EDUCATION

Pvt schools: Flourishing small-scale industry?
Our Correspondent

Sonepat, March 25
The thirst for Western style education has led to emergence of a number of teaching shops in the city and elsewhere in the district. These are privately run institutions and hold classes from nursery to the matriculation level. Most of them are small enterprises run by the educated unemployed. These schools constitute perhaps the most flourishing small-scale industry for which one needs no licence, a report says.

Some of these institutions enjoy a good reputation and there is a scramble for admission there. Being unrecognised, they receive no government aid. Also, the government has no control over them. There are complaints that some booksellers influence the heads of these institutions to include their high-priced books in the list prescribed for studies.

Admission to a good English medium school in the city and elsewhere in the district has become very difficult. Though so-called model schools have mushroomed in almost every part of the city, most are becoming high-priced teaching shops. These include schools located in narrow lanes and having no more than one or two rooms. In many such schools, the children sit on the floor for want of furniture. Even then, the parents are required to deposit security in case the child damages school property. This deposit is seldom refunded and is instead converted into a donation. Nothing is more profitable than opening a school, say those in the business.

Many schools in the city run their own bookshops. The students are required to buy their books and stationary only from these shops, which charge prices 25 per cent to 50 per cent higher than in the market. Others supply books to the students at their own prices. At present, there is a big rush for admission in nursery and lower KG classes.

Registration is done two to three years before admission and some schools grant admission only if a substantial donation is made.

While the model and public schools claim better facilities and standard of education, they charge an exorbitant fee at the time of admission and a disproportionate tution fee thereafter along with so-called welfare fund, building fund, (even if the school does not plan any construction work in the near future), parents contribution etc.

Most of the schools that have mushroomed recently are not recognised or affiliated to the Board of School Education Haryana or the Central Board of school education. They send their students for examinations either through another recognised school or as private candidates.

The situation in government primary schools is vastly different. Even the admission quota in these schools remains incomplete. It is because people are shying away from these schools that pressure has increased on public schools.

The principal of a public school says, “When government schools get the same pay scales and facilities as we do, why don’t they raise their standards accordingly? Unless they improve their functioning, the pressure on public schools will continue.”

He said that money and management play important roles in providing better facilities for the students. But government schools lacked in this area of implementation, he added.

He also said that teachers ought to be given proper incentives as their role is of “paramount importance”. The incentives need not always be monetary. Better working conditions, professional satisfaction and provision of free education for their children would go a long way in improving their efficiency, he said.

Prohibitory orders enforced to check use of unfair means in exams

Sonepat: The District Magistrate of Sonepat, Mr M. R. Anand, has enforced prohibitory orders under Section 144 Cr.P.C. banning the assembly of five or more persons and carrying of firearms within the radius of 200 metres of the examination centres set up by the Maharishi Dayanand University (MDU), Rohtak, for conducting the annual examinations here.

Street children film their lives
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 25
This was no Bollywood tearjerker, there were no big names and no big money. Yet, the film evoked emotions and left the audience stumped. Capturing the real life of the street children on reel, Devender, Rajni, Lily, Asaddur and Sanjay, children who made the film, took a bow as audience wiped their tears.

It was a novel attempt, wherein five street children from the city made a short film about their counterparts. The 24-minute film, ‘Patri Par Bachpan’, was screened here last evening before social workers and the media.

Made with the assistance of voluntary organisation ActionAid India, the film explores reasons behind migration and problems faced by street children in a series of interviews with them.

The audience was visibly moved by their tales of sexual abuse, alleged beatings by the police and social apathy.

Also present during the screening was Pakistani social activist Fouzia Saeed, who is the Country Director of ActionAid Pakistan. The talented yet modest moviemakers also answered questions from the media.

Taking on the government’s mantra of “feel good factor”, Rajni said, “whatever the government says, there is no feel good factor for the thousands of rag-pickers and child labourers”. Rizwan, who has written the lyrics for a song in the film, said “more than the government, it is society which has to change its attitude towards the street children.”

Speaking on the occasion, ActionAid India Country Director, Harsh Mander said his organisation was talking to television channels and schools to screen the film.

artscape
Ceramic art - Communicating through clay
Ravi Bhatia

Anant Art Gallery is presenting a ceramics exhibition by eight Baroda-based artists from March 27 to April 11. Jyotsna Bhatt, one of the prominent ceramic artists of the country, studied sculpture at MS University, Baroda, and then at Brooklyn Museum Art School in New York. After that she taught ceramics at MS University, Baroda, for 32 years.

She has held several solo shows and her works have been exhibited in various shows in India and abroad.

The other participating artists, Panthini, Nehal Rachh, Sukhdev Rathore, Anju Pawar, Trupti Patel, Zaida Jacob and Vinod Daroz, have studied Fine Arts at Baroda and specialize in ceramics. Each of their works is marked by

distinct personal characteristics. All the artists are accomplished and their works have been exhibited widely.

The fusion of process, materials and concept is particularly communicated through works in clay. All the participating artists have a sculptural element in their work and experiment with both form and feel. The contemporary Indian ceramics is a large and lively field and this exhibition presents the Baroda artists together for the first time.

THE DAWN OF ART: Art for Prabhat, the NGO Art Gallery, is presenting its inaugural spring exhibition of paintings at Lajpat Nagar from March 26 to April 7. The exhibition will showcase the works of some known artists like Kavita Nayar, Taopan Biswas, Mamta, Amar Chowdhry, Mini Radhakrishnan, Atul Sinha, Somnath Bannerjee, Sanjay Chakravarty, Tarika Ahuja, Shobani Mazumdar and Rupa Abraham.

The exhibition is jointly sponsored by the Society For Child Development which has been working for the cause of children with learning disabilities and mental challenges since 1992.

EVOLUTIONARY ART: The Anthropological Survey of India is holding a unique month-long exhibition form March 22 to April 21 at the National Museum here. The exhibition illustrates the major achievements of scholars in the field of evolution, biological and socio cultural adaptation and genome studies.

The organisers have made an attempt to make the complexities of the evolutionary subjects both simple and informative for the layman as well as the research scholar with special emphasis on understanding the past and the present, so that it sets us thinking about the future of the planet.

music zone
‘Lord Krishna is the ultimate musician’

Radha Krishna Sankirtan is a kirtan album in praise of Radha Rani and Lord Krishna. This album is a `culmination of purpose and meeting of minds’ of Radha Krishna devotees - chiefly producer Harbinder Badhwar, music director Jaspal Moni and singer Manish Khullar.