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| Thursday,
September 25, 2003, Chandigarh, India
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Quality of education poor in India, Chandigarh, September 24 This was stated by Dr Qutub Khan, a senior programme specialist, at UNESCO while talking exclusively to The Tribune here today. He is here in connection with a three-day workshop on “Training Manual for Local- Self Government representatives in Non Formal Education” which opened at Panjab University. It is being organised by ICSSR in collaboration with UNESCO. Dr Khan was an associate professor in economics at Delhi University which he quit in 1977 before joining UNESCO. Dr Khan said there existed a big disparity in education of the girl child in the country. Despite a marginal improvement in the past decade, the issue still awaits any noticeable results. He also made reference to the ‘large’ number of school dropouts. He hinted at big disparities between the policies on education framed by the Centre and those implemented by the state. Each state had different social settings which needed to be taken into account while framing individual policies. Dr Khan was speaking in reference to a plan of action suggested by a conference in 1990 in Thailand. The conference was hosted jointly by the UNESCO, World Bank, UNDP, UNICEF and the United Nation Fund for Population Activity. Problems were identified and global targets were set, particularly in the field of education. In the evaluation done after 10 years there were signs of little development. However, it was not anything commendable. He said the UNESCO programmes were basically covered under different heads of education, culture, science (man and biosphere) and communication. Dr Khan is associated with the education wing. UNESCO is associated with the technical support in education and is not associated with the funding aspect, he clarified. Dr Khan said major UNESCO programmes at the moment were the E9( Education for All in 9 most populated countries of the world), ICT( information and communication technology), United Nations Initiative for Girl Education and the United Nations Literacy Decade celebrations( 2003-2012). Welcoming the participants, Dr Khan explained the objectives of the workshop in examining the training manual developed for local self government representatives by the UNESCO group in Hindi. It has been directed towards adoption by the grassroot workers in spreading the message of non-formal education in their respective areas. He said since the manual has been written with South-East Asia (including India) in mind situations and examples maybe out of context in “our own area but they could be remodelled to suit the local requirements”. Mr Bhaskar Chatterjee, the Director-General and member-secretary of ICSSR, highlighted the background which led to the development of the manual by UNESCO. Mr Chatterjee said: “The Amendments 73 and 74 in the Indian Constitution have given powers to elected bodies and grassroot level to be major partners in any development efforts by the state. To reap full benefit of the amendments, it is important to develop leadership at the grassroot level through literacy programmes. In this endeavour, local government representatives have a special responsibility.” Prof K.N.Pathak, the Vice Chancellor, said PU had a long tradition of supporting extension programmes in the area of education. Mrs Manjeet Paintal proposed the vote of thanks.  |
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Board’s steps to check
copying yield results SAS Nagar, September 24 The number of unfair means cases has come down if one goes by the figures available for the supplementary examination held recently. This year the board registered 240 unfair means cases in the supplementary examinations for Classes X and XII. Out of these 138 cases related to Class X and 102 to Class XII. Last year, the number of unfair means cases during the supplementary examinations was 365 out of which 240 related to Class X and 115 to Class XII. The board’s Controller of Examinations, Ms Narinder Kaur, said it was not possible for the board authorities to send its teams to every examination centre to check the menace of copying. She said it was strange that though teams sent by the board authorities had managed to curb copying, staff members put on invigilation duty could not achieve the same result. She said not a single unfair means case was recorded during the Class XII science and commerce supplementary examinations conducted on July 20. As many as 6,000 students had appeared in the examinations at 17 centres and board staff members had been put on invigilation duty. Mrs Narinder Kaur, said 14 board teams had to be sent to different centres during the plus two mathematics supplementary examination. The board authorities had come to know that mass cheating was likely at these centres, which were located in areas like Amritsar, Chamkaur Sahib, Baba Bakala, Ajnala, Patti, Sunam, Taran Tarn, Gurdaspur, Batala, Ferozepore, Fazilka, Zira, Khamano and Raikot. Eight board teams were went during the Class X science examinations and 12 during the mathematics examination of the same class. She said the District Education Officers (DEOs) had been given strict instructions not to change the duties of the invigilation staff fixed by the board. Earlier, DEOs used to change such duties at their own level. Mrs Narinder Kaur said it was difficult to completely root out copying until the parents and the heads of the institutions realised their responsibility in this regard. She regretted that at an examination centre at Jandiala Guru, the head of the institution concerned, had indirectly asked the board team to leave so that the examinees got at least 10 minutes to indulge in copying. |
