The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

New syllabus books still unavailable
Lovleen Bains

Sahnewal, May 16
The syllabus of maths and science of class IX of the Punjab School Education Board has changed but the new books in Punjabi medium have not been available to teachers and students even after two months into the academic session.

A teacher of a local government school has complained that the new study material in Punjabi medium is not in the market. “The classes have started from April 1 and we have been without books. We don’t know what to teach the students. We just sit in the class and leave after 40 minutes, without teaching anything to the students. Moreover, maths and science are tough for students and are time-consuming. Even teachers need time to grasp the new books, we can’t expect the students to hurry through the changed syllabus at the last moment,” the teacher said.

The students were also resentful of the non-availability of books. One of them said, “What are we to do without books? Our score depends on these subjects. Who will bear the loss of three months of study? We shall be the ultimate sufferers. It is our result which is going to be affected,” he complained.

“Had the books been available, we would have covered half of our syllabus in these months and revised it during our vacation. Other subjects can be covered side by side but maths and science require more concentration,” another student said.

This problem is mainly being faced by government schools as the books are not available in Punjabi. Public schools are facing no such problem as the books are in English medium.

According to information, the students of government schools are always under such pressure. The syllabus of English of class V was changed last year by the PSEB but the books are not easily available.

The teachers have also complained that even the books of changed syllabus of maths in Punjabi of class VI were available only two-three days before the commencement of vacation.

The changed syllabus of English of class VI is much above the level of government school students who are yet in the process of learning the language. According to an English teacher of a government school, “The English course introduced to the students of class VI is much beyond their understanding. They have great difficulty in understanding such complex sentences as they are yet at the first stage of learning the basics of the language. Such a drastic change is sure to affect their result adversely. The change, if it is to made, must be from the beginning. The course being followed in the previous class must be kept in mind before making any changes.”

Govt blamed for pathetic condition of colleges
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, May 16
Prof Jaipal Singh, general secretary of the Government Teachers Association, has appreciated the move of Mr Harnam Dass Johar, Minister for Higher Education, to see for himself the pathetic condition of government colleges.

According to him, the government itself is responsible for this sorry state of affairs. The present govt is pursuing the policy adopted by the previous government of not giving sufficient funds for maintenance, extension and other activities. A college as big as Government College, Ludhiana, got just around Rs 35,000 as contingency grant last year. These colleges are surviving only on PTA funds. He has requested the minister to get more funds sanctioned by the Finance Department to save these colleges. He has said that the minister should not insist on transferring lecturers who have completed more than five years at a place.

According to him, the Principal Secretary (Higher Education), Mr N.S. Sattan, has given an assurance to an 11-member delegation of the Punjab Government College Teachers Association on April 25 that transfers will be effected only in three cases (a) transfer against vacant a post (b) mutual transfer (c) transfer on administrative grounds.

Neeraj wins declamation contest
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, May 16
The Petroleum Conservation Research Association organised a seminar and declamation contest for students of Everest Public Senior Secondary School, Moti Nagar, here today.

Mr Bachitar Singh, District Education Officer (Secondary), was the chief guest. Urging the students to take to bicycles, he said the present petroleum reserves would get exhausted in a few years and the world would be confronted with a grave problem of finding alternative source of energy.

Mr Rajinder Sharma, while referring the petroleum as “black gold”, stressed upon the need to take drastic steps to save its every drop. He gave prizes to the winners. Mr Neeraj Kashyap of Class VIII won the first prize, Ekta of Class VIII was declared second and Gulshandeep Kaur of the same class, stood third. Consolation prizes went to Nitish Bhardwaj of Class XII (non-medical), Vinod Verma of Class X and Daljeet Kaur of the same class.

On the occasion, the toppers (science and commerce streams) were also honoured. From the non-medical group, Bhajandeep Singh stood first securers 351 out of 450 marks, Savita Rai stood second with 323 marks and Malvi Gupta was declared third with 316 marks. Among students from commerce streams, Hatinderdeep Singh stood first with 330 marks out of the total 400, Sushma Yadav was declared second with 318 marks. Ranjeet Singh and Kuldeep Singh shared the third position with 291 marks.

3 get life imprisonment in murder case
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, May 16
Efforts by a woman to prevent her husband from marrying for the second time took an ugly turn when her husband succumbed to the injuries inflicted upon by a nephew of his wife and his friend. A fast track court has sentenced them to rigorous life imprisonment.

Those convicted are Surjit Kaur, her nephew , Balraj Singh, alias Raju ,and Jagjit Singh, alias Babbu of Manabarpura Tihara village. They have been charged with killing Malkiat Singh in March, 2001.

Delivering the verdict, the judge of the fast track court, Mr A.S.Kathuria , held that the guilt of accused had been proved and they deserves no leniency. The court has also imposed a fine of Rs 5000 each on the accused.

The case was registered on a statement of Surain Singh, father of the deceased, on March 3, 2001, at Sidhwan Bet police station, under Sections 302/120-B/148 and 149 of the IPC. The father of the deceased had told the police that he(Malkiat Singh) was in Manabarpura Tihara village with his younger son at the time of incident.

On March 2, 2001, his grandson Balli (son of Malkiat Singh) came to Surain Singh's house and told him that some persons had entered the house during night and had beaten up Malkiat Singh. He immediately went to the house of his son and noticed that he had suffered multiple injuries. On asking, Malkiat Singh told him that the injuries had been inflicted upon by his brother-in-law's son, Balraj Singh , and some other persons, with hockey sticks.

Thereafter the injured was taken to a private clinic but as his condition became critical he was referred to Satluj Hospital in Ludhiana. But the next morning he died. The police officials investigated the case and booked the accused.

Complainant had alleged that his daughter-in-law's relationship with his son was not good as his son wanted to remarry and for that reason, she in connivance with others had killed him.The complainant also deposed before the court that his son during hospitalisation had told him that Surjit Kaur was allegedly exhorting the accused when they were beating him up with hockey sticks.

According to the prosecution, the wife of deceased had made extra judicial confession regarding hatching a conspiracy. But during the trial she denied to have ever made any confession and alleged false implication.

The defence counsel pointed out certain discrepancies and claimed that the story of prosecution was not free from doubt and its benefit should be given to the accused. But after hearing the contentions of the parties and taking into consideration the evidence of 13 prosecution witnesses, the judge held the accused guilty.