Ambala/Yamunanagar, April 24
Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal has a reason to look up to Haryana in school education. While he has only been able to scrap the CBSE Class X examination and replace marks with grades, Haryana has taken a “giant leap” in education.

For, courtesy the Haryana government, no student ever fails an examination for want of marks up to Class V, making the examination system redundant. Well, nearly so. In senior classes too failing is usually “limited” to those students who are irregular or create indiscipline.

And, that’s not all. The Education Department has done away with report cards altogether lest these “discourage” a child from pursuing studies and there’s neither grading nor marks for any examination.

At the end of any academic session, students up to Class V know they will definitely pass even with blank answersheets. All senior students ever know is whether they have passed, failed or rank among the top three in class, putting a big question mark on the entire evaluation process.

Ask any student in a government school about his performance in the last class and he draws a blank. Like Harpreet Kaur of Government High School, Tepla, (Ambala), who is now in Class X. “We just come and check if we have passed and that’s the result we know. Our parents too have never felt the need to see the detailed result since we continue in the same school,” she says.

Maintaining that the list of candidates with the pass or fail status is pasted on the school wall, a teacher from Tepla adds, “We saw a report card for the first and the last time in 2003. Nobody ever asks for it anymore. What is the point of giving a report card when the child has to be promoted to the next class.”

Another teacher in Kishanpur’s Government Middle School in Radaur says, “Around mid-March, a letter from the Education Department in Chandigarh said we can’t fail any student because the Right to Education has come into force. If the government wants all students to be promoted to the next class irrespective of their calibre, who are we to question it.”

In Kunjpura Senior Secondary School (Karnal), teachers on supervisory duty for the Class V examination say: “Primary teachers checking the papers showed us blank answersheets and asked what to do. We told them to follow government instructions and pass everybody. So, the result is cent per cent.”

However, the decision to promote the students without really evaluating them has not gone down well with the teaching staff. “The department keeps grumbling for good results. If students keep moving upward without learning anything, where will the results come from. It would be better if the department does away with the examination rather than carrying on with this farce,” teachers justify, adding that students don’t take studies seriously anymore, knowing they will be promoted irrespective of their performance. No report cards, marks or grading further add to the mess in education in Haryana.

On the face of it, the Education Department, it seems, too needs a lesson or two in English - to understand that literacy (as is being promoted by the present policy) is not the same as education and the two certainly are not interchangeable.

— To be concluded 

Sirsa, April 24
Dr KS Khokhar, Vice-Chancellor of Chaudhary Devi Lal University, has directed the Women Complaint Committee and Grievances Cell of the university to complete within three days the probe into the case of alleged sexual harassment of a student of the Journalism and Mass Communication Department by her two teachers.

The committee will hold its first meeting in the administrative block of the university at 9.30 in the morning tomorrow.

The committee has “desired” the presence of the victim, the two accused teachers, the chairperson, and a clerk of the JMC Department of the university and another girl, who is alleged to have been present when a teacher allegedly made remarks bordering sexual harassment to the victim, at the meeting.

In letters sent to them, committee’s member secretary Deepti Dharmani asked them to ensure that they did not carry any electronic means of communication during their “interface” with the committee/cell.

Meanwhile, the victim as well as her parents today met Dr Khokhar in his office and expressed lack of confidence on a key member of the committee as well as a senior functionary of the university, alleging that they had been trying to “throttle” the probe by pressuring the girl to withdraw her complaint.

“I have assured them that a complete transparency will be observed in the inquiry,” said Dr Khokhar.

Meanwhile, on the directions of Deputy Commissioner Yudhbir Singh Khyalia, protection officer under the Domestic Violence Act Sadhna Mittal has begun a probe into the alleged misuse of authority to grant internal assessment by the two teachers facing allegations of sexual harassment.

“I have requested the university authorities to provide details of internal assessment granted to various students by the two teachers and the criterion upon which the marks of internal assessment are awarded,” Sadhna Mittal said.

Yesterday, some girls of the department had complained to the DC that these teachers had been using internal assessment as a tool for “exploitation” of girls.

Meanwhile, some old students, all men, from the department have vouched innocence of the two teachers in a memorandum given to the university authorities today.

In another development, the Shiksha Bachao Samiti, a group of enlightened citizens of the town, has demanded the immediate appointment to the posts of Vice-Chancellor, Registrar and other key posts.

“The university has no full-time Vice-Chancellor since January this year and Dr Khokhar, VC of the CCSHAU, Hisar, has been looking after the affairs of the university.,” it said. 

Sirsa/Fatehabad, April 24
Former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala today said the UPA government at the Centre was on a sticky wicket and could fall on April 29.

Chautala addressed his party’s workers at Sirsa and Fatehabad to mobilise support for the proposed April 27 bandh on the issue of rising prices, the call for which has been given by 13 political parties, which are not part of the UPA or the NDA.a

“The UPA government will present the Finance Bill before Parliament on April 27, which will be debated in the House on April 28 and April 29. The NDA as well as the 13 political parties of which the INLD is a part, have already announced to bring a cut motion in Parliament,” Chautala said while talking to mediapersons on this occasion and added that the government might fill on April 29, if the Finance Bill “happens to fall in the House”.