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Governor for quality education in rural areas Chandigarh, September 24 Speaking after inaugurating the new building of Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Pharmacy at Sri Guru Gobind Singh College, Sector 26, here today, he said that villagers, who constituted 80 per cent of the population of Punjab, had been deprived of the benefits of quality education. Justice Verma said no nation could claim to be developed unless its population had access to quality education. He said that India, after 56 years of Independence, had not been able to provide universal education, especially to the people living in rural areas. He said that Punjab should emulate the example of Kerala in ensuring universal and quality education. Kerala, with 100 per cent literacy, had been a trend-setter in development and various issues of social consciousness. Appreciating the efforts of the Sikh Education Society for running various educational institutions in the state efficiently, Justice Verma said that other educational institutions should learn from the society. He called upon the society to make efforts to set up more educational institutions, especially in the remote rural areas of Punjab. Proposing a vote of thanks, the President of the Sikh Education Society, Jathedar Gurcharan Singh Tohra, Member of Parliament, assured the Governor the society would make concerted efforts to set up the education institutions, especially in the remote rural areas of Punjab. |
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Engineering
students block traffic SAS Nagar, September 24 Students, who raised slogans against the PTU, said the university had increased the duration of the course from four years to four and a half years. They said the university had also decided to give only one chance to students to clear their reappears. Earlier, they were getting three chances in this regard. It is learnt that sessional examinations are going on in both colleges, but students stayed away from the examination today as a mark of protest. The said the agitation would continue till the authorities conceded to their demands. Mr S.P. Sharma, Principal of Chandigarh Engineering College, said the students were under some misconception that the PTU had brought about some changes in the rules and regulations. The university authorities would have issued a notification, had the rules been changed. He said he had received no written orders in that regard. He said neither the duration of the course had been increased, nor the students were being given one chance to clear their reappears. |
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Cultural show in PU today Chandigarh, September 24 Mr Gurparvez Singh Sandhu, president, PUSU, said his organisation was attempting to make campus violence-free, for which a musical evening was a small beginning. A box would be placed at the entrance of the auditorium where visitors could make their contribution. The entire sum would be deposited with the Dean Student Welfare, Mr Sandhu added. |
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Sector 46 govt school declared best Chandigarh, September 24 While GGSSS-20 was declared first among ordinary schools with Rs 3 lakh collection, GSSS-Dhanas was first with Rs 2.62 lakh among rural schools, Vedic Girls Senior Secondary School in Manimajra was first in the private schools category with Rs 1.37 lakh. The chief guest, Mr Karan A Singh, Finance Secretary, Chandigarh Administration, stressed upon the need to inculcate the habit of thrift among students in school to enable them to become good citizens later. He also asked the organisers to ensure that the Sanchaiyka scheme was not limited to government schools alone but was extended to private schools as well. The Regional Director, National Savings, Mr M.K. Malhotra, while welcoming the guests, said that 60,000 schools in the country had Modern School Children’s Bank called Sanchayika running under the guidance of the National Savings Organisation. Later, a cultural programme was presented by students of various schools. |
