The first anniversary of the capture of Western hostages by Kashmiri rebels passes today,with an appeal from the former Lebanon hostage Terry Waite for their release. Mr Waite joined relatives of the captives in broadcasting messages of love and support to the four men, including the Britons Keith Mangan and Paul Wells, whose whereabouts remain unknown.
Speaking on the BBC World Service yesterday, Mr Waite, formerly the Archbishop of Canterbury’s special envoy, said nothing could be gained by keeping the men.”Get rid of the problem and let the men go,” he said in an interview with a fellow former Beirut hostage, John McCarthy, who now presents the programme Outlook, which sustained the two men through their own captivity.”I am convinced that there are enough people in the world, including myself, who are prepared to take a fresh look at the problems facing people in that region but no one can do anything while hostages are still held.”Mr Mangan, 34, an electrician, from Eston, near Middlesbrough, his wife, Julie, Mr Wells, 25, a photography student from Blackburn, Lancashire, and his girlfriend, Catherine Moseley, were seized at gunpoint about 60 miles east of the Kashmiri capital, Srinigar, last year.Mrs Mangan and Miss Moseley were later released, but the British men were detained along with an American, Donald Shelley, a German, Dirk Hasert, and a Norwegian, Hans Ostroe, by the previously unknown Al-Faran separatist group.It demanded the release of Kashmiri militants from Indian jails and threatened to kill hostages unless their demands were met. But he said confirmation that the Government would publish league tables of 11-year- olds’ tests results next year would spoil a previously fruitful relationship with teachers, parents and governors.5 Teachers are given five to 10 days’ notice for a hearing when dismissal proceedings are launched, and not five to 10 days’ notice of dismissal, as stated in the Independent on Tuesday, 2 July.. They will further refine and improve the assessment regime for 1997 and beyond.”A Labour spokesman said the Government was “again catching up with Labour policy”.”Ministers still have to tell us when they will intend to introduce another Labour idea, baseline assessment at the start of school, so that schools can bring in year-on-year targets for improvement for children from the start of primary education,” he said.Doug McAvoy, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said the Government’s response to the review of tests and assessment was welcome.He said teachers would be pleased at the central position, which would be retained for teachers’ own assessment of their pupils.

Gillian Shephard, the Secretary of State for Education, and Chris Woodhead, the Chief Inspector of schools, have both visited Barking to look at the scheme.Calculators are also to be withdrawn from one of the existing maths tests for 14-year-olds, bringing them into line with this year’s 11-year-olds’ tests.Making the announcement about next year’s tests, education minister Lord Henley said: “This package of reforms will bring extra focus to basic literacy and numeracy, increase rigour and provide more help for schools.”These reforms are good news for teachers and parents. In the past, they have simply been told which broad curriculum level their child has reached.The changes form part of a drive to emphasise the basics of literacy and numeracy at all ages.Details of the new mental arithmetic tests have not yet been determined, but the School Curriculum and Assessment Authority has been asked to consider whether they could help to measure children’s mathematical abilities.The tests would be based on simple sums which children should know by heart, and could possibly last 15 to 20 minutes. For example, the teacher might ask pupils to write down the answer to seven times nine, giving them just a few seconds to complete the task.Mental arithmetic is emphasised in experimental maths courses in the London boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, which have attracted a great deal of attention recently. Mental arithmetic tests for all pupils have been announced by ministers as part of a revised school-testing regime.

In future, all 11 and 14-year-olds may have to answer a series of quick- fire questions as part of their national curriculum maths tests.
At the same time, English tests for seven, 11 and 14-year-olds will have a new emphasis on basic literacy, grammar, spelling and punctuation. Controversial Shakespeare tests for 14-year-olds will continue despite protests from English teachers.In future, parents will receive children’s test results as standardised scores set against a national average. Foreign visitors in the first four months of 1996 totalled 6.8 million – 7 per cent up on January to April 1995, according to the Office of National Statistics. They spent pounds 2.9 billion – 2 per cent more than in the same period last year.What’s in the brochuresWhat Airtours is offeringpounds 99 per person for seven nights self-catering on the Costa Brava; pounds 239 for all-inclusive holidays. Thousands of free child places, and reduced-price children’s holidays from pounds 9; Florida from pounds 369; seven nights in Egypt for pounds 249 per person; all- inclusive 14-night holidays in the Dominican Republic, pounds 619 (weddings in the Republic, pounds 99 extra); Two weeks in Florida, pounds 369 (children, pounds 199)What First Choice is offeringpounds 119 for a week in Majorca (pounds 349 for a family of four); all-inclusive holiday to Majorca from pounds 329 for seven nights; pounds 549 for two weeks in Mexico; savings of up to pounds 240 per couple on departures to Majorca from Glasgow; free grandparent places for the Balearics, Canaries, mainland Spain, The Algarve, Malta and Greece.One-parent families offer: some child prices for single parents. In comparison, the may haves book later and compromise on choice.This year 1.7 million people booked their summer holiday before Christmas and almost half of these booked as soon as the brochures came out.

Airtours said yesterday that the uncertain economic climate has split would-be holiday-makers into “haves” and “may haves”The haves, the primary target of the current price war, enjoy a secure income flow and want to guarantee their first choice of holiday destination and accommodation. Late bookers frequently faced problems with their first choice of holiday – one in seven people this year were unable to book their first choice.Overseas tourists are continuing to flock to Britain in record numbers. More than half have time restrictions (such as school holidays), are looking for free child places or want long-haul breaks which need advanced planning. “People have been suggesting, does it mean there are problems in the industry? I don’t think so. I think it shows what competition there is among the biggest companies.”The companies are trying to target families, who tend to book early. The agents are meant to have a reasonable knowledge of the products on offer, so if they are going to be selling summer ‘96, winter ‘96 and summer ‘97 it’s going to be an awful lot of work,” she added. “The August launch in 1994 was not very successful because most people had gone away at that point,” she said.

.”For travel agents there is going to be a problem as they are still selling holidays for summer ‘96. The company says its main reason is to “steal a march on its competitors”, and is offering seven nights in the Costa Brava for pounds 239, or pounds 249 for seven nights in Egypt. Yesterday Peter Rothwell, group managing director, said it was selling a thousand holidays an hour.Usually the big companies hold off from launching their new brochures until September. The last time they launched early was in August 1994, and that was acknowledged to have been a failure, a spokeswoman for the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) said yesterday. First Choice said people booking before 3 August could get savings of up to pounds 150 per couple, with savings of up to pounds 240 per couple on departures to Majorca from Glasgow.Prices start at pounds 119 per person and pounds 349 for a family of four staying for a week in apartments in Majorca in April 1997.”We would have preferred not to launch as early as this, but there are some great bargains,” said Kevin Ivie, First Choice group marketing director.Airtours claimed that couples will make an average saving of pounds 14 compared with last year and has slashed pounds 13m off prices altogether. However Thomson, currently the UK’s biggest holiday company, stood aloof from the fray; it is expected to wait until 1 August. It used to be that you had hardly returned from holiday before next year’s breaks were advertised.