pleated skirt for females, and long black trousers, a white long-sleeved shirt with a dark blue or black tie for males. Thammasat University is the first university in Thailand that broke the uniform stereotype by providing choice for students to wear a polite uniform as a result of the democracy movement in 1932. Cracks in the university uniform policy began to appear in 2018 as a result of student agitation. The Faculty of Arts at Chulalongkorn University (CU) abolished the compulsory uniform requirement. CU has long claimed that its student uniform is prestigious as it was bestowed upon CU students by King Rama V, the university's founder.


title: Highland dress

text: Highland dress is the traditional, regional dress of the Highlands and Isles of Scotland. It is often characterised by tartan ("plaid" in North America). Specific designs of shirt, jacket, bodice and headwear may also be worn along with clan badges and other devices indicating family and heritage.


title: Highland dress

text: Men's highland dress typically includes a kilt or trews of his clan tartan, along with either a tartan full plaid, fly plaid, or short belted plaid. There are a number of accessories, which may include but are not limited to: a belt, sporran, sgian-dubh, knee-socks with a cuff known as kilt hose, garters, kilt pins and clan badges.


title: Highland dress

text: Women's highland dress is also based on the clan tartan, either that of her birth clan or, if married, that of her spouse's clan if she so chooses. Traditionally, women and girls do not wear kilts but may wear ankle-length tartan skirts, along with a colour-coordinated blouse and vest. A tartan earasaid, sash or tonnag (smaller shawl) may also be worn, usually pinned with a brooch, sometimes with a clan badge or other family or cultural motif.


title: Highland dress

text: In the modern era, Scottish highland dress can be worn casually, or worn as formal wear to white tie and black tie occasions, especially at ceilidhs and weddings. Just as the black tie dress code has increased in use in England for formal events which historically may have called for white tie, so too is the black tie version of highland dress increasingly common.


title: Highland dress

text: The basis of all modern men's and women's highland dress starts with the tartan, either as a kilt, trews, earasaid, sash or tonnag. Tartans in Scotland are registered at the Scottish Register of Tartans in Edinburgh, a non-ministerial department and are usually aligned to a clan or branch of a clan, however tartans can also be registered exclusively for an individual or institution. For instance, the King has a personal tartan called Balmoral, while a tartan was recently registered for the Scottish Jewish community.


title: Highland dress

text: Historically weaponry formed a common accessory of men's highland dress, such as the Mattucashlass and the Dirk. However, due to the UK's knife laws, small Sgian-dubhs and sword shape Kilt pins are more commonly seen today.


title: Highland dress

text: For men's and women's shoes, Ghillies are thin, foldable turnshoes, now used mostly for indoor wear and dancing. The sole and uppers cut from one piece of leather, wrapped around the foot from the bottom, laced at the top, and seamed at the heel and toe. Ghillie brogues are thick-soled welted rand shoes. In both, the laces are wrapped around and tied firmly above the wearer's ankles so that the shoes do not get pulled off in the mud. The shoes lack tongues so the wearer's feet can dry more quickly in the typically damp Scottish weather.


title: Highland dress

text: The Highland dress may also be worn as folk costume option at events requiring morning dress. As such, for formal day wear use it generally consists of:


title: Highland dress

text: In 1618, a poet from London, John Taylor, described the costume of Scottish aristocrats, lairds, and their followers and servants, dressed for hunting at Braemar. In August and September, all classes dressed in the same fashion by custom, as if equals. This included tartan stockings and jerkins, with garters of twisted straw, and a finer plaid mantle round their shoulders. They had knotted handkerchiefs at their necks and wore blue caps. Taylor said the tartan was "warm stuff of diverse colours."


title: Highland dress

text: Near the end of the seventeenth century, Martin Martin gave a description of traditional women's clothing in the Western Islands, the "earasaid" with its brooches and buckles."The ancient dress wore by the women, and which is yet wore by some of the vulgar, called "arisad", is a white plaid, having a few small stripes of black, blue and red; it reached from the neck to the heels, and was tied before on the breast with a buckle of silver or brass, according to the quality of the person. I have seen some of the former of an hundred marks value; it was broad as any ordinary pewter plate, the whole curiously engraven with various animals etc. There was a lesser buckle which was wore in the middle of the larger, and above two ounces weight; it had in the centre a large piece of crystal, or some finer stone, and this was set all around with several finer stones of a lesser size. The plaid being pleated all round, was tied with a belt below the breast; the belt was of leather, and several pieces of silver intermixed with the leather like a chain. The lower end of the belt has a piece of plate about eight inches long, and three in breadth, curiously engraven; the end of which was adorned with fine stones, or pieces of red coral. They wore sleeves of scarlet cloth, closed at the end as men's vests, with gold lace round them, having plate buttons with fine stones. The head dress was a fine kerchief of linen strait (tight) about the head, hanging down the back taper-wise; a large lock of hair hangs down their cheeks above their breast, the lower end tied with a knot of ribbands."


title: Highland dress

text: According to the English military chaplain Thomas Morer, in 1689 Highland men wore plaids about seven or eight yards () long, which covered from the neck to the knees except the right arm. Beneath the plaid they wore a waistcoat or a shirt to the same length as the drape of the plaid. These were "belted plaids." Their stockings were made of the same stuff as the plaid and their shoes were called "brocks" (brogues). Bonnets were blue or "sad" coloured. Morer noted that the fineness of the fabric varied according to the wealth and status of the man.


title: Highland dress

text: Scottish Lowlanders and Borderers were dressed much like the English, except both men and women also used a plaid as a cloak. The Lowland women wrapped their plaids over their heads as hoods, whereas Lowland and Border men wore a checkered maud (plaid) wrapped about their upper body. The maud, woven in a pattern known variously as Border tartan, Falkirk tartan, Shepherd's check, Shepherd's plaid and Galashiels grey, became the identifying feature of Border dress as a result of the garment's mention by fashionable Border Scots such as Walter Scott, James Hogg and Henry Scott Riddell and their wearing of it in public. Together with Robert Burns, they can be seen wearing a maud in portraits, etchings and statues.


