The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

EDUCATION

NCERT launches diploma in counselling for foreign students
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 16
Acknowledging the impact of guidance and counselling on students, the National Council of Education, Training and Research (NCERT) has launched an international diploma course in Guidance and Counselling for non-Indian students.

The duration of the course is six months and consists of five components in guidance and counselling, focussing on its process and procedures, major approaches of human adjustment and career development and their applications in counselling, principles and techniques of psychological assessments and appraisal.

The focus will also be on practical experiments and field visits.

The course has been designed keeping in view the special needs of the counsellors from other countries, especially neighbouring countries and Africa.

The major objective of the course is to train teachers and key educational personnel in guidance and counselling as professional counsellors for school and other related settings.

It also aims at enhancing the professional competencies of teacher educators in teaching guidance and counselling as a discipline in teacher training colleges and universities, to train the education administrators.

The course will begin with 10 participants from Maldives, Sri Lanka and Zambia.

Speaking at the inauguration of the course, the NCERT Director, Prof J. S. Rajput, said that the NCERT had been working on the course for the last two years. He said education in the last five decades had undergone many changes and the system of schooling and the perception of teachers had also changed.

Prof Rajput added that the concept of global village was taking shape and we had to understand the psychological and emotional requirements of the students.

The increasing incidents of suicide and stress amongst students have made it necessary for schools to provide career counselling and guidance.

The NCERT has been running the course in its Regional Institute of Education (RIEs), but now it has started this course to help train the foreign nationals as well

DUTA ends strike, to begin relay fast
Our Correspondent

New Delhi, September 16
The week-long ‘Save Higher Education’ strike, announced by the Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA), concluded here today. However, the saga of protests is not over. The DUTA, at its general body meeting, ratified the proposal to go on an indefinite relay hunger strike outside the Vice-Chancellor’s office from tomorrow.

The week-long strike seems to have proved successful as the V-C today promised to ensure that the workload committee, instituted to review the workload norms, presented its report on a priority basis. He further agreed to call for an immediate meeting of the Academic Council to take a final decision on the workload norms. This followed admittance by the UGC that the issue of teacher workload is primarily academic in nature and hence falls outside its purview.

The UGC, in a letter to the V-C, urged him to resolve the issue internally through the convening of the Academic Council, which in subtle terms implied a victory for the DUTA since the Academic Council has been in favour of the current workload directive — 15 hours per week..

The last day of the strike witnessed the DUTA members marching around the campus and staging a final protest outside the V-C’s office. The strike, which cost the government an estimated Rs 6 crore, has resulted in a week-long sabbatical from education, for students and teachers alike. The DUTA confirmed that classes would commence tomorrow and the teaching time lost would be compensated through extra classes. “We will not let the students’ interest suffer under any circumstance,” said DUTA treasurer Sanjay Bohidar.

Earlier today, the DUTA general body was convened and it decided to sustain the pressure but in a more focussed manner. The general body decided to concentrate the pressure on the university since the UGC had bailed itself out by passing the buck to the V-C.

In events succeeding the general body meeting, the V-C apologised for his absence on Saturday, when the DUTA members had staged a torchlight procession outside his office. The V-C had agreed to meet the DUTA members on Saturday, but was unable to meet them citing “health reasons”.

University after Rao Tula Ram demanded
Our Correspondent

Rewari, September 16
The president of the All India Rajput Mahasabha, Mr Thakur Attar Lal, and Pooran Singh Pawar, general secretary, have demanded the establishment of a university named after Shaheed Rao Tula Ram in South Haryana. Shaheed Rao Tula Ram had forged a united front of various communities and fought against the British during the first war of independence in 1857. They raised this demand during public meetings addressed by them in Mundi, Siha and Didoli villages of the district. The public meetings were aimed at mobilising people for a conference to be held at Rewari on September 23 to mark the martyrdom of Rao Tula Ram.

COURTS

Stop sale of spurious liquor in Delhi: HC
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 16
The Delhi High Court has issued direction to the Central and the Delhi Governments to take measures to stop the sale of spurious liquor in the national Capital.

The order came in response to a petition, filed by the ‘Common Cause’ through counsel Meera Bhatia. The petition had sought effective steps to avoid incidents like the 1991 Sura tragedy, which claimed 201 lives and rendered 102 people blind in the Capital, and last year's tragedy in Noida, in which 44 people died.

Cheap spurious liquor sold, especially during the festival seasons, was attractively packed in small pouches with names like ‘Msana’, 'Rasbhari', 'Tohfa', 'Apsara' and 'Shaukeen', which were available all over Delhi and areas adjoining the place, Ms Bhatia had claimed.

Disposing of the PIL, a division bench comprising Chief Justice S.B. Sinha and Justice A. K. Sikri, said: “We hope the respondents would take all possible and appropriate steps to curb the sale, distribution and smuggling of spurious liquor in the city.”