A mixed bag, courtesy achievers & protesters

Gurvinder Singh

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, December 29

Young faces and youthful dreams kept the promise of a good future going, as amid the dark cloud of protests by teacher unions, shining young stars emerged, giving it a silver lining. The year remained a mixed bag for education.

Clean sweep

Students from the city swept nine of the top ten positions in BCom final year exams of Panjab University. Taruntaj Singh from Sri Aurobindo College of Commerce and Management was on top of the list with 86.94 per cent.

Shining bright

Aditya Uppal from the city notched an all-India rank of 19 in the UPSC Civil Services Exam. Purva Garg secured an all-India rank of 79. Roopanjit Singh from Khanna secured the 28th place in the MBBS entrance examination of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences(AIIMS). Akshi Garg secured the 29th rank in AIIMS entrance exam. Chakshu Goyal secured an all-India rank of 27 in the JEE (Mains) exam.

Nandita Mehta from the city secured an all-India rank of 33 in the AIPMT retest. Prannv Dhawan and Ritvik Kapila of DAV Public School, BRS Nagar, cleared the National Talent Search Examination. Prannv later bagged a Rs 5.5 lakh scholarship from US-based organisation for research project. Four candidates cleared the PCS judicial exam from the district. Ramandeep Kaur secured the 22nd rank in PCS Judicial. Harmilanjit Kaur secured the 29th rank. Arshdeep Kaur, a student of Khalsa College for Women won a gold medal in elocution and debate, while representing Panjab University in the event at the National Youth Festival for the second year in a row this time. Simran Chadha, a class VIII student of BCM Arya Model School, won a prize and a design patent for innovative bench by the National Innovation Foundation.

Extra alertness

Students going to appear in the AIPMT retest were not allowed to wear shoes, among other things, following a leak in the paper earlier. Extra strictness was observed at the Punjab State Teachers Eligiblity Test (PSTET) as videography was done and students were not allowed to use their own pens, for the first time. It was conducted by the PSEB for the first time.

Goofing it up

A list of invigilators sent by the PSEB at the nodal centre for PSTET, lacked the mobile number of schools, causing last minute arrangements for invigilators. At several instances, some of the bicycles distributed to girls students of class XI and Class XII under Mai Bhago Vidya Scheme at different schools were deflated. The bicycles were not given to students of Class IX and X, as mandated by the government earlier.

Making a point

Four girls refused to accept bicycles under the Mai Bhago Vidya Scheme to express their resentment against the incidents of desecration of Guru Granth Sahib Government Senior Secondary School for Girls, Sidhwan Bet.

Up in arms

Teachers of different unions, including those under SSA-RMSA, computers teachers etc, kept holding protests and rallies against the non-acceptance of their demands. Anganwadi workers as well as mid-day meal cooks and workers, in addition to other unions, held protests against the state government.

Minister comes calling

Education Minister Dr Daljit Singh Cheema visited the city several times during the year. He made several announcements including conducting of ‘Board’ exams by the SCERT for class V and class VIII. He also summoned teachers who fared poorly in classes. The city has the highest number of teachers after Jalandhar, more than fifty per cent of whom have flunked in class X and class XII exams in the past five years. Private schools were instructed to implement the State Languages Act to teach Punjabi from Class I to Class X in all the schools.

No stopping interviews

Barring a couple of schools that declared they would conduct admissions through a draw of lots, interviews, by the name of interaction, continued in private schools, openly violating the Right to Free and Compulsory Education. But the process for setting up a government panel to monitor admissions to school was initiated.

No Pak team

The Pakistan team did not turn up for Fusion-2015, organised at BCM Arya Model School. Only the Nepal team came this year.

For the meritorious

Class XII started at Senior Secondary School for Meritorious Students this year. Additional faculty members were also hired. Chicken pox broke out at the school and some other government schools. More than 80 students in the schools got infected in August. The school remained without a regular principal this year.

Going online

Both SCD Government College and Government College for Girls conducted the registration process online for admissions. Both the colleges launched the online admission process.

Single shift

As a relief to Government Model Senior Secondary School, PAU, the school went single shift by the end of the year, after the construction of the new block, after being run in double shift for five years.

