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| EDUCATION TRIBUNE |
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Parent-teacher
associations need more bite Roorkee
varsity gears up for AIMCET Need to
revise NCERT science books |
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Parent-teacher
associations need more bite
The incident of a girl being thrashed publicly for not attending a lecture of the principal and "misbehaviour" of the parent reported a fortnight ago was shocking enough, but to add insult to the injury was the statement by the P.T.A (Parent-Teacher Association) supporting the action of the principal. What after all are the P.T.As and what precisely is their role. Mr Jai Singh Swami, President of P.T.A of Government Secondary School, Sector 11 says: "The P.T.A is concerned with the improvement of school, both in respect of holistic development of the child and material development of the school which is eventually related with the right growth of the child. We monitor discipline among teachers, whether the classes are being held, whether any particular student is absent for a long time, if he or she is contacting the parent to get at the root of the problem. Not only that, if there is requirement for new classrooms or a stage or any other specific need we try to get payment from the government and whatever remains the P.T.A contributes." Mr Trehan, executive secretary of P.T.A, Carmel Convent elaborates, "Our agenda changes from time to time, depending upon the need of the hour. We can give suggestions on creative ways of teaching for the students, organise seminars for example, we recently held one on stress management by teachers. Next is on students. Any changes to be done in the infrastructure or the curriculum are also suggested." The P.T.A in each school is different. Some schools like St.John’s and Sacred Heart do not have an association in the formal sense. The parents can meet the principals or teachers directly if they face a problem. Other schools like St.Kabir have a P.T.A meeting once a year and all its 72 members are nominated. Others have their Presidents as principals like Carmel Convent or vice Principals as in the case of Government School, Sector 10. Where there is no nomination, parents other than the teaching staff are elected. The number may vary from 10 to 20 (72 being an exception). How active the P.T.As are depends upon the principal of the school. Where the members are nominated, they are naturally less articulate than the ones elected. The question of the P.T.A becoming aggressive in such schools, especially on sensitive matters, is rare. Where the meetings are held only once or twice a year as in the case of St; Kabir, they are practically non-functional. Although all such schools talk of easy accessibility to the principal, the feedback from the parents is missing. Principal Harpreet Kaur of Guru Harkrishan Public School explains, "The fact is that P.T.As are largely influenced by the school authorities. However, most schools like to function taking the parents into confidence. For example, when we wanted to change the uniform of the school it was on P.T.As suggestion that it was implemented in stages so that the parents did not feel the pinch. "Similarly, we reverted to monthly fee collection after it was made known to us through the P.T.A. Parents did not want to let their wards go through the rigmarole of tests in the subject of communication skills, so these were scrapped . The best method to know the minds of parents is to send questionnaire". The P.T.As of government schools play a more active role. This might be due to the reason that in the beginning of the session the child is charged P.T.A fund. Mr Baltej Singh of Government School, Sector 10, says this sum varies from class to class. According to him, private schools P.T.As have no value as the parents are too afraid of the school authorities to openly voice discontent." In fact, we have introduced prizes, extracurriculars largely through P.T.A sponsorships. We might be nominating members but they will represent a particular area like Naya Gaon or Khuda Ali Sher." Private schools do not charge PTA fund. Mrs Roopi Wig, a parent, says parents of private schools have no objection to a yearly fund being charged as it makes the P.T.A much more powerful and innovative. "Little things like cleanliness of toilets or the teaching mode can then be effectively looked into. Need for counsellors can also be brought home to the authorities. The P.T.As should have more voice and its contact should not be limited to a few parents Rather it should take up suggestions from parents by floating circulars and then proceed." This thought is echoed by most parents. The fact of the matter is that most of the parents are in the dark about the activities of this association. The P.T.As of all schools do not have
a single body which can speak in a unified manner. If school
associations can exist why can’t all-school P.T.As? says a
parent," There is so much harassment of the child as well as the
parent at the time of admission and so much monetary wastage, if the
P.T.As were organised and powerful this torture could come to an end.
