EDUCATION

Scheme to educate kids under 14 
By Deepkamal Kaur

LUDHIANA, Sept 28 — Waking up to the dire need to bring complete literacy in Punjab, the government has decided to launch a new project under which children in the age group six to 14 years will be targeted.

Even though the actual implementation of the project will begin in January next year, major plans pertaining to the scheme have already been finalised by the government. The project has been divided into two parts, Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) and Alternative Innovative Scheme (AIE). While the former will be implemented outside a 1-km area of the formal schools and will extend for a period of at least three years, the latter will be worked out over areas within a 1-km area of the schools for a period of just six months.

Under the AIE, the children who are either drop-outs or are between the six-nine age group old will be selected. Such children and their parents will be motivated to send their wards back to school. Those children who would require some sort of revision of the earlier taught lessons in schools will be taught for a period of upto three months before they are restored back to regular schools.

Under the EGS scheme, children from the labour class and slum areas, who have never received any formal education and are generally above the age of ten years, will be taken. They will be made to attend regular classes and depending upon their grasping power, they will be taught for a suitable period after which they will be sent to regular schools.

Both the schemes will be implemented in rural as well as in urban areas. The required space will be taken up from the respective communities of the areas and no special centres will be constructed. The government will be spending basically on teaching aids. Mr Gurtej Singh, District Education Officer (Primary), Ludhiana, who will be directing the project for the district, said, ‘‘For teaching, volunteers who are at least class XII qualified will be selected and be paid an honorary salary of Rs 1000 per month. Their eligibility will be adjudged by written tests as well as interviews. After selection, the volunteers will be given a 30-days training at the Elementary Teachers’ Training (ETT) centres.’’

For the EGS scheme, a centre will be opened up at a place which has at least 15 children. There will be one instructor for every 40 children. Mr Rajinder Sharma, Block Education Officer here, informed, ‘‘Groups will be made according to calibre and age of the children. The centres will be operated six days a week and four hours a day. There will be no night classes. Play-way methods will be used for teaching the children so that they do not get over-burdened and enjoy studying.’’

Even though the total amount of money to be spent on the scheme has not been finalised, it is certain that the central government will be pooling three out of four parts while the state government will pay for one part of the total expenditure that will be incurred.

Presently, surveys regarding the areas to be targeted, communities to be involved, total expenditure that will be incurred, problems that are likely to cause hurdles in the scheme and finding suitable solutions to them are being carried out.

A project ‘Sakharta Samiti’ for bringing about adult education is already being run from May 1995 and presently education on various issues regarding health is being imparted in various tehsils of Punjab. 

Experts’ warning on American bollworm
From Our Correspondent

LUDHIANA, Sept 28 — Surveillance reports of cotton teams constituted by Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana for monitoring pest and disease incidence in Moga, Faridkot, Muktsar and Ferozepore districts of the state have indicated profuse egg laying by American bollworm. High build-up of whitefly has been recorded in Muktsar, Goniana, Tarkhanwala and in the Khoonan Kalan field areas. The surveillance was carried out in the third week of September 2000. It is likely that incidence of these pests might increase further if suitable measures are not taken immediately.

The farmers are advised not to spray synthetic pyrethroids on the crop at this stage. They should avoid the mixing of insecticides and spray the recommended insecticides such as chlorpyriphos at 2 litres/acre or acephate at 800 gm/acre or fenitrothion at 850 ml/acre in 125-150 litres of water to control American bollworm.

For whitefly management, farmers are advised to spray the crop with triazophos at 600 ml/acre or ethion at 800 ml/acre in 125-150 litres of water as soon as honeydew due to cotton whitefly is noticed on 50 per cent plants in the field.

GNEC to have another girls’ hostel
From Our Correspondent

LUDHIANA, Sept 28 — Guru Nanak Engineering College will soon have another girls hostel. This was announced by Bibi Jagir Kaur, president, Shromani Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), while presiding over a meeting of the college management at the college here today.

The bibi also declared that a 700-bed hospital would be set up at Guru Ramdas College, Amritsar, at the cost of Rs 28 crore. She also disclosed that ETC channel has tied up with SGPC for the telecast of kirtan and gurbani programmes from the Golden Temple, Amritsar. Though the channel would pay Rs 50 crore annually to the SGPC, an advance of Rs 2 crore has already been received.

