The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

EDUCATION

MLA ‘exposes’ another school
Tribune News Service

SAS Nagar, July 10
Continuing with his spree of laying bare the pitiable condition of school education in Punjab, Mr Bir Devinder Singh, MLA of Kharar, today visited Government Senior Secondary School at Bhabat village in Dera Bassi, the third in a series of worst performing schools in his constituency.

The school has registered a pass percentage of 26 with a zero per cent result in drawing and 8 per cent in mathematics in matriculation. Mr Bir Devinder Singh went around the school, checked the records and talked to the failed students who had got admitted again in the same class.

‘‘Don’t you feel bad that you have to sit in the same class again?’’ he asked the students. The students informed that they could not understand what the maths teacher taught them and in drawing, they did not know that there was a written test. ‘‘It was supposed to be just drawing, not a written test,’’ they informed.

Accompanied by mediapersons, Mr Bir Devinder informed a TV channel that the atam chintan drive was ‘‘to feel ashamed for our inability to give what our children deserve rather than to humiliate or show someone down. We are all responsible for the state of education in these schools. And the only sufferers are these innocent students whose lives end up with a low second class degree which cannot fetch them a job,’’ he said.

About his earlier visits to schools at Bakarpur village in Mohali and Sakrullahpur village in Kharar, Mr Bir Devinder pointed out that most of the teachers employed to teach do not deserve to be there. ‘‘I will recommend an inquiry into the performance of the teacher responsible for the 8 per cent result in mathematics in this school, too,’’ he said.

Carrying a notebook from one of these schools as ‘proof’ of ignorance of teachers, he showed a letter written by a student, checked by his teacher and still full of mistakes. ‘‘This has been now checked by the SDM Kharar, Mr S.S. Gill, and there are over 10 mistakes which have not been marked,’’ he said.

Today’s visit proved to be rather staid as compared to the earlier two ones when quizzing of schoolteachers had led to some startling revelations. ‘‘Yesterday at the Kharar school, a social science teacher said that the first World War was fought in 1857. The saddest was the presence of a mentally disturbed teacher in the school. I asked him if he knew how many colours the Indian Tricolour has and he answered six. After which I asked him to re-think and he replied, eight. Then I asked him to draw it for me and he drew a triangle on a paper. I am not trying to say anything against him. He needs medical help, but should he be allowed to teach the students till he is OK?’’

‘‘Today’s visit was more on the lines of sensitising the teachers on their responsibility and the fact that they have to take their jobs more seriously as they can make a big difference to the lives of their pupils,’’ said the SDM, Dera Bassi, Mr Manvesh Sidhu, who accompanied the MLA to the school.

Talking to TNS later in the day, Mr Bir Devinder said he has asked the Chief Minister to call a special session of the Assembly on the sad state of school education in Punjab. ‘‘I had a long session with the teachers today and realised that not a single teacher’s own child had ever failed. Moreover, all those who had failed in the school were the ones who could not afford tuitions. So, in the end it is the poorest of poor students who are at the receiving end of this state of affairs,’ he said.

Sawera — school for special kids turns one
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 10
For some strange reason, even the best among slow learning children are not encouraged to join mainstream education in various schools of the city. This despite the fact that the matter was taken up some time back by the Secretary, Social Welfare, UT, who, reportedly, even directed schools of the city to come forward and integrate special children in the normal stream.

Not much response has, however, been forthcoming in this regard. It is precisely because normal schools have not yet risen to the challenge that special schools catering to the needs and aspirations of special kids have assumed utmost significance. Among the few organisations working in this area, Sawera — a school for the mentally challenged and slow learning kids being run in Saupin’s School, Sector 32, is worthy of mention. It is run every day between 3 and 6 pm.

Today was a special occasion for the 47 special kids of Sawera, which celebrated its first birthday on the school campus. The school came into existence last year on July 10, with just one child — Pallav Mittal from Chandigarh — enrolled as a student. In a span of just one year, the school has grown from strength to strength by improving its services for special children. Today, Sawera has about 20 children from places all over the region, from Ludhiana and Solan to Kharagpur.

Apart from mentally challenged children, Sawera also provides special and remedial education to children with learning disabilities like autism and dyslexia. In fact, Sawera has a full-fledged team of professionals under the charge of Neil Robert, who has specialised training in handling the handicapped children. Encouraged by immense response to their slow learning and mentally handicapped section, Sawera has recently opened a morning section where slow learners are taught so that they can further be integrated into the normal stream.

Neil informs, “Sawera is presently focussing on providing education related services to students who are differentially disabled. The two groups presently being covered include children who are mentally challenged and those who are slow learners. The aim of the organisation is social integration of children. As Neil says, “We provide special and remedial education to children to assist them in coping with the challenges of integration. We will succeed only if these children start attending normal schools.”

Apart from remedial and social education for differentially disabled kids, Sawera is currently also offering speech therapy, physiotherapy, behavioural modification, sports and yoga therapy and occupational therapy to children. Other activities include play and recreation, computer-aided instruction guidance and counselling services, parent-teacher training workshops and regular case conferences to monitor the development of children.

