EDUCATION

Youth festival concludes
From Our Correspondent

LUDHIANA, Nov 23 — In contrast to a feeble response received on first three days of the zonal youth festival at Khalsa College for Women, a thunderous response was received from the audience on the concluding day.

Principals and teachers from participating colleges had come to view the various dance items, including classical, folk dance and group dances. Students of the host college who used to generally move out of the college in the afternoon, were seen in the long queues, even blocking traffic, for getting inside their campus. A check was being made at the gate as the students from rest of the eight colleges, other than the participants, were not allowed to enter the gates because of space problem.

After getting first two prizes in debate and first in histrionics, even today the students of the host college got first prizes in classical dance and group dance items. This raised furore among students of several other contesting colleges who said that there was some parity in the judgement. Some contestants of debate competition held yesterday said that while it was their turn, the mikes failed to work, thus causing confusion to the participants from other colleges.

In today’s contests, students from five of the nine colleges participated in both the classical solo dance and group dance items. All participants of classical dance performed kathak, while in the group dance, some of them performed Rajasthani dance, while others performed Haryanvi dance.

The results of today’s items are : Classical dance — Sukhleen Minhas of Khalsa College for Women (1); Sheetal from SDP College (2); and Harpreet from Guru Nanak Khalsa for Women (3).

Group dance — Khalsa College for Women (1); SDP College for Women (2); and Government College for Women (3)

Individual performance in group dance — Surbhi Jain of Khalsa College for Women (1); Seema of SDP College (2); and Aanchal of Government College for Women (3).

The results of the items held in the evening session yesterday are : Play — Ramgarhia Girls College (1); Mata Ganga College for Women, Kotan, (2); and Khalsa College for Women (3).

Orchestra — Ramgarhia Girls College (1); Khalsa College for Women (2); Master Tara Singh Memorial College for Women (3).

Individual prizes for orchestra — Divya Gupta of Ramgarhia Girls College for Jal tarang (1); Harjinder of Ramgarhia Girls College for Santoor (2).

Debate — Jaspreet Kaur of Khalsa College for Women (1); Jimmy Ghai of Khalsa College for Women (2); Shivani Jain of SDP College for Women (3).

Histrionics — Khalsa College for Women (1); Government College for Women (2); Ramgarhia Girls College (3).

Library without funds
By Asha Ahuja

LUDHIANA, Nov 23 — The Government Girls Senior Secondary School here has a huge compound. Some classes are even held under trees. The library is a big hall but it shows every sign of bad-maintenance. The walls cry for a coat of paint, loose wires hang from the ceiling and bulbs have no shades.

The hall is divided into two parts. One of used as a common room and the other has shelves for books. It contains 6546 books and subscribes to eight magazines and three newspapers. Every class has a library period in its time-table and thus students have to visit the library regularly.

The Acting Principal, Mrs Promila Arora, is a physics teacher and she has added a number of science books to the library.

A couple of teachers sitting outside the library admitted that they visited the library to read newspapers or magazines concerning home decoration, knitting etc.

Some plus one and plus two students said they did not visit the library because it did not contain books relating to their courses. Some others said they often borrowed novels from the library, and also read magazines.

The Principal said the teachers read books on knitting because it was their favourite activity.

According to Mr Jaspreet Mohan, Lecturer in Commercial Art, the school has a ‘career wing’ where vocational guidance is given. It has courses in commercial art, garment making, typewriting and short hand, food and nutrition, and electronics. Books relating to these subjects are stored in their respective rooms.

There is a grant of Rs 2000 for books in each subject but for the last two years no amount has been received. So, the library has stopped growing. Since it is totally funded by the Punjab Government, there are no funds other than the grants. So their hands are tied and they cannot purchase more books for want of funds, he says.

PAU teachers resent Paroda’s shifting
From Our Correspondent

LUDHIANA, Nov 23 — In a letter written to the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, Dr Hari Singh Brar and Dr M.L. Gupta, president and secretary of the PAU Teachers association respectively, have registered their strong resentment against the shifting of Dr R.S. Paroda from the position of Director-General, Indian Council of Agriculture. Research and Secretary, Department of Agriculture. Research and Education, Govt of India. They appreciated the pro-scientist and pro-farmer approach of Dr Paroda.

