PU staff struggle for pension
Sanjeev Singh Bariana
WITH Teachers’ Day approaching on September 5, it would be appropriate to give a thought to the concerns of the teaching community. Are the teachers getting their due? It seems not. Many have been protesting against non-payment of wages and denial of pension.

Slow learners get a helping hand
Geetu Vaid
OFTEN a child having problems with spellings, arithmetic, reading or motor coordination is dubbed as lazy or disinterested. He snubbed or ridiculed at home and school. A suggestion that there may be something wrong with the child is hurriedly dismissed by parents and teachers.

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PU staff struggle for pension
Sanjeev Singh Bariana

HIGHLIGHTS * Panjab University is the only university in the region where employees are not given pension benefits. * The university is considering a proposal to reduce the interest rates on the PF from 10.50 per cent to 7.5 per cent. * A PUTA delegation met the Chancellor recently and will be giving him the required data for a viable pension scheme.

WITH Teachers’ Day approaching on September 5, it would be appropriate to give a thought to the concerns of the teaching community. Are the teachers getting their due? It seems not. Many have been protesting against non-payment of wages and denial of pension. Take the case of Panjab University, Chandigarh, an internationally renowned institute of education and research with a standing of more than a century. Whereas employees in a majority of institutions for whose creation the university has been instrumental are getting pension, those on its staff have been denied the same.

Pension is available in a majority of the neighbouring universities in Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir since decades. PU has been unable to implement a pension scheme despite clearance by different bodies of the university for the past several years.

The pension scheme was originally passed by the university Syndicate and Senate in 1990 and notified in 1993. The original scheme made everyone eligible to pension even if he retired in 1980 or earlier. The date of payment of pension was fixed as January 1, 1986.

The scheme also laid down that the government would not contribute any money to the pension fund and it would be financed through the Provident Fund corpus.

In this case, as much as 10 per cent of the money comes from the employees and the corresponding 10 per cent from the university or the government. This scheme could not generate the requisite confidence among the employees. Less than five per cent employees opted for it.

To rectify the errors in the original scheme, another scheme was cleared by the Senate in 1999 which was to be operational from March 1998 onwards. No arrears of the pension were to be paid during this period. The scheme was however, turned down by the Ministry of Human Resource and Development “without mentioning any grounds”.

Employees of the university have been agitating against the non-implementation of pension schemes for several years. None of the Vice-Chancellor’s could ensure implementation of a viable scheme, despite best intentions. A fresh representation is pending before the Centre. Delegates met the Chancellor(Vice President) recently with regard to a viable pension scheme.

Prof P.K.Mittal, a former president of the Panjab University Teachers Association, said details of the scheme were being worked out and papers would be soon forwarded to the Chancellor’s office.

Prof K.N. Pathak, Vice-Chancellor, has also met a PUTA delegation regarding the demand.

With the announcement of a likely fall in the rate of interest on the PF, the issue has gained even more significance. “ As the longevity of human life has increased due to advances in science, the burden to live a life without social security is horrifying”, Prof P.P.Arya, a former president of the PUTA said.

Professor Arya said “ Since 60 per cent of the maintenance budget comes from the Central Government, it is desirable that the terms and conditions of the employees are on the pattern of central universities. The issue has gained relevance in the context that the Punjab Government is not contributing more than 20 per cent of its total liability.”

The new team of PUTA which took over office recently under the presidentship of Dr Harjinder Singh Laltu has shown its commitment to work for quick implementation of a workable pension scheme.

The absence of a pension scheme, uncertainty over retirement age and probable reduction in the rate of interest on the PF from 10.75 per cent to 7.5 per cent has jolted the university staff.

Prof R.D.Anand, Senior Fellow of the university Senate, had suggested going in for a public interest litigation (PIL) on the pension scheme issue. “Law might deliver what peaceful dialogues and demonstrations have failed to deliver”, he had said.

Slow learners get a helping hand
Geetu Vaid

FACTS ON DYSLEXIA: In India, about 10-12 per cent of school going children suffer from some form of dyslexia. Dyslexia is a neurological condition in which the child has difficulty in acquiring language skills. It is used to cover a wide range of learning problems: a) from mild spelling difficulties to b) complete illiteracy. Additional Factors: a) Birth trauma, b) Use of medication like phenobarbitals, c) Head injury.

