The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

EDUCATION

South Haryana cries foul over ‘new university’
Bijendra Ahlawat
Tribune News Service

Faridabad, February 9
Not withstanding tall claims by the Haryana Government, the southern districts of Haryana is faced with inadequate infrastructure and ‘gross discrimination’ in matters of higher education. As a result, the students here, who wish to go for post-graduation courses, have to go either to the national Capital or take admission in universities situated at far away places.

The reported decision of the state government to open a new university at Sirsa has disappointed the people of Faridabad, Gurgaon, Rewari and Mahendergarh districts, who are faced with inadequate educational infrastructure.

Although formal announcement in this regard is awaited, it is learnt that the new university will be named after the former Deputy Prime Minister, Devi Lal.

Surprisingly, the demand for a new university in one of southern districts of the state has not found favour with the state government so far. Presently, the state has four universities, Kurukshetra University at Kurukshetra, Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) at Rohtak, Charan Singh Agricultural (HAU University and Guru Jambhaswar University (GJU) at Hisar. The government had also announced recently that a sports university was likely to come up at Hisar.

“This announcement had raised the hopes of the people of South Haryana. Since the sports university is planned at Hisar and the region already has two other universities, it was hoped that the new university will come up in this region,” said Ved Prakash Vidrohi, president of the Janata Dal, Haryana. He said the regional study centre of MDU, Rohtak, functioning at Rewari, should have been upgraded to a university by now. However, the centre, functioning for the past 15 years, had neither been upgraded nor [provided a separate building so far. He said the centre offered only four P.G. courses, which was far from adequate in view of the demand for more professional and technical courses.

He claimed that the four districts of Southern Haryana had a population of at least 40 lakh and there was inadequate facility for higher studies here. Moreover, parents were not ready to send their daughters to far away towns for higher studies. Demanding to a new university in Rewari, Gurgaon or Faridabad district, he said it will prove a boon for the region.

Faridabad has been ignored in the matters of higher education, claims Ms Sharda Rathaur, president of the District Mahila Congress. She said that the district needed atleast one medical college and a regional study centre, affiliated to a university. She said opening another university in the Sirsa-Hisar belt will not serve the larger purpose of spreading education in the backward areas of the state.

SCHOOL BUZZ

Schoolchildren take their hats off to Kalpana Chawla
Smriti Kak

LONG LIVE, KALPANA: Students of Vansathali Public School, Madhu Vihar, paying homage to Kalpana Chawla at India Gate.

Vansathali Public School, Madhu Vihar, paid homage to Kalpana Chawla. The students carrying placards assembled at India Gate and observed silence to show respect for the astronaut. A couple of students penned poems in memory of Kalpana Chawla.

Jaspal Kaur win CBSE TT

Jaspal Kaur Public School won the CBSE National Table Tennis senior girls’ trophy beating Padma Sheshadri School, Chennai. The team was awarded a cash prize of Rs. 35,000 by the CBSE.

Jaspal Kaur Public School receiving the CBSE National Table Tennis senior girl's trophy.

In the boys’ category the school’s team came second. Around 75 schools from across the country and 12 schools from abroad participated in the contest.

Basant Panchami at Children’s Valley

The students of Children’s Valley celebrated Basant Panchami. Dressed in vibrant attires the little ones presented a cultural programme. They also displayed their talents when despite a blindfold they correctly recognised flowers and fruits.

In Bal Bhavan Public School, the students dressed in yellow participated in races, musical chair and other events.

Amity organises seminar

Amity Institute of Education organised a seminar, ‘Techno Savvy Child-Opportunities and Threats’. In the keynote address, Prof A. N. Maheshwari, Chairman, National Council of Teacher Education, said that “Like a knife, which is in the hands of a surgeon is an instrument for saving life and in the hands of a dehumanised person is a murder weapon, easy access to the Internet by children has posed an unprecedented challenge to the school system.”

He added, “The challenge is to make children appreciate the power of the information and communication technology by developing their mental faculties, sharpening of problem saving skills, creative thinking, ability to discriminate what is uplifting from what is base and damaging to their sensitive minds.”

