EDUCATION

765 students awarded degrees
Tribune News Service

Mr Chopra spoke about a new concept of helping the special children (mentally handicapped) under a special scheme. An institute had been set up. Out of nearly 1000 applicants, at least 250 students had been chosen.

Students protest postponement of exams
Tribune News Service

Panchkula, April 11
Students of B.Com. II and of various computer courses offered by Zed Career Academy at Government College, Panchkula were in for a rude shock this afternoon. Days of preparation for their annual examinations went down the drain when they learnt that the examination for today had been postponed because of the ongoing holidays at Kurukshetra University.

Students of the college were dismayed to learn that paper of Accounts for commerce stream and information system for computer students, being conducted by Kurukshetra University, had been postponed. When the agitated students protested against this sudden postponement of examinations, the police was called in. The police drove the students away as they tried to gate crash “to have a word with the authorities “.

The students have been told that the examinations to be held between April 11 and 16 have been postponed. The commerce students had money and banking examination scheduled for April 14. The college authorities said they had received the official communication about the exams being postponed only in the morning. They said new dates for these examinations would be announced later.

Mind your language!
Parbina Rashid

Chandigarh, April 11
‘Creating a good teacher is equivalent to teaching 100 students’ was the guideline for Mr D.S. Bedi, Principal of Shivalik Public School, when he started a language laboratory in his school in Sector 41 to teach phonetics to the teaching community. Equipped with all modern infrastructure, the laboratory is going to be operative by the end of this month.

“It is important for teachers to know the phonetics of a language to teach correctly to students,” says Mr Bedi. Equipped with 16 stations with microphones, TV, computer and recording devices, the laboratory will provide opportunity to the teachers to learn the right diction of a language through the trial-and-error method.

“The trainee teachers will be given a script to read and match it with the same version through a computer programme and then after learning the nitty-gritty of the language they will have a chance to record their script reading and compare,” said Mr Bedi.

The school has already spent Rs 5 lakh on the project. For the supply of books and CDs for the computer, the school has tied up with the British Council Library in Sector 8. “The library has an excellent collection of books and CDs and we expect to benefit by our tie-up with it,” says Mr Bedi. However, it is not just the collection of books and CDs which are expected to flow in but also the resource persons to teach the subject.

Besides the resource persons from the library, the school also plans to make use of the skill of the foreign students who come to the school as a part of the foreign exchange programme. The laboratory will be open for the entire teaching community of the city and those from outside. “Since such a huge amount has been spent to make the laboratory ready, there is no reason why others should not benefit from it,” says Mr Bedi adding, “we believe in sharing”.

PU needs more teachers for evaluation work
Sanjeev Singh Bariana
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 11
Far lesser than the required number of examiners from the Panjab University faculty are involved in the evaluation job of answer sheets.

The matter gains importance in the light of the recommendation of a special committee of the university constituted to improve the quality of evaluation. These guidelines have already been issued to the coordinators of the evaluation centres of the post-graduate courses.

It has been pointed out that “since the number of examiners available for marking the answersheets was far less than what was required causing a number of problems in getting the evaluation work completed well in time, the evaluation work for teachers should be made obligatory and it should be a part of their normal teaching duties”.

Sources said the recommendation with “good intentions has little meaning as the examination duties cannot be made obligatory unless the university calendar was changed”.

One peculiar problem in the compilation of examination results in the past had also been pointed out as uncertainty about whether the examiner concerned was comfortable in the medium (English, Hindi or Punjabi) in which he was given the answersheets for evaluation. There were reports of certain cases earlier where students interest had suffered because the examiner lacked proficiency in the particular medium in which he got the answersheets for evaluation. The university decided that before “start of the evaluation, the examiner will be asked to fill in a proforma indicating the option of medium in which they would like to evaluate”.

To improve the existing system, the university has appointed another committee which is working out the details of effecting further improvement in evaluation. The members of the committee are: Prof S.L. Sharma, Prof Pushpinder Syal, Prof Indu Banga, Prof Pam Rajput, Prof Satya P. Gautam, Dr Sodhi Ram, Controller of Examinations and Mr Ashok Bhandari, Joint Controller of Examinations, besides others.

The university had sent a circular that “no one will be appointed the head examiner with less than 10 years’ teaching experience. If the paper-setter is available, he will be the head examiner. Teachers working in other universities will not be head examiners”.

At a meeting held recently, the university deliberated on an earlier proposal which said “the head examiner may check 10 per cent of the answersheets evaluated by the examiner” to ensure compliance with the instructions and guidelines submitted by the paper-setters.

The university also deliberated on a recommendation that “every paper-setter, in addition to questions, should be asked to send detailed instructions for evaluation”.

Professor Gautam was expected to be invited to “enlighten the committee about the procedure of random checking of papers” to improve evaluation. A formal set of practical recommendations is still to be compiled.