title: Chaotic (TV series)

text: Chaotic is an animated science fantasy television series produced by 4Kids Entertainment. It was animated by Canadian studio Bardel Entertainment for season 1 and South Korean studio Dong Woo Animation for season 2 and 3. It is based on the Danish trading card game of the same name. Much of the plot is based on the original storyline of the Danish trading card game.


title: Chaotic (TV series)

text: "Chaotic" tells the tale of a teenage boy named Tom and his friend Kaz. They both play the Chaotic Trading Card/Online Game. Kaz always tries to tell Tom about a secret code to play for real which Tom refuses to believe. While playing online Tom receives the special password. When he enters the password into his game scanner he is transported to a place called Chaotic that is able to take him to another world where the characters, locations and items in the card game came to life.


title: Chaotic (TV series)

text: There are two parts to the Chaotic world, Chaotic itself and Perim. Chaotic is where the people play an advanced version of the card/online game where they transform into the creatures. The games can be watched via monitor by other players.


title: Chaotic (TV series)

text: The second part is Perim. In Perim the creatures, locations and items from the game are real. Players from the Chaotic game can teleport into Perim and scan the locations, creatures and items with their scanners, gaining the ability to use them in their game. There are four tribes in Perim. Two tribes, the Overworld and the Underworld, have been at war over a great power called the Cothica. Despite their names, there is no definite good and evil tribe, as both have different stories and interpretations of how the war began, with each tribe seeing the other as being evil. The Danians and Mipedians have since joined the war, turning it into a four-way conflict over the Cothica. It is said that the Mipedians were once united with the Overworlders and the Danians united with the Underworlders. It is still unknown why they separated.


title: Chaotic (TV series)

text: Both Chaotic and Perim are made up of a mysterious code called the "Chaotic Code". The code is noted for constantly changing in random ways. Thus, it is considered "chaotic." In Perim, the Chaotic Code describes everything. It contains the information for all the creatures, BattleGear, attacks, Mugic, and locations. The Cothica, mentioned above, is the source of all the codes in Perim. The code also describes everything in Chaotic. The BattleDromes, Transporters, and CodeScanners can analyze and/or modify this code for matches, transport, or creation of virtual cards.


title: Chaotic (TV series)

text: When the players are in Chaotic/Perim they exist simultaneously on Earth. When a Chaotic player leaves Chaotic they become one person again and the Earth version of the player gains the memories of anything they experienced in the Chaotic/Perim world. This is awkward the first time they transport, as their online deck is blocked so that their Chaotic self can use it and their scanner becomes non-functional, causing many people to believe they have broke their scanners until they are re-united with their Chaotic self.


title: Chaotic (TV series)

text: A short preview was shown on 4Kids TV on September 30, 2006, at 10:30 AM ET. The show officially premiered on October 7, 2006, at 10:30 AM ET. 4Kids Entertainment plans to "roll out the storyline over seven years", implying there were seven seasons planned for the television series. A second season, called "Chaotic: M'arillian Invasion", began airing in September 2008 on 4Kids TV. While season 1 used flash animation, the "M'arillian Invasion" season is animated in traditional animation. Jetix (U.S.) bought the cable rights to the show and began airing it daily at 7:00 AM on October 1, 2007. The "Secrets of Lost City" season is animated in traditional animation, like the previous season.


title: Chaotic (TV series)

text: Digital cable providers Comcast Cable, Cox Communications and Bresnan Communications premiered four new episodes in February 2008 on 4KidsTV's Video On Demand.


title: Chaotic (TV series)

text: Teletoon and The CW4Kids air most of the premiere episodes for their respective countries. The CW4Kids premieres began in February 2009 with "M'arillian Invasion" episode 14, while Teletoon began airing the second season in January 2009. Cartoon Network took over premieres for the final seven M'arrillian Invasion episodes in the U.S. in August 2009, but The CW4Kids regained the premieres when the third series- "Secrets of the Lost City" started on Halloween 2009 where the rest of the series would then have its premieres simultaneously on both Cartoon Network and The CW4Kids. Toon Disney aired the show on Jetix. On February 13, 2009, Jetix along with Toon Disney merged into a new network called Disney XD (a new channel similar in scope to Jetix). The Jetix brand no longer existed in the United States, but series 1, the original Chaotic, continued to air on Disney XD. Cartoon Network acquired the rights for the second and third seasons and began airing them and "Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's" in June 2009. By airing the second season straight through, CW was able to premiere episodes before CW4Kids. The series finale aired on March 13, 2010, but the show continued to air on Cartoon Network and Disney XD until 2011.


title: Chaotic (TV series)

text: In 2019, the owner of Chaotic, Bryan Gannon, announced in an interview his plans to revive the television series. The series would not be a reboot, but instead pick up where it left off from "Son of the Spiritlands", similar to the Samurai Jack season 5 revival.


title: Chaotic (TV series)

text: "Chaotic: Shadow Warriors" is a 2009 action video game based on the TV series. It was released in North America on November 10, 2009, on the PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360 and Nintendo DS.


title: Till There Was You

text: "Till There Was You" is a show tune written in 1950 by Meredith Willson, originally entitled "Till I Met You." It was originally recorded October 25, 1950, by Meredith Willson & his Orchestra and Eileen Wilson. The song was retitled and used in his musical play "The Music Man" (1957), and also appeared in the 1962 movie version. It is sung by librarian Marian Paroo (performed by Barbara Cook on Broadway, and by Shirley Jones in the film) to "Professor" Harold Hill (portrayed on Broadway and in the film by Robert Preston) toward the end of Act Two.


title: Till There Was You

text: In 1959, the song became the first of four US Top 40 hits for Anita Bryant. "Till There Was You" was recorded by the Beatles in 1963.


title: Till There Was You

text: The first recording of the song to be released was produced by Nelson Riddle, featuring his orchestra and 17-year-old vocalist Sue Raney. Promotional copies of the 45 rpm single, Capitol P3847, were released on November 26, 1957, even before the Broadway production had premiered on December 19, 1957, and a month ahead of the original cast album.


