SCHOOL BUZZ
Pathways recreates the magic of the Bard
Smriti Kak

Students of Pathways World School recreated the magic of Shakespeare on the school campus by celebrating a ‘Shakespeare festival’, wherein students enacted some of the most memorable sequences from various plays by the Bard.

The event included portions from five different plays by Shakespeare, including the all time favourite Romeo and Juliet. The other plays were Macbeth, Othello, The Merchant of Venice and The Unkindest Cut.

Great acting skills were complemented further by the perfectly lit and decorated amphitheatre. The Principal, Ms Lalage Prabhu, pointed out: “The Shakespeare festival was a joint initiative by students and faculty to ensure that not only the creative intellect of the students is enhanced but also the emotional aspect of a child is developed and strengthened. This helps in a complete development of an individual in their growing years.”

Ms Paramjit Kaur Narang, a renowned educator, has been appointed as the new principal of the Junior Wing of Pathways World School. Ms Narang was previously with Vasant Valley School. At Pathways, she will teach English in the Junior School in addition to carrying out her administrative duties. Mrs Narang is also keen on dramatics and debating and will bring her expertise in these co-curricular activities to her new assignment.

Career counselling

Institute for Career Studies (ICS), India’s number one professional career counselling institute, concluded a career counselling sessions at Army Public School, Dhaula Kuan. Over 400 students participated in these interactive sessions and benefited by the expert guidance provided by Dr Amrita Das and her professional counselling team from ICS.

Dr Amrita Das, Founder Director, Institute for Career Studies, said: “The choice of a career, which complements one’s talents and abilities, is one of the most difficult decisions of life”. A seminar for parents was also a part of the counselling session to address various educational and career related issues for the effective parental support and guidance.

Fancy dress contest

Kids participating in a fancy dress competition organised by Little Balloons School, Pitampura.

Little Balloons, Pitampura, organised a fancy dress competition for the students. Tiny-tots dressed as parrots, mobile phones, magicians and toothpaste took to the stage.

The best prize went to a student dressed as a Sheikh who carried the message, ‘Bring Peace to Iraq’.

Face painting

Small Wonders Playschool, Paschim Vihar, organised a face painting competition. The children were excited by the very fact that instead of the usual paint and paper it would be the face of the best friend or the sworn in enemy.

There were no topics and contestants were asked to let their imagination run wild. From a spider to a mountain the faces adorned various creative steaks.

Overnight camp

GHPS, India Gate, hosted the seventh inter-school English debate competition. The girls of Apeejay School, Sheikh Sarai, took home the running trophy.

DPS Mathura Road organised an overnight camp on the school premises for eight-year-olds. The outing was a fun-filled one what with the plethora of events including a magic show, fusion dance by teachers and a Ronald Mc Donald show.

The opportunity to spend a day with the teachers and friends outside the confines of a classroom was welcome change.

The Infant Wing of the school staged the ever-popular fairy tale ‘Cinderella’ with almost 500 tiny-tots having descended on the stage, the fairy tale almost came alive. Dressed in the costumes with perfected dialogues the tiny actors displayed charm and poise.

Noted actress, Susham Seth was the chief guest and lauded the children for their efforts.

A day with grandparents

Grandparents and got to spend some memorable time with their grand children at a special meet organised by the Ahlcon International School, Mayur Vihar.

The idea behind the event was to instil the values of family, caring and sharing in the little ones. A cultural programme to mark the celebrations was also organised. Games and contests were also included, as were prizes for the lucky few.

Workshop on ecology

Bal Bhavan Public School, Mayur Vihar, organised a workshop on environment and related issues. The workshop sought to educate children on issues like organic waste, degeneration of wood, cloth and paper, the damage of rain forests and environment management schemes.

It was attended by senior scientific officer, Department of Environment, Dr Sarbat, Mr Manoharan, CPCB, Dr T. K. Joshi, LNJP Hospital, and Ms Bindu Muridharan among others.

Annual day

Students of Children's Valley School performing a ballet, Circle of Life, at FICCI Auditorium.

Children’s Valley School organised the annual day at FICCI auditorium. The theme was ‘Circle of Life’, a tribute to five tatvas (elements). The programme began with the ballet ‘Homage to Elements’ where students from class II paid tributes to the five elements.

‘Worlds of Colours’, ‘Pied Piper’ and the ‘Mice’ were also staged. The programme concluded with the narration from the Ramayana and the Mahabharat.

Youth parliament

The 38th Youth Parliament convened at the Rainbow English School under the chairmanship of School Director, Mr J. R. Kashyap stressed for need of a uniform code of law and one child, one family norm.

Union Minister for Social Justice and Welfare Nagmani was the chief guest on the occasion and stressed that to check the increasing population, we need to enforce the norm of one child per family.

