EDUCATION

Abhiyan to assess educational needs
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, April 28
The micro-survey, which the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan started from today for the actual assessment of educational needs of each sector, colony and village, will be based on information collected from house-to-house survey. The survey will also look for the educational facilities available in these areas.

The government school teachers from primary to senior secondary level will undertake the survey. Some of the private school teachers will also be a part of the survey.

In the survey, the schools will make efforts to get community support so that it becomes a movement of the people. The information collected will also be shared with the concerned community so that they may participate in the planning of universalisation of elementary education. They can cooperate through the Education Guarantee Scheme as well as alternative innovative education schemes.

Each school will maintain a record of all children between the age of 3 and 14. The schools and community will jointly analyse the problems of education in the particular locality to create awareness about the problems. They will further work out the strategies for enrolling the children which are out of school and the dropout children.

The alternative strategies will be worked out for the poor students to prepare them for formal education.

Special coaching centres and camps will also be set up to send them to school. The children will be taught subjects to bring the students to middle-level. Later the students can go for National Open School for distance learning. Remedial centres will also be run for those who face difficulties in learning.

The Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan Project aims at providing elementary education to the children up to the age of 14 by different modes. For this project, the Government of India has floated a programme which will be substantially funded by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.

The main objectives of the project are that all children are in the school through the education guarantee centre, alternative school and back to school camp by 2003, all children complete five years of primary schooling by 2007 and complete 8 years of elementary schooling by 2010, the DEO, Mr Brahamjit Kalia, informed.

For dropouts, bridge courses will be run and enrolled in regular schools.

In the Ninth Five Year Plan, Government of India will give 85 per cent funds and state government will provide 15 per cent of funds, Mr Kalia added.

Migrations not to be allowed: DPI
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 28
The Director Public Instructions (Schools), Mr D.S. Saroya, has clarified for the information of all those students and their parents who are seeking migration from the city’s various government schools to other private or government schools that no such migrations will be allowed.

“It has been clearly laid down in the school prospectus that no intra-city migration will be allowed to any student at any stage of their 10+2.”

Some parents had complained that their wards were not being allowed migration from government schools to private schools. The DPI (Schools) has, however, stated that admissions to all government schools of the city was based on merit of the students and there was a cut off percentage for admission in each school. “And if at any later stage changes are made in the allotment of schools to various students there will be no fairness left in the admission system,” he said.

Seminar on learning disability
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, April 28
A seminar on specific learning disability among children was recently organised by the Optimising Development in Education (ODE) at the Indira Holiday Home, Sector 24. The ODE has been engaged for the past two years in helping out the students suffering from learning disabilities.

Learning disability is a general term that refers to a heterogeneous group of disorders manifested by a significant difficulty in the acquisition and use of listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning and mathematical abilities. These disorders are intrinsic to the individual, presumed to be due to central nervous dysfunction.

Parents and teachers generally become aware of learning disability when a child fails to cope with the work in school. One of the first indications of the disability is the difference between the child’s oral work, which generally would point to the child’s brightness, and his written performance. It is generally overlooked in the beginning. The teachers and parents put it down to laziness and disinterest on part of the child.

Parents and teachers blame each other for the dismal performance of the child. Parents often accuse the teachers of wrong teaching practices. Teachers on the other hand accuse parents of not taking interest in the child, of wrong child rearing practices or worse still in moodiness child, carelessness, boredom, or inability to learn.

Ms Bharti Kapoor who started the ODE two years ago, said, ‘‘When parents and teachers cooperate, the children show improvement’’. She said that children with learning disability are near average or above average in intelligence but they show a significant difference in IQ and academic achievement. Occurrence of the disability is four to five times more often in boys than girls. Ms Bharti said, ‘‘The disability should be discovered between the age of six and eight’’.

Colourful function by KV students
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 28
Students of the Sector 47 Kendriya Vidyalaya organised a colourful function to mark their annual day at the 3 BRD Lacma Hall, Air Force Station, here today.

A press note issued by the Principal, Mr M.P. Mahajan, said the function began with ‘Mangalacharan’ and Saraswati vandana.

Tiny tots of the primary section won laurels from the audience for the presenting ‘guldasta’ reflecting unity in diversity of our culture. The children also conveyed dimensions of God’s love which was enjoyed by one and all present on the occasion.

The press note added that folk dances from Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Bengal, apart from patriotic group songs entertained the audience.

Among other items presented on the occasion were one-act play in Hindi, ‘Director’, and bhangra and giddha. Air Cmde V.S. Govindarajan, AOC 12 Wing Air Force. who is also the Chairman of Vidayalaya Management Committee, conveyed his appreciation to the students for their performance.

