The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

EDUCATION

Honour for PAU scientists
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, August 13
Dr Yog Raj Chanana, Senior Horticulturist, Department of Horticulture, PAU, Ludhiana, visited the University of California, Davis, USA, to participate in the 5th International Peach Symposium which was jointly organised by the Department of Pomology, University of California and the International Society of Horticulture. This international event exclusively on peaches takes place after every four years.

Participants of 24 countries took part in this symposium and Dr Y.R. Chanana was the only scientist from India to participate in this meet. He presented two research papers on ‘Development of peach varieties and their cultural management.” Dr Chanana has been associated with the development and release of three varieties of peaches and standardisation of their matching production technology. He has to his credit 30 research articles on peaches. He also visited Kearney Agricultural Research Centre in Parlier, private nurseries, post-harvest research and development units.

During this tour he had an opportunity to interact with the experts engaged in different research activities like tree training, rootstock varieties, chemical thinning, breeding and pest management in stone fruits. He also went to see ongoing research experiments at different places in California.

His visit was jointly funded by the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the Department of Science and Technology and organisers of the symposium.

Dr Pardeep Kumar Chhuneja, Associate Professor of Entomology in the Department of Entomology, PAU, Ludhiana, visited England for advanced training in bee pathology from June 18 to July 17, 2001. This training programme was sponsored by the National Agricultural Technology Project (NATP) of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) under TOE sub-project ‘Management of Apis Mellifera L.’ Dr Chhuneja got training at the Central Science Laboratory (CSL), York, Sheffield University, IACR-Rothamsted, and Cardiff University, during his stay in England. During this training, he had the opportunity to work with Dr (Ms) Brenda V. Ball, an internationally renowned authority in bee pathology. Under this training at U.K., Dr Chhuneja confirmed the presence of European foul brood and sac brood diseases in suspected samples of honey from Italian bee collected in the Punjab.

Computer education scheme for schools a non-starter
Deepkamal Kaur

Ludhiana, August 13
The much publicised scheme to introduce computer education in government schools of the state, in collaboration with the NIIT, seems to have failed to click.

While hundreds of students from government high and senior secondary schools of the district have deposited their computer education funds with the school authorities for the past two months, classes are yet to begin here. The situation has caused much panic among the students, parents, teachers and officers of the District Education Department, who are daily receiving queries from several parents as well as the school teachers.

As per the plan, computer education had to be started for students of Classes VI to XII studying at government high and senior secondary schools. More than 1500 schools of Punjab had to be covered by July this year, which included nearly 100 schools from the district. However, the scheme is being currently run at just one centre at Government Girls’ Senior Secondary School, Mansuran village, where it was launched in October last year with much fanfare.

At Government Senior Secondary School for Boys, Jawahar Nagar, the computers were installed by the NIIT in January, but classes have not begun. The school had renovated two rooms for the purpose, which are lying unused ever since. The school authorities said, they had given admission forms to the students in mid-January, which were to be filled by the parents of the students interested in the scheme. The students were also told to deposit the fee while submitting these forms. While the parents feel that they are being cheated as their wards are not being imparted computer education, the authorities find it uncomfortable to answer daily queries by the parents.

The authorities said while earlier the NIIT had not fixed any lower limit of number of takers per school, they were told last month to enrol at least 380 students for making the course viable. The authorities said after convincing the students and their parents, they pulled the strength from nearly 300 to 415 and still the course had not been started.

Similar is the fate of students at Government Girls Senior Secondary School at Khanna. The officers of the District Education Department revealed that they had received complaints from scores of schools at different villages of the district where enrolment had been done and fee had been deposited, but classes could not be started as the strength was much below the lowest limit of 380 set by the NIIT. The officers disclosed that the NIIT coordinator was insisting the school authorities to form clusters at such schools so that the course could be made viable, but the schools refused to form such clusters as they said the students would not be able to commute to another school four to five km away from their school. The authorities of girls’ schools resisted to club with boys’ schools, the officers said. Neither the NIIT coordinator nor the officers of the District Education Department are able to find a solution to the problem.

