Ludhiana, August 30
The rural population in the district, where Bharti Foundation has decided to provide education free of cost to children, have expressed gratitude toward the foundation for its gesture toward the underprivileged children of society.

The foundation has decided to open 34 primary schools in various villages in the district in the coming days. The villagers feel that it is a significant move to provide quality education to the weaker sections of society.

The “Satya Bharti” schools will come up in villages, including Satiyana, Bagga Khurd, Khanpur Bet, Balliyewal, Pirthipur, Hussainpura, Mithewal, Gausgarh, Lakhowal, Behlolpur etc., in the coming days. These will start from pre-nursery up to the fifth standard under the name “Satya Bharti Primary Schools”.

A spokesperson for the Bharti Foundation from Delhi said the aim of the foundation was to provide quality education to the rural children, who had no access to education. Besides, the schools would also provide mid-day meals (biscuits, tea, snacks) to the children free of cost.

“The foundation will be providing education free of cost. Those who can afford to pay (if willing) would be asked to pay a nominal fee. The foundation plans to open 1,000 such schools in the country.

After Ludhiana, we would be focusing on Amritsar and other districts in the state as well. Though the movement is slow but we have got tremendous response from the villagers”, he said.

One such school was already being run in Ghumana village, Ludhiana Block II, where more than 60 students had been enrolled and two teachers were successfully taking the classes. Nachhatar Singh, one of the villagers, said education used to be a distant dream for the children of the villages. The foundation’s move in collaboration with the state government must be appreciated. “Our children are lucky to get free education here in the primary school”, he said.

According to sources, the government would provide land to the Bharti Foundation for this purpose.

Half an acre land would be provided to the group either free of cost or for Re 1 (lease money).

The land would be provided by the director, panchayats and rural development, Punjab.

Ludhiana, August 30
Maintaining its tradition of nine years, B.C.M. College of Education here showed excellent results of B.Ed examination conducted by Panjab University, Chandigarh in June, 2007. Of the 180 students, 178 students were placed in 1st division..

According to sources, the students excelled in state by securing five positions in the university out of first 15 positions in B.Ed Exam. Lata Sharma secured 4th position in P.U. securing 914 marks out of 1150. Sukhdeep Kaur was fifth with 911 marks while Taranjit Kaur secured 11th position in P.U. by securing 904 marks. Liya Handa secured 13th position in the university with 902 marks and Mamta Sharma secured 14th position with 900 marks.

MCA result declared: Students of the Khalsa Institute of Management & Technology for Women have brought laurels to the institute by securing excellent marks in MCA 2nd semester examination held in June 2007 by Punjab Technical University, Jalandhar. Dr Vijay Asdhir, director and Dr R.S. Gupta, dean academics, KIMT in a joint statement today said that 85 per cent students got the first division and many of them passed with honors with more than 70 per cent marks. Palvi Rai bagged the first position with 84.3 per cent marks and got 9th position in the university. Sarabjit Kaur Virk bagged 82 per cent marks and got the 2nd position while Sarika Goyal obtained 80.4 per cent marks. Pritpal Singh Grewal, president, Dr S.S. Grewal, vice president, Dr Vijay Asdhir, director and Dr R.S. Gupta, dean have congratulated the parents, teachers and students for good performance in the examination.

Orientation SESSION: Ivanna Institute of Fashion Technology and Hotel Management conducted an orientation programme for the new students of September 2007 batch, today at the institute. This session was presided over by Anuj Kumar Arora, executive chief, Sanjeev Kapoor and Manjit Sodhia, retd principal, Govt College for Women, Ludhiana. Over 90 students, who had sought admission in graduation and post graduation degrees and diplomas in the institute, Catering Technology and Tourism courses of PTU, Jalandhar attended the programme.

The director, Manjit Sodhia and Anuj Kumar Arora addressed the students on the occasion. Other faculty members also addressed them and spoke about various streams of study.

Ludhiana, August 30
On the eve of its centenary year, Khalsa Girls Senior Secondary School, Civil Lines, organised a function to mark the occasion today. The school is being run under the Khalsa Dewan.

Various activities including a quiz competition, rangoli making, chart-making competition and essay-writing competition were organised. School manager Ravinder Kaur appealed to the school’s alumni to send their addresses and contact numbers so that they could be invited for the centenary celebrations to be held in November.

General body meeting held: A general meeting of the members of the Punjab School Education Boards’ Affiliated Schools, Punjab, was held at Mohali yesterday under the presidentship of Rajinder Sharma. Secretary I.M. Dutta, Sukilpal Singh, H.S. Midda, Meenakshi Bhandari and S.S. Bedi were present for the meeting.

President Rajinder Sharma informed the members that the admission date of Punjab School Education Board for Punjab Open School (matric and +2) had been extended.

The forms can now be submitted till September 25. Sharma said a meeting with the state education minister would be held tomorrow to sort out the various problems being faced by the affiliated schools.