Among those who also spoke at the seminar were Mr G. Balasubramanium, Director Academics, CBSE and Mr Shyamal Ghosh, former Secretary, IT and Pharma.

Poetry corner

A tryst with destiny

T here is beauty and I see it

There is hope...they say there is,

But how come I don’t experience it???

There is the sun ...creeping up

from behind the parting clouds,

But how come I see no light

There is the road,

And there are directions

but how am I so blinded,

There are the heights, which symbolise success

but how come I envisage only the fall?

The warmth of love, no longer

seems warm enough,

The solace I seek

The haven to which I creep,

No longer exist

Those ties of security,

Keep weakening more and more

the faith in which I believed, diminishing to the core.

Those stars in the night

with whom I fantasised...

are all falling

Those pillars of strength,

From whom I sought support are all crumbling,

The ground beneath my feet...disappearing

and I am in a constant free fall.

I feel cold, I feel barren

clouded is everything around me.

I am scared and oh I beg for that hand on my head

so that I may outrun, outrun my destiny,

And when I have my tryst, my tryst with destiny

I be the one waiting,

waiting to mock it back in Destiny’s face.

(Bulbul Negi, Vansathali Public School, Madhu Vihar)

Among stars she wanted to stand

What we could afford was a gruesome pose,

And we were left totally morose.

The only news that echoed,

Was that Challenger had bowed

Not only we lost a star astronaut

But witnessed a tragedy never thought

Grievances for all those who lost their lives

She was also noble and polite

A great asset who claimed such a height

Commonly she was called K C

And in our own hearts is a figure of grace

Universe she called her homeland

And among stars she wanted to stand

In her memory, we all pledge

That will provide India in astronomy an edge

(Ankit Chaudhary, Model School, Rohtak)

PRINCIPALSPEAK
Why life is so stressful and difficult

One of the most ubiquitous entities of today’s world is ‘stress’. Since stress seems to have invaded all aspects of our lives, hence its management has also come into the foray. So much has been written and spoken about it that one feels compelled to believe in giving a befitting fight back to stress.

I am going to digress a bit now. Just imagine that you have stepped out of your house on a blistering summer afternoon. You feel miserable, you put on your glasses. Immediately you feel relief pouring over you. The surroundings appear cool and your feelings seem to soothe. But have things actually changed?

No, its very much the same. Each one of us is gifted with one such ‘sun glass goggles’, which can help bust the stress of the outside heat. The more you use your ‘stress reducing sun glasses’ the better you are managing stress.

One of the reasons why stress catches up with us is because many of us lose our perspective and paint the picture gloomier than it really is. “Oh! These exams are so tough!”, “Chances of success seem so narrow” etc, are some common retardant that stress out students. Please remember that you have to only march well through today.

Let not the shadows of tomorrow haunt you. May be tomorrow turns out to be a much brighter day. A person embarking on a day’s march would be foolish to carry enough provisions for a lifetime. Then why are you carrying all your worries for the next five years and wondering why life is so stressful and difficult? We are designed to live only twenty four hours at a time. No more, no less. The moment we accept this rationale, half of our stress vanishes.

Once you have emerged from this situation, take the next step. Ask yourself in a cool frame of mind, “what is the worst that can happen? And if it happens I am certainly capable enough of finding a solution”. We often magnify things out of proportion. The worst that could happen is probably very inconvenient but certainly not the end of the world. Once in a while ask yourself, “Do I take myself too seriously?” You will notice that you are losing your sleep over something that your friend never gave a second thought to.

The final step involves taking a ‘retrospect’ of how people have emerged winners after channelling through the most difficult, stressful and back – breaking times. Even during the toughest of your time, have the courage to ask yourself, “Why am I suffering?” Why am I in stress?” The truly happy people always see their hard times as valuable learning periods.

They keep their chins up and finally they emerge from their trials as more confident and more successful people. So, its fair enough to conclude that management of stress is absolutely possible, if we understand that disasters may be a part of our lives, but if we tackle them, a piece at a time, we will soon gain from this experience. Let there is no self-preoccupation. After all, even today, life can be made effectively simple.

Madhu Chandra, Principal,
Birla Vidya Niketan