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| EDUCATION TRIBUNE |
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New session, same old anxieties
Concern over UK student visa cuts
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New session, same old anxieties
ANOTHER school session is beginning amidst the old anxieties over report cards and admissions and new excitement over new classes, new books and new classmates. Another opportunity to mould the impressionable minds and hearts into responsible citizens — or is this the beginning of another routine year for the kids getting into the rut, boarding the school bus in the morning and getting back home, sans novel ideas and fresh insights?
Is there something freshening that can be done to fight the staleness of practises that we follow in our schools, without thinking, year after year? Are there small changes that we as school authorities, parents, teachers or citizens can bring up within the existing set-up to put our children on the righteous path? Malaise of birthdays Approximately 40 days in a year or so, depending upon the number of students in the class, kids come home carrying packets containing chocolates, toffees, candies, pencils, erasers or small toys declaring happily, “Today was Amol’s birthday!” I have often heard them complaining, “Oh, Khushi did not give us anything on her birthday. She is such a miser” or “The cars Param gave on his birthday are far better than the ones Gaurav gave”. This trend of distributing gifts without a proper context is only making the children greedy, hungry for freebies, ready to show off, status-conscious and crassly material- minded. They are also becoming victims of superiority or inferiority complex. They think that this is the only way to celebrate birthdays, that material things matter and that people can be judged by the gifts they give. While schools show their helplessness, most of the parents say they feel pressurised to go with the trend instead of swimming against the tide. How I wish the school authorities strictly prohibit this trend this year and forbids parents to indulge the children in this way! Onslaught of junk food We do not need research findings to substantiate that the stuff that is available to children in school canteens is junk, full of empty calories, unhealthy and many a times unhygienic. But school authorities turn a blind eye towards them. In spite of school heath policies and programmes, nothing concrete is done in this direction. Fat-filled potato chips, synthetic sugary drinks, sticky candies, etc., keep on assaulting our children’s tastes, health and food habits. I am ready to send my child any day to a school that takes serious note of what she consumes in her lunch break and how it shapes up her physical well-being today leading to a healthy future in comparison to a school which bows and bends silently to commercial and market forces ignoring the child’s welfare. Vice of disposables Every year the bookseller insists on selling new school bags, paint boxes, sketch pens, crayons, marker pens, pencil boxes and lunch boxes, in addition to the set of books for the year. Some sensible parents have to struggle hard to make him understand that our old articles are doing fine and we’ll replenish them as and when we need to. I am reminded of the old days when even the textbooks were hand-me-downs. No school today allows the kids to use old books. Everyone must buy a new set. The quality of the books has improved, but so has our dispensable income. Schools speak of practical difficulties in developing a mechanism to allow old books, but just think of the paper that will be saved if old books are recycled. Because of the abundance of sketch pens, pencils, erasers and other articles of stationary, our kids fail to appreciate the true value of anything, whether it is an object or a relationship. We are letting go of a precious opportunity to drill in our kids a respect for resources and to ward off the evil eye of materialism and use-and-throw attitude. Will this year provide us wisdom to see this issue with new eyes? Hackneyed package tours Recently, one of the schools took the children for a school picnic — a package tour to a privately managed artificially created site. They charged a hefty sum for each child, which included a heavy meal and activities like rifle shooting. Many of the kids fell ill after the picnic. Do you think the children enjoyed the artificial surroundings or a package which was thrust upon them? The whole exercise was thoroughly unimaginative on part of the school authorities albeit hassle free for them. What happened to the good old school outings where there were healthy snacks and activities involving lots of running, jumping, singing, dancing, just plain playing and taking in the serenity of nature — all organised by the school staff and senior students? That way we learnt organising skills, team spirit, and sense of pride in our school. Today, most of the school authorities blame the parents for demanding hi-fi facilities for their wards, but I think the schools are also happy to wash their hands off and outsource the whole thing. Will this year bring a change? I am sure as you read this, you will be nodding your head and saying these things cannot be done, too much idealistic, too impractical. Parents or students or schools will not agree to this, but no excuse should be strong enough to distract us from achieving our goal of holistic well-being of our children. Don’t you think so? |
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Concern over UK student visa cuts
TOUGHER restrictions aimed at restricting the amount of time foreign graduates can stay in Britain on student visas could force more companies to go abroad, one of David Cameron’s business advisers has warned.