Regarding the scheme, Mr Shiv, coordinator of the NIIT, said, “Once each school enrols 380 students, we will commence classes within a month.’’ He said since the government senior secondary schools at Jawahar Nagar, Cinema Road and Punjab Agricultural University had enrolled the students above the target, classes would be started this month. He said classes could not be started in other schools as the strength was low and the scheme would not be viable. He said such schools would have to form clusters or else the scheme would not be feasible.

Meanwhile, parents of several students from government schools of the district have been complaining that they are being forced to take computer education in the school. They said their teachers were insisting them to join the course to increase their strength. The students said they had taken computer courses in private centres and did not want to join these, but they were being forced to repeat the course again in the school.

Manish is most talented student
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, August 13
Class X students of 16 schools of the city participated in a quiz contest organised at GGN Khalsa College, Civil Lines, here yesterday.

Preliminary rounds for the quiz started on July 2 with written test of 2500 students in these schools and top three students from each school were screened. These students competed in the semi-final rounds yesterday which was qualified by four schools, including Sacred Heart Convent Senior Secondary School, Sarabha Nagar, Guru Nanak Public School, Guru Harkrishan Public School and St Thomas Senior Secondary School.

Four rounds, including buzzer round, fast round and choose the topic round, were conducted in which St Thomas students took the lead, followed by students of Sacred Heart Convent School, Guru Nanak Public School and Guru Harkrishan Public School. Manish Gupta from St Thomas Senior Secondary School was selected the most talented student and awarded a cash prize of Rs 15,000; Sumit Singh from the same school was chosen the first runner-up and awarded Rs 10,000; and Varun Sharma, again from the same school, received Rs 5,000 as he was chosen second runner-up.

Mr Rajesh Wadhera, Director of Better Think Learning Systems and organiser of the programme, said such programmes were organised for the students to increase their confidence and help them realise their potential.

Tiny tots celebrate Independence Day
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, August 13
Tiny tots of Cherryfield Nursery School celebrated Independence Day at a function held here today.

Kids wore white dress and held Tricolour flags and danced on patriotic songs, including ‘Ma tujhe salaam’, ‘Nanna munha rahi hun’, ‘Aao bacho tumhein dikhayen’ and ‘Chhodo kal ki batein’. Ganga Singh was declared the best dancer, Prerna Puri the best student, Jessica Birdi the all-rounder and Chetan the most active student. Jaitish, Aparna, Tej Pratap Singh, Hrithik Lakhanpal and Manik received prizes for effort-makers.

Ms Santosh Sharma, Principal, distributed prizes and gifts among students and gave them the message of love and fraternity.

Meanwhile, Tiny tots of Small Wonders Nursery School, Civil Lines, also celebrated Independence Day. The children held tricolour flags and danced to the tunes of patriotic songs. Mr Dewan Jagdish Chandra, former MLA and general secretary of the All-India Freedom Fighters’ Association, told the students about the national heroes of freedom struggle. Ms Neetu Dewan, principal, stressed the importance of the Independence Day and distributed sweets among the students.

Seminar on drug abuse
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, August 13
Eak Jyot, a de-addiction centre, organised a seminar on drug abuse at Government Senior Secondary Model School, PAU, this morning.

Ms Harsimranpreet, director of Eak Jyot, informed the students that drugs were chemical substances, if taken regularly, these become a habit and later an addiction. “Addiction shatters mental and physical equilibrium. Drugs play havoc with the life of not only a drug addict, but also the entire family”, she said.

“In the earlier stage, when somebody starts taking drugs, he feels euphoric and feels that he is charged with energy and can do anything. In the second stage, he becomes addicted to drugs and cannot function without them. When he finds that he needs money to buy drugs he starts stealing. All ethical values fade away”, she said. Ms Harsimran told the students that in the third stage, the addict convinces himself that he was justified in taking drugs”.

Students got a chance to interact with the speakers.