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| EDUCATION TRIBUNE | Tuesday, December 4, 2001, Chandigarh, India |
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IT
centres open road to prosperity IELTS
centre opens in city Punjab,
UT teachers court arrest Himachal
‘No 2’ in literacy Mr
minister, tall claims alone won’t do |
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Education
guarantee centres opened FARIDKOT: Under a scheme of the Central Government for "sarb siksha abhyaan", Faridkot district has drawn up a special plan to give a fillip to primary and elementary education in this district. More than 600 education guarantee centres will be opened in the district before the end of the current financial year. Each centre will provide education to 15 to 20 students. Priority in this regard will be given to these from remote and slum areas says Mr A. Venu Prasad, Deputy Commissioner. Various types of facilities like free text books, notebooks and uniform will be provided to the taught. Stipends will be regularly given to the handicapped. The Deputy Commissioner said teachers required for imparting education had already been identified to be kept on an honorarium basis to accelerate the programme. More than 10,000 dropouts had been detected in the district. Education development committees with the involvement of the people, including educationists, at the grassroots level had been constituted in this regard. A survey to find reasons behind children leaving schools at the early stage has been launched in the district. Mr Hussan Lal, ADC (Development), Faridkot, says it has been decided to form mother teacher associations. The Central Government has given a grant of Rs 60.97 lakh for providing better infrastructure to primary schools in the district. Out of the total amount, 25.97 lakh has been disbursed among 37 schools and the remaining will be given to 42 schools in the next three weeks. The remaining 173 schools will be
brought under this programme shortly on the receipt of another grant
from the Union Government. |
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IT
centres open road to prosperity JALANDHAR: For average students and unemployed youth belonging to the rural areas falling in Phillaur and Nakodar sub-divisions who could not even dream of handling computers, two rural information technology centres at Lasada and Mehatpur villages have brought them a ray of hope for getting themselves acquainted with the basics of the IT in their mother tongue — Punjabi — and for getting jobs in this sector on completing courses at these centres. These IT centres, each having about 20 computers and 24-hour Internet access, were set up by the Punjab Rural Information Technology Management Agency (PRITMA) in August with the objective of promoting IT education and awareness among rural people through their mother tongue, particularly those who were unable to hand computers for want of adequate mastery over English. To make them overcome the fears, the Mohali-based Centre for Electronics & Design Technology of India (CEDTI) has joined hands with PRITMA by developing a novel "IT primer", a computer instruction and literature book in both Punjabi and English. The centre at Lasada village has been set up out of the grant provided by Mr Barjinder Singh, MP, and the other centre at Mehatpur township has been set up with donations from two NRI brothers, Mr Sukhwinder Singh and Mr Lakhwinder Singh. Unemployed youth and those studying in different schools of the area are virtually making a beeline to these centres for getting themselves registered and to learn computers in a professional manner at subsidised rates. "We are charging them a nominal fee just to meet daily expenses," said Mr K. Shiva Prasad, Deputy Commissioner, who heads PRITMA and is the brain behind these centres. "Though initially we were skeptic about the success of the idea, now we feel that the response is so much that we are considering opening more such centres and feel that the Doaba region is in need of such centres for people’s increasing craze to learn computers and go abroad. Actually, we have designed training programmes in such a way that after learning computers, the rural students would be able to get jobs like that of data entry operators," he said. Apart from these centres, a website has been developed by PRITMA in Punjabi to help students of such centres. The website has sections like history, culture, agriculture and news which can be easily accessed by youth learning computers. "Our next programme linked with the centres will be to provide IT services to rural people on payment. One such service will be to deliver e-mail messages at the doorstep of those who have their relatives abroad or work at distant stations in India. These centres could also be converted
into delivery points for many other services like providing birth
certificates, jamabandi, residence and SC certificates at the village
level itself to eliminate the need for village youth to visit the
government offices for small jobs," said Mr Prasad, adding that
higher standard courses would also be started by these centres with
the help of the CEDTI. |
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IELTS
centre opens in city Chandigarh, December 3 Mr Lee Wapling, Director, MIT Training, who inaugurated the centre said they chose Chandigarh as the first city in view of large number of students from the region going to Australia for education. "Australia is now looking at IELTS qualified people and not TOEFL which was mainly considered earlier. Even countries like Canada and the UKare preferring IELTS", said Mr Naresh Gulati Managing Director, Oceanic School of IELTS. This is a four-week course with a fee of Rs 5,000. "The focus will be to train students in all four skills of English that is, reading, writing, listening and speaking", said he. While the number of students going to
Australia for education registered a decline due to changes in the
visa regulations but the new system is transparent than the previous
one. This would again lead to an increasing number of students opting
for education there, said he. |
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Punjab,