The former Chief Minister alleged that all sections of society were fed up with the functioning of the UPA government as well as the Congress government in Haryana.

“What worst can be the mismanagement of the government that it imported foodgrains recently on the plea that there was not enough stock in its warehouses, and now, when the wheat crop has arrived in the grain markets, it is not being lifted on the grounds that the government’s godowns are already full with last year’s crops,” the INLD leader wondered.

Chautala claimed that the chief parliamentary secretaries appointed by Hooda would soon loose their jobs as the Punjab and Haryana High Court had already issued notices to them and added that the five Haryana Janhit Congress MLAs, who defected to the Congress, would also be unseated soon.

Chandigarh, April 24
The Indian National Lok Dal today claimed that the “harassed public of Haryana” had decided to support the Opposition’s call for a nationwide strike on April 27. Supported by 12 opposition parties at the national level, INLD general secretary and Dabwali MLA Ajay Chautala said all associations and unions of traders had decided to support the Opposition and make the strike in Haryana a success.

Addressing a press conference, Chautala said the support had come because the Congress government in the state had failed on all fronts, causing great resentment. “There’s been a complete collapse of the law and order situation, evident in the fact that two Dalits, including a physically challenged girl, were burnt to death in Mirchpur; there is discrimination in offering jobs, house tax is back, traders are being exploited, prices are rising and election promises continue to be unfulfilled. The common man is getting basic foodgrains at double the prices, the power and water situation is going from bad to worse. There is nothing to look forward to,” he said.

Stating that Chief mInister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was “working like a CEO of Reliance”, he alleged that the government was in a hurry to publicise the synchronisation of the two units of the Keddar power plant to save Reliance the penalty for delay in completion.

He claimed that the police played the role of mute spectators in the recent Mirchpur episode in Hisar where a dozen houses of Dalits were set ablaze. He said during a visit to the village yesterday, people complained that they were living in fear of the police. “They complained that the police is catching hold of innocent people and slapping cases against them. Nobody steps out of the house, fearing the police might catch them. It is the government’s foremost duty to restore the faith of the people in its working,” he stated.

Alleging favouritism in job offers, Chautala said the bright and meritorious were nowhere on the government’s “selected” list for art and craft teachers as also PTIs. He claimed that no development had come in the name of special economic zones and the much-hyped projects of the government, including the Education City, were yet to take off.

Karnal, April 24
A Congress leader from Jundla, Jagpal, has been arrested for allegedly issuing transfer orders of employees by “forging” signatures of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on his fake letterheads. He has been booked for cheating, fraud and forgery under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B of the IPC.

The police arrested Jagpal after receiving information that he had been issuing transfer orders under forged signatures. It also recovered fake letterheads of the Chief Minister from his premises during the raid.

The racket, operational for quite sometime, was exposed when a letter written in faulty English regarding a transfer in the Education Department made the department officials suspicious and the matter was reported to the police.

During interrogations, it was revealed that some transfer orders had already been issued on fake letters and a head constable was among one of the employees who were transferred on fake orders.

Another person, Purshottam, who runs a photostat shop, is also suspected to be involved in the “illegal” deed and investigations are in progress.

The modus operandi of the accused was that they forged the signatures of the Chief Minister from the greeting cards and changed the matter that looked real and the officers concerned were easily hoodwinked.

Panchkula, April 24
AICC General Secretary Digvijay Singh today rubbished aside the rumours that his phones were being tapped by government agencies. Speaking to the media here today, Digvijay Singh, who was also former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, said he had full faith in Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and such things were not being practiced by the Congress-led central government.

Digvijay Singh was reacting to the news items published in a section of the press that his phones were being tapped by the government agencies for his alleged involvement in the IPL imbroglio. He, however, demanded that the government should hold an independent inquiry into this and if found true, the persons involved in this should be booked and penalised under the Indian Telegraph Act.

Supporting the IPL tournament promoted by IPL chairman Lalit Modi, the AICC general Secretary said it was a popular format in which not only the cricketers benefited but the cricket fans also enjoyed the game.

Commenting on the excommunication of families by the khap panchayats in Haryana, Digvijay said such decisions were retrograde. 

Karnal, April 24
Glaring mistakes in a state map published by the Indian Book Depot (map house), New Delhi, have caused great embarrassment to the government.

The map being distributed in government high and middle schools without corrections also has spelling mistakes.

The map shows Sajuma, Dhanori, Kathana, Mataur and Rajaund villages as well as Kalayat Block, which fall in Kaithal district, in Jind district and it appears that no one cared to go through the map before it was circulated. It also reflected the callous and casual approach of the department officials concerned.

The map gives wrong information about the geographical and administrative location of these villages and if not corrected, children would also get wrong information, said a teacher on condition of anonymity.

District Education Officer Kamlesh Sharma said the matter would be looked into and necessary steps taken.