The celebrations were kick started by Pallav Mittal, the first student of Sawera. He was joined in by other children, including Sumpreet, Swastik Pathak, Abhiskek, Shruti and Chhaya. Parents of some of the differentially disabled kids also performed this evening.

TTTI to prepare curriculum for vocational courses
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 10
A workshop on vetting curriculum documents, being complied for vocational courses, was organised at the Technical Teachers Training Institute (TTTI) in Sector 26, here today. A large number of experts from various fields attended the meet.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development intends to introduce competency based training programmes at multiple levels. It has identified training courses categorised in different vocational clusters.

The TTTI has been tasked to prepare curriculum for three vocational clusters. These are business, administration and sales, health and community services and engineering and technical.

The experts deliberated upon the curriculum devised for the vocational courses and discussed various changes and modifications.

COURTS

Distinction between ‘paid’ and ‘free’ seats challenged
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 10
Issuing a notice of motion on a petition claiming that the distinction between “free” and “paid” seats could not be maintained in the engineering courses being run by Panjab University, a Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court today directed that fees further paid shall be subject to the decision of the writ petition.

In their petition, the students, admitted in the “paid seat category” last year, had claimed that initially the university was admitting students under both categories. But on October 31, 2002, an 11-Judge Bench of the Supreme Court had held as unconstitutional the distinction between “paid” and “free” seats.

Following the judgment, the university in the prospectus for 2003-04 had made a provision for one common fee structure. No distinction between “free” and “paid” seats was provided.

The claim of the petitioners, admitted last year, was that they should also be charged the same fee which had now been provided by the university. Arguing before the court, counsel for the petitioners had asserted that the distinction between the two categories could not be maintained after the pronouncement of the judgment in October 2002.

Registration certificates

A former head of Panjab University’s English Department, Professor D.C. Saxena’s petition seeking directions to the Chandigarh Administration against implementing the reported notification regarding the change of address in the registration certificates of vehicles will come up for hearing before a Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on July 11.

Taking up the petition, the Bench, comprising the Chief Justice, Mr Justice B.K. Roy, and Mr Justice Amar Dutt, also asked the petitioner to produce a copy of the notification issued by Government of India’s Ministry of Road Transport in May 2002.

In his petition, Dr Saxena had also sought directions to the Administration for formulating a practicable and humane scheme for implementing the provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act without causing harassment to the citizens.

CULTURE

NIFD’s fashion story rolls on the ramp
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 10
Pleasant weather could have been just another excuse to be at Hotel North Park which played host to beautiful models who participated in the annual fashion show of the National Institute of Fashion Design, Sector 8, this evening. Titled, Haute and Kool, the show was a statement of creativity.

As the fashion show rolled, top models, Katrina Kaif, Aditi Govitrikar, Jesse Randhawa, Nikita Anand, Simran Sachdeva, Shikha and Aakanksha, used their unending charm to add mettle to the already impressive collection crafted by students. In all, there were 14 rounds in the show choreographed by Priyanka Singh.

Coming to the basics of design, some rounds that stood out for their novelty were Inherited treasures, the city of king and commoners, Saroor, Volant Oiseau and Bewitched. The hallmark of these designs was their original theme. Inherited treasures was inspired by nature. Using the natural fibre, the designers carved out earthy designs that were a visual delight and a virtual treasure anyone would yearn to cherish. The outfits were dominated by techniques like riveting and criss crossing.

The city of king and commoners was a round enacted on stage on soothing, melodious strange melodies. Inspired by the regalia of a royal city, ruled by king Copan, this collection stood out for extensive use of accessories made out of mud. The impact of accessorisation was strong enough to add an edge to the collection which had Aditi Govitrikar dressed as the queen of the wild. Each costume revealed the wild people in modern cuts which were accentuated by fans used in the silhouette.

Volant Oiseau was another interestingly structured round which drew its theme line from birds, dainty, colourful and elaborate. The collection featured leading ladies dressed as birds like macaw, parrot, peacock and the blue bird. The look of the round was magical and the fabrics used were flamboyant so that they match the spirit of soaring. Vibrant colours like green, blue, yellow, orange and green completed the magical look that was sustained throughout the round.

The fashion rendezvous was also made entertaining by the Mumbai-based singer, who has earned a living out of remixing Bollywood hits. Mohini Singh, the remix singer, set the fashion show rolling by performing on the track of “Babuji zara dhire chalo....”

Theatre festival begins
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, July 10
A seven-day theatre festival organised by the North Zone Cultural Centre started with the Punjabi Sabhyacharak Kala Manch presenting its first production, Zakhmi Sherni, at Kalagram today. The manch, a theatre outfit from Kot Kapura, will be presenting seven Punjabi plays during the festival.

The plays include “Kissa Iqbal Da”, a play written by Dr Baldev Singh Sarknama, “Ru Ambra Tak Roye” written by Gurkirtan Chauhan, “Mitti Rudan Kare” by Dr Baldev Singh, “Is Chowk Ton Sahar Dikhta Hai” by Bhupinder Pali, “Zakhmi Sherni” by Dr Gursharan Singh. All the seven plays are being directed by Gurmeet Sajan.

The theatre festival presents two plays every day interspersed with a musical evening which will feature Rajni, an upcoming folk singer from Patiala along with other local artistes.