title: Till There Was You

text: An earlier version of this song, "Till I Met You", was first recorded by Eileen Wilson in 1950 and later appeared on the January 14, 1951, edition of "The Big Show", performed by Fran Warren.


title: Till There Was You

text: In 1959, American singer Anita Bryant recorded the song "Till There Was You" and released it as a single. Her version reached number 30 on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 chart and number 14 on the "Cashbox" Top 100.


title: Till There Was You

text: "Till There Was You" was recorded by the Beatles in 1963 and released on their second album "With the Beatles" (1963) (United Kingdom) and "Meet the Beatles!" (1964) (United States). It was the only song from a Broadway show released by the band.


title: Till There Was You

text: The Beatles' version is sung by Paul McCartney, who is accompanied by George Harrison and John Lennon on dueling acoustic, classical guitars played in a Spanish style over a bolero bongo beat played by Ringo Starr. The song was produced by George Martin. Its guitar solo is by George Harrison.


title: Till There Was You

text: The widow of Meredith Willson, the composer of "The Music Man", has stated that her husband's estate eventually received more income from the royalties of the Beatles recordings of "Till There Was You" than it originally received from the actual play.


title: Till There Was You

text: Paul McCartney was introduced to Peggy Lee's 1961 cover of the song through his older cousin Bett Robbins, who would occasionally babysit the two McCartney brothers. McCartney said that he "had no idea until much later" that it was from "The Music Man". The song was part of their pre-recording repertoire in 1962, and they performed it at the Star Club in Hamburg. It became illustrative of the Beatles' versatility, proving that they could appeal to all sections of an audience, moving easily from softer ballads to harder rock and roll, as in their appearance on November 4, 1963, at the Royal Variety Performance when they followed this song with "Twist and Shout".


title: Till There Was You

text: The band had included "'Till There Was You" as part of their unsuccessful audition for Decca Records in London on January 1, 1962. It was the second of five songs that they performed during their first appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" on February 9, 1964. During said performance, each of the Beatles were introduced by their first name via a subtitle, memorably ending with Lennon, who had the cheeky caption "Sorry girls, he's married:" under his name.


title: Till There Was You

text: A live performance by McCartney appears on his DVD "The Space Within US" (2006). In 2016, the BBC announced that a "holy grail" Beatles record would be auctioned in March of that year, a private pressing which features "Hello Little Girl" and "Till There Was You" and was valued at over £10,000. It was said to be one of the "rarest and most collectable of all Beatles records" by Mark Lewisohn, one of the foremost authorities on the Beatles. The disc eventually sold for £77,500.


title: Lusitanians

text: The Lusitanians () were an Indo-European speaking people living in the west of the Iberian Peninsula prior to its conquest by the Roman Republic and the subsequent incorporation of the territory into the Roman province of Lusitania.


title: Lusitanians

text: Frontinus mentions Lusitanian leader Viriathus as the leader of the Celtiberians, in their war against the Romans.


title: Lusitanians

text: The Greco-Roman historian Diodorus Siculus attributed them a name of another Celtic tribe: "Those who are called Lusitanians are the bravest of all Cimbri", often thought of as Germanic. The Lusitanians were also called Belitanians, according to the diviner Artemidorus. Strabo differentiated the Lusitanians from the Iberian tribes and called them Celts who had been known as Oestriminis in ancient times. On the other hand, Pliny the Elder and Pomponius Mela distinguished the Lusitanians from neighboring Celtic groups like the Artabrians in their geographical writings.


title: Lusitanians

text: The original Roman province of Lusitania briefly included the territories of Asturia and Gallaecia, but these were soon ceded to the jurisdiction of the "Provincia Tarraconensis" in the north, while the south remained the "Provincia Lusitania et Vettones". After this, Lusitania's northern border was along the Douro River, while its eastern border passed through "Salmantica" and "Caesarobriga" to the "Anas" (Guadiana) river.


title: Lusitanians

text: Lusitanian mercenaries fought for Carthage between the years 218 and 201 BC, during the Second Punic War against Rome. Silius Italicus describes them as forming a combined contingent with the Gallaeci and being led both by a commander named Viriathus (not to be confused with the similarly named chieftain). According to Livy, Lusitanian and Celtiberian cavalry performed raids in the north of Italy whenever the terrain was too rough for Hannibal's famed Numidian cavalry.


title: Lusitanians

text: Since 193 BC, the Lusitanians had been fighting the Romans in Hispania. In 150 BC, they were defeated by Praetor Servius Galba: springing a treacherous trap, he killed 9,000 Lusitanians and later sold 20,000 more as slaves in Gaul (modern France). This massacre would not be forgotten by Viriathus, who three years later (147 BC) would become the leader of the Lusitanians, and severely damaged the Roman rule in Lusitania and beyond. In 139 BC, Viriathus was betrayed and killed in his sleep by three of his companions (who had been sent as emissaries to the Romans), Audax, Ditalcus and Minurus, bribed by Marcus Popillius Laenas (although they were Viriathus warrior companions they were not Lusitanians themselves, they seem to have been Turdetanians, or from other people that was not Lusitanian). However, when the three returned to receive their reward from the Romans, the Consul Quintus Servilius Caepio ordered their execution, declaring, "Rome does not pay traitors".


title: Lusitanians

text: After the death of Viriatus, the Lusitanians kept fighting under the leadership of Tautalus, but gradually acquired Roman culture and language; the Lusitanian cities, in a manner similar to those of the rest of the Romanised Iberian peninsula, eventually gained the status of "Citizens of Rome".


title: Lusitanians

text: Categorising Lusitanian culture generally, including the language, is proving difficult and contentious. Some believe it was essentially a pre-Celtic Iberian culture with substantial Celtic influences, while others argue that it was an essentially Celtic culture with strong indigenous pre-Celtic influences associated with the Beaker culture.