May be the scheme in Delhi where they choose students closest to their
areas could be implemented or any other change which would not make
parents as helpless as they are today." |
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Roorkee
varsity gears up for AIMCET Sprawled in the lush green foothills of Garhwal hills, just 150 kilometres from Chandigarh, the Indian Institute of Roorkee (IIT-R), erstwhile University of Roorkee, is gearing up for a major task — to hold the first nation-wide entrance examination for Master of Computer Application run by all institutions in the country. A gigantic task indeed! With the CAT fiasco fresh in mind, "we want to leave nothing to chance", says the suave, soft-spoken Director of the IIT Roorkee, Prof Prem Vrat who has been assigned the coveted job to hold the first all-India test, named All-India MCA Common Entrance Test (AIMCET). The test for the academic session 2004-5 will be held on June 6, forms for which go on sale in the first week of February. Prof Prem Vrat, who is a member of the 11-member National Advisory Board constituted by the MHRD to monitor the test, says the IIT-R has been specifically chosen for the test because it is the only IIT in the country which runs the MCA course and has a competent faculty for the subject. Seeing the all-India size of the test the authorities have decided to hold it in 98 cities, including all state capitals and union territories. The metros and other big cities would have more than one centres to accommodate nearly 2 lakh examinees which the test is expected to draw. Prof R P Agarwal of the Electrical Engineering Department and Prof Deva Dutta Das of the Water Resources Department have been appointed co-ordinators to execute the task under the over-all supervision of the IIT-R Director, Dr Prem Vrat. The most important aspect of the entire AIMCET plan drawn up by the IIT-R is the cost of the form. It has been deliberately kept low so that even the lower middle class and the poor can afford it. It would cost Rs 400 to a candidate of the general category while those of the SC/ST category would get it for Rs 200 each — and this would include the examination fee as well. The forms will be available from the first week of February at all the IITs, select MCA institutes and all branches of Punjab National Bank. The last date for the submission of the completed application form will be a month later than the date for the sale of forms. According to the minimum
qualification stipulated by the IIT-R, all those who have a three-year
bachelor’s degree with maths at the 10+2 level, can sit for the
examination. The duration of the examination will be three hours and
will comprise 200 objective-type questions. |
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Need
to revise NCERT science books Textbooks published by the NCERT are adopted or reprinted by the state education boards. It is compulsory for all schools and colleges to recommend the books published by the NCERT to students. But it is observed that these books are not being recommended to the students both at the school and college level. Instead, books published by private publishers dominate the bags of students. These books act as help books, containing most of the material in the solved form. This reduces, as is thought, the burden on the student as well as the teacher concerned. Most examination papers, even of board, are set from these books (called guides). These books are revised every year and new material added, changing the cover page making the book more attractive. On the other hand, it is believed by both students and teachers that the NCERT books are tougher than those published by private publishers. These books are compact in size. Sometimes the treatment of a particular article is too lengthy that even a teacher gets confused. At times, it is too short. It does not seem to be self-explanatory. Questions are not set from these books in the examinations. These books are revised after a decade or so. The old trend while publishing a book was to give a detailed theory as well as numerical concerning a particular article, followed by exercises. A student would try solving every problem by studying the entire chapter. With the introduction of competition examinations for admission to professional courses, a lot of material, including multiple choice questions, solved short answer-type questions, solved numerical problems, questions from competition examinations like the IIT, CET, AIEEE etc is being introduced in the books published by private publishers. This has made books on physics, chemistry, mathematics much too bulky, every book with about 1,500 pages and weighing 5 kg. This has also affected the popularity of science among students. —
