EDUCATION

Hansraj Public School wins quiz 
From Our Correspondent

CHANDIGARH, Aug 8 — The Discovery Channel Quiz is all set to capture and excite 29,000 school students from all over 900 schools in 18 cities across India.The multi-city audio visual quiz started from Bangalore on July 24.

The session of Discovery Channel Quiz was held here today at Tagore Theatre. As many as 28 schools and 600 students participated in the quiz.The questions asked were basically related to the programmes beamed on the channel. The entire quiz was based on the audio video clips and related to nature, history, science and technology, human adventure and world culture.

The quiz started at about 9.15 am with the preliminary round. The students from different schools participated in this round. The quiz was divided in two age-group students from Class VIII to Class X in the senior group and Class V to Class VII in the junior group. Derek O' Brien hosted the event.

In each senior and junior section six teams participated and two teams were declared winners. The winners in both the senior and junior section won a cash prize of Rs 5,000 per team, along with a silver plaque and a bicycle from Hero Cycles for each winner. The runner up team in both categories was given a cash prize of Rs 3,000 per team. The winning team from all 18 cities will be angling for a national prize of Rs 10,000 for each team in both categories.The national runner up team will also win a cash prize of Rs 75,000 per team in both categories.

The children participated with great enthusiasm in the quiz. They were all set and geared up to answer the tough questions of Derek. Mr Mannas Mohan, Associate Director, Discovery Channel, gave away prizes to winners. Discovery Channel T-shirts were also given away to audience answering the correct answer.

St John's School for Boys bagged the first prize in the junior section and St Peter School was the first runner up. Gurkaran Singh and Tarun Preet Singh with 371 points were first, whereas Jessica Shergill and Jasmine Singh with 316 points were the first runner up.

Hansraj Public School emerged as the winner in the senior section and St John's School for Boys was the first runner up. Arun Koul and Rajat Sharma with 348 points bagged the first prize whereas Gunjit Singh and Danish Gill were the first runner up. 

Admission to increased seats with late fee?
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 8 — The notification regarding the increase in the number of seats for BBA, BCA and BCom courses has not been received by any of the colleges in Chandigarh, but it has been decided by most colleges to admit students to these seats with late fee. This increase had been demanded by some colleges, the decision regarding which had been taken by the Syndicate on August 4.

Since the notification regarding the same has not been received there is a problem of admitting candidates from the waiting lists to these seats. The last date for admissions was August 4 and admissions to BCom, BBA and BCA had been completed by most colleges in the month of July. With the change in criteria for admissions to BCom and BCA, the various colleges had prepared the merit lists again and admitted students. Since the number of seats have to be increased from this session the various principals have decided to consult their waiting lists and call students for counselling. Some other colleges have decided to start the process only after receiving the notification to this effect. The students will be taking admission after paying late fee with the permission of the principal.

The Deputy Registrar, Colleges, Panjab University, yesterday said he had as yet not received the decision letter of the Syndicate meeting and so a notification regarding the matter cannot be issued. It is noteworthy that after August 14, the admissions to colleges will only be possible with payment of late fee along with the permission of the Vice-Chancellor.

Salaries of part-time lecturers slashed
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 8 — The part-time lecturers in the local government colleges are at the receiving end with the Chandigarh Administration, in all its wisdom, deciding to slash their salaries further.

In a letter circulated to the principals of the government colleges, the DPI(Colleges), Mr K.A.P. Sinha, said, “It has come to the notice of the Education Department that part-time lecturers are being paid as per work load allotted to them and not on the basis of actual teaching work. As per the instructions, a part-time lecturer, who actually teaches 84 periods in a month, is entitled to a payment of Rs 3,500 per month.”

Surprisingly, there is no such stringent condition for the regular lecturers, who are paid for more than the part-time lecturers.They are required to deliver only 72 lectures per month for getting full salary.

Going into the background of the salary structure of the part-time lecturers from the session 1996-97, the letter said that the part-time lecturers teaching for 20 or less periods a week would be paid Rs 2,200 and those teaching more than 20 periods a week could get Rs 3,500 per month.

