EDUCATION

Interview schedule of PU teaching depts
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 5
There is an intense competition for admission in majority of the teaching departments of Panjab University as the long list of applicants has resulted in a near scramble at the ongoing interviews.

The Department of English received 669 applications for 125 seats. The admission is based on an aptitude test. The final merit will include 40 per cent marks of the aptitude test and the rest 60 per cent will consist of the academic merit of lower classes.

The Department of Psychology has received 250 applications for 50 seats. There are five additional seats in the NRI quota. Interviews for admission were carried out today. The interviews for the Department of Philosophy will be carried out on July 9.

The Department of Public Administration has 55 seats. The department has received 445 applications. There is a provision of five seats in the NRI quota also and the interviews are scheduled for July 10.

The Department of Economics has spread the interview schedule over two days. Interviews for the reserved category will be carried out on July 9 while students of the general category will meet on July 10.

The Department of History has 60 seats. The interviews are scheduled for July 9. Approximately 300 candidates have applied for admission.

Interviews in the Department of Hindi are scheduled for tomorrow. The department has 60 seats and as many as 175 candidates have applied for the seats.

The Department of Punjabi has finished the agenda of interviews for the seats in the first year course. There are 60 seats and the department had received as many as 165 applications.

The Department of Law was to display the merit list by today evening. The results of the honours school are not out yet and without result cards, the students were likely to face problems even if they qualified in the written.

Informed sources said that the honours school results would take at least another one week for final preparation of the marksheets.

Admissions to govt schools begin today
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, July 5
The merit list of students who have secured 85 per cent marks and above in class X has been displayed at the venue of admissions, Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 23. The admissions to various schools begin tomorrow.

A total of 67 students securing 90 per cent and above marks have applied in Government Model Senior Secondary Schools. Another 161 students having more than 87 per cent marks would be seeking admissions in these schools.

Arrangements for on-the-spot counselling and admission have been made at Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 23.

Candidates getting 87 per cent and above would be admitted to the schools as per their preference from 9 a.m. to 11.00 a.m. Candidates getting 85 per cent and above can seek counselling and admission between 11.30 a.m. to 2.30 p.m.

An overwhelming majority of students has sought admission in top model schools in science stream. The science stream happens to be the most sought-after, whereas commerce is the next choice. In the vocational stream, information technology is the most preferred one.

All government schools in the UT are affiliated with the Central Board of Secondary Education. Similarly a majority of privately managed recognised schools are affiliated with the CBSE and very few with Indian Council of Secondary Education . Both CBSE as well as ICSE declared the result in the last week of May .

The Punjab School Education Board failed to declare the results in time. Several candidates desiring to get admission in UT schools faced difficulty since the last date for the submission of forms for the centralised admissions was June 30.

As a special case, the Administration has decided to accept the forms of the Punjab School Education Board pass-outs throughout the admission process till July 18. The pass-outs will be admitted on the basis of the confidential mark-sheets or their regular results. A special counter for the Punjab Education Board pass-outs has been set up at the venue of the admission. If need arises, admission forms will be made available on the spot .

Middle school exam results: private
school students fare better
Tribune News Service

Panchkula, July 5
Students of private schools fared better than their counterparts in the middle school examination, the results for which were declared, here today.

While the 33 private schools of the district secured a pass percentage of 59.51, the 77 government schools scored 35.19 per cent in the examination where a total of 5,614 students appeared and not even half of them, 2,394 students, qualified the exam, the pass percentage for the district being 42.64.

In private schools, a total of 1,719 students appeared in the examination and 1,223 passed against 3,895 students, who appeared from government schools and only 1,371 secured pass marks..

All three top positions of the district went to private schools students, the topper, Pradeep Kumar of JP High School, Pinjore, scored 83.5 per cent followed by Gurpreet Singh of the same school securing 82.5 per cent. The third position went to Shilpa Aggarwal of Agarsen High School, Raipur Rani.

The ‘poor quality’ of results was squarely blamed on the introduction of five sets of question papers introduced for the first time in the examination.

The dismal performance of the students of government schools, particularly, was attributed to this and was reflected in the class X result as well where the pass percentage of the district was 41.56 per cent.

Though the three positions of the district went to private schools, the toppers among the 77 government schools include Ritika Gupta of Government High School, Gari Kotaha, who scored 80.2 per cent.

Placed second in the category of government schools was Abhishek Sharma of Government Senior Secondary School, Rajipur, with 79.4 per cent and Ram Shankar of Government High School, Sector 17, came third with 78.7 per cent.

Meanwhile, two government schools of Morni showed zero per cent result.

All 12 students who appeared from Baldwala failed along with the five students of the Thatkar who met with similar fate in the middle level examination.

Three selected for Jet Airways
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 5
Jet Airways has selected three students from the ITFT-Chandigarh Airlines Management Programme for airport ground services. While two students are from Chandigarh, one belongs to Ludhiana.

After completing their training at Delhi, they will join the airways for its Delhi-Ludhiana flights, being introduced shortly. Jet Airways has also shortlisted seven students from the ITFT Airlines Management Programme who have already completed their first and second round of selection while the final takes place in July at Chandigarh, according to Dr Gulshan Sharma, director of the institute.

