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May 17, 2002, Chandigarh, India
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Academicians
divided over education Bill New Delhi, May 16 According to Sanjeev Kaura, National Convenor NAFRE, “the Bill cannot deliver the goods in its current form and will result in the selective withdrawal of rights available to children through the Unnikrishnan judgement of 1993. For one, it ignores the 0-6 age group what is commonly referred to as Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE)”. It is being pointed out that the Bill has failed to implement the Tapas Mazumdar Committee recommendations that are vital for making the Bill student friendly. The committee had recommended that an additional spending of only an incremental average of 0.7 per cent of the GDP for 10 years would aid in the spearheading of education. Furthermore, it is also being pointed out that the right to education is an obligation of the state and not the duty of the parents. “The Bill dilutes this obligation by making it a fundamental duty of parents. By this, we are opening the way for misuse by those in power. From 1949 to 1970, approximately 15 lakh parents have been prosecuted under a similar law prevalent in 19 states of India,” adds Kaura. The government’s target is to ensure that every child completes five years in school by 2007 and middle school by 2010. It also seeks to provide free tuition and textbooks, but it is being alleged that the 0-14 age group seems to have been neglected along with those for whom funds and resources are a primary concern. The fact that the Bill has neglected the 0-6 age group has made the academicians worrying. They reveal that documented and research studies show that ECCE has a positive impact on emotional and intellectual growth. Most importantly, ECCE also addresses the needs of women and older siblings (especially girls) who have to leave school to look after toddlers. Says Ms Devika Singh of FORCES (Forum for Crčche and Child Care Services), “We are disappointed that the Bill has been passed without any changes. Ignoring the 0-6 age group is going to prove detrimental to girls specially. They will still be left to take care of the siblings. There should have been an amendment in the clause 21A”. Kaura adds, “The Bill should have included an unambiguous provision for ensuring equitable, quality education for all children. Alternative methods such as the Education Guarantee Scheme, single teacher schools and recruitment of para-teachers are second-track, parallel mechanisms that, once institutionalised, will end up supplanting the formal system.” While the government sees the Bill as a tool to ensure education for all, the sceptics have this to say, “The Bill is a violation of the right to development of poor children. It is cutting at the roots of the child’s development stage” |
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St Stephen’s admissions: A tough nut to crack New Delhi, May 16 For many an aspirant, “All roads lead to St Stephen’s” even if it may involve the rigmarole of going through an elaborate interview procedure. The cynic’s criticism of “subjectivity and bias” notwithstanding, St Stephen’s College, often referred to as the Harvard of the East, continues to remain the dream college of every fresher. “We get 15,000 applications every year for merely 350 seats. And the selection is solely on the basis of the candidate’s interview and good grades in High School,” says Dr Anil Wilson, Principal, St. Stephen’s College. “We choose five applicants for each seat and we definitely don’t play a useless college ranking game,” he added. Nervous? Don’t be. Here are some tips from the man himself, Dr Wilson. They will prove to be very handy for all the aspiring applicants. An interview determines the candidate’s academic potential, keeping in view the previous academic performance. A candidate’s potential to participate in the co-curricular activities of the college is definitely judged. His/her awareness of the happenings around and their capacity to comment on the same with sensitivity and concern which is also discernible from a candidate’s interests, statements and goals in the admission form. Don’t forget. It is an interview not a viva voce examination. The board, which takes the interview, consists of four persons, the Principal, who examines the candidate’s general awareness, the head of the department, who looks into his academic acumen, member of the faculty and the admission in charge. After the interview of a candidate is over, each interviewer independently grades the candidate on the basis of academic record, all-round competence, capacity to benefit from being in the college and potential to contribute to the life of college. After all the candidates have been interviewed, the selection list is prepared by identifying those candidates who have been given the top most grades by the interviewers and going down the grades till the required number is reached. The candidate’s stream and category are always kept in mind. In drawing up the final list, it is seen that the difference of marks between a rejected candidate with the highest marks and the selected candidate with the lowest marks must not be more than 10 per cent. |
ART SCAPE
Necessity — the mother of invention, goes the proverb rightly. And when it is a question of necessity of originality in a work of art, the artist invents it when he does not want to imitate anyone. The proof can be viewed at the Triveni Kala Sangam where Pradeep Kapoor of 45 summers, an artist out of hobby and a senior accountant for a living, has put his latest exhibition of 45 “small square paintings”, as he prefers to name them. ‘Collages,’ as the title of the exhibition goes, presents his compositions in an entirely original form, which resemble collages but are not so. They are not French-derived traditional ‘cut and paste’ items. Or the original collages that Picasso introduced for colours were expensive those days. They are bright and colourful part of the whole composition from any artistic item, be a magazine, a rough paper or just a piece of calendar. He transforms this part into whole, by just rubbing, scratching, using a pen and modifying them by putting a dot or a line with absolutely no colour or paint. Being a firm believer of ‘Gestalt Theory’ which states that the whole is important than part, the artist insists that his compositions be viewed in totality, not as a part. He prefers calling his works ‘psycoscapes’ as he delves deeper into the psyche of “downtrodden, lesser children of God and unprivileged” ones who, according to him, are “happier than those living in the upper strata of society for their thoughts, desires and expectations are limited.” The artist, thus, celebrates life for and on behalf of this financially deprived