EDUCATION

Colleges refuse downloaded forms
Our Correspondent

New Delhi June 9
Some of the colleges have shown reluctance in accepting forms downloaded from the official university website despite the instructions of Dr Hema Raghavan, Dean, Student Welfare, Delhi University.

A large number of students who decided to avoid the long queues had taken advantage of the facility of downloading the forms, but to their chagrin discovered that the colleges were not accepting them on the excuse that they did not have the registration number.

“I am requesting all the college officials to accept the downloaded forms,” said the Dean, Student Welfare, when the matter was brought to her notice. The college authorities complained that the students photocopied the downloaded forms, which resulted in poor visibility of the various sections and made the task of scrutiny quite difficult. This was one of the reasons of not accepting the forms, the other being the lack of registration number, they claimed.

“Most of the downloaded forms do not have any registration number which is the heart and soul of any admission form. That precisely is the reason why we do not accept centralized forms,” said a principal of a reputed college.

“We specifically didn’t give any registration numbers to any of the downloaded forms to prevent the students from making another copy of it. But now it has led to a problem. I think I should have given a registration number,” said Dr Raghavan.

SCHOOL BUZZ
Children with special needs to have meaningful existence
Smriti Kak

FOUR Steps, a rehabilitation, research and training centre for children with special needs, has been started by the Dalmia Seva Trust. Four Steps intends to empower children with special needs to move towards integration and self-realisation.

It aims to associate knowledge with resources and efforts to foster the ability of every child and make it self-sufficient. The centre follows four steps, which is why it has been named Four Steps.

The first step is an early intervention centre that will cater to the children with special needs in the age group 0-3 years and provide the parents as well as children with the guidance by therapists, specialists and special educators. The second step is the special school for children between two-and-a-half and 16 years. It will have specially-designed education programmes for children with Down’s syndrome and mild and moderate mental retardation.

The third step is a pre-vocational and vocational centre for those over 16 years. Taking into account their individual abilities, pre-vocational and vocational training would be given to the children to enter the world of meaningful occupation.

The last step is the creative world, where an activity-cum-recreational centre will be held in the evenings and on weekends. This will identify, develop and improve the various artistic skills of the children. Children will also be trained in disciplines like dance, art and craft, yoga, aerobics and music.

The school also envisages a child medical development and guidance clinic with a faculty of speech therapists, physiotherapists and clinical psychologists.

First-aid workshop

A first-aid workshop being held at the Amity International, Manesar.

The problems like drug abuse, alcohol and smoking that plague teenagers were also discussed. This workshop was surely educative.

Sterling school

Bhai Parmanand Vidya Mandir, a school in East Delhi, has enough reason to be proud of its students. Among the many sterling performances by their students, Anurag Tripathi, made the school particularly proud by scoring a 99 per cent in the Class X exams. The school believes that their progressive approach and providing the necessary atmosphere in order to foster a national and cosmopolitan perspective, along with the stress on personality development, was the key to its students’ success.

Principal awarded

The principal of GHPS, Vasant Vihar, Mr S. S. Minhas, has been conferred with the Vijay Rattan Award for his meritorious services and remarkable role in education. He was also given a certificate of excellence at a ceremony held in the Capital. The Governor of Madhya Pradesh, Dr Bhai Mahavir, and the former Governor of Tamil Nadu, Dr Bhisham Narain Singh, presented the award to Mr Minhas.

Mr S.S. Minhas, principal of GHPS, Vasant Vihar, being presented the Vijay Ratan Award by Dr Bhai Mahavir, Governor of Madhya Pradesh, in the Capital.

PRINCIPALSPEAK
“Gifts are the most beautiful expressions of love”

AS I look back, I remember that as a child my birthday used to be the most important day for me. I loved all the beautiful gifts I received. They held the promise of wonderful things. At the end of the party, I used to open the gifts with so much excitement. Over the years, many things have changed but I am grateful to God that the one thing that has not changed is the “significance of gifts”. I’ve always cherished the joy of watching faces light up when people receive gifts.

Why are these gifts so important for us? What magic do they hold? Most of the things we receive are those, which we already possess, yet they bring so much delight. Do we hold them precious because they are expensive or because they are expressions of love?

Both, giving and receiving gifts is a beautiful gesture, which binds us to our family, our friends and those with whom we meaningfully relate. The gifts we hold most precious are the ones, which have been given to us by our ‘near and dear’ ones, whom we consider our own. Therein lies their true value. Gifts are sharing our joys with others. Even the smallest and most inexpensive gift is a token of love and thus is invaluable. Our life is the most beautiful gift God has given us. We must make every moment of it a celebration and acknowledge the gifts offered to us by God in the form of various opportunities of life.

