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| Tuesday, July 25, 2000, Chandigarh, India |
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‘Kids love activity-based teaching’ CHANDIGARH, July 24 —The British education system could pick up a lot from the education system prevailing in India, said Ms Eleanor Watts, an author of a series of books for primary school children and a renowned teacher trainer of the UK. She was here today in the city to conduct a workshop for primary school teachers, organised by Orient Longman. A British national, she was born and brought up in India. Her father was a British Ambassador to India long time ago. She did her schooling from Burma, Pakistan and India and was aware of the type of education system in India and other countries. She was also running a primary school in Andhra Pradesh for six years. She spent a long time in the country as a school teacher, a teacher-trainer and an educationist. She had innovated, practised and taught various new methods of teaching in the field of primary education. She had already trained many teachers in India, Britain, France, Norway, Lebanon and many other countries in the field of primary school teaching. She was of the opinion that an average Indian knew more compared to an average British student. This was due to the reason that Indian education system laid special emphasis on knowledge and the students had relatively better memory compared to British students. The British system on the other hand inculcated skills to help students express themselves. However, the Indian system lagged here. The Indian students, although much more knowledgeable, found it difficult to apply their knowledge at several points, said Ms Watts. She felt that Indian students were much more motivated, which was a spirit inculcated by the prevailing system. She found it better to teach a class of 30 in the UK than a class of 60 in India. “You can always create right atmosphere in the class of lesser number of students. Moreover, if you make your students indulge in an activity that helps in better learning, then it becomes all the more difficult to manage a class with a large number of
students," she said. In her system of education, environmental studies, ( EVS), was a new approach in the teaching of subjects, including science, history, geography and civics which advocated learning through observation, exploration, analysis, interpretation and appreciation of natural and social environment. The methods of EVS included focus on familiar environment of the child, promote learning through simple but enjoyable activities and teach the children to care for their
environment. "The young children do not think in abstract ways. They learn best in terms of their own lives including homes, families, bodies , food and like. These are the ideas that form the basis of EVS in junior classes,” said Ms Watts. “Children always love activity-based teaching. To adopt activity -based learning, there is a lot of change needed in the attitude of parents. They want regular testing of the students, which encourages cramming of the subject. The children have short-term memory and they tend to forget very easily. When they learn from their experiences, they tend to retain it for longer periods,” she said. She said she was against computers at primary school level. “The children need to be active when they learn but the computers make them sit without activity for hours. The computer games are all about speed, hitting somebody and shooting at somebody. These games were responsible for drilling violence into students brains,” she added. |
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Senior secondary results out SAS NAGAR, July 24 — A heavy rush of students was witnessed at the enquiry counter of the Punjab School Education Board here today as the board authorities came out with the result gazette of candidates of the vocational stream and private candidates of humanities stream of the senior secondary examinations. Stung by criticism in the media about the delay in declaration of the results, the board officials today refused to provide details about the details of the result of the private candidates of the humanities stream and vocational stream. In a departure from the earlier practice, when details of the result were made available to the media, the Controller of Examination chose to issue a brief press release. Efforts by mediapersons to know about the details of the result were futile. Meanwhile, harried students could be seen making frantic efforts to know their result. Those candidates with result late award awaited (RLA) against their roll number could be seen running from pillar to post to get provisional result card. As per the figures released by the board, 75,427 private candidates appeared in the examination. However, the number of private candidates who passed were not available with the board authorities. The Punjab School Education Board (non-teaching) Employees Union blamed the officials of the examination branch for the delay and errors in the result, putting the students to harassment. They said the result of the Class XII examination had never been declared in four parts in the past. In the result gazette of candidates of the vocational stream, made available to the public today, a number of