UT teachers court arrest Chandigarh, December 3 Led by the PCCTU president, Mr K.B.S.Sodhi, the members raised anti-SAD-BJP slogans before courting arrest. Those arrested include Mr Sodhi, Mr S.S.Sangha, secretary of the Panjab University area, Mr Amrinder Singh, Secretary of the Punjabi University area, Mr V.K.Bhardwaj, Mr J.S.Dadwal, Mr Chandra Shekhar, Mr S.S. Dhillon, Mr K.S.Matharu, Mr H.S.Walia, Mr Kuldip Singh, Mr I.S.Sandhu, Mr Y.R.Handa, Mr Surjit Singh, Mr Jagtar Singh, Mr M.S.Dhillon, Mr J.S.Bal and Mr P.S.Bansal. Arrested under Section 107, 151 CrPC, the teachers were later released after they were produced before the SDM, Mr Prithi Chand. In a statement issued after the arrest, the PCCTU General Secretary, Mr Jaspal Singh Randhawa, said all 172 colleges of Punjab and Chandigarh would observe ``total ceasework’’ from December 4 to 10 to protest against the non-implementation of the pension-gratuity scheme, release of Rs 80 crore salary grants to bring 26 unaided colleges under 95 per cent grant-in-aid scheme as per the election manifesto of the Shiromani Akali Dal. He added that the government had failed to give the Rs 21-crore arrears taken from the Central government a year back to the college managements. Mr Randhawa said that during the ceasework, the colleges of all 17 district councils have been asked to hold protest dharna-cum-rallies in front of the residences of SAD-BJP ministers up to December 9. On December 10, teachers along with
members of the managements and principals would organise a joint rally
in Chandigarh to lodge their protest. The future course of action
would be chalked out at Doraha on December 9 at the meeting of the
Joint Action Committee of managements, principals and teachers. |
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Himachal
‘No 2’ in literacy KULU: The state government has embarked on an ambitious programme to develop the state, particularly Kulu district. Stating this, Mr Karan Singh, Minister of State for Primary Education, who represents this district, told this correspondent that the government had given priority to education and a facelift had been given to the primary education in the state. Mr Karan Singh said the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) had emerged as a ray of hope for children belonging to the under privileged and poor sections. The programme had fulfilled what had so far been their dream and their children could join schools. He claimed that the enrolment of children from the first to fifth standards had reached 100 per cent. The drop-out rate had fallen to less than 2 per cent as against 20 per cent in 1996 in Kulu, Sirmaur, Chamba and Lahaul & Spiti districts. This fall had to a large extent been due to Rs 129 crore DPEP programme in force since 1996. The minister claimed that the main objective of bringing all children belonging to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe families had been achieved under the DPEP. As many as 808 primary schools had been opened in the four districts mentioned above, besides 1,616 teachers appointed. he said 321 new primary school buildings have been constructed with active participation of the local people, up to March 31. In addition, work on 365 primary school buildings was in progress, he added. Mr Karan Singh pointed out that Himachal Pradesh had achieved the status of second-most literate state in the country. it was noteworthy that the female literacy rate, which was just 2.9 per cent in 1948, has gone up to 52.13 per cent in 1991 and is now likely to cross 68 per cent. Similarly, the male literacy rate went up to 86.02 per cent as against 7.5 per cent in 1951. He stated that the Saraswati Bal Vidya Sankalp Yojana has been appreciated by other states and Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh had already taken up the scheme. The Himachal Government was committed
to providing quality education in the state and a number of other
schemes are also being implemented, he added. |
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Mr
minister, tall claims alone won’t do JAISINGHPUR: The present government in Himachal Pradesh does not tire of claiming credit for giving education the priority it deserves, but schools without inadequate infrastructure or staff continue to mock these claims. And the situation evokes utter disgust in case of schools where notification was issued without ensuring availability of minimum requirement for their functioning. Government Middle School, Tikkari-Dhabi, in Jaisinghpur subdivision is one such school which started classes in January, 2001, after a notification was made in July, 2000. The school has six teachers and 46 students on its rolls. But even after one year of the
notification, the government has neither provided rooms, mats,
blackboards. Students and teachers have to sit outside in the open
under a tree. Students have a holiday whenever it rains. The local BDC
member, Mr Sarwan Kumar Bhatia, local people have donated money to buy
mats, blackboards and chairs for the school. Although the local MLA
and Technical Education Minister Ravinder ‘Ravi’ has talked of
money having been sanctioned for the school, the BDO, Lambagaon,
categorically denied it. |
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Armed Forces Dec 30 Rashtriya Indian Military College, Dehradun (UA). Admission Test for August '02 Term Elig: Boys born between 1 Jul '90 - 1 Jan '91, studying/pass in class VII. Test: 3 & 4 Feb '02. Appln F : Send Rs. 175/- by DD favouring "Commandant, RIMC, Dehradun" to the Commandant at the above add. At counter: Rs 160/- (cash). Dec 31 Sainik School, Kazhakootam, Sainik School PO, Trivandrum 695585 (Ker). Admission to: (1) Class VI (2) Class IX (For boys only) Elig: (1): Boys born between 2 Jul '91 - 1 Jul '92; (2): Boys born between 2 Jul '88 - 1 Jul '89, studying in class VIII/IX. Selection: Entrance exam (17 Feb '02) at Kozhikode, Ernakulam, Kottayam, Sainik School Kazhakkootam and Kavaratti (Lakshadweep) followed by medical fitness test. Appln F : Send Rs 225/- by crossed DD favouring the "Principal, Sainik School Karzhakkotam" payable at Trivandrum to the above add. Mention your add, ph no, category, class applied for & DOB in the request letter. Details: See Employment News 17-23
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