COURTS

Rape accused acquitted
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, April 11
Four persons, including three Central Reserve Police Force( CRPF ) jawans and a rickshaw-puller suspected to be involved in a rape of a blind woman in Daria village, were acquitted by a local court. The three CRPF jawans — Fateh Singh, Gauri and Suraj, and rickshaw-pullar, Sham Lal, were acquitted by UT Additional and Sessions Judge as prosecution failed to prove the allegation levelled against them.

As per the prosecution the four had kidnapped the victim while she was going with her brother- in-law at Daria village. Later, she was raped by the suspects in the forest near the village.

CULTURE

An evening of absorbing melodies
Tribune News Service

Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay recites at Pracheen Kala Kendra in Sector 35, Chandigarh, on Friday. — A Tribune photograph

Sangeeta concluded her recital with a bhajan. She was accompanied on tabla by Amit Chatterjee and on harmonium by Mehmood Dholpuri.

Chicago-based artiste excels
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, April 11
For Vir Das, a Chicago-based theatre artiste, standing in front of an audience for one and half hours and make them laugh with his dialogues and actions may be just like a workout to stay fit, but for his audience his act comes as a refreshing change. As this young artiste projected controversial issues and portrayed complex human behaviour through his actions and witty dialogues, it was enough to send the audience into peals of laughter. At the same time, Das’ efforts made them think seriously.

“Bored of the Things”, as the show hosted at Tagore Theatre tonight was called, however projected just one aspect of this budding artiste’s skills. Take a deeper peek into his personality and you are likely to catch a glimpse of the seriousness which is the essence of this 23-year-old youth. “Comedy is okay, but I am more interested in doing serious plays,” says Das. He has already made his mark as an actor in 20 odd plays.

“Shakespeare is one of my favourites and I have acted in most of the plays authored by him” says Das. Das’ journey into the world of drama started when he enrolled himself for a part-time drama class in Chicago sometime ago. “I was working for my economics degree in USA in the 1999 when, simultaneously, I joined an acting class. Ever since I have been doing nothing but acting,” he adds. Hooked on the idea of becoming a professional actor, he is going to do a master’s degree in acting next.

Das, who has already acted in three films made by students abroad is open to the idea of working in Hindi films. At present he is shuttling between India and the USA to try his luck in Bollywood and for a beginning even the meaningless “running around the tree” kind of roles will satisfy for his appetite acting. “I am at the prime of my life and ready to explore everything in this field and, to begin with, even the “dancing around the tree” kind of roles will satisfy me,” says he. 

900 compete in cactus show
Tribune News Service

Panchkula, April 11
Over 900 entries from all over the region were received in the 26th annual show of cactus and other succulent plants, being held at the National Cactus and Succulent Botanical Garden and Research Garden here.

The entries were adjudged in 22 categories, which will be open to the public for two days beginning tomorrow. This show is being organised by the National Cactus and Succulent Society of India and the Haryana Urban Development Authority. In all, 937 exhibits were put up in the show. As many as 47 participants from Chandigarh, SAS Nagar, Panchkula and other surrounding areas displayed their cactii.

While Sohit Sood won the prestigious “King of the Show” for his thelocactus, the “ Queen of the Show” and the Sarkaria Trophy went to Ramji Lal for his succulent plant, echeveria lavi. The results in other categories in this show are as follows:

Bhullar bowl for highest points in junior league — B.R. Mahajan; S.P. Bhandari trophy for highest points in mammillaria classes — Ramji Lal; Anup trophy for best display of cactii and succulents — Ramji Lal; O.P. Bansal trophy for best melocactus — Cactus Garden, Panchkula; Kewal Singh Bains plate for best score in succulents — Ramji Lal; Dawar trophy for maximum marks in succulents — Ramji Lal; NCSSI challenge trophy for best echinocereus — Brig. CS Bewli; Indian succulent challenge trophy for best Indian succulent — DS Sharma; Surinder Goyal memorial trophy for best agave — Sohit Sood; Bhupinder Singh memorial trophy for best astrophytum — BP Singh; and Capt J.N. Sood memorial trophy for best mesemb — Ramji Lal;

Malik Sukhdial trophy for Class 17 — Ramji Lal; Union Bank of India Trophy for best institutional participation — Gontermann Pipers Ltd; Union Bank of India trophy for best Indian Succulent — D.S. Sharma; NCSSI trophy for best outstation participation — Gontermann Pipers Ltd; NCSSI trophy for maximum entries — Ramji Lal; Hari Ram trophy for best pachypodium — Ravi Lal; BML trophy for highest score in mammilliaria classes in junior league — B.R. Mahajan; ISCOS trophy for best haworthia — Cactus Garden, Panchkula; AS Walia trophy for best gymnocalycium — D.S. Sharma; Aneesh Bansal memorial trophy for best succulent bonsa — Ravi Lal; Shakuntala Bhandari trophy for best opuntia — Survey of India; and NCSSI trophy for best seedlings on root — SE Horticulture, HUDA.