cases of RLA have come to light. Earlier, a number of cases of RLAs of regular candidates in humanities stream had come to light, which the board authorities claimed had been rectified in the supplementary gazette made available to the public today. The result of a number of students of vocational stream of Government Senior Secondary School, Kishanpur, Government Senior Secondary School, Mullanpur, Government Senior Secondary School, Nangal, Government Senior Secondary School, Noorpur Bedi, — all in Ropar district — have been shown as RLA in the gazette. The result of the entire students of vocational stream of Government Senior Secondary School, Dina Nagar, Government Senior Secondary School, Gurdaspur, Government Senior Secondary School, Bhoa — all in Gurdaspur district — is again shown as RLA in the gazette. In another case, the entire result of Government Senior Secondary School, Adampur, and Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Goraya, — both in Jalandhar district — have been again shown as RLA. In another glaring mistake on page 68 of the result gazette for Ropar district, there are mistakes in printing of the roll numbers. The result of the private candidates, which was prepared manually as well as on computer, has less mistakes. |
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Workshop for primary
teachers CHANDIGARH,
As many as 75 primary school teachers from 28 city schools participated in the workshop where Ms Eleanor Watts, a British national and teacher trainer, emphasised on the primary education to be based on observation, exploration, analysis and interpretation. The participants were introduced skills to enliven the classroom by introducing activities related to difficult subjects like science and social studies. The participants kept glued to the chairs throughout the day listening to the trainer. In the workshop the materials which can be readily made available like utensils, rubber bands, card board boxes, balloons were used. “We learnt planning of lesson and creating the right kind of atmosphere in the class that can lead to an easy and quick learning. We could make out that it was not always necessary to go to a laboratory to show simple experiments and it was possible in the classroom itself.” said Ms Harkirat, a primary teacher in Shivalik Public school. Ms Varinder Kaur of Learning Edge said: “The common system of primary education is very monotonous. Here we have learnt that if the learning is based on activity it can really bring about good results. Whole of the class can be involved in this kind of learning.” “It is essential to provide children with a chance to be active while they are learning — to play educative games, enact drama, survey and experiment. This helps in effective learning because the children enjoy it and it lasts long.” said Ms Watts. |
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Admission
rush in English Department CHANDIGARH,
The department office said that the number of students seeking admission to MA English had increased over the years. Candidates talking to TNS said that the use of English as an international language had been established and was becoming almost an essential qualification for most jobs. Although the general trend of students is to go in for job-oriented vocational courses, the English language still retains its charm over students wanting to make a career in academics. |
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Harassed students await marksheets CHANDIGARH, July 24 — Even weeks after the results of various graduate and undergraduate classes having been declared by the Panjab University, the detail marksheets of the candidates have failed to reach even local colleges. The examination Branch of the university’s administration block is witness to long queues, with harassed parents and students waiting for hours to receive their provisional marksheets for admissions to their next classes. These admissions start on July 27. The result of 20,560 students of BA III year and 3,994 students of
B.Com III year was declared on July 11, while that of 1,752 students of BSc III year was declared on July 6. Most of the local colleges had received detail marks certificate (DMC) of BA III year and BSc III year but the
B.Com III year DMCs were still being awaited at some of the colleges. Most colleges reported that the DMCs never reached the college in time to be given to the students. Generally the college staff is sent to procure the results and the DMCs from the university as these rarely reach in time on their own. Worse still is the situation of the private candidates, many of whom throng the university each day to get the provisional DMCs in order to be able to apply to the next classes or to show the same at the time of admission. These students stand and wait in queues for hours for their turn to get the marksheets. The Joint Controller of Examinations said the DMCs were thousands in number and it took more than just a week to prepare them manually. He also said his office was working hard to make these reach in time to the colleges and students. The Dean, University Instruction, Mr Ashok Sahni, has directed the Registrar to open more counters for these students so that the rush at one point is reduced and the waiting period for the students can be reduced. Approval regarding opening of more counters has been taken from the Vice-Chancellor also, but the DUI says this may take a few days to start functioning. |