The writer teaches physics at Government Polytechnic, |
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Armed Forces Jan 12 '04 Indian Navy, PO Bag 04, R.K. Puram (Main), New Delhi 110066 www.nausena-bharti.mil.in. Short Service Commissioned Officers in Naval Armament Inspection Cadre of Executive Branch Elig: BE/BTech (Electl/ Electron/ Mech) or PG Deg (Electron/ Phy). Age: Born bet: 2 Jul '79-1 Jan '85. Appln F: Website Art & Design Dec 30 Apparel Training & Design Centre (ATDC), (Sponsd by Apparel Export Promotion Council M/o Textile, GoI) 1) Dip in Apparel Manufacturing Tech (1-yr) 2) Dip in Fashion Sampling/Co-ordination (1-yr) 3) Production Supervision & Quality Control Course (6 months) 4) Pattern/Cutting Master Course (6-months) 5) Machine Mechanic Course (4 months) 6) Finishing/Packaging Supervisor Course (3 months) 7) Sewing Machine Operator Course (3 months) 8) Measurement & Quality Control Course (3 months) 9) Apparel Merchandising (3 months) Elig: For 1, 2, 3, 6: 10+2. For 4, 5, 8: Cl 10. For 7: Cl 8. For 9: Bachelor's deg/ Dip in AMT. Selectn: Oral aptitude test/ interview. Appln F: Send Rs 140/- by DD favouring "Apparel Training & Design Centre" payable at 'A-223, Okhla Indl. Area, Phase-I, New Delhi 110020.' Details: Employment News (Dec 13-19) Engineering Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology, Gandhinagar, Gujarat www.da-iict.org BTech (4-yr) (Info & Comm Tech). Elig: Cl 12 (PCM). Selectn: AIEEE '04 (May 9 '04) Details: Website. Info Tech Jan 15 '04 University of Pune, 411007 (D/o Electronic Science) www.cadcamguru.com Certificate Course in Embedded System (6-mth, FT) Elig: BE/ BTech/ MSc in Electron/ Electron & Telecomm/ Instru/ Elect/ Comp/ IT Selectn: Entrance Exam (II stages; Jan 17 & 18 '04) & Interview. Appln F: Send Rs. 250/- by DD favouring "ICIT Pvt Ltd, Pune" payable at Pune to above add / download from website. Details: Employment News (Dec 13-19) / web. Law Mar 15 '04 National Law School of India University, Nagarbhavi, PO Bag No. 7201, Bangalore 560072 (Kar) www.nls.ac.in 1) Integrated BA, LLB (H) (5 - yr) 2) LLM (2-yr) Elig: For 1: Cl 12 (50%). Age: Below 20 yrs. For 2: BL/ LLB/ BA, LLB (H) (50%). Selectn: Admission test (May 2 '04 at B'lore, Chennai, Del, M'bai, Kochi, H'bad, Kol, All'bad, Ch'garh). Appln F: Send Rs 600/- by DD favouring "NLSIU" payable at B 'lore giving full add, pin code to the Registrar at above add. Superscribe name of course on env in bold letters. Management Madhya Pradesh Bhoj (Open) Univ, Red Cross Bhawan, Shivaji Nagar, Bhopal 462016 www.iimm.org MBA (Materials Mgt) (Dist; 3-yr) Selectn: Aptitude Test (Jan 18 '04). Appln F: Send Rs 180/- by DD favouring "Registrar, MP Bhoj Open University, Bhopal" to above add. Details: Website. N.L.Dalmia Institute of Management Studies & Research, Shrishti, Sec I, Mira Road (E), Mumbai 401104 www.nldalmiamgmt.org PG Dip in Bus Mgt Elig: Bachelor's deg. Selectn: ATMA scores (Feb 8 '03), GD, Interview (June 7-10 '04). Appln F: Send Rs. 1000/- by DD favouring "N.L.Dalmia Institute of Management Studies & Research", payable at Mumbai to above add. Details: Prof Latha Lakshminarayanan, Chairperson Admissions at above add/ Website. Medicine Dec 24 Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences, Punjagutta, Hyderabad 1) PhD (Biochem/ Microbiol/ Neuro Sc/ Nephrol/ Pharmacol/ Pathol/ Endocrinol) 2) Fellowship Progs (Cardiac & Neuro-Anaesth/ Newer Imaging Modalities/ Vasc Surg/ Surg Oncol/ Spine Surg/ Rheumatol/ Ultra Son/ Critical Care Med/ Sports injuries & Ortho trauma) 3) Post Doctoral Dip (2-yr) (Cardiol). Elig: For 1: CSIR/ UGC/ NET/ GATE. For 2 & 3: Cands with relev Qual. Appln F: Send Rs 350/- by DD favouring "Director, NIMS" payable at H' bad with stamped (Rs 35/-), self-add env (11x25 cms) to the above add. Dec 30 Bundelkhand University, Institute of Pharmacy, Kanpur Rd, Jhansi 284128 (UP) Direct Admission to BPharma (II-yr) from DPharma candidates Elig: DPharm (60%) (50% marks in PCME/ PCBE in 10+2). Selectn: Counselling (Jan 2 '04), merit in DPharm Appln F: Send Rs 825/- by DD favouring "Finance Officer, Bundelkhand University" payable at Jhansi to the Director (SFS) at the above add. Mar 15 '04 National Board of Examinations, MG Marg, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi 110029 (Autonomous body of M/o HFW) www.natboard.nic.in Exams for Diplomate of National Board 1) Broad (28 subjs)/ Dental Specialities (4 subjs) 2) Super Specialities (13 subjs) 3) Direct 5-yr course after Internship (3 subjs) Elig: For 1 & 3: MBBS & undergoing Internship. For 2: MDS.Selectn: For 1 & 3: Primary & Final Exam. PG in any speciality from MCI recog univs exempted from Primary Exam. Details: Download from website. — Pervin Malhotra, Director, CARING (www.careerguidanceindia.com), |