title: Lusitanians

text: The Lusitanians worshiped various gods in a very diverse polytheism, using animal sacrifice. They represented their gods and warriors in rudimentary sculpture. Endovelicus was the most important god for the Lusitanians. He is considered a possible Basque language loan god by some and, according to scholars like José Leite de Vasconcelos, the word "Endovellicus" was originally Celtic, "Andevellicos". Endovelicus is compared with Welsh and Breton names, giving him the meaning of "Very Good God", the same epithet of the Irish god Dagda. Even the Romans worshiped him for his ability to protect. His cult eventually spread across the Iberian peninsula and beyond, to the rest of the Roman Empire and his cult was maintained until the fifth century; he was the god of public health and safety.


title: Lusitanians

text: The goddess Ataegina was especially popular in the south; as the goddess of rebirth (spring), fertility, nature, and cure, she was identified with Proserpina during the Roman era.


title: Lusitanians

text: Lusitanian mythology was heavily influenced by or related to Celtic mythology. Also well attested in inscriptions are the names Bandua (one of the variants of Borvo) often with a second name linked to a locality such as Bandua Aetobrico, and Nabia, a goddess of rivers and streams.


title: Lusitanians

text: According to Strabo the Lusitanians were given to offering sacrifices; they practiced divination on the sacrificial offering by inspecting its vitals and veins. They also sacrificed human victims, prisoners of war, by striking them under coarse blankets and observing which way they fell. They cut off the right hands of their captives, which they offered to the gods.


title: Lusitanians

text: The Lusitanian language was a Paleohispanic language that clearly belongs to the Indo-European family.


title: Lusitanians

text: The precise affiliation of the Lusitanian language inside the Indo-European family is still in debate:


title: Lusitanians

text: there are those who endorse that it is a para-Celtic language with an obvious Celticity to most of the lexicon, over many anthroponyms and toponyms. A second theory relates Lusitanian with the Italic languages; based on the names of Lusitanian deities with other grammatical elements of the area.


title: Lusitanians

text: The Lusitanian language may in fact have been basal Italo-Celtic, a branch independent from Celtic and Italic, and splitting off early from Proto-Celtic and Proto-Italic populations who spread from Central Europe into western Europe after new Yamnaya migrations into the Danube Valley. Alternatively, a European branch of Indo-European dialects, termed "North-west Indo-European" and associated with the Beaker culture, may have been ancestral to not only Celtic and Italic, but also to Germanic and Balto-Slavic. Ellis Evans believes that Gallaecian - Lusitanian were one language (not separate languages) of the “P” Celtic variant.


title: Lusitanians

text: The Lusitanians were a people formed by several tribes that lived between the rivers Douro and Tagus, in most of today's Beira and Estremadura regions of central Portugal, and some areas of the Extremadura region (Spain).


title: Lusitanians

text: They were a tribal confederation, not a single political entity; each tribe had its own territory and was independent, and was formed by smaller clans. However, they had a cultural sense of unity and a common name for the tribes.


title: Lusitanians

text: Each tribe was ruled by its own tribal aristocracy and chief. Many members of the Lusitanian tribal aristocracy were warriors as happened in many other pre-Roman peoples of the Iron Age.


title: Lusitanians

text: Only when an external threat occurred did the different tribes politically unite, as happened at the time of the Roman conquest of their territory when Viriathus became the single leader of the Lusitanian tribes. Punicus, Caucenus and Caesarus were other important Lusitanian chiefs before the Roman conquest. They ruled the Lusitanians (before Viriathus) for some time, leading the tribes in the resistance against Roman attempts of conquest, and were successful.


title: Lusitanians

text: It remains to be known if the Turduli Veteres, Turduli Oppidani, Turduli Bardili, and Turduli were Lusitanian tribes (coastal tribes), were related Celtic peoples, or were instead related to the Turdetani (Celtic, pre-Celtic Indo-European, or Iberians) and came from the south. The name Turduli Veteres (older or ancient Turduli), a tribe that dwelt in today's Aveiro District, seems to indicate they came from the north and not from the south (contrary to what is assumed on the map). Several Turduli peoples were possibly Callaeci tribes that initially came from the north, towards the south along the coast and then migrated inland along the Tagus and the Anas (Guadiana River) valleys.


title: Lusitanians

text: The Lusitanians were considered by historians to be particularly adept at guerrilla warfare. The strongest amongst them were selected to defend the populace in mountainous sites. They used hooked javelins or saunions made of iron, and wielded swords and helmets like those of the Celtiberians. They threw their darts from some distance, yet often hit their marks and wounded their targets deeply. Being active and nimble warriors, they would pursue their enemies and decapitate them.


title: Lusitanians

text: In times of peace, they had a particular style of dancing, which required great agility and nimbleness of the legs and thighs. In times of war, they marched in time, until they were ready to charge the enemy.


title: Lusitanians

text: Appian claims that when Praetor Brutus sacked Lusitania after Viriathus's death, the women fought valiantly next to their men as women warriors.


title: Lusitanians

text: Lusitanians are often used by Portuguese writers as a metaphor for the Portuguese people, and similarly, Lusophone is used to refer to a Portuguese speaker.


title: Lusitanians

text: Lusophone is at present a term used to categorize persons who share the linguistic and cultural traditions of the Portuguese-speaking nations and territories of Portugal, Brazil, Macau, Timor-Leste, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe, Guinea Bissau and others.


title: Seven (South Korean singer)

text: Choi Dong-wook (; born November 9, 1984), better known by his stage name Seven (; stylized as Se7en), is a South Korean singer, who has also advanced into Japan, China and the United States.


title: Seven (South Korean singer)

text: Seven began training under the management agency YG Entertainment at the age of fifteen. After four years of training in singing and dancing, he made his debut in 2003 with the album "Just Listen", released on March 8. Later that year, he received best new artist awards at the Golden Disc Awards, MBC Gayo Daejejeon, Mnet Music Video Festival, SBS Gayo Daejeon, and Seoul Music Awards.


title: Seven (South Korean singer)

text: On July 7, 2004, Seven released his second album, "Must Listen", which he described as being more grown-up than his debut album. "Must Listen" peaked at number one on the monthly Recording Industry Association of Korea album chart. The album's lead single, "Passion", won Best Male Video at the Mnet Km Music Video Festival, as well as bonsang awards at the Golden Disc Awards and MBC Gayo Daejejeon.