Now the part-time lecturers, who are having the full workload and working against the sanctioned posts, will now be paid for Rs 2,200 for the month when there is no teaching — a clear violation of the orders of the Chandigarh Bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal(CAT).

It may be recalled the administration had released the arrears for “vacation” period since September, 1996, after the plight of lecturers was highlighted in the Chandigarh Tribune on December 1 last year. The SLP of the administration was dismissed by the Supreme Court on November 2 last year.

The letter urged the principals to work out over-payment made to the lecturers and recover the amount and also to fix the responsibility of the heads of the departments.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that the lecturers at Government College, Sector 46, have been paid at the rate of Rs 2,200 per month. To top it all, such lecturers have not been paid salaries for the past three months.

Many flaws in PU admission procedures
By Sanjeev Singh Bariana
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 8 — Getting admission in Panjab University teaching departments in the current mad rush is surely a gory experience for hundreds of students who look for their names on the department’s merit lists and find them missing because of high cut-off per centages.

In the current rush what would be your reaction in case of a girl student who read her name on the list of selected candidates in the morning and when she comes later her name is missing? Unfortunate! surely.

Novita Singh, daughter of a Lt-Col Bahadur Singh, applied for admission to MSc (honours) (chemistry) on June 28. All required certificates were attached along with the form. She had also deposited the required certificate supporting her claim in the ‘defence category’.

On clearing the entrance test, Novita was asked to appear for the interview in the department on August 2. According to the merit list placed in the department on August 1, Novita name appeared at number one for the vacancy in the defence category. Colonel Bahadur Singh said that “there was no other candidate in the merit list of the defence category”.

He maintained that on August 2, after having scrutinised the certificates and the admission form, Novita was informed that the seat in the defence category went to her around 1.30 p.m. But on August 4, when a fresh lists of the selected candidates was put up Novita name was replaced by another name.

On inquiring from the office it was discovered that father of the new candidate retired on July 31 and the certificate was submitted on August 2. One main contention is that the handbook clearly states that no changes were permissible later, so this form deposited later was a case of injustice. “A student reading her name on the list of selected candidates and seeing next day her name erased for no documentary fault”, a student said.

Colonel Bahadur Singh, in a letter to the Vice-Chancellor, has requested his intervention attaching along copies of relevant papers.

Prof B.M. Deb, Chairperson of the Chemistry Department, when contacted said that the case had been referred to the Vice-Chancellor. 

CULTURE

Play to underline dignity
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 8 — It all started from July 10 which marked the beginning of a new attempt by the Punjab Sangeet Natak Akademi which vowed to give shape to its attempt of furthering human dignity through theatre. The idea, which focused on taking theatre to every nook and corner of the rural Punjab, matured today in the form of staging of a Punjabi play directed and written by the veteran Punjabi artist Sardar Gursharan Singh.

The model production, titled Gatha ik Pind Di, staged in the precincts of the Punjab Kala Bhavan, Sector 16 today, must have left an indelible mark on the minds of those who had gathered to view it. The play cames after the concerted efforts put in by the 12 artists during the month-long theatre workshop at the Kala Bhavan.

The story revolved around a school teacher who is the centre of constructive activities in a remote village of Punjab where negative forces are also on the play. The school teacher (played by Jasbir Dhillon) is assisted in his work by another man — a retired subedar, (played by Sulaiman Bhat). The playwright deals sensitively with the issues close to a rural heart and successfully he conveys the importance of liberation and awareness.

The plot, after fighting the existing dogmas and customs, finally reaches a climax where all negative forces are at the mercy of goodness. All the enlightened citizens of the village get together to battle out the rigidities and they ultimately overpower the negative forces.

Other actors in the play were — Dilawar Sidhu, Honey Walia, Rajinder Pal Singh, Raman Dhillon, Harpinder Singh, Rashpal, Jaspal Deol, Rajesh and Jaspal Kaur. Sumit, a student of Indian Theatre Department, made light arrangements, while music was arranged by Charan Singh.

The play ended on an encouraging note and underlined the importance of one’s dignity.