Biman "staffs"?

By S. A. Mansoor, Gulshan, Dhaka
10 May 2006, 18:00 PM
Your staff reporter in his report on the subject (DS: 4 May) has used "staffs" wrongly as a plural noun. The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary states as follows: Staff (Usually singular): all the workers employed in an organisation considered as a group.

In this case he refers to Biman staff. Possibly a better and grammatically appropriate heading would have been "Biman staff urge govt. not to off load airline's shares". I believe accepting our weakness in English, the moral duty is to inculcate correct and appropriate usage of English. This will naturally improve the standard of English of many of your readers.

In this case not only the staff reporter concerned but the overseeing editorial staff too are unfortunately at fault! Finally it is their responsibility to ensure proper English usage.