section of our society. Most of his compositions celebrate life in smaller towns, huts, across the road and at many more places where they dwell freely. Thus, they are all in bright hues of red and blue, green and crimson. Be it a dawn, starry night or noon, his human beings, animals and birds all revel. “Life is about celebration, not renunciation,” he tells you the reason for painting bright. But it is not only the merrier side of life that marks his compositions, he equally tries to demystify the stories that are shrouded in haze over the years. Says Marlyn Monroe, the queen of cine world. “Whether she was shot dead or she committed suicide is subject to verification still. I have tried to raise this question” through one of his compositions where he shows her, a bullet and dark shades reflecting her attempt at suicide. This artist who has a few exhibitions all over India, paints abstracts only. In his last exhibition of abstract paintings at the same gallery, all paintings got sold. The reason was the original work of paint on just rough, plain paper, never seen before. A student of Hindi literature by choice, he is a believer of riti sidhanta which means a perfect placement of words and emotions in poetry to generate aesthetic sense. In his present works too, he places coloured pieces to create rhythm and flow that produces aesthetic significance. All his compositions are “experience of the moment I go through while making them,” he tells you. The artist is also a poet and a known psychologist to whom those psychic patients turn up who could not be healed anywhere. “I don’t charge even a single penny from my patients. I feel happy if they go satisfied from my end,” he says. And if you believe, for the past 15 years, he had been going to mortuary, operate upon dead bodies’ liver and brain to see how they function! And he has been reading the history of art for the past 20 years, ask him the revolution in the realm anywhere in the world and he has a ready answer. The artist has the regret relating to colour quality in India. “They get faded and crumbled with 15 to 20 years unlike in abroad. No company makes sustainable quality colours. He suggests that the government art galleries like Lalit Kala should provide artists with cost-effective quality colours, brushes, canvases as also they should keep updating their artists’ directory that does not contain the names of lesser-known but talented artists. He takes only five minutes in effectuating one such (exhibited) composition. Renowned art critics have marked his compositions as “absolutely original”, a compliment he feels proud of. Exhibition is on till May 19. |
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PLAY TIME
Style, style, lots of style, action: yells Lushin Dubey at the children up to the age of 12. And the kids, practically uncontrollable, yet willing to enact their roles. A small girl becomes a beautiful fairy-like damsel who sits ‘stylishly’ beside ‘Moghli’, the famous jungle boy in a train. Both, after an initial chit-chat come to like each other and become friends. They do the ball dance when people get down the train. On the other side, Bubbles Sabharwal is seen jumping and singing with them in order to make them act. This is kids’ theatre, the buzzword in the Capital these days. For Delhi seems to have suddenly woken up to the kids’ needs of self-expression - not through the indoor games where kids join blocks of alphabetical pieces together, silently or play a tricky story on internet but where they themselves become a part of the play enacting roles of their choice and feel triumphant. Funky Orbits, the first in India and one of the largest in Asia’s indoor playstation, founded only a year and a half back by Raaja Kunwar, takes the initiative in making the kids feel themselves. It organised ‘Funkie Stage Club’, a summer theatre workshop from 1 to 15 May. Lushin Dubey (you might have seen her as Rozy aunty in Shayam Benegal’s Zubaida and a doting mother in Monsoon Wedding) and Bubbles Sabharwal, were roped into to conduct the workshop. Why they two? Well, they are the directors of Capital’s famous ‘Kids World’— the theatre workshop for children as also well experienced in the field. While Lushin has done her four years masters in childhood education from the United States in the mid eighties, Bubbles has been working with them for the last 15 years. “I realised that kids need to express themselves when I saw that my children were becoming TV junkies many years back. I conducted a performance ‘Charlotte’s web’ with just a few kids on my home lawn. It was based on harmony between animals, environment and human beings. People of all age groups liked the performance and my friends insisted that I take to a hall. I did the same. It was a huge success, which prompted me to work with children as I realised that they have great potential, which needs to come out,” she tells the reason to be roped in for the workshop. She also tells you that the children in Delhi are more spoilt unlike in other smaller town where they are more protected and disciplined and they always think before moving. Lushin echoes similar views. “I have been working with them for last 16 years. I feel that they badly need a common modem of umbrella where they can sense fun and feel free to express themselves — a must for their personal development. I never make them feel that I am senior to them in anyway. Hence, their fear psychosis ceases and they feel comfortable,” she tells you the reason for “feeling cool” among them. This workshop which is summer-specific, though the activities run throughout the year at the Funkie Orbit, is meant to drag children away from TV or Internet screens. “Of late, I had realised that unlikely abroad, the children in India have just stopped being kids because of too much of study burden on them. They must be made to involve in active play in order to inculcate confidence and better communication skills in them. Hence, we took the initiative in children’s ‘edutainment’ through various stage, dance and drama activities and I selected Lushin and Bubbles who are not very ‘filmi’ and are too cool with the kids,” says Pushpa Bector, CEO, Funky Orbits. These children were all set to prepare for ‘dances of the world’ workshop where they will be taught four special dances, Spanish, Arabic, Hawaiian and Cha, cha, cha, in the days to come. At six in the evening, the theatre workshop was over but the kids, all ready to go home, humming, dancing – ‘we are prisoners’…. one of the roles they will play when the stage is set for them. A few of them gather around Lushin and Bubbles, offering sandwiches and wafers they have brought from home. `Ma’m please, take some, please…’ they insist. Smiling, the duo ask, “Can you see the reward?” Rana A Siddiqui
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