EDUCATION

School Panel Poll
BJP-backed candidates win
Tribune News Service

Khanna, September 25
Candidates supported by the BJP made their presence felt in the elections of the A.S. High School Trust and Educational Society as they defeated the Congress-supported candidates to bag 14 out of 20 seats of the members of the management committee.

The elections were held on Sunday that concluded without any untoward incident. As many as 4,084 voters polled out of the total 4,976 registered. This time 40 candidates supported either by the Congress or the BJP, along with two independents, had filed their nominations for the elections. Out of these 42 contenders, 20 were to be elected as members of the management committee.

Avinash Singla of the Progressive Panel, which was supported by the BJP, topped the tally by securing 2,693 votes. The other members of the Progressive Panel include Anirudh Ghai, Jatinder Devgan, Rajesh Dalli, Raj Kumar, Vijay Sharma, Dr Ashwani Bansal, Sanjiv Dhamija, Vijay Diamond, Paramjit Singh Mavi, Rakesh Goyal, Hans Raj Sood, Amrit Lal, and Pardeep Vij. The successful candidates of the Congress-supported panel are Rajiv Rai Mehta, B.K. Batra, Barinder Dewwat, Sudarshan Puppy, Krishan 
Murai Bedi and Dharam Pal Angrish.

The winners pledged to work for the upliftment of the educational society and to provide better opportunities to the students.

Who cares for UGC
Teaching days cut to 100
Shivani Bhakoo
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, September 25
Though the University Grants Commission (UGC) has permitted a minimum of 180 working days in colleges but teaching is restricted to just 100-105 days for reasons galore.

The experts held wrong government policies responsible for this as college teachers are put on non-academic duties every year, thus, wasting at least 15-20 days. The students, faculty and the educationists feel that the university authorities could curb the problem to an extent by squeezing their holiday schedule.

The teachers said they should not be held responsible for not providing quality education to students. They added that in February, students take preparatory holidays for exams. They come to college only to discuss their problems. No regular classes are held in the absence of the students. From September 15-October 20, owing to festivals, there is poor attendance in classes. Besides, the teachers are put on duties on various elections (including SGPC, panchayat, municipal corporation, Vidhan Sabha, Lok Sabha etc) every year for more than 15 days.

“Obviously, teaching days are then reduced. Apart from this, from April 1 till end of July, there are examinations, declaration of results, summer vacations and admission process. In case the results of some of the classes are delayed, the academic session gets delayed too,” said Prof Ashwani Bhalla of Government College here.

Prof Tarsem Bahia, one of the Senate and Syndicate members, PU, Chandigarh, said the UGC had allowed 180 working days, which does not necessarily mean teaching days. The colleges may be working but there can be no teaching. “Farewells, functions, seminars, annual days etc. are organised in colleges but lectures can not be delivered. The studies get disturbed. There is a need to restructure the administrative days,” he said, adding that PU was providing 20-22 gazetted holidays whereas Punjabi University, Patiala, was providing just 10 gazetted holidays and three restricted holidays.

He said birth anniversaries or martyrdom days should be observed in colleges only. “We can provide information to the students regarding the importance of these days. And they can attend their classes as well. Otherwise in limited time, it is impossible to impart quality education to the students,” he said.

Technical education to be revamped: Khalsa
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, September 25
Biramjit Singh Khalsa, chief parliamentary secretary for technical education and industrial training, Punjab, disclosed that technical education in the state would be completely revamped to make it relevant to the needs of the fast-advancing industry and funds amounting to Rs 26.55 crore were being spent during current financial year for this purpose against Rs 4.57 crore spent last year.

Khalsa was addressing a seminar organised by Paras Institute of Art and Skill Promotion on Dugri Road here today. On this occasion, he also distributed certificates to 250 trainees, who completed six months’ beauty parlour training from the institute.

Emphasising the need for industry-specific training in ITIs, the chief parliamentary secretary informed that all ITIs were being converted into centers of excellence for specific industries. Khalsa said specific industries should be involved in running these centers so that they could train students according to their requirements. He said by involving industries in this venture, we would ensure full employability of our students. He further informed that in all ITIs, special short duration certificate courses like beauty parlour, cutting and tailoring, computer, painting etc. would also be started for girls to make them self reliant.

Khalsa said 10 new polytechnics, with the cooperation of GOI, were being set up in the state. He said the government was committed to create maximum jobs for the youth and a large number of skill development centers were also being opened in different parts of the state, where vocational training would be provided to the youth.

He asked the students to acquire excellence in professional education so that they could compete for the enormous job opportunities at the international level. 

From Colleges
‘Chak de...’ lesson for GNIMT students
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, September 25
A special show of ‘Chak-de India’ was organised for the post-graduate students of GNIMT yesterday. During the movie, the students were asked to make notes about management, leadership and team-building lessons derived from the movie. Soon after the movie, the students were asked to bring out the lessons they had learnt from the movie. It was followed by a presentation by Sandhya Mehta, resource person who further elaborated on management lessons from the movie.

Talent hunt at BCM: A week-long talent search competition was organised for B.Ed and M.Ed students of BCM College of Education recently. The week-long programme started with dramatics, debate, elocution on the first day while music competitions of ghazal, geet, folk song and poetry recitation were held on the second day. The third day of stage items was devoted to classical dances, folk dances, group dances, giddha and bhangra. Fine arts and creative writing competitions were also held during the week.

APPOINTED: The Rotary Club, Ludhiana North, organised the installation ceremony of the Rotaract Club of GGN Khalsa College here today. Manpreet Singh and Richa Arora were installed president and secretary by the installation officer, president Dr Vijay Obed from the dept of plastic surgery, CMCH. Present on the occasion were Sunil Bansal, Kuldip Singh, R.S. Behal, Rajinder Singh.

Talent hunt: Various fine-arts competitions were held at the talent hunt programme organised in GMT College of Education under the chairmanship of Principal Dr H.S.Sidhu here today. The events were organised with the purpose of bringing forth the hidden talents of the students. During the talent hunt, students took part in various activities like landscape, drawing, cartooning, collage making, still life, clay modeling, poster making, rangoli, mehandi, knitting, crochet work etc. The Principal encouraged the students to organise more such activities as they were required for their overall development.

NSUI pays tributes to Bhagat Singh

Ludhiana September 25
The National Students' Union of India today organised a function to pay tributes to Shaheed Bhagat Singh on the eve of his birth centenary celebrations. The function was presided over by District Congress Committee president Jagmohan Sharma and attended by the NSUI district president Amritpal Shourie.

NSUI activists also took out a procession up to the martyrs' statues at Jagraon Bridge. They washed the statues with holy water and also offered floral tributes. — TNS