title: Seven (South Korean singer)

text: In April 2005, Seven continued promotions for "Must Listen" in Thailand, where the album sold over 100,000 copies and the singles "Passion" and "Tattoo" topped the Channel V weekly charts. Later that month, he won the award for Popular Asian Artist at the Channel V Thailand Music Video Awards.


title: Seven (South Korean singer)

text: On January 9, 2006, Seven released his first Chinese album, "Must Listen" (不得不聽), in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore. The album includes all of the songs from his 2004 Korean album of the same name, as well as two new songs in Chinese. He went on to win three awards at the China Original Music Pop Chart Awards held that summer, helping to establish his reputation as a "Hallyu star".


title: Seven (South Korean singer)

text: On March 8, Seven released his third Korean studio album, "24/Se7en" (which includes the lead single "I Know"), as well as his first Japanese studio album, "First Se7en". "24/Se7en" charted at number one on Hanteo's daily album chart in South Korea, while "First Se7en" debuted at number eight on Oricon's daily album chart in Japan. He released his fourth Korean studio album, "Se7olution", on November 1.


title: Seven (South Korean singer)

text: Seven made his acting debut in January 2007 as the lead of the TV drama "Prince Hours", a spin-off of the 2006 hit series "Princess Hours". While viewership ratings for the show were low, Seven said in an interview after the show concluded, "The word 'failure' is used to describe "Prince Hours", but, to me, it is a great success that's so precious".


title: Seven (South Korean singer)

text: In April 2007, it was reported that Seven's debut English-language single had been leaked on YouTube. The song, titled "This Is My Year", featured rapper Fabolous and was not intended to be released until later that year. As a result of the leak, YG Entertainment announced that it would revise plans for Seven's U.S. debut.


title: Seven (South Korean singer)

text: On March 14, 2008, Seven held a preview party in New York City for his upcoming U.S. debut. He played three new songs, which featured collaborations with producer Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins and hip-hop group Three 6 Mafia. He continued promotions in Los Angeles in May, when he announced that he had finished recording 12 songs for his planned U.S. album. On March 10, 2009, Seven released his first English-language single, "Girls," a pop-R&B song that features American rapper Lil' Kim. In June, Seven became the first Asian artist to have his music video played on the U.S. television channel BET, when "Girls" was broadcast on the music video show "106 & Park". Seven's full English-language album was ultimately not released.


title: Seven (South Korean singer)

text: Seven made an official comeback in Korea after a three-year-long hiatus on July 31, 2010 with his first mini-album "Digital Bounce." The album consisted of six songs, including a song from his American debut titled 'Money Can't Buy Me Love'. His 2nd track 'Digital Bounce' featured the rapping skills of Big Bang's TOP. Seven began his follow up promotions in October with the song 'I'm Going Crazy' which featured his longtime girlfriend Park Han-byul as the main actress in the music video. Throughout his comeback, Seven attended many variety shows and even featured in fellow labelmate 2NE1's hit reality show 2NE1TV, where he described his hardships in America and his hiatus. Seven ended his promotions on the October 30, 2010.


title: Seven (South Korean singer)

text: Seven has recently revealed, by means of 2NE1's Nolza Japan Concert, that he is planning a comeback in Japan after his four-year hiatus since 2007. He has revealed that this album will have a Pop concept and that his first official fanmeet would be on November 6, 2011. Seven has also revealed that he will be releasing a digital single called 'Angel' in November 2011, and would release a full Japanese album alongside a Korean album in January 2012.


title: Seven (South Korean singer)

text: Seven released his 2nd mini-album on February 1, 2012 with title track "When I Can't Sing." The track was produced by JYP and written by JYP, making it the first ever official collaboration between YG Entertainment and JYP Entertainment.


title: Seven (South Korean singer)

text: On March 18, 2013, Seven enlisted for his mandatory military service at the 306 Reserve in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province for five weeks of basic training followed by 21 months as an active-duty soldier. On that same day, YG Entertainment released Seven's music video "THANK U (고마워)". Seven was discharged from his mandatory military service on December 28, 2014. During his military service, the singer's contract with YG Entertainment expired in February 2015. It was later confirmed that they mutually agreed not to renew the singer's contract.


title: Seven (South Korean singer)

text: On October 14, he released the mini-album "I Am Seven" (stylized "I Am Se7en"), his first album in over four years, along with the lead single, "Give It to Me", and its music video.


title: Seven (South Korean singer)

text: After staying out of the public eye for four years, Seven announced he would return to promote in Korea after signing a new contract with Dmost Entertainment on April 17, 2020.


title: Seven (South Korean singer)

text: Seven's vocal range can be classified in the tenor range. His voice can be described as smooth, mellow, and sometimes mildly abrasive (see vocal belting) when songs, such as "Crazy," "La La La," "Hikari" and "I Know," call for it. He often sings with a vibrato in his voice that American R&B singers are known for, and also incorporates beatboxing into many of his songs such as "Passion." Se7en maintains an adamant belief that he should not lipsync during his live performances.


title: Seven (South Korean singer)

text: In June 2009, Seven acknowledged on his website that he and actress Park Han-byul had been in a relationship for seven years, with the couple having first met when they were seniors in high school. Seven had previously denied rumours that they were a couple to protect Park's privacy. In December 2014, Park's agency confirmed that Park and Seven had ended their 12-year relationship earlier that year.


title: Seven (South Korean singer)

text: In September 2016, news outlet "Sports Chosen" reported that Seven and actress Lee Da-hae had been dating for over a year.


title: Seven (South Korean singer)

text: In July 2013, Seven, alongside singer Sangchu of Mighty Mouth, was found guilty of visiting a massage parlor that provides sexual services while he was on military leave to perform at a concert that June. While South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense concluded that Seven and Sangchu did not seek illegal services at the massage parlors, it sentenced them to 10 days in military jail for violating military regulations. According to Seven, who spoke about the incident in 2016, he was only charged with leaving the military camp without permission.


