 |
|
| Monday,
January 21, 2002, Chandigarh, India
|
|
|||
Teachers from Down Under get a taste of the East Seventeen teachers from Down Under recently had a glimpse of the colourful East. As a part of the India-Australia TEACH programme, a group of teachers from Australian schools had come to India. These visitors were invited to attend a Lori function at the residence of Mr. S.S. Minhas, Principal of Guru Harkrishan Public School, Vasant Vihar. It was an enriching experience for the visitors as they tapped their feet to the rhythm of Giddha and Bhangra. Indian artifacts like durries, grinding stones, hearths, cot bangles and hand fans were displayed, much to the delight of the visitors. A matter of maths In the Regional Mathematical Olympiad conducted by the Delhi Mathematical Olympiad Association, students from Delhi Public School, Vasant Vihar, bagged eight positions to become the only such school in the Capital to win so many positions. Gyanit Singh was declared the topper. All the eight students have been invited to appear for the National Mathematics Olympiad later this year. A Scholar Badge Ceremony for classes six to eight was held in DPS, Vasant Kunj. Vice-Chairman of the DPS society, Mr. Vikram M. Thapar, graced the occasion and gave the badges and blue blazers to deserving students. A cultural programme, consisting of Bharatnatyam, Kathak and a choir song, was also held on the occasion. Trunk trouble Fairy tales are a memory of the past, which invariably bring a smile on the lips. They seem to have a similar impact on grown ups as well as the kids. But for little ones who are given a chance to dress up as their favourite fairy tale character, it sure means freaking out. Right from the stage of conception to the actual performance, it is swell time. Kiddies at Kangaroo Kids organised one such event. The kids dressed as characters from the animal kingdom and enacted the story of three elephants named Eric, Allen and Emma. The topic chosen for the event was Trunk Trouble, which taught the kids how the three elephants got their trunks entangled when they were rushing back home after having fun at the pool. The three elephants were finally rescued by mama parrot and baby parrot. They threw sand from a treetop, causing the elephants to sneeze and disentangle their locked trunks. The moral of the story, “Be patient when you are hungry,” and the lesson: Even a small parrot can save the life a big elephant. PM is touched The performance of the students of the DPS Shiksha Kendra really moved the Prime Minister last week. Through their heart rending performance, they demanded the right to quality living and the right to education. The question was so powerful that even the Prime Minister was compelled to admit that they have failed in their duty towards these kids, who hail from the marginalised sections of the society. “Akhir Kyo?” asked the Prime Minister, apologising for the delay in providing these children what is rightfully theirs. Mr. Vajpayee promised that something concrete would be done to help these children lead a normal life. The children also presented him with a scroll, listing their concerns. Ballet in Valley Tiny-tots of Children’s Valley School in Preet Vihar celebrated Lori with fervour. Chairman of the school, Mr. Pradeep Jain, and Principal Ms. Seema Bhandari were also present. The students of the school also staged a ballet in the FICCI auditorium to mark their annual day celebration. The theme of the ballet ‘Feelings’ was chosen to make the children realise that human beings change with time. Presented by students from age five to eight, the ballet depicted the vicious circle of feelings and emotions. While the first part of the ballet depicted the creation of earth, the second was about love and affection. The third showcased the fear of losing, while the fourth revolved around devotion towards God. The idea was to highlight the point that God the creator is the solution to all problems. The ballet concluded on the note where all individuals surrender to God. Dancer Shovana Narayanan was the chief guest and Kuchipuddi exponent Raja and Radha Reddy were the guests of honour. Senior BJP leader, Sunil Shastri, was also present.
Input by Nalini Rajan |
|
PRINCIPAL-SPEAK LAST
Tuesday I was shocked to read about eight-year-old Arihant Jain’s suicide in the papers. A student of class three, he did not want to return to his residential school. This incident should ring alarm bells in the minds of all academicians and social scientists. For a long time we have been talking of reducing the burden on children. In spite of having several committees and commissions to make education student friendly, stress is still laid on achieving academic excellence. A child is pressurised to score in public exams and performance in these exams is glorified. In the endeavour to develop rational thinking of the child, we have somehow ignored the development of the Emotional Quotient (EQ). The quest for children having a high IQ has affected the growth of their EQ. We need to come to terms with the increase in stress level, which a child faces in this fast-changing high-tech scenario. As parents opt for smaller families, they focus their attention on children, and expect them to shine in everything they dabble in. A child, thus, not comes under peer pressure, but also pressure from his parents to perform. The most important question for an educationist should be: “Is the child afraid to ask questions from his teacher in class?” If the answer is yes, then a child is not able to handle stress. The consequence of which is a case like Arihant’s. It is time to stop talking about a paradigm shift and actually shift emphasis from IQ to EQ, or else time may never forgive us.
