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Nadine Gordimer's work called racist

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA

Students in South Africa's Gauteng province will continue to read a number of classic works despite recommendations of a panel of teachers who branded well-known literature as racist and sexist.

The panel recommended that a novel by South African Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer, "July's People," be dropped from the curriculum. It suggested similar treatment for several Shakespeare plays. The pronouncements provoked a huge outcry, with more than 100 writers calling for a "diversity of literary works." None of the blacklisted books will be removed, but the department will encourage a rotation of books in schools, the education minister for the province said.

Money not linked to performance

Washington

Spending more on education doesn't mean students learn more, says a new study by the American Legislative Executive Council, a bipartisan, individual-membership organization of state legislators. While expenditures per pupil have grown nationwide by 22.8 percent over two decades, standardized test scores have remained relatively stagnant, the study found.

(c) Copyright 2001. The Christian Science Monitor