Montsame reports: The 4th Mongol-speaking international theatre festival started in theatres of Ulaanbaatar and rural areas on Friday. The festival brought together artists from theatres of the Buryat, Kalmyk and Tuva Republics, Russia and Inner Mongolia, China. One of the peculiarities of this year’s festival, the festival is organized once every three years, is the simultaneous opening ceremony that took place in Ulaanbaatar and in local areas.

Almost all Mongolian theatres such as the State Academic Theatre of Drama, State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet, Theatre of Puppets, of Military Song and Dance Ensemble are partaking in the festival, which will last five days. The general organizers of the events are the Mongolian Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the State Academic Theatre of Drama and Association of Mongolian Artists.

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. The youngest mongolian ballet artist, the Mongolian State Honored ballet dancer, D.Altankhuyag has been recognized as one of the top eight ballet dancers in the world, according to B. Sergelen, director of the State Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet. The renowned French choreographer Roland Petit has included him in a group of eight ballet dancers, with whom he has been travelling around the world to present shows.

"This puts Altankhuyag in the company of outstanding contemporary ballet dancers", Sergelen said. The group, which comprises the renowned Japanese ballerina and movie star, Tamiyo Kusakari, as well as Wang Qimin, Luigi Bonino, Lienz Chang, Raimondo Rebeck, and Li Jun, has already performed in Italy, the Netherlands, and France. They are scheduled to visit  the US, Taiwan, and cities in China. The group will participate in the 8th China Shanghai International Arts Festival to be held on November 3, 2006.

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. The law on education is to be amended. This issue was discussed on Wednesday at a meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Social Policy, Education, Culture and Science. A revised draft law on education was adopted by the Parliament in 2002. Since then, the education field has undergone profound reforms in terms of structure and content. At the same time, the shortage of teachers and school directors in rural areas has had a negative influence on the quality of education. Taking into account these circumstances, ten parliamentarians have drawn up a new draft law on education, which reflects issues pertaining to the participation of pupils in designing rules and regulations of education institutes, to ensuring environmental safety, and to the provision of long service increments to school and kindergarten directors.

MonInfo reports: Students’ tuition which was increased by 18-40 percent in August has now been decreased by MNT 100 – 150 thousand by a decision of the administrative board of the Mongolian University of Science and Technology (MUST).

S.Tumur-Ochir, Deputy Minister of Education, Culture and Science who has been selected by the head of the Administrative Board of MUST after Z. Enkhbold, DP Member of Parliament resigned said, “This decision was made by the administration of the board of the university by holding many meeting since tuition has increased”.

“We have reviewed the budget generation resources yesterday. We remain to leave the items of budget generation resources in relation to academics, research and scientific activities, purchase of new equipment and laboratory accessories, as well as teachers’ and professors’ salaries as they were. We also tried to decrease the tuition by minimizing the expenditures of other resources, for instance constructing new buildings.” Article continued at www.moninfo.org/content/view/264/18/lang,en/

MonInfo reports: Celebrations conducted by religious organizations on Thursday marked the United Nations’ World Peace Day in Ulaanbaatar. Representatives from Catholic, Christian, Ananda Marga, Islam and Tibetan Buddhism gathered to ring Mongolia's peace bell for nations struggling to maintain peace.

Image copyright Luke Distelhorst.
View more photos at www.moninfo.org/content/view/256/8/lang,en/