Some methods that will help the learning disabled : a) Oral testing b) Eliminate or reduce spelling tests c) Don’t force oral reading d) Accept dictated homework e) Grade on content, not spelling nor handwriting f) Reduce copying tasks g) Avoid or reduce essay tests

OFTEN a child having problems with spellings, arithmetic, reading or motor coordination is dubbed as lazy or disinterested. He snubbed or ridiculed at home and school.

A suggestion that there may be something wrong with the child is hurriedly dismissed by parents and teachers.

Burdened with teaching 40-50 students in a class, teachers have no patience for “difficult” children.

In a system where marks and grades alone are the yardstick for the measurement of a child’s ability and intelligence, the child is pushed into the abyss of low self-esteem as he finds it difficult to cope with the burden of academic performance.

These are the children who bear the cross of learning disability silently and unknowingly whereas a little help from elders can change their lives.

Learning disability is a general term that refers to a heterogeneous group of disorders manifested by a significant difficulty in listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning or solving mathematical problems. These disorders are due to dysfunction of the central nervous system.

According to conservative estimates as many as 20 per cent of all schoolchildren suffer from one or the other type of learning disorders. However, most parents and teachers remain unaware of the problem and overlook it.

Often parents and teachers blame each other for the problem. Parents accuse the teachers of wrong teaching practices and teachers accuse parents of not taking interest in the child.

The learning disability can be completely overcome with right a remedy at the right time. Otherwise a host of psychological problems arise.

Such children are near average or above average in intelligence. They are slow learners and are not mentally challenged.

They are able to learn but with specialised help. The child seems much brighter in his reading ability than in his written work. Punctuation, spellings are difficult for him to master. He may have difficulty with mathematics.

Optimising Development in Education (ODE) is one such organisation that deals with children with learning disabilities. The basic purpose of this organisation is to create awareness in schools through workshops for parents as well as teachers on learning disabilities. This in turn, helps change the attitude of parents and teachers towards such children.

It holds courses for teachers so that they can help such children in classrooms. Another major task of the organisation is to set up resource rooms in schools so that help can be provided to children within the school.

Here children with poor performance record are sent and an assessment carried out to find out the reasons for the poor academic performance of the child. Accordingly, remedial measures are carried out. The curriculum is modified to suit the needs of the child.

At times children referred to resource rooms suffer from severe problems. These students are referred to the agencies concerned. Children with learning disabilities need special instructional material. The organisation helps in getting such material. It also networks with other special educators to keep abreast of the advances in the field to ensure that the maximum number of such children are helped.

Ms Bharati Kapoor, who is associated with ODE in the city says: ‘‘Parents should not fear their child being labelled. There is a need to view the whole situation from a different perspective. Just as a child with myopia needs help, these children, too, can benefit with help’’.

‘‘When we started ODE not many schools were open to the idea. The teachers as well as the parents did not want to accept that a child had difficulty in learning.

I found that rather than convent schools, it was the DAV institutions that were more open to the idea of helping such children”.

“Support from schools was difficult to get in the beginning as even after identifying the children who needed help it was difficult to get resource rooms established in schools and even more so to make teachers use multisensory methods to teach such children.

Hansraj Public School, Panchkula, YPS, SAS Nagar, DAV, Sector 8, Chandigarh, DAV School, Amritsar, Akal Academy, Baru Sahib, are the schools that have taken a lead in this direction.

St John’s High School, Chandigarh, also has a resource centre where children with learning difficulty are coached separately by trained instructors”.

Talking about effective ways to deal with learning disabilities Ms Kapoor says. “A different examination criteria has to be chalked out for such children. The use of computers and calculators are also beneficial to these children’’.

“A child with such difficulty must have one-to-one training to develop basic skills. This allows the student to stay focused”, she explains.

“With proper training slow learners can follow the National Open School stream and can take up vocational courses like data entry, administrative jobs that are suitable for their specific abilities.”

“The problem is that the moment the child starts improving he stops coming for coaching,” says Ms Kapoor.

“A child with learning disabilities suffers physical, mental, verbal, or emotional abuse because his problem is not recognised”.

“A one-to-one academic support, tutoring and preparing them with special techniques for career-related qualifying exams, programmes that encompass family and group interaction, and above all increasing their battered self-esteem are a must”.

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