Visit by music maestros

Several classical music and dance exponents visited schools and colleges for performances organised by SPIC-MACAY. Vocalists Pandit Rajan and Sajan Mishra, Santoor maestro Pandit Bhajan Sopori, Odissi dance exponent Geeta Mahalik, shehnai exponents Sanjeev Shankar and Ashwani Shankar, and other artists came to schools and colleges to educate the students about the classical forms of dance and music. Apart from those, noted artist Siddharth visited Guru Nanak Khalsa College for Women, to share his knowledge of art. Artist Ziwan Singh conducted film-making and design workshops at the INIFD twice. Norwegian musicians Frode Haltli and Trygve Seim came to perform at Ishmeet Singh Music Institute, in addition to other artists at the beginning of the year.

Addition to education bouquet

Manav Rachna International School made an impressive debut this year. Manav Rachna Sports Academy was inaugurated at the school by the end of the year by ace shooters Ronjan Sodhi and Gagan Narang. Bajaj College started operations this year, while Mount Litera Zee School also arrived in the city this year.

Change of hands

Dr Mukti Gill took over as the principal at Khalsa College for Women. Dr Mohinder Kaur Grewal took over as the principal of Government College for Girls. Dr Arvinder Singh Bhalla took over as the principal of Gujranwala Guru Nanak (GGN) Khalsa College. HS Sandhu joined as honorary director, PU Regional Centre, here. Navita Puri, principal, Kundan Vidya Mandir, was elected as the new director of Ludhiana Sahodaya School Complex (LSSC), the association of CBSE schools, for a term of two years. It was decided that the elections would be conducted for the posts every year.

Safety of ‘vahans’ questioned

Several private schools were reprimanded by the Punjab and Haryana High Court for not adhering to the norms of Safe School Vahan Policy, several times.

No winter uniforms

Winter uniforms to government schools students under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan did not reach the students. The Education Minister and officials of the Education Department cited the release of one-fourth of the funds from the Centre as the reason for the delay.

School athletics meet

State-level School Athletics Meet was held at Guru Nanak Stadium. Boys from the district came on top in the U-14 and U-19 categories, but lagged behind in the rest, while the girls from the district could not clinch the top three positions in any category. No arraangements were made to provide either bed or food to the athletes who arrived per the rules of the state government. Athletes ran barefoot on a synthetic track, much to the consternation of the experts, citing violation of rules.

Circular problem

Regular circulars from the CBSE for celebration of commemorative days remained a pain in the neck for schools almost throughout the year. The school heads said that a schedule for commemorative days should be sent by the board on an annual basis.

Education through books

The city got a gift with the opening of an MC Library at Guru Nanak Bhawan in September. It was shifted from Gill Road to a better location. New furniture and computers for looking up information were placed in the library. A commitment of earmarking an annual budget of Rs 10 lakh for maintaining the library and an additional Rs 10 lakh for the purchase of new books every year was made by the MC officials. A renovated children’s library was also thrown open in November, but books and furniture remained scarce.

‘One class for games’

One period was made mandatory for sports activities under Sports Fitness Programme at government schools. Students were supposed to take up at least one game. Teachers of primary schools are suppose to teach cultural activities during the class. But the effectiveness of the instructions was negated because of the vacancies of physical education teachers in many of the schools.

Revival of Heritage

New items to revive heritage were introduced at the Panjab University Youth Festival, including heritage quiz, guddian patole making, chhiku making, paranda making, nala knitting, tokri making, mitti de khidaune making, khiddo making, peerhi making, rassa vatna and eenu making. With the addition of these items, the total number of items at the youth festival reached 57.

Topper girls

Girls from the city came out victorious in the class XII results announced by the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB), sweeping top positions. Darshveer Kaur Kalsi from RS Model Senior Secondary School secured cent per cent marks, notching 450 out of 450. Sarika Vinayak from BCM Senior Secondary School Jamalpur was one mark behind, securing the second rank. The third rank went to Kajal Tandon from RS Model School and Nishtha Juneja from BCM Senior Secondary School. Amanjot Kaur and Sarvodaya from RS Model School secured the fourth and sixth rank, respectively, in the Board exams. Four students from the district were among the top 10 rank holders in the Class X Board examinations. Five students from the district were among the top 10 rank holders in the sports category. The Board issued separate merit lists for academic and sports categories for the first time. But of the 92 students in the merit list from the district in Class X, only two were from government schools.