EDUCATION

Privatisation would harm education sector: educationists
Tribune Reporters

Ludhiana, April 22
The state government’s decision to privatise primary and middle schools has invited widespread criticism. Educationists feel the government had failed to provide free and compulsory schooling to children up to the age of 14 years as mentioned in Article 45 (Directive Principals of State Policy) of the Constitution. They feel that it would be a suicidal to hand over the education sector to private hands.

Mr Tarsem Bahia, convener of the Punjab Educationists Forum, said the step would affect 12,996 primary and 2,545 middle schools in the state. The fate of over 50,000 teachers would hang in the balance. There would be exploitation of both students and teachers. “It is not a matter of two-three years. The situation has been deteriorating for the past several years as none took the education sector seriously. Punjab comes at number 16 in terms of literacy rate,” said Mr Bahia.

Since it was a huge sector, it needed a lot of dedication and perseverance by the government, he said. But the sector had suffered because of political interference. The government had failed to provide quality education to students.

The teacher/student ratio in government schools is 1:41 whereas it should have been 1:12 or 1:15 at the most. “The posts of more than 25,000 teacher are lying vacant in state, but the government hardly bothers to fill the vacancies, hence both students and teachers suffer,” said Mr Bahia.

Mr Saudagar Singh, president of the Democratic Teachers Front, Punjab (Doraha block), said the poor would be the worst-sufferer in the exercise.

Mr Bahia said the move would not upgrade the education system. Government schools were situated on vast areas of land and the private sector were eyeing that land worth crores.

“The private sector is not bothered about education, it will try to make use of the land worth crores,” he said.

Ludhiana Tribune spoke to Mr Harnam Das Johar, Education Minister, who said the move of privatisation was not on the state government’s agenda till date. “We will see when something is announced. It is too early to comment on the situation,” he said.

Kids celebrate family values
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, April 22
Planet K, a nursery school at South City, celebrated the theme of family values and the spirit of Baisakhi here today. Grandparents of the students had been invited. Children in danced to Punjabi folk music. The Principal, Ms Manjula Jain, emphasised the need for inculcating the right values in children through various activities at home and school rather than just talking about these. 

COURTS

Sewerage board vehicles put to auction
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, April 22
A city court has ordered to auction two vehicles belonging to the Punjab Water Supply and Sewerage Board, Ludhiana, for recovering Rs 1,27,500, as the board had failed to make the payment despite court decision.

The orders have been passed by the Court of Civil Judge Senior Division, Mr G.C.Garg, in the case of Manjit Kaur of Bhagwan Nagar Market, Chowk Dholewal. Earlier the court had passed the decree in favour of the plaintiff. Thereafter, one car and truck of the board were attached with the orders of court.

The court auctioneer, Mr Ramesh Lakhanpal, would conduct the sale in an open auction on April 25, at the local office of the Punjab Water Supply and Sewerage Board.

SPORTS

Entry fee imposed on NFL matches
Our Sports Reporter

Ludhiana, April 22
Even as there are too few takers of the football game in this part of the country, the Football Federation of India (FFI) has imposed gate entry fee for the viewers of the last two encounters of the ongoing second phase of the 9th ONGC National Football League matches scheduled to be held here on April 26 and April 30, respectively, making the things worse for the spectators.

JCT Mills, Phagwara, the premier soccer outfit of the region, will play its last two home matches here with Dempo Sports Club of Goa on April 26 and with Mohun Bagan of Kolkata on April 30. According to Mr Inder Singh, honorary secretary, Punjab Football Association, they have received a communication from the FFA to make it sure that there should be entry fee for the remaining matches of the current league. Mr Singh further said that there would be gate entry fee, though of nominal denomation of rupees 10 and 15 each.

A number of soccer fans to whom this correspondent talked were of the unanimous view that since the game is quite popular in the eastern and western parts of the nation and people there did not mind paying for watching football action for the past a couple of years, the introduction of gate entry fee for the matches in Punjab is really a cruel joke with the game lovers. “Already, there is a handful of spectators to watch the football matches here and with the imposing of entry fee, the viewers would definitely hesitate to come to the ground to witness the ‘rare’ action involving the major soccer outfits of the country,” they opined.

They also suggested that the federation should not go ahead with its plan to impose gate entry for the matches here. Otherwise, the game would suffer and people would keep themselves away from the stadium. 

Seminar for coaches
Our Sports Reporter

Ludhiana, April 22
As many as 150 coaches drawn from different districts of Punjab attended the three-day seminar being conducted at Guru Nanak Stadium here yesterday. Inaugurating the seminar, Mr Prag Jain, DIG, Ludhiana Police Range, appreciated the Punjab Sports Department for organising the seminar.

He said the coaches help the younger generation to learn the value of discpline and dedication, he added. Dr D.J. Singh, Deputy Director, Punjab Police Academy, Phillaur, delivered the keynote address. Mr Teja Singh Dhaliwal, honorary secretary, Punjab Basketball Association, Ms Surinder Dhir, former Deputy Director, Sports, Punjab, Mr Sohan Lal lotey, District Sports Officer, Ludhiana, also addressed the coaches .