Bengal art — where simplicity is the forte CHANDIGARH, July 24 — From the frescos at Ajanta and the Mughal, Rajput and Pahari miniatures to a soft portrayal of unassuming village life — the artists of the Bengal School of Art have always sought inspiration from varied sources. All along, the attempt of the artists who profess to this school has been a `reflection of the natural’. So even when they focused on Chinese scrolls and Japanese woodcuts, they did not forget to merge these themes with those which emanate from the Indian heritage, both mythology and religion. The pleasant merger of various art forms emphasised by the Bengal artists’ is currently on display at Art Folio, Sector 9, where four artists have put up their works, primarily executed in water colours. Most of the 28 frames seem to be inspired by the Japanese wash technique which creates a mystic sense of space and atmosphere, diluting the impact of colour. While 16 works come under the signature of Sovan Das, a vibrant artist from Bengal, the rest have been created by Subrota Das, Bima Poddar and Asit Sarkar. This exhibition is the second in a series of exhibitions by the Bengal artists in the city. The first exhibition was held last year at the same venue and the works of the artists had been highly appreciated. The works are all soft and subtle, but powerful in their impact. All the four artists seem to be highly rooted in heritage, as is clear from their conscious effort to eulogise the villager, a simple man wedded to the concept of dignity of labour. Many paintings capture the spirit of the rural masses who are shown to be content after earning their daily bread. Soft colours have been used to specify the beauty of women. A dominant feature of the works is their naturalness which has been preserved uniformly. There is no special effect to mar the delightful appeal of the works. Another feature is the recurrence of streamlets in the paintings. highlighting the role of water in the life of an average Bengali villager. Romance is expressed in undertones, especially in one work where a couple walks by the bank of a river and flowers seem to bloom in welcome. Apart from the village theme, there are two works by Sovan Das which stand out for their dexterous employment of charcoal. One shows horses competing closely with each other, a beautiful portrayal of aggression of the animal vis-a-vis human nature. Then there is one frame by Asit Satkar in which he paints bright flowers, signifying the meaning of life. Boats in the river Hoogly also comprise a part of the collection. The exhibition is open for the public between 11 am and 7 pm. |
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Human concerns in animal images Young Rajat Barun Mahapatra sat in the small shop in Calcutta that served as his dwelling and gazed across the road at students of Government College of Art, sketching and painting street scenes outside the college. Watching them roused the artist in him and he started making sketches of antiques in the museum, and the life around Howrah Bridge. The effort proved useful since it earned him admission to the Indian College of Art from where he did a five-year diploma course in 1995. Rajat Barun had left his home in Modhabarh in Midnapore district and set off for Calcutta with nothing more to support him than an urge to do something. Fate and circumstances took him to the world of art. After completing his course he stayed on in Calcutta, trying to make a place for himself among the city’s artists. But the “City of Joy” did not seem to treat him well and soon he discovered that he had to move out of this city in search of recognition and employment as an artist. In 1997 he migrated to Delhi. He found the atmosphere in the Capital more congenial. The established artists were helpful and co-operative. He was able to sell some of his paintings. That raised his confidence in himself and he held his first solo exhibition in the galleries of Rabindra Bhavan. The response gave a further boost to his morale and he has now settled in Delhi and is making a living as an artist. In his early days his paintings revolved around themes such as neglect and exploitation of women and social discrimination against the deprived sections of society. But the disturbed mind of this young artist visualises a different world on this planet. His own hardships and agony have also left an indelible mark on his mind, and his main concern has focused on the growing insensitivity of man towards man. He expresses these concerns by painting animals for in them he sees the true nature of man. Cats, deer, cows, buffaloes, dogs and fish are the most common images in his paintings. He uses red to express anger, blue to show love and green to indicate peace. Even if he paints the dark side of man, his paintings do have a glimmer of hope. Rajat Barun held an exhibition of his works at IndusInd Bank Art Gallery in Chandigarh last month. With his perseverance, commitment and talent, he is bound to carve a niche for himself in the world of art.
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Prem Singh |
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