EDUCATION

An educationist with a mission
By Asha Ahuja

She has been the In charge of Arya College for Girls for the past three decades. She has seen the college start with 150 students and seen the strength of the college increase to 1,500 students. Ms Satisha Sharma has nurtured the college from its infancy. At present, the college is running not only graduate classes but post graduate classes in History and Political Science.

Ms Sharma is a well qualified with Masters degrees in History and Political Science to her credit. A B.Ed. degree enabled her to become the Principal of a School in Machhiwara soon after graduation. At Malwa College of Education, she was declared the best all round student. Her academic career has been brilliant and so has been her professional career as a Principal.

She has been given several titles like ‘Jhansi ki Rani and ‘Iron Lady’ by various people for her strong determination to do the right thing, to stand for the right cause even if it meant taking the problems head on. When they shifted to the present building of the college from Malerkotla House, the playground was frequented by all sorts of people. But she drove those people away and now no suspicious person can enter the college.

She stands by traditional values like ‘Matri dev bhavo, pitri dev bhavo, acharya dev bhavo’ meaning that all the students must respect their parents and the teachers. All her endeavours are meant to maintain the lofty traditions of our past which the modern generation is forgetting under the influence of Western culture. She has a great love for Hindi. Infact, she spoke in Hindi throughout her interview. Under her leadership, the college has produced talented sportsperson and helped in development of all round personality, of students.

She is greatly moved by the problems of the economically weaker sections of the society. She says, “All those girls , who are really interested in studying, should get a chance to continue their education. So, I request the business people, clubs and teachers to contribute and have set up scholarships for such girls. We even provide books free of cost to the needy and deserving students. We run a Nursery Teachers’ Training Course and it gives me great happiness when our students are offered jobs in the institutions where they go for teaching practice. I am very particular about the character building aspect of the students. So in the mornings, we have recitals of mantras and we perform hawans every fortnightly. All those students, who had their birthdays during those 15 days, are made yajmans. They perform the havans and feel good.”

Ms Satisha Sharma’s entire family is into academics and she feels teaching is in their blood. She wants people to respect our own culture like blowing out candles on birthday is considered a bad omen in our culture. Her message is ‘Vidwan bano, gulam nahin’. She has been conferred a Maha Maho Upadhya Degree from Sahitya Sammelan, Prayag.

PAU PULSE
Communal harmony fest concludes
From Our Correspondent

LUDHIANA, Feb 28 — Inter-school poetry and folk singing contests marked the concluding day of the communal harmony festival organised by the Education Department (Schools), Punjab, in association with the National Foundation for Communal Harmony, New Delhi, at Government Senior Secondary Model School, Punjab Agricultural University here today.

In poetry recitation contest, Parminder Singh of Government Senior Secondary School, Amloh, stood first, Jaspreet Kaur of Dashmesh Senior Secondary School, Ludhiana, got second position and Navjot Kaur of Government Model School, Cemetery Road, and Manjit Kaur of Government Senior Secondary Model School were bracketed third.

Prize distribution ceremony was also held later. For declamation contests held yesterday, Surbhi Jyoti and Mona Duggal from Shivdevi Girls’ High School, Jalandhar, got the first prize. Manpreet Kaur and Taranjit Kaur of Ramgarhia Girls’ Senior Secondary School, Millerganj, were declared second. Amarjot Singh and Yogesh Sharma of Government Multipurpose Senior Secondary School won the third prize.

In painting contest held last evening, Nidhi Ahuja of RS Model Senior Secondary School stood first. The second prize went to Manpreet of Government Multipurpose Senior Secondary School, Roop Khangura of BCM Arya Model Senior Secondary School and Shivali of RS Model Senior Secondary School. Third prize was given to Meenakshi Dey of Government Senior Secondary Model School, PAU, Archana Bedi, BCM Arya Model Senior Secondary School, and Amit Singh of Everest Senior Secondary School.

Ms Gurcharan K. Kochhar, Mr P.L. Nirmal and Mr Paramjit Singh, all teachers from the host school, coordinated the various contests.

Flower show concludes: 

A flower show was organised yesterday by the Department of Floriculture and Landscaping at the Examination Hall of College of Agriculture, PAU, it was inaugurated by the Pro Vice-Chancellor, PAU, Dr K.S. Aulakh. The prizes were given away by the Vice-Chancellor, PAU, Dr G.S. Kalkat, today.

There were different categories in flower arrangements for private individuals, and a separate category for government and semi-government and private institutions and nurseries. Some entries had come from Jalandhar and Patiala too.The results of the Flower Show are as follows :Class A: Manpreet Dhami 1; Class B: Kavneej Kaur, GNPS, Sarabha Nagar 1; Class C: Shashi Jain, Surya Florist 1; Class D: Kewal Singh, Jalandhar 1; Class F-1: Technocare Nursery; Class F-2: GNPS, Sarabha Nagar; Class-G: Gurpreet Kaur; Class-H: Mohammad Akhtar, Malerkotla.

367 homoeopaths awarded diplomas
From Our Correspondent

LUDHIANA, Feb 28 — Nearly 367 students of six homeopathic colleges of the state have been awarded diploma certificate in homoeopathy for the past two years. Diploma certificates were awarded by Dr Rattan Singh Ajnala, Minister for Animal Husbandry, Punjab.

Dr Ajnala called upon the homeopathic doctors to concentrate and acquire excellence in the treatment of particular diseases so that they could serve the patients in a better way. He advised the homoeopaths to make experiments of homoeopathic medical sciences on the animals. He said homeopathy had shown excellent results in the treatment of various skin and heart related ailments and bronchitis.

Dr Ajnala said the doctors should extend medical facilities to the poor patients with the spirit of service to the humanity.

The minister assured that he would take up the matter of affiliation of remaining four homoeopathic colleges in Punjab with Baba Farid Medical University. He also warned the against the exploitation of the innocent students by some illegal and unrecognised institutions which were running purely as commercial establishment and ruining the lives of the youth. He said the state government would not hesitate to take strict action against such exploiters.

Addressing the function, Mr Sat Pal Gosain, Deputy Speaker, Punjab Vidhan Sabha, exhorted the homoeopaths to serve earnestly and dedicatedly in treating the poor patients who were unable to afford and costly treatment for fatal diseases.

Dr S.P.S. Bakshi, President, Central Homoeopathic Council, announced that MD classes in homoeopathy would be started at Sri Guru Nanak Dev Homeopathic College, Ludhiana, soon.

Six prominent persons were honoured for their outstanding contribution in the field of homoeopathic education. These included Dr S PS Bakshi, Dr O.P. Vig, Dr S.K. Puri, Dr K. C. Batish of Patiala, Dr Ravinder Kochhar, Principal, Lord Mahavir Homoeopathic College, Ludhiana, and Dr Karam Singh, Chairman, Managing Committee, Sri Guru Nanak Dev Homoeopathic College, Ludhiana. Besides, Dr A.S. Mann from Sangrur was honoured with Dr Hahnneman Award for this year.

Among others who addressed the function were Mr Manpreet Singh Badal, MLA, Dr Bhupinder Singh, President, Council of Homoeopathy, Punjab, Dr Karam Singh, President, Management Committee of College, Dr Tejinder Singh, and Mr Sanjay Popli, Director, Homoeopathy, Punjab.