title: Devon Murray

text: Devon Michael Murray (born 28 October 1988) is an Irish actor, best known for playing Seamus Finnigan in the "Harry Potter" film series.


title: Devon Murray

text: Devon Michael Murray was born on 28 October 1988 in County Kildare, Ireland. When he was six, his parents Michael and Fidelma Murray sent him to the Billie Barry and within two weeks he landed a Tesco television ad. Within six months he was in his first film, acting alongside Aidan Quinn in "This Is My Father" (1998). He then joined the National Performing Arts School and had his breakthrough role in "Angela's Ashes" (1999). He also acted alongside Jane Seymour in "Yesterday's Children" (2000).


title: Devon Murray

text: Murray has been in a relationship with Shannon McCaffrey Quinn since late 2018. The couple have a son, Cooper Michael Murray, born on 2 January 2021.


title: Both Sides of the Blade

text: Both Sides of the Blade (formerly known in English as Fire; ) is a 2022 French romantic drama film directed by Claire Denis, who wrote the screenplay with Christine Angot. The film is based on Angot's 2018 novel "Un tournant de la vie". The film stars Juliette Binoche, Vincent Lindon, and Grégoire Colin. The film had its world premiere on 12 February 2022 at the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival, where it competed for the Golden Bear, while Denis received the Silver Bear for Best Director.


title: Both Sides of the Blade

text: Sara and her husband Jean swim in the sea while on vacation, kissing and caressing one another. They return home to a wintry Paris, where Sara works as a radio presenter. Jean, a former professional rugby player with a prison record, is an absent father to his mixed-race teenage son Marcus, who lives in the custody of Jean's mother Nelly in the banlieue of Vitry. One day, Sara glimpses her estranged ex-boyfriend François on the street, flooding her with emotion. François, who was also once a close friend to Jean, is opening a sports agency to recruit young rugby players and contacts Jean to work with him as a talent scout. The re-entrance of François into their lives threatens the relationship Sara and Jean have had for ten years.


title: Both Sides of the Blade

text: In early January 2021, Wild Bunch International announced the release of several French films despite the strict restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. One of those movies would be "Fire", a dramatic movie directed by Denis. That same month, it was announced that filming was about to wrap in Paris, and that Mati Diop, Bulle Ogier and Issa Perica were part of the cast, with Ad Vitam Distribution set to distribute in France. Part of the film was shot at Maison de la Radio, the headquarters of Radio France. Production wrapped in early February 2021.


title: Both Sides of the Blade

text: The film was developed within the context and restrictions of the COVID-19 lockdowns in France, which Denis credits with bringing her and the cast closer together. However, they became "exhausted, relentless" with their work. The pandemic also exists as a reality in the film. Shooting a scene in the Paris Métro, Denis found it "impossible to pretend the pandemic didn't exist." The characters also wear face masks in some sequences taking place outside their apartment.


title: Both Sides of the Blade

text: The film marks the acting debut of Hana Magimel, the daughter of Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel. French footballer Lilian Thuram appears as himself.


title: Both Sides of the Blade

text: The film was selected to compete for the Golden Bear in the main competition section of the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival, where the film had its world premiere on 12 February 2022. Claire Denis won the Silver Bear for Best Director. IFC Films acquired the US distribution rights to the film in early February 2022, for a limited release on 8 July 2022. The film was released in France by Ad Vitam Distribution on 31 August 2022. The film was released for streaming on AMC Plus on 4 November 2022, 119 days after IFC's limited release date of 8 July 2022.


title: Both Sides of the Blade

text: The title "Both Sides of the Blade" is derived from the song of the same name by Tindersticks, which was written by Stuart A. Staples for the film and is featured at its conclusion. When she received the song during the film's editing, Denis was impressed by the "quality" of the title and deemed the French title "Avec amour et acharnement" too difficult to translate. Denis has described "Both Sides of the Blade" as the "real title" of the film because it "describes the movie" perfectly. The film was originally being marketed in English under the title "Fire". "Paste" said there is "palpable contention" regarding the film's title. On 3 March 2022, during her introduction at the film's U.S. premiere at Lincoln Center's annual Rendez-Vous with French Cinema series, Denis herself decried, "The film is not called "Fire"!" Denis told an interviewer at the event, "I tried today to speak with the distribution company because I think 'Fire' is not completely fitting for the film. 'Both Sides of the Blade,' it’s sharp. There's passion, but it could be divided in a painful way. It's cutting!" In April 2022, IFC Films officially changed its distribution title to "Both Sides of the Blade".


title: Both Sides of the Blade

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 83% based on 111 reviews, with an average rating of 7.00/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Elevated by impeccable work from Claire Denis and Juliette Binoche, "Both Sides of the Blade" is a relationship drama that cuts deep." According to Metacritic, which assigned a weighted average score of 72 out of 100 based on 26 critics, the film received "generally favorable reviews".


title: Both Sides of the Blade

text: Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian" gave the film three out of five stars, writing, "It's intriguing if contrived and anticlimactic, though acted at the highest pitch of sensual conviction." David Rooney of "The Hollywood Reporter" praised the film's "psychologically astute" screenplay, Gautier's "probing" cinematography and Denis' "laser-focused" direction for laying bare the characters' emotions "with fluid modulation of tone". Rooney also praised the film's "rigorous rejection of sentimentality" and its sex scenes for "involving middle-aged bodies captured with such unselfconscious naturalness and grace." Guy Lodge of "The Guardian" praised the "unusually elegant geometry" of the film's love triangle as well as Denis' "rich, nuanced exploration of female desire from the fault lines of an ostensibly simple narrative", and complimented Binoche and Lindon on the emotional range of their performances. Kevin Maher of "The Times" gave the film four stars out of five, writing, "Binoche, typically, is on commanding form, working once more with a film-maker who seems intuitively aware of how to harness her every glance or grimace."


title: The Adventure of the Speckled Band

text: "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" is one of 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the eighth story of twelve in the collection "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes". It was originally published in "Strand Magazine" in February 1892.