Mrs Geetha Govindarajan honoured outstanding students by presenting them prizes. The champions trophy in co-curricular activities was given to Shivaji House, while the trophy for the best house in sports was bagged by Vivekanand House.

Kumari Kamlesh of Class XII was declared the best student of the year.

The principal presented a momento to Mrs Govindarajan.

ZIRAKPUR: An impressive cultural programme was presented by students of Kendriya Vidyalaya, to mark the annual function of the school here today.

The main attractions of the function included a Sindhi national song, folk dances of Dogri region and Rajasthani songs.

An action song presented by students of Class I depicted the programme of jungle life.

Brig A.K. Nanda, Commander 474 Engr. Brigade and Chairman of the Vidyalaya Managing Committee, distributed the prizes among the students.

Navneet of Class IX was awarded the allround best trophy, while Amandeep Sharma was honoured with a special prize for securing 100 per cent marks in mathematics conducted by the PSEB.

Seminar on tourism education
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, April 27
Chandigarh with its unique geographical location and cultural and business activities has all the attributes to be developed as a conventional centre of international standard, said Mr Gautam Gupta, National Postgraduate Representative Officer with the National Union of Students in Australia, while addressing a seminar on “India-Australia tourism education and IT horizon” organised by the Institute of Tourism and Future Management Trend in Sector 17 here today.

Giving information on Australia, Mr Gupta said that education was the second largest export of Australia with India which contributed about $ 3.8 billion annually to its economy. This had led to more trade and business opportunities at the global scale, he added.

Old Bedeans meet again
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 28
Former students of St Bede’s College of Shimla got together here today to celebrate a ‘Husband’s Day’. The party that began late in the evening, picked up later with the arrival of youngsters. While the older lot shared reminiscences, youngsters took to the dance floor.

The Bedean Association of Chandigarh had organsied this get-together to encourage camaraderie among its former students and chalk out plans to take up some social work. Brig (retd) Phoolka and his wife, Ms Sukhjivan Phoolka, were the hosts. The senior most person there was Ms Amrit Harpal Singh of the royal family of Faridkot, who had passed out of the college in 1952. The youngest member of the gathering was Marsha Gill, who had passed out of the college in 1995.

Ms Beant Kaur, a former Bedean, and Ms Phoolka were instrumental in organising this get-together. Ms Billa Brar, a teacher of Carmel Convent here for the past 26 years and a former Bedean, said the association required the help of youngsters to continue with its traditions.

COURTS

DISTRICT COURTS
MC official denied bail
Our Correspondent

The Judge has also reserved an order on the bail applications moved by the MC Sub Inspectors, Avtar Singh and Sunil Dutt, for May 1. They had sought bail under Section 439 of the CrPC.

Police remand for one

Karambir Singh, who was arrested by the city police in a case of theft, was sent to the police custody till April 30 today by the UT Judicial Magistrate (First Class). The accused was arrested on April 18 and the case against him was registered under Sections 379 and 411 of the IPC.

He was an electronics engineer in a private firm near Paonta Sahib in Himachal Pardesh. The city police had recovered more than 10 stolen cars from him.

Interim bail granted

Kulwinder Singh, who is accused of having been involved in the murder of a former MLA of Kharar, Mr Bachiter Singh, was granted an interim bail of 10 days today by the District and Sessions Judge. The defence counsel said the accused has to put his son in a school and no one was there to help his family.

The public prosecutor objected to this, saying that the accused had tried to misuse a five-day interim bail earlier.

The accused was directed to submit his passport in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Mr Sant Parkash.

Hearing adjourned

Manjit Singh Barkandi and 14 other accused of the 1998 District Courts shootout case appeared before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Mr Sant Parkash, here today. The hearing in the case was adjourned till May 19.

Manjit Singh Barkandi, Kanwarjit Singh, Surjit Singh, Amarjit Singh, Bagicha Singh, Gurmeet Singh and Kashmir Singh have already been released on bail by a local court.

The case against Manjit Singh Barkandi, Jagjit Singh, Balkar Singh, Avtar Singh, Surjit Singh, Surat Singh, Kanwarjit Singh, Amarjit Singh, Bagicha Singh, Lakhbir Singh, Gurmeet Singh, Chhinder Singh and Harcharan Singh had been registered under Section 147, 148, 149, 307, 338 and 353 of the IPC and Sections 25, 27, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act.

Judge adjourns hearing

The UT Judicial Magistrate adjourned the hearing in a case filed by 71 lawyers of the District Courts against the Administration’s decision on the allotment of slots.

The Administration’s counsel said the lawyers had already been informed of the decision. The lawyers had challenged the decision as their names were not on a list prepared by the Administration.