We often miss God’s blessings, just because they are not packed as we expected. This story of a young man is indeed illustrative. A young man was getting ready to graduate from college. For many months, he had admired a beautiful car in a showroom and knowing that his father could well afford it, he expressed his desire for the car. On the morning of his graduation, his father called him and handed him a beautifully wrapped gift box. Curious, but somewhat disappointed, the young man opened the box and found a leather-bound ‘Bible’ with his name embossed in gold.

Angrily, he raised his voice and said, “With all your money, you have given me a book!” He stormed out of the house, leaving the book behind.

Many years passed by and the young man became a successful businessman. He remembered his old father and felt guilty for not having met his father since that day. But before he could make arrangements for travel, he received a telegram, informing him about his father’s demise.

He had willed all his possessions to his son. The young man’s heart was filled with sadness and regret. On reaching his father’s house, he began to search through his father’s papers and found the ‘Bible’ just as he had left it years ago. With tears, he opened the book and began to turn the pages. Suddenly a car key dropped from the back of the book. It had a tag with the dealer’s name, date of his graduation and the words, ‘Paid in Full’.

He realised that in his arrogance and anger, he had not only rejected the ‘gift’ but also his father’s love. The loss was irreparable.

A gift is one of the strongest expressions of love, which may even demand sacrifice. But in giving, you receive your most beautiful gift–a sense of fulfilment and true joy. We all know that most parents willingly sacrifice their precious possessions and forgo their own wants to be able to buy a gift for their child. This enriches the value of the gift.

Even though it is more blessed to give than to receive, it is also necessary to be able to receive graciously. Not accepting a gift deprives the giver of the joy of giving as well as hurts him at being turned down. So, let the gifts be symbols of mutual appreciation.

MADHU CHANDRA, Principal Birla, Vidya Niketan, Pushp Vihar

National Green Corps in schools fails to get going
Bijendra Ahlawat
Tribune News Service

Faridabad, June 9
Pollution is perhaps one of the issues that require the utmost attention. But it seems to get the least priority when it comes to the implementation of various schemes announced from time to time.

The proposals of involving schoolchildren in the projects known as National Green Corps (NGC) on the pattern of NCC (National Cadet Corps) and starting Eco Clubs at the school level are yet to take off. These projects were reportedly conceived over an year ago. However, the shape in which these schemes were to be implemented has not been finalised, as per sources in the Education Department.

The department had organised a training camp-cum-workshop in Gurgaon under the aegis of the State Council of Education, Research and Training (SCERT) in May last year to promote the schemes, but no progress could be made despite the fact that the authorities concerned had asked to depute two specially trained teachers in each district to set up Eco Clubs and NGC units in every government school.

A camp was also held at Government Girls Secondary School here and representatives from various schools had taken part in it. “Interestingly, the public schools or institutions affiliated to the CBSE (Delhi) have not been involved or taken into confidence about the project so far,” said a teacher of a private public school here.

There are about 90 schools affiliated to the CBSE in the town with a combined strength of about 35,000 students.

The NGC is supposed to be made a part of the school curriculum and a student opting for it will get the same advantage that was available to NCC members or other programmes carried out under the head of Social Useful Productive Work (SUPW). The NGC is expected not only to participate in the sapling plantation scheme but also to carry out special programmes for creating mass awareness and involve common man in achieving the objectives of providing a green cover and taking care of the saplings planted.

The Pollution Control Board authorities have reportedly made available funds to the tune of about Rs 19 crore for the above-stated project.

The Deputy Commissioner in a recently held programme on environment had also stated that 50 children per school from about 100 schools in the district would be trained and be made part of the team (NGC) to take up the environment protection programme seriously. He
stated that the help of various industrial organisations and companies, including the NHPC, IOC and NTPC had been sought.

Girls outclass boys in graduate exams
Our Correspondent

Rohtak, June 9
Girls outclassed boys once again in BA/BSc/BCom (part III) examinations conducted by Maharshi Dayanand University, results of which were declared this evening.

While Shuchi Gupta of Public Girls College, Rewari secured the first position by scoring 988 marks out of 1,200 in BA, Vidhi of University College, Rohtak topped in BSc examination by scoring 1,350 marks out of 1450. Isha Choudhary of Adarsh Mahila Mahavidyalaya, Bhiwani bagged the first position in Bcom examination scoring 1,319 out of 1,800 marks.

Dr K. C. Bharadwaj, Controller of Examinations of the university, said the pass percentage was 55.43 in BA, 73.98 in BSc and 73.66 in BCom examinations. He said the colleges falling in Rohtak, Bhiwani, Rewari, Mahendragarh, Sonepat, Faridabad, Gurgaon and Jhajjar districts were affiliated to this university. Strangely, the boys could capture only seven out of the top 52 positions in all the three examinations.