title: The Adventure of the Speckled Band

text: "The Speckled Band" is a classic locked-room mystery that deals with the themes of parental greed, inheritance and freedom. Tinged with Gothic elements, it is considered by many to be one of Doyle's finest works, with the author himself calling it his best story. The story, alongside the rest of the Sherlock Holmes canon, has become a defining part of detective fiction. It has been adapted for television, film, theatre, radio, and a video game. It is also part of the exhibit at the Sherlock Holmes Museum. The theatrical adaptation was written and produced by Doyle himself, directed by and starring Lyn Harding as Grimesby Roylott. The role of Sherlock Holmes was played by H. A. Saintsbury. Doyle famously clashed with Harding over several details of the script, but later reconciled with him after the universal success of the play.


title: The Adventure of the Speckled Band

text: Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson rise early one morning to meet a young woman named Helen Stoner who fears that her stepfather, Dr. Grimesby Roylott, is threatening her life. Roylott is a doctor who practiced in Calcutta, India, and was married to Helen's late mother when she was a widow living there. He is also the impoverished last survivor of what was once a wealthy but violent, ill-tempered and amoral Anglo-Saxon aristocratic family of Surrey, and has already served a jail sentence for killing his Indian butler in a rage. After serving his jail sentence Roylott had moved to England and tried to reestablish his practice but gave it up after his wife was killed in a railroad accident seven years before. At his estate of Stoke Moran Roylott with a violent temper and great phyiscal strength becomes the terror of the town in which he engages in brawls including throwing the local blacksmith into a stream


title: The Adventure of the Speckled Band

text: Helen's twin sister died almost two years earlier, shortly before she was to be married. Helen had heard her sister's dying words, "The speckled band!" but could not decode their meaning. Helen herself is now engaged. She has begun to hear strange noises and observe strange activities around Stoke Moran, the impoverished and heavily mortgaged estate where she and her stepfather live.


title: The Adventure of the Speckled Band

text: Dr. Roylott also keeps strange company at the estate. He is friendly with a band of Gypsies on the property, and he has a cheetah and a baboon as pets. For some time, he has been making changes to the house. Before Helen's sister's death, he had modifications made inside the house and is now having the outside wall repaired, forcing Helen to move into the room where her sister died.


title: The Adventure of the Speckled Band

text: Holmes listens carefully to Helen's story and agrees to take the case. He plans a visit to the manor later in the day. Before he can leave, he is visited by Dr. Roylott himself, who threatens him should he interfere. Undaunted, Holmes proceeds to the courthouse, where he examines Helen's late mother's will, and then to the countryside.


title: The Adventure of the Speckled Band

text: At Stoke Moran, Holmes scrutinizes the premises inside and out. Among the strange features that he discovers are a bed anchored to the floor, a bell cord that is not attached to any bell, and a ventilator hole between Helen's temporary room and that of Dr. Roylott.


title: The Adventure of the Speckled Band

text: Holmes and Watson arrange to spend the night in Helen's room. In darkness, they wait until about three in the morning; suddenly, a slight metallic noise and a dim light through the ventilator prompt Holmes to action. Quickly lighting a candle, he discovers on the bell cord the "speckled band"—a venomous snake. He strikes at the snake with his riding crop, driving it back through the ventilator. Agitated, it fatally attacks Roylott, who had been waiting for it to return after killing Helen. Holmes identifies the snake as an Indian swamp adder and reveals to Watson the motive: the late wife's will had provided an annual income of £750 sterling, of which each daughter could claim one third (£250) upon marriage. Thus, Dr. Roylott plotted to remove both of his stepdaughters before they married to avoid losing most of the fortune he controlled. Holmes admits his attack on the snake may make him indirectly responsible for Roylott's demise, but he does not foresee it troubling him.


title: The Adventure of the Speckled Band

text: Richard Lancelyn Green, the editor of the 2000 Oxford paperback edition of "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", surmises that Doyle's source for the story appears to have been the article named "Called on by a Boa Constrictor. A West African Adventure" in "Cassell's Saturday Journal", published in February 1891. In the article, a captain tells how he was dispatched to a remote camp in [West Africa] to stay in a tumbledown cabin that belonged to a Portuguese trader. On the first night in the cabin, he is awoken by a creaking sound, and sees "a dark queer-looking thing hanging down through the ventilator above it". It turns out to be the largest "[Boa constrictor]" he has seen (more likely a python because there are no boas in Africa). He is paralysed with fear as the serpent comes down into the room. Unable to cry out for help, the captain spots an old bell that hung from a projecting beam above one of the windows. The bell cord had rotted away, but by means of a stick he manages to ring it and raise the alarm.


title: The Adventure of the Speckled Band

text: "It is a "swamp adder"!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten."


title: The Adventure of the Speckled Band

text: Most people consider the snake to be a fictitious creation; however, the identity of the snake has been a subject of much debate among Sherlockians.


title: The Adventure of the Speckled Band

text: "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" was first published in the UK in "The Strand Magazine" in February 1892, and in the United States in the US edition of the "Strand" in March 1892. The story was published with nine illustrations by Sidney Paget in "The Strand Magazine". It was included in the short story collection "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", which was published in October 1892.


title: Babalon Working

text: The Babalon Working was a series of magic ceremonies or rituals performed from January to March 1946 by author, pioneer rocket-fuel scientist and occultist Jack Parsons and Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. This ritual was essentially designed to manifest an individual incarnation of the archetypal divine feminine called Babalon. The project was based on the ideas of Aleister Crowley, and his description of a similar project in his 1917 novel "Moonchild".


title: Babalon Working

text: Almost immediately after Parsons declared that the first of the series of rituals was complete and successful, he met Marjorie Cameron in his own home, and regarded her as the elemental that he and Hubbard had called through the ritual. Soon Parsons began the next stage of the series, an attempt to conceive a child through sex magic workings. Although no child was conceived, this did not affect the result of the ritual to that point. Parsons and Cameron, who Parsons now regarded as the Scarlet Woman, "Babalon", called forth by the ritual, soon married.