CULTURE

I am trying to infuse classical notes in my music: Bhupi
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, April 28
“To popularise Indian classical music, one needs to create the right kind of atmosphere in which the masses can develop the taste for it and I am trying to infuse the classical notes in small doses in my new songs,” said Bhupi Chawla, popularly known as Bhupi, referring to his latest album “Naag Ishq da Laddya” which includes eight songs in different flavour.

“After reaching this height, I cannot afford to change my image overnight from the dancing type to the classical guy. So I plan to stick to popular kind of music that has a strong base ,” said Bhupi who is trained in the Rampur gharana of classical music.

Bhupi, whose initial aim was to be a national level hockey player, later shifted his focus towards music after he received an award by the Vice-President of India during an all-India level music competition in the year 1988. “Though hockey was my first love and I still play a lot of it, it is music which is the centre of my world now,” said Bhupi. “No other profession would have given me so much of recognition and love,” he added.

Bhupi started his singing career with cover versions of Kishore Kumar and Manna Dey songs before shooting into limelight with the release of “Jogiya Khalle Balle” in 1997. It was his debut album for which he was nominated for Channel V’s award for new artist of the year in 1998. His second album “Wallah Wallah” a year after helped him maintaining his popularity among the masses.

This gemini guy from Delhi, who believes in perfection, feels today’s youngsters are more interested in showing their biceps then polishing their vocal chords. “In pop music personality matters a lot but ultimately it’s the voice that rules. Though voices can be modified and stretched to certain extent in today’s high tech world, but if an artist fails to make an impact in stage performances, he is out of the scene before he realises it,” he added.

Talking about the expanding musical scenario in Punjab, Bhupi said there is a lack of professionalism here. As the number of musicians are limited here, they do whatever they want to do rather then listening to the music directors, he added.

Her art prays for peace in valley
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 28
Call it an art peace pilgrim, an art philosophy, or simply a tribute to national flower lotus — at the end, this show is all about hope and Peace. Kanwal Chaudri’s textile art exhibition entitled Ode to peace, which opened for the public here today, depicts pain and turmoil of the strife-torn Kashmir valley. The display stands out for the exquisite blend of philosophy and art that it offers.

Executed in amazing medium of hand-woven silk, the work progresses through 12 series, portrayed with utmost sensitivity and conviction. Complementing the serene canvas are the quotes from Mahatama Gandhi’s philosophy, which the artist has deliberately incorporated in her works. Speaking about the project, which developed during the various peace missions, Kanwal had to the valley with Nirmala Deshpande, she said, “I returned to the valley only to feel anguished about what had become of its beauty. I had to portray its people so hurt, its nature so wounded. The only medium I could think of was the Mahatma’s khadi, which truly symbolises peace.”

For Kanwal, who is a member of the All-Indian Handicrafts Board, Ministry of Textiles, khadi was a texture, a texture she would use to depict life in the valley. And then came the lotus flower which was so naturally associated with the Kashmir valley. Beginning from here, Kanwal went on to first sketch her experiences in the valley, and then give them the colour and form. “In this effort I was supported by Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah at whose guest house the major sketching was done. The concept evolved gradually.”

In its finality, Ode to peace was to show lotus in the process of human evolution — treading the path from infancy to adolescence, living the experiences of happiness and co-existence on the one hand and those of destruction and survival on the other.

In all the 12 series of works, the dominant hue is the hue of the dawn. Recalls Kanwal, “That was the only thing I remember about sunrise in the valley. The colour is the base of all my works. It dreams of hope and restoration of peace in the Valley. “ Kanwal’s canvasses are strong not just conceptually but also in context with content and its execution. She portrays pain in her works, and also portrays the universality of pain. As she admits, “Pain has no nationality. That is why when this exhibition was first mounted in Roosevelt House and later in Nehru Centre, London, it evoked the purest feeling. It was amazing to see the way those foreigners talked about Gandhiji. Their reverence for the Mahatama was unimaginable.” No wonder then that the exhibition did well at all the places it was staged, including Habitat, Delhi, and the Rajghat.

The opening of the show today by UT Administrator and Punjab Governor Lt-Gen JFR Jacob was preceded by the inaugural function. While UT Home Secretary R.S. Gujral introduced the artist in his address, Lt-Gen Jacob talked about the significance of lotus, which has been employed by Kanwal to lend a meaning to her concept of peace. Chief Secretary, Haryana, L.M. Goyal, also spoke on the occasion. The final word came from the artist herself who introduced her works to the gathering.

The exhibition can be viewed at the Museum gallery till May 1 between 10 am and 6 pm.