The bibi declared that all this money would be spent on raising the standards and buying new equipment for various educational institutes of the SGPC.

Encourage innovative ideas: Khush
From Our Correspondent

LUDHIANA, Sept 28 — Dr Gurdev Singh Khush, eminent farm scientist and Principal,, International Rice Research Institute, Philippines, today visited the farm of Mr Daler Singh, an agricultural technocrat, at Laddowal village, about 20 km from here.

He also showed keen interest in various other projects of Mr Daler Singh where he has practised mixed cropping. The farmer has successfully grown mentha crop by mixed cropping with wheat, sugarcane and onion. The farm of Mr Daler Singh should set an example for other farmers, remarked Dr Khush.

Basic Sciences College steals show
From Our Correspondent

LUDHIANA, Sept 28 — A Quiz competition and poetry recitation followed by a poetic symposium, was organised at the 12th S. N. Kakkar Memorial Youth Festival today. College of Basic Sciences won with a margin of 67.5 marks, scoring a total of 117.5 marks. The team from the college included Mr Kavish Dhanda, Amit Sharma and Vibhour Bhatia.

The College Of Agricultural Engineering got second position with 50 marks. The credit goes to Anterpreet Singh,Atul Chander Malhotra and Sanjay Kumar. While Amardeep Singh, Nilambhar Singh and Manoj Tiwari of the College of the Agriculture stood third, with 35 points.

A poetry recitation competition was also organised in which six students participated. The results will be declared later. It was followed by a poetic symposium organised by Young Writers Association. Mr G.S. Gill attributed the function to Shahed Bhagat Singh Divas. It was judged by Bharatiya Sahit Akademy awardee Mr N. Tasneem, R. Bhattal and Kulwant Jagraon.

Last week, various other competitions were organised. Eight participants took part in the cartoon making and painting competitions held on September 23. The theme for the painting competition was ‘Dasehra’ while for the cartoon making the theme was ‘Dulhan hi dahej hai’.

Events like flower arrangement and clay modelling were held on September 24 at Students home. Only seven students participated in the flower arrangement competition. It was judged by Mr Amarjit Singh Dukhi, Mrs. Sangeeta Lamba, Mr Gurcharan Singh, Mr Mandeep Dua and Mr Jagpreet.

On September 25, a shabad gayan,classical vocal and instrumental competition was organised. A group of six students participated from five colleges at Pal Auditorium. Also, an extempore speech competition was organised. Twelve students competed in the event. Mr Jasbir Makkar, Mrs Sudershan Mehta and Mrs Poonam Lekhi judged the shabad gayan competition .

Debate and elocution were held on September 26. Four students from each college participated in the debate in which two students spoke for the motion and two against it. The topic for the debate was ‘’Devolution of greater powers to the state by the Centre will endanger the federal structure of India.’’ And the topic for elocution was ‘’Cable TV is responsible for devolution of moral values among youth. ‘’Only eight students participated in elocution.

The debate was conducted under the supervision of Mrs Santosh Kumar, Prof Inderjeet Singh and Prof Prem Singh Bajaj. Elocution was judged by Mrs Farhad Khan, Prof Satnam Singh and Mr. B.S. Parmar.

However, when this correspondent talked to Mr. Grewal, Students Welfare Officer, PAU, he informed that only two students from one college were allowed to participate in the events. He said these competitions were held at college-level earlier and those who were selected at the college-level could participate in the event.

He disclosed that the winners of this inter-college competitions would be sent for inter-university level competition.

PAU wears deserted look; strike continues
From Our Correspondent

LUDHIANA, Sept 28 — The campus of Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) wears a deserted look as the students’ of most of the colleges are on strike. Even the postgraduate students are not attending the classes.

In the morning today, the students of the College of Agriculture held a rally, outside the office of the Dean of the College.

Addressing the rally Mr Kamaljeet Singh, president PAU Student’s Association, said the students would be forced to intensify their agitation if their genuine demands concerning the creation of better employment opportunities for agricultural graduates and lifting of ban on the recruitment of Agricultural Development Officers(ADOs) and HDOs were not immediately conceded.

Later, they held a procession raising slogans against the authorities of the university and the Punjab Government.

Meanwhile, the Registrar has issued a revised schedule of the academic calendar for the current semester. Following a decision of Academic Council, he informed all Deans and Directors of the university that the mid-semester examinations which were scheduled to begin from October 6 would be held from October 12.