Meanwhile, the present batch of ITFT Airlines Management Programme visited the Chandigarh airport today to understand important aspects of airport functioning, as part of their practical training. Mr A.K. Verma, Senior Aerodrome Manager, B.P. Nautiyal, Station Manager, Indian Airlines and Mr J.C. Thind, Deputy Commandant Security and Mr S.K. Sharma, Inspector Security, addressed them and took them around the airport.

Besides Chandigarh, ITFT now conducts a weekend progamme on Airlines Management at Patiala from July 7 for weeks. During training, a participant learns about airlines city office staff duties, airport ground staff duties and cabin crew duties including pre-flight duties, activities during flights, looking after passengers, emergency equipment usage, cabin service personalised customer care, situational management, basics of air ticketing, first aid, besides understanding computerised reservation systems. Dr Sharma says that special care is taken in preparing the students for facing the interview in an airline. An important feature of the programme is that the students work on the Internet to browse airlines websites to know the latest in global as well as domestic airlines scenario.

Teacher suspended for misbehaviour
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, July 5
An English lecturer at the Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 23, Mr Vishvanath, was today placed under suspension for allegedly threatening a principal of a local government school with dire consequences during school hours.

Reportedly, the incident took place during a conference of principals to discuss arrangements of centralised admissions at government schools for plus one which would commence from July 6.

He allegedly threatened the principal in presence of several others that he would do away with his family if he (the principal) failed to upgrade his annual confidential reports (ACRs). The lecturer was not available for comments as he was away, according to his family members. However, his wife , Mrs Savitri Jaswal, said her husband was a very hard working person and his ACRs were being spoiled without any reason. Mr Vishvanath had been under depression since then.

The principal alleged that the lecturer threatened, “You upgrade my ACRs otherwise I will kill you and your family by this evening. When the District Education Officer tried to intervene in the matter the latter started threatening him also.”

On receiving the report about the incident, the Director, Public Instructions, (Schools), Mr D.S. Saroya, made inquiries from several senior principals and other officers who were present during the meeting and the time of the incident.

The DPI placed Mr Vishvanath under suspension with immediate effect. The lecturer has also been restrained from entering the premises of any school till further orders.

Workshop on personality development
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, July 5
The British Library in collaboration with Career Launcher has organised a three-day workshop on personality development at the Library Hall in Sector 8 here today.

The workshop that targets the graduates and undergraduate students of the city has chalked out a detailed programme to acquaint the participants with the standard procedures attached with major entrance examinations for courses like MBA. The study material includes Loco Inventory, a psychometric test; personal effectiveness, group exercises and group discussions.

CULTURE

Lecture on Indian paintings
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 5
‘‘In routine we carry a lot of dust on our minds. When the layer gets thicker on our mind, it will not reflect any beauty. This was indeed not possible unless you cleansed yourself’’.

These views were expressed by Prof B.N.Goswamy, an eminent art historian while delivering a lecture on ‘Mirrors of the mind - looking at Indian paintings’ at the Department of Fine Arts, Panjab University, here today.

Art of painting is like a mirror because it does not exactly reflect the picture of a normal life. It will reflect what you want to see. We see what we want to see so we establish a relation with the art form', he said.

Professor Goswamy is a Padam Shri recipient. A great expert on Indian paintings, he specialises in ‘Pahari paintings’. Professor Goswamy is associated with several Indian festivals abroad. He has delivered several lectures all over Europe and the USA.

Nature has a big connection with art but none is an exact reflection of the other. Professor Goswamy also showed more than 50 slides of paintings.

An art lover in first place needs to get rid of fear to express the details of an artistic beauty for lack of complete knowledge on the subject.

There is another fear that art is the ‘exact’ reflection of things we see. ‘‘It never was. One should open up and to get as close to subject as possible to understand its beauty’’, he said.

‘‘I use the word ‘mirror’ for better appreciation of a painting because it is a dialogue between you and the painting. In fact, the art of viewing becomes more intimate and demanding’’.

Another question one will dwell upon at lengths in the world of art is who do I belong to? Even a paining seems to be asking itself.‘‘ ‘I’ belongs to him who lays claim on it’’, he said. The claim should be to the extent of ‘making it your own’. One has to express intimacy with the art he is carefully studying, he added.

Khyali entertains at comedy show
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, July 5
Simple facts of life came alive in a hilarious way at a comedy show “My Reflection of Life”, presented by comedian Khyali Saharan at the Punjab Kala Bhavan in Sector 16 here today.

The show started with a detail of Khyali’s journey to Chandigarh from his native town Sri Ganga Nagar. He cracked a number of jokes and reflected on everyday life. The show comprised eight items, including comments on Kaun Banega Crorepati and Spice Telecom. Risk Kaun Le and Mandir for Amitabh were delightfully entertaining. Outstanding of them all was his Bhojpuri version of famous Bollywood movie Sholey, which made the audience roar with laughter.

Khyali has already made a name in the world of comedy by working in a number of TV serials like Superstar in DD Metro. He recently bagged roles in two Bollywood productions Mitha Mitha Ishq Piya Ka and Sapera. Khyali is also an active theatre artiste of this region.