Mr. D.K. Bedi, Principal,
|
Academics take precedence over sports New Delhi, January 20 Parents who are obsessed with cricket, tennis, and to some extent golf, force their wards to take to these sports, but with the sole aim of making the kids instant celebrities. The Television-driven sports culture has made people miss the wood for the trees. A few years ago, Delhi schools were the nursuries for grooming and sustaining sports talent. But not any more. Though many schools still keep up the lofty facade of sports promotion, student are not really interested in seriously pursuing sports as a career option. Academics have taken precedence over everything else and 'English education' is the bottom line, for most parents. Things were not like this in the sixties and seventies. School principals and physical education teachers gave as much thrust to extra curricular activities, particularly sports, as education. Now such dedicated physical education directors and principals are rare to come by. Principals like Mr M N Kapoor of Modern School, Mrs Bakshi of Bal Bharati Air Force School, Mrs Vibha Parthasarathi of Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, Mr Bakshi of Army Public School (and later Modern School, Barakhamba Road), Mr P C Chaudhary of Salwan School (who later became the principal of Modern School), Mr R D Singh Royal of Butler School (who later became the principal of Yadavindra Public School, Mohali and DPS Mathura Road) and Mrs Indu Pillai of Mother's International School. Sports directors like L N Khurana of Modern School and Rajinder Singh of Delhi Public School, Mathura Road had made a singular contribution for the promotion of sports in Delhi schools. They would go out of their way to promote sports, to make their schools a name to reckon with in the sports firmament. Many of the top sports stars of the era were the products of these schools. "The coaches then were very, very dedicated. Co-operation and help from parents, teachers and staff of schools helped sustain the sports culture at a very high level", reminisced Mr Rajinder Singh, who retired as the vice-principal of DPS, Mathura Road. When Rajinder Singh was calling the shots, DPS schools had reigned supreme in sports. "In those days, we used to sent our school buses to pick the children and drop them back. There was then a lot of enthusiasm among children for sports", recalled the veteran sports official. But then, the burden of exams was far too less in those days than now. "There was only one final Board exam then", recollected Rajinder Singh. "Now CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) sets papers from Class 9 onwards to Class XI, leaving the children with very little time to pursue sports. Exam fever now starts from Class 9 and the load on the children is so heavy that parents don't encourage their wards to take to sports", observed Rajinder Singh. "Teachers also do not encourage sports, beyond a point, in schools as they are more bothered about the Board exam results than promotion of sports", Rajinder Singh noted. But in the bygone era, good headmasters preferred their students to be all-rounders rather than mere book-worms. "Thomas Martin, the headmaster of Doon School in the Sixties, would rather prefer his students to get a good second class with a sports background as he was not keen on his pupils earning first class results with no sports and cultural background at all. And so were the case with some great principals of the era like Mr Gibson of Mayo College, Mr Deen Dayal of DPS, Mathura Road (1962 to 1979) and Mr M N Kapoor of Modern School, Barakhamba Road (1948 to 1977)," recalled Mr Rajinder Singh with nostalgia. Mr John Martin took over as the principal of Doon School immediately after Independence, and continued in the post till 1965. "Mr Gibson of Mayo would himself play with the children and knew every child by his name", recalled Rajinder Singh. He lamented that "under the present circumstances, I don't see the revival of sports in schools". He said "Delhi is such a big and crowded city that children cannot devote time for sports unless transport is provided to them for picking and dropping them back". The present school timings are also not suitable for children to take to sports seriously. "The school should provide lunch to the children, a place for them to rest after school hours, practice sports for a couple of hours and then drop them back home. Otherwise, school sports has no future", cautioned Rajinder Singh, who had once controlled sports in 60 schools under the DPS umbrella, spread all over the country, and abroad. He was also a recipient of the Teacher's Award from Delhi Administration in 1987 in recognition of his contribution to school sports. He was the secretary of the Delhi Olympic
Association for 11 years, secretary of the Delhi Amateur Athletic Association, and vice-president of the Delhi Basketball Association and the Delhi Hockey Association.  |
|
Moonlight record first victory in DSA League New Delhi, January 20 With this victory, Moonlight earned three points from four matches while N D Heroes completed their engagements by collecting four points from five matches. Moonlight will play their last match against Hindustan Club on January 24. After losing three matches on a trot, the win against N D Heroes came as a life-breathing experience for Moonlight, who were not long ago a glamorous soccer outfit of the Capital. Mid-fielders Vijay
Kanti, Prem and Vikram Bhandari ably marshalled the moves from the half-line for the
forwards to give the finishing touches. Inside-left Asis Santra opened the account with a top-of-the-box left-footer in the 31st minute, which caught the ND Heroes defence and custodian L Santa Kumar Singh on the wrong foot. In the second half, N D Heroes marshalled their forces through veteran Shyam Thapa and Sunil for Viren Metai to pull off the equaliser. Metai, Heros’ hero in their previous matches, took a powerful long-ranger which beat former Delhi custodian Prasanta Bemal all ends up, in the 40th minute. After that, it was a see-saw battle to get the match-winner in which Moonlight took the honours when left-back C H Rajesh scored off a move initiated by Lalit Singh, in the 40th minute. Monday’s fixture: Hindustan vs City (2.30 p m)—Ambedkarr Stadium. |
|
Ojasvi, Aditya shine for Salwan New Delhi, January 20 Scores: Bal
Bharti: 201 for 9 in 40 overs: Parag Sareen 72, Sagar Dahiya 31, Aditya Sharma 4/39).
Salwan: 202 for 4 in 31 overs (Ojasvi Gulati 79 n o, Bharat Monga 31). Basco School: 88 all out in 28.4 overs (Anil Bagoria 15, Nikhil Bhagat 3/1, Bharat Suri 2/11). DPS: 89 for no loss in 8 overs: Abir Lavasa 44 no, Karan Mehta 26 no. |
|
Delhi school struggle to beat Rae Bareli in Nehru Hockey New Delhi, January 20 The Sirsa School were on a goal-hunt from the fourth minute when Raman struck a field goal. The second goal, however, came only after a gap of 25 minutes when Ravinder struck a field goal. A minute later, G V Raja scored their only goal through Vijesh R, and Sirsa made it 3-1 before half time when Shamsher scored the third goal in the 34th minute. |
|
Delhi Colts, Yourks win New Delhi, January 20 |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | In Spotlight | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 121 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