PRINCIPALSPEAK
Vegetarianism and its virtues

I would like to begin by recounting an incident. The incident involves a six-year-old-girl whose parents took up a posting in Saudi Arabia. She was your usual happy go lucky youngster, preoccupied with dolls and fantasy world and of course food, and being a non-vegetarian her food largely comprised butter chicken and grilled chicken and other such delicacies. Now, when she reached Riyadh, she found healthy looking camels standing around mournfully. As the sun went down, the butchers trussed those camels up and soon the market streets were adorned with large portions of those suspended upside down to display the maximum possible meat. She was disgusted, revolted and highly upset.

She vowed never to even touch the non-veg food. She now resides in Phoenix City and is a confirmed vegetarian – a healthy robust young lady pursuing medicine as her chosen career. Has she lost out on anything significant in life – no, except for the transient pleasure of gormandising on chicken, which is easily replaceable by equally tasty food.

It is only a myth that people remain healthier by eating non-veg food. In fact, world over people are moving on to vegetarianism, having seen various serious repercussions in the form of mad cow disease, salmonella and the ingestion of tape worm. These can be fatal.

I would like to bring to mind the example of Mahatma Gandhi, who was fascinated by non-vegetarian food as a young lad of fourteen. He too defied parental advice and consumed it, influenced by his peers. However, apart from that one occasion, Gandhiji never again partook of non-vegetarian food. He felt it was against our very culture.

Vegetarianism has been a way of life for Indians for centuries and now too, aside from a fraction of people, largely we remain so. While there is no denying the fact that nutritionally a non-vegetarian diet is superior in terms of protein and other nutrients, suitable palatable substitutes are easily available on this side of the hedge too. All leguminous food, all varieties of nuts that is to say, are extremely rich in it.

I wish to emphasise that what one eats is largely a personal decision and choice, but still, consider vegetarianism as a way of life – it is simpler, better and has more variety.

Madhu Chandra, Principal, Birla Vidya Niketan

Gurukul institutions set the tone for rejuvenation
Our Correspondent

Sonepat, November 30
The recent decisions of the management committee of Kanya Gurukul Khanpur Kalan and Gurukul Vidyapeeth, Bhainswal Kalan, are claimed to have set the tone for rejuvenation of the working of these educational institutions, which, otherwise, were known for becoming ‘Rajniti Ka Akhara’ of the local politicians in the past.

A meeting of the year-old management committee, headed by Ms Krishna Malik, wife of the Director-General of Police Haryana M. S. Malik, was held recently and it was decided in the meeting to pay the salaries of 14 teachers and 14 non-teaching employees of the Gurukul Vidyapeeth of Bhainswal Kalan. The salaries had been pending for the last four months. The committee also decided to abolish the eight surplus posts of the school in order to have monthly saving up to Rs 30,000.

Another decision reportedly related to vesting of financial power for drawing of the amount from the bank on behalf of the committee. Under the new decision, the financial powers of general secretary of the committee have been withdrawn and given to the cashier of the committee.

It has also been made mandatory that there have to be the signatures of the secretary, treasurer of the committee and the principal of the concerned educational institution for withdrawal of amount from any account.

In the meeting, president of the committee Krishna Malik assured that she would arrange financial help of Rs 10 lakh for construction of a hostel in the school and open three sports nurseries - judo, kabaddi and wrestling in the Gurukul.

New pattern of honours courses from next session in Haryana
Our Correspondent

Rohtak, November 30
The Commissioner of Higher Education, Mr Dhanpat Singh, said that the honours courses in Haryana were being restructured on the pattern of the Delhi University. This was being done to bring uniformity in the curriculum of all universities in the state and also to improve the quality of education of honours courses.

Talking to mediapersons, Mr Singh said that subjects like English, political science, history, economics etc. would be on the new pattern from the next academic session. He hoped that at least one college situated at each district headquarters in Haryana would introduce such courses.

Mr Dhanpat Singh disclosed that from the next academic year, environment education would be introduced at the undergraduate level in the state as per the directions of the Supreme Court. The Department of Environment Studies in Guru Jambheshwar University, Hisar, has been entrusted to prepare the study material.

The introduction of Environment Education would require more funds and appointment of lecturers. Therefore, Haryana has written to Union Ministry of Human Resource Development to grant financial assistance. Even if the Centre fails to oblige, the state would go ahead with the introduction of environment education as directed by the apex court, he said.

Asked to comment on high cost of education, Mr Singh described that the concept of higher education was changing and we will have to move towards job-oriented courses. The government, he said, has advised the universities in the state to plan more freeships and scholarships so as to help students of poor sections of society in getting higher education.

Mr Dhanpat Singh said that neither any university in the state nor students have demanded elections to the students unions.