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Starving education Pbi varsity bags Gurmukhi transliteration project
Campus Notes
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Starving education It is a general feeling that there is a significant fall in academic standards at all levels in the country. Even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently pointed out that in terms of university education and research, India is far behind the best in the world. The so-called quantity is not in commensurate with quality. It is observed that not even 3 per cent of research done in the country is recognised abroad. We don’t adequately encourage meaningful research work, though the country spends a lot in the area. Inadequate attention and resources for the education sector is often the butt of criticism. We quite often stress the importance of education in unequivocal terms. However, when the question of sanctioning budget comes, we forget its significance. On the contrary, when cuts to allocations are to be applied, education is often the first casualty. In 1966, the D. S. Kothari Education Commission recommended 6 per cent GDP for education, but we are still hovering around 3.7 per cent. In some regions, substantial funds from vital sectors are frequently saved and diverted to other fields. The education sector has not been accorded a high priority in our country, while all advanced countries acknowledge this fact. Of the 25 industrial nations in the world, the US spends the most on education. Nana A. Palkiwala considered neglect of education as one of the six fatal mistakes India committed since Independence. Even the National Policy on Education (1986, 90, 92) has not been revised in the light of our past experience and emerging needs. We had pledged to have elementary education of a reasonable quality for all by 1960. After 58 years of independence, nearly half of the population is still illiterate. The 89th Amendment to the Constitution of India and literacy campaigns like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), too have not proved much effective. Indeed, with the passage of time, the problem of mass illiteracy has reached an alarming stage. We may at times flaunt figures to gladden ourselves—the number of schools increasing from 2.30 lakh in 1947 to 7.44 lakh in 1997; increase in the number of teachers from 6.24 lakh to 28.36 lakh in 1997 and the schoolchildren number increasing from 1.92 crore to 14.94 crore during the same period. However, at the grassroots level, the picture is quite discouraging. The country continues to host the largest number of illiterates in the world, whereas several smaller countries are far ahead of us with regard to functional literacy. Over the years, the continuous addition of institutions notwithstanding, the strength of students has steadily gone down in most government schools. For example, in Himachal Pradesh, the number of children in government schools has fallen from 6.72 lakh in 2001-2 to 5.68 lakh in 2004-5. In almost every state, thousands of posts of teachers are lying vacant. Punjab has reportedly 8,758 posts currently vacant in its 13,592 primary schools. It requires as many as 4,000 teachers to have at least two teachers in every primary school. In many states, these posts are filled temporarily to reduce the expenditure. Consequently, children from poor families suffer, while the rich prefer expensive education in the private sector A recent survey shows that around 6 crore children are not attending schools. Also, the dropout rates are quite high at the school level. Though things are slightly better in a few regions, on the whole the situation is shocking. Of all the children admitted, only 8 per cent reach the Xth standard, while others drop out in the process. Thus, the chronicle disease calls for a collective major operation. We need to create awareness about the significance of education for individual excellence and public good, and generate the requisite political will to sustain it. We may begin with revamping the primary education and evaluating critically all schemes and projects of literacy. Every state should have a roving basic education commission to report on primary education in realistic terms. We should also have a comprehensive survey in each region and gear education to stress character-building, human infrastructure, social relevance, consolidation and quality. We should give to the youth what they actually need and aspire for.
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Pbi
varsity bags Gurmukhi transliteration project After developing a software to transliterate Punjabi literature from Gurmukhi script to Shahmukhi, the Advanced Centre for Technical Development of Punjabi Language, Literature and Culture, Punjabi University, Patiala, in partnership with University of Manchester, UK, has bagged an international research project titled ‘Shahmukhi to Gurmukhi Transliteration Solution for Networking’ in Thailand. The aim of the project is to facilitate electronic and written communication between people living in the Punjabs in India and Pakistan through development of the Shahmukhi
(Urdu)-Gurmukhi transliteration tool, which would be made available on the Internet. Readers would be able to read Punjabi literature published in Gurmukhi or Shahmukhi scripts. It would bridge the gap between Punjabi readers and writers of both Punjabs. The project duration is of two years and a grant of Singapore dollars 48,979 has been sanctioned. The project would be implemented at the recently established natural language processing lab at Punjabi University. Help for funds had also been extended by Mrs Preneet Kaur, MP, Patiala, who had allocated Rs 20 lakh from the MP Local Area Development Fund for the setting up of this lab. According to Dr Gurpreet Singh Lehal, Director of the centre, there were 128 project proposals from 17 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. This project was the only one selected from India. It is sponsored under the Information Communication Technology (ICT) R&D Grants Programme, which is jointly funded by the Pan Asia Networking Program of the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC), International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada, the Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme (APDIP) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Asia Pacific Network Information Center (APNIC).
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Campus Notes Four scientists and a research scholar of the Department of Veterinary Surgery and Radiology at Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University (HAU) have been honoured with the Best Review Article Award. They have got the award for their article published in the Intas Polivet Journal (Vol. 1, No. 6). The awardees include M.R. Fazili, a Ph.D student, and four teachers of the department—Dr S.K. Chawla, Dr Rishi Tayal, Dr S.M. Behl and Dr Kuldeep Singh. The award carries a certificate and a cash prize of Rs 1,000 for each author. Prof Saharan elected
vice-chief of national body Dr R.P. Saharan, Professor and Head, Department of Geneticists, has been unanimously elected vice-president of the Society of Cytologists and Geneticists, India, for the 2005-09 term. This decision was taken at the All-India Conference on Cytology and Genetics organised at the Department of Botany, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, recently. Dr Saharan was the joint secretary of the society from 2001 to 2005. Memorial lecture delivered
Prof Kapil Kapoor, an eminent scholar from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, expressed concern over the moral value collapse amongst the people in society. He was speaking at the Sardarni Balbir Kaur Brar Memorial Lecture on The Cultural Crisis organised by the School of Punjabi Studies at Guru Nanak Dev University. Vice-Chancellor Dr S.P. Singh welcomed Prof Kapoor, while a distinguished linguist, Dr Harjit Singh Gill, presided over the function. Prof Kapoor said dynamic cultures and societies were constantly changing and these changes came faster during the periods of cultural contacts. He said the Indian life and the mind really started getting restructured in the name of “modernisation” and “progress”. He said the most damaging cultural change in recent times was the one that affected the institution of family. The breakdown of the joint family system had had deleterious effect on our relatively stable social framework, reducing the quantum of human happiness in Indian society.
— Contributed by Sunit Dhawan and Pawan Kumar
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