Ludhiana, August 22
Darpan, a newly opened school for autistic children, is the only one of its kind in North India. Brainchild of speech therapist Niranjan, the school was started to provide children with training with an aim of making them independent. Hence Darpan, a registered NGO, was born.

Niranjan worked as a speech therapist at Ashirwaad, a school for the children affected with cerebral palsy, but he with the help of doctors and volunteers felt that autistic children needed to be treated differently from the others. Hence he decided to start the school.

Poonam Kalra, a volunteer, along with two teachers plays a vital role in helping train children.

What is autism? According to the Autism Society of America, it is a severely incapacitating lifelong developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life.

It occurs approximately in one out of 150 children and is more common among boys than girls.

No known factors in the psychological environment of a child have been shown to cause autism.

Niranjan says 60 per cent kids with autism come from well-to-do families. There are around 5,000 children with this affliction in the city but parents refuse to face this reality fearing social stigma.

Darpan takes care of 10 such children. Though the ideal student-teacher ratio is 1:1, it is difficult to find trained teachers.

“Our aim is to find some latent talent in each one of the students and hone it so that they can become self-sufficient. As girls are good at dancing and boys like to play drums, we try to channel their energies in that direction. These children are good at mathematics. They will be able to manage computers too, but we do not have enough money to buy computers, and we hope that some people will come forward to help us. Some of the children can be geniuses like Albert Einstein.”

Autism can vary from severe to moderate and mild. Those with severe autism have to be given toilet training, but those with mild and moderate can be trained in reading and writing.

“We involve them in a lot of activities like sand play and ball games. The most fruitful of all activities is ball pool. The pool is stuffed with balls and children hit these balls. Our aim is to stimulate all their five senses and playing in this pool stimulates their senses. Their IQs also vary. Some have an IQ of more than 70, but we definitely need psychologists to find out the intelligent quotient (IQ) as detecting IQ is important for their activities. We want parents to come to terms with their child’s disability.”

Most of the parents fail to detect that their child suffers from autism. Hence precious time is wasted taking them from one institute to others.

Some symptoms of autism are: disturbances in the rate of appearance of physical, social and language skills. The children show abnormal responses to sensations. Any one or a combination of senses or responses are affected: sight, hearing, touch, pain, balance, smell, taste and the way child holds his body. Speech and language are absent or delayed while specific thinking capabilities might be present. Autistic children have abnormal ways of relating to people, objects and events.

Ludhiana, August 22
A one-day workshop on modernisation of teaching methodologies was today organised today at Punjab Agricultural University. Experts from Ohio State University (OSU), Columbus delivered lectures on student learning and other reform measures in teaching.

The workshop was held under the USAII-funded project on Developing New Linkages with the Private Sector.

Dr Darshan Singh, Dean, Postgraduate Studies, recalled that the association of PAU with OSU started in 1959 and continued till 1973. It was revitalised in 1999. Since then experts from the US had been visiting and doing research on effective teaching methods,

Mr Dave Hansen, Associate Dean and Director, International Programmes in Agriculture, Ohio, presenting a brief introduction, stated that PAU graduates were serving the OSU at senior positions. He called for expanding the relationship of these universities in other areas also.

Ms Susie Whittinton, Associate Professor, Community Resource Development, OSU, has been extensively involved in developing concepts about students’ behaviour in classrooms, framework and theory for teaching at the higher cognitive level.

She laid emphasis on Bloom’s taxonomy which form the very baáis for redefining the basic teaching strategy with knowledge being the grassroots level of input and reaching evaluation through comparison application, analysis and synthesis which helps the student to justify and interpret the topic.

She said students of PAU were on a par with other students in US. The basic emphasis was on the expansion of interactive teaching rather than traditional teaching were the “sage is on the stage,” Ms Susie stated. Through presentation of various slides, she stressed on various field of student-teacher interaction.

She concluded her talk, saying that “we are here on a developmental mission and the purpose is to add value to the educational experience by evolving better teaching methods.”

Mr Robert, Professor and Chairperson, Human and Community Resource Development, laid stress on relationship between teaching and learning. He demonstrated various ways in which students could learn and retain. He quoted: “Give man a fish and he will feed himself for the day. Teach him how to fish and he will feed himself for a lifetime.”

He concluded by saying the basic purpose of education was to enable students to be come life-long learners.

Ludhiana, August 22
Dr Yog Raj Angrish, Head of the Department of Punjabi, Kamla Lohtia SD College, has been given the state award for excellence in literature and teaching. The award was conferred on him by Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on the Independence Day function at Mansa on August 15.

Ludhiana, August 22
Punjab Nijikaran Virodhi Adhyapak Morcha, spokes-person Piara Singh Dhillon, Baldev Krishan Moudgill, Charan Singh Sarabha and Manjit Singh Virk have welcomed the statement of the Education Minister, Mr Harnam Dass Johar, that the government had no intention of privatising government schools . They urged Mr Johar to appoint teachers on a regular basis before September 5.

The teachers said they were upset with the statement made by the Chief Minister , Capt Amarinder Singh, on August 15 that the teachers would be appointed on a contract basis. They have urged Mr Shamsher Singh Dullo and Mr Johar to urge the Chief Minister to change his views and give regular appointments to the teachers in order to improve the falling standards of education in government schools in Punjab.

Ludhiana, August 22
The 5th National Cyber Olympiad was organised in over 2,000 centres across India, Nepal and the Gulf today. Nearly two lakh students participated in this year’s olympiad.

The olympiad was organised with the support of an electronics company. Fifteen schools of the city took part in the olympiad.

The National Cyber Olympiad is now in its fifth year. It is organised by New Delhi-based Science Olympiad Foundation (SOF).

The SOF is a leading NGO established by personalities in academics and media. It works to popularise IT and science education in the country and abroad.

The National Cyber Olympiad is held for students of Class 3 to Class 12. It is open to all school students in India and neighboring countries.

It consists of three sections — mental ability, reasoning and computers.

The first level of this three-level competition was held toady. Top 500 students in level one will be called to take level two of this test online.

This is the first time that any organisation will conduct online examination at such a scale for students studying in different standards.

Level three will consist of the final interviews.

Top 200 students will get prizes instituted by the company. These prizes will be distributed at a function in Delhi in May, 2006. These prizes will consist of gold, silver, bronze medals, computers and other prizes.

Each student will also get a participation certificate, CQ (computer quotient) report, a 120-page CCB (compulsory computer book) from the SOF.

Twenty-three best schools are selected from all over India, one from each zone. Similarly, best Principal and teacher awards are also given.