Vacuum cleaner tycoon Sir James Dyson, who sits on the Prime Minister’s business advisery group, said he was “extremely concerned” at recent changes which will cut the number of non-EU students in the country. Last week, UK Home Secretary Theresa May unveiled plans that could cut the number of foreign students and their dependants coming to Britain by around 1,00,000 a year. She announced tighter restrictions on how long students could stay in the UK, before and after the end of their courses — including a rule that they must find a job that pays at least £20,000 a year. Theresa May said: “We will limit the overall time that can be spent on a student visa to three years at lower levels, as now, and five years at higher levels.” But Sir James, who also headed an innovation taskforce for Cameron, said it was “sheer madness” to be “effectively chucking out” skilled engineering graduates from the UK. He told BBC Radio 4’s The World this Weekend: “I am extremely concerned because already England is under-producing the numbers of engineers it needs by 50 per cent. “There are 37,000 vacancies a year and about 20,000 graduates. So already it is very, very difficult to find engineers. “I think it is sheer madness to be effectively chucking out graduates who we desperately need. “I am afraid what it will end up doing is driving firms like us abroad because we simply can’t get people to do our research and development.” Put to him claims by the government that of the students affected, only about half end up in skilled employment in the two years they stay on after graduating and around a fifth end up unemployed, Sir James said: “I don’t think that is the case with engineering students, I would be extremely surprised if almost any of the engineering students were not finding gainful employment almost immediately.” Sir James said the government had “done some of the right things” in the Budget to encourage research and development but on visas said: “Think again on engineering, I don’t know about people learning English and that sort of thing, but when it comes to technology give them the visas and keep them here.” — The Independent
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Campus Notes
A poster entitled "Sustainable Solutions for Solid Waste Management — A Review", presented by Mandeep Kaur, Rajneet Kaur Soodan, Vaneet Kumar, Jatinder Kaur Katnoria and Avinash Nagpal of the Department of Botanical and Environmental Sciences of the university, was adjudged the best poster in a poster presentation contest held during a UGC-sponsored national seminar on "Solid Waste Management". The seminar was orgainsed by the P.G. Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Lyallpur Khalsa College, Jalandhar. TCS honours topper A two-member team of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a well-known IT company, visited the university campus recently to honour the topper of B.Tech (Computer Science and Engineering) of the 2011 batch (till 6th semester), Manveet Kaur. The TCS team included Shaquat Hussain and Rajit Sikka. Dr Inderjit Singh, Registrar, was the chief guest. He presented a gold medal, certificate of appreciation and cash reward of Rs 10,000 for her outstanding performance in academics on behalf of TCS. Speaking on the occasion, Dr Singh said time management and hard work were the keys to success. Earlier, Dr Hardeep Singh, Professor In Charge, Placements, welcomed the chief guest and the TCS team. Dr K. S. Kahlon, Dean, Faculty of Engineering; Harish Sharma, Professor In Charge, Public Relations; Amit Chopra, Assistant Placement Officer; and other faculty members of the Computer Science and Engineering Department were also present on the occasion. Seminar on employment generation A national seminar on "Infrastructure and Employment Generation in Punjab: Perspectives and Challenges" was organised under the UGC’s special assistance programme recently. The seminar highlighted the lack of marketing infrastructure in Punjab, shortage of infrastructure in rural border areas, especially in terms of lack of health, education facilities, sewerage, impassable roads, etc., and fall in organised industrial employment in manufacturing sector. Dr Janak Raj Gupta, UGC emeritus fellow and member of the Pujab State Planning Board, in his keynote address stressed the need for PPP (public private partnership) model for building infrastructure, particularly on the BOT (build own and transfer) principle, where by the private sector was encouraged to build and operate a particular infrastructure facility like road, power, etc., for a specified period as agreed with the government. After the expiry of the period, the facility would go back to the government. Prof. Surinder Singh, Dean, Academic affairs, highlighted various malpractices in the implementation of the MNREGA programme in Punjab. He also recommended that the wage rate, labour-material ratio and funds for public health services be increased under the programme. New appointments Prof. Rajinderjit Kaur Pawar of the Law Department has been appointed as Dean, Academic Affairs, for a period of one year beginning from April 1, while the term of Prof. M.P.S. Ishar, Dean, Students Welfare, and Prof. Hardeep Singh, Dean, Alumni Association, has been extended till March 31, 2012. Prof. Pawar will also hold the additional charge of Director, Department of Life-Long Learning, for the same period. According to Dr Inderjit Singh, Registrar, the appointments have been made by the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Ajaib Singh Brar. Meanwhile, the term of Dr Pawan Kumar as Associate Dean, Academic Affairs, at the University Regional Campus, Gurdaspur, has also been extended till March 31, 2012, while Prof. Tejinder Kaur, who is holding the same office at the University Regional Campus, Jalandhar, will continue till her superannuation falling on August 18 this year. — Contributed by G. S. Paul
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Test"
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