According to the PAUTA functionaries, Dr Paroda initiated the formulation of Vision-2020 for all state agricultural universities and ICAR institutes and their accreditation and self-assessment as new paradigms of agricultural progress in the country.

Dr Brar and Dr Gupta have also flayed the move to separate the position of Secretary, Department of Agricultural Research and Education from that of ICAR and to place it under the control of an IAS officer. ‘‘Only the scientists and technologists and not the administrators can bring the country out of the present economic crisis” said Dr Brar and Dr Gupta.

They have, therefore, urged the Prime Minister to reconsider the decision with regard to the shifting of Dr Paroda and restore the coordinated functioning of ICAR and DARE under the single administrative control of the Director General, ICAR.

PAU advances exam dates
From Our Correspondent

LUDHIANA, Nov 23 — The academic council of Punjab Agricultural University has decided in its 263rd meeting held on November 17 that the final examinations of the undergraduate students of the College of Agriculture and the College of Home Science of the current semester will be held from December 13 to December 21.

However, in the College of Veterinary Sciences and the College of Agricultural Engineering the undergraduate students will take their final exams from December 6 to December 14.

It is learnt that the final exams of the College of Agriculture and the College of Home Science students have been delayed due to strike by the students in September and October.

In accordance with the calendar approved by the council before the start of the current semester, the final exams were to be held from December 21 to December 29.

However, the council decided to advance their dates in view of the national games at that time.

Now, the next semester will start from January 8.

College row affects academic work
From Our Correspondent

LUDHIANA, Nov 23 — The controversy over the extension given to Ms Kuldip Kaur, Principal of Master Tara Singh Memorial College for Women, has now started affecting the academic atmosphere of the college.

A visit to the college revealed that a majority of the students had not come anticipating a strike today following yesterday’s dharna by 15 confirmed lecturers of the college. The attendance registers shown by the teachers to this correspondent revealed that in most of the classes attendance was not more than 25 per cent. The teachers said it was very difficult for them to take classes in such circumstances as they felt that it was a loss to the students who did not come to the college.

It was also observed that even though the students were generally not allowed to move out of the college before the sixth period, which is around 1:30 pm, more than 80 students of the college had moved out of the college till 12:30 pm after seeking permission from the Principal. The Principal, when contacted, said that the girls told her that their teachers were sitting on a dharna and were not holding classes. Since most of the students were coming from far off places, they were allowed to go home, informed the Principal.

Talking to Ludhiana Tribune, the teachers sitting on dharna said they were sitting on dharna only in their free periods and despite short attendance, they were taking classes in a normal fashion.

The teachers were wearing black badges in protest against the ‘‘indiscriminate’’ attitude of the management as they said that if the Principal was given two years extension after retirement, a lecturer of political science, Ms Gursharan Kaur, should also be given extension.

The protesting teachers also informed that majority of the ad hoc teachers were sent with the college students participating in the zonal youth festival at Khalsa College for Women and that was the reason why some of the classes were not being taken.

Complaining about the violation of rules in the college, the teachers informed that in normal circumstances, the total number of students in a class even extended beyond 80, against the rules set by Panjab University. The teachers said this was being done because the college was short of staff.

The history teacher showed a register which revealed that there were 92 students in BA(I) and 110 students in BA(III). The Hindi teacher informed that there were 125 students in BA(I) and 85 students in the plus two classes.

The Principal, however, denied any shortage of staff and said the teachers had themselves clubbed different sections to save their time and efforts. 

PCCTU seeks intervention into college row
From Our Correspondent

LUDHIANA, Nov 23 — In a letter addressed to the Deputy Commissioner, Mr S.K. Sandhu, the Punjab and Chandigarh Teachers’ Union has sought his intervention into the ongoing controversy regarding extension to Principal Ms Kuldip Kaur of Master Tara Singh Memorial College for Women.

Professor Sodhi, president of the union, has stated that there was mismanagement in the affairs of the college because of complete ignorance of the authorities about the university statutes and legalities regarding the grant-in-aid scheme they received from the government.

He said the college management had to pay for the salary of the Principal for which the grant had been denied from the government. He said that this money could be used to raise the emoluments of ad hoc staff who was being paid meagre salary.

He has also stated that even though the president of the management, Mr Arjan Singh, had assured on November 15 and November 17 that post of the Principal would be advertised within two days, nothing has been done.