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Psychology Dept holds freshers’ party Chandigarh, September 24 Those who walked away with the awards during the special show were Sharandeep (Ms Confident), Shruti Tandon (Miss Ethnic Beauty), Gaithomgam (Mr Confident), Sunmeet Dhindsa (crowned Miss Charming), Ajay Kualia (Mr Well Dressed), Harpriya Singh (Ms Well Dressed). Earlier the freshers were welcomed by the Chairperson of the Psychology Department, Dr Anuradha Bhandari. The show had special cultural presentations by MA II students. The first presentation of the evening was a classical dance number by Priyali, followed by a Haryanavi duet folk song by Amit and Sunaina. Sunaina also performed a bhangra item, followed by another song presentation by Prerna. A major part of the evening was devoted to the selection of freshers for the six titles of the day. After a special round of introduction, in which the freshers were asked to talk about their hobbies and aims in life, the titles went to the above-mentioned freshers. After selections, the evening was all about dance and rhythm. The stage was conducted by Himani and Ruby from MA II. |
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BRS institute
youth festival Kot-Billa (Panchkula), September 24 This would be the first youth festival of the Department of Youth and Cultural Affairs of Kurukshetra University which would be inaugurated by Mr Nagmani, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment in the college premises on Saturday. Dr B.K. Chaudhary, college Principal, said that Mr A.K. Chawla, Vice-Chancellor of Kurukshetra University would attend the inaugural function while Mr Jaswinder Singh Sandhu, Haryana Agriculture Minister, would be the chief guest at the valedictory function, while Mr Ranbir Singh Sharma, S.P. Panchkula, would be the chief guest on the second day. |
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Audio-visual show for students Panchkula, September 24 Wg Cmdr D.P. Sabharwal told students about aircraft flying. An impressive slide presentation was made for students of Classes X and XI. He asked students to join the Air Force. |
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Copies of cassettes given to Gupta’s counsel Chandigarh, September 24 A team of CBI officials, including the DSP, Mr R. Upashak, submitted the cassettes in the court of the UT CBI Special Judge, Mr R.S Baswana, in the morning. The CBI had hired a computer engineer for recording the cassettes. The recording began at around 11.30 a.m. and continued till 4.30 p.m. in the presence of court employees, defence counsel and CBI officials. Official sources said the cassettes, containing conversation between Gupta and Bhardwaj and Gupta and Samra, were given to Gupta’s counsel, Mr S.P.S. Bhullar. In two cassettes, Gupta had conversation for about two minutes and the rest of the conversation, which was of one hour and thirteen minutes, was between Bhardwaj and
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Writing rules of politics, the Chanakya way Chandigarh, September 24 Based on the work of celebrated playwright Govind Purushottam Deshpande, “Chanakya Vishnugupta” sets out to reveal the darkest secrets of politics, in which the mind rules over matter and also over heart. The focus of the play, directed by Souti Chakraborty, is on the mastermind Chanakya, who saves the interests of the kingdom by installing the deserving ruler on the throne. A purely historical play, with political dimensions, Chanakya Vishnugupta is based on the theme taken from Vishakhdutt’s “Murda Rakshasa. With contemporary elements that add to the relevance of the script, the play proceeds to uncover the political games that decide fortunes in power politics. A great economist and a philosopher, Chanakya uses the power of the great foreign invader Alexander to overpower and dethrone the good-for-nothing and over indulgent king Nanda and to place Chandragupta as the king of the state. On the other side of Chanakya stands Rakshasa, who was the loyalist of king Nanda. To set the power equation right, Rakshasa is installed as a minister in the state of Chandragupta. Chanakya goes further into the dynamics of politics and sets out to rip apart king Chandragupta’s love life with Suwasini. Playing politics to the hilt, Chanakya reasons, “A king’s wedding has to be a political decision. His private whims and preferences don’t matter.” Putting the two lovers on separate roads, Chanakya wins the final move in the chess game of politics. He secures the well being of the kingdom by making the king available for the masses alone. The play proceeds with contradictory situations taking over. While on the one hand Chanakya dreams of building a great empire by strengthening Chandragupt’s influence, on the other Suwasini is left to lead a life of contempt. Teekam Joshi in the role of Chanakya and Suman Vaidya in the role of Chandragupta were impressive. |
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Ramlila begins
in city Chandigarh, September 24 Contrary to the apprehensions of some organisers regarding low turnout due to the telecast of Ramayana, besides other programmes on the television, there was a struggle among people to sit close to the stage. The residents saw Narada cursing Lord Vishnu to take birth as Lord Rama and, later on Vedvati cursing Ravana to take birth in the Treta Yug in which she, disguised as Sita, would be the cause of his ruin. The security outside the venues was tight. |
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Gurdas Mann to perform Kot-Billa (Panchkula), September 24 The festival will be inaugurated by Mr Nagmani, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, on the collage premises on Saturday. |
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