title: Babalon Working

text: The rituals performed drew largely upon rituals and sex magic described by English author and occult teacher Aleister Crowley. Crowley was in correspondence with Parsons during the course of the Babalon Working, and warned Parsons of his potential overreactions to the magic he was performing, while simultaneously deriding Parsons' work to others.


title: Babalon Working

text: A brief text entitled "Liber 49", self-referenced within the text as "The Book of Babalon", was written by Jack Parsons as a transmission from the goddess or force called 'Babalon' received by him during the Babalon Working. Parsons wrote that "Liber 49" constituted a fourth chapter of Crowley's "Liber AL Vel Legis (The Book of the Law)", the holy text of Thelema.


title: Presidency University, Kolkata

text: Presidency University, Kolkata (formerly known as Presidency College, Kolkata) is a second major public state aided research university located in College Street, Kolkata. Considered as one of best colleges when Presidency College was affiliated to University of Calcutta. Established in 1817, it is the oldest college in India (in Asia as well). It was formerly known as Hindu College and then Presidency College and now Presidency University.


title: Presidency University, Kolkata

text: In its first cycle as a university, Presidency received A grade with a score of 3.04/4.00 by the NAAC. Presidency has been recognized as an "Institute of National Eminence" by the UGC. It appeared in the inaugural list of top 50 institutions of NIRF rankings in 2016. However, NIRF rankings in 2017 and 2018 excluded universities like Presidency University which taught only science and humanities but not engineering, commerce, agriculture etc.


title: Presidency University, Kolkata

text: With the creation of the Supreme Court of Calcutta in 1773 many Hindus of Bengal showed an eager interest in learning the English language. David Hare, in collaboration with Raja Radhakanta Deb had already taken steps to introduce English language education in Bengal. Babu Buddinath Mukherjee advanced the introduction of English as a medium of instruction further by enlisting the support of Sir Edward Hyde East, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Fort William, who called a meeting of 'European and Hindu Gentlemen' at his house in May 1816. The purpose of the meeting was to "discuss the proposal to establish an institution for giving a liberal education to the children of the members of the Hindu Community". The proposal was received with unanimous approbation and a donation of over Rs. 100, 000 was promised for setting up the new college. Raja Ram Mohan Roy showed full support for the scheme, but chose not to come out in support of the proposal publicly for fear of "alarming the prejudices of his orthodox countrymen and thus marring the whole idea".


title: Presidency University, Kolkata

text: The college was formally opened on Monday, 20 January 1817 with 20 'scholars'. The foundation committee of the college, which oversaw its establishment, was headed by Raja Ram Mohan Roy. The control of the institution was vested in a body of two Governors and four Directors. The first Governors of the college were Maharaja Tejchandra Bahadur of Burdwan and Gopee Mohan Thakoor. The first Directors were Gopi Mohun Deb of Sobhabazar, Joykissen Sinha, Radha Madhab Banerjee, and Gunganarain Doss. Buddinath Mukherjee was appointed as the first Secretary of the college. The newly established college admitted Hindu students only from affluent and upper caste families.


title: Presidency University, Kolkata

text: At first, the classes were held in a house belonging to Gorachand Bysack of Garanhatta (later renamed 304, Chitpore Road), which was rented by the college. In January 1818 the college moved to 'Feringhi Kamal Bose's house' which was located nearby in Chitpore. From Chitpore, the college moved to Bowbazar and later to the building that now houses the Sanskrit College on College Street.


title: Presidency University, Kolkata

text: In 1972, an unsigned article was released by the faculty members of the college demanding that the college be given full university status. It is an open secret that the author of the article was Dipak Banerjee, the legendary economics professor of the college. The state government, then under the chief ministership of Siddhartha Shankar Ray, showed the willingness to listen to the demands of the faculty members, but it was still too early to grant full autonomy to the college. In 2007, the state government, under the chief ministership of Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and Higher Education ministership of Sudarshan Raychaudhuri, appointed a seven-member committee, under the chairmanship of Chittatosh Mookerjee. The other members of the committee included Ashes Prasad Mitra, Barun De, Bimal Jalan and Subimal Sen, to look into the possibility of upgrading the status of the college. The report of the committee suggested that the state government, while granting partial autonomy to the college, should first create a large corpus grant before granting university status to the college. It also recommended the creation of more professorships, lecturerships and scholarships for meritorious students, thus strengthening the college.


title: Presidency University, Kolkata

text: In 2009, the Governing Body of the college unanimously adopted the proposal that the college should be given full university status. On 16 December 2009, the Government of West Bengal tabled a bill in the Bidhan Sabha titled the Presidency University Act, 2009, in which the West Bengal Legislative Assembly granted full university status to the college. The bill stated that once the college becomes a full state-aided university it will be renamed Presidency University.


title: Presidency University, Kolkata

text: The new logo of the Presidency University has been created by Sabyasachi Dutta (সব্যসাচী দত্ত) as reported in a letter to the Editor of Anandabazar Patrika on 1 April 2013.


title: Presidency University, Kolkata

text: On 19 March 2010, the West Bengal Government passed the Presidency University Bill, 2009 in the State Legislative Assembly. On 7 July 2010, the Governor of West Bengal, M K Narayanan gave his assent to the Presidency University Bill. On 23 July 2010, the Government of West Bengal published the gazette notification completing all the legal formalities for presidency to become a full university. Amiya Bagchi was given the responsibility of chairing a committee set up to select and appoint the first vice-chancellor of the university.


title: Presidency University, Kolkata

text: Amita Chatterjee, a retired professor of philosophy at Jadavpur University, was appointed as the first Vice-Chancellor of Presidency University on 5 October 2010.


title: Presidency University, Kolkata

text: In 2011, Higher Education Minister Bratya Basu suggested that a mentor group, along the lines of the Nalanda mentor group, would be formed to oversee the work of the university. At the beginning of June 2011, the chief minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, announced that a committee would be formed with Amartya Sen as its chief mentor and Harvard-based Sugata Bose as its chairman to oversee the running of the college and perform the task of appointing all its officials and faculty members. The Presidency mentor group