Bathinda, February 8
The Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) system introduced in the government schools under the Right To Education (RTE) Act has become taxing for the teachers and students of classes IX and X.

Under the CCE, it is mandatory for the teachers to review every student on a weekly basis and then, on monthly basis. This translates into weekly and monthly tests. The government school teachers reason that at times, students in rural areas do not come to the school for days together.

"In such a situation, how can we assess the students on weekly basis? The RTE does not allow failing a student till class VIII and in many cases, children do not have the level of mental ability required for the classes they are studying in," said another teacher.

Teachers said while the move was meant to empower the teacher and make studying a continuous procedure (rather than annual event in case of annual exams) for students, it has failed to serve its purpose.

"On the contrary, the children feel overburdened while teachers are already caught in a lot of non-academic work. The CCE should have been tailored as per the needs of a region instead of implementing it uniformly in the entire nation," said another teacher.

Teachers suggested that the evaluation should have been started in quarterly segments and later on, extended to weekly basis considering the success of the quarterly segments.

The education department says a child awarded the E grade in the month of April should attain the D grade by August. "The improvement of grades is directly related to the annual confidential report (ACR) of the teacher concerned. In many cases, while the children show least signs of improvement, they are promoted and sent to the next classes with good remarks. The monitoring system needs to be strengthened," said another.

Added to the tests, the performa provided by the education department sounds like Greek to us," said one of the government school teachers, adding that the performa mentions to rate the student as per his/her efforts, devotion and ability to express.

Today, the Director General of School Education (DGSE) issued a letter to all the school principals directing them to tell teachers to follow the CCE consistently and fill the performas.

Bathinda, February 8
As if the chill is simply refusing to retreat from Bathinda and its nearby places, the cold wave conditions have staged a sudden and strong comeback in the region with the mercury touching the freezing point.

Springing a surprise for all in the spring, the mercury, after a considerable gap, nosedived to settle near the zero degree mark.

The minimum temperature recorded at 7. 30 today in the morning was 0.2 degrees Celsius, as per the agri-met department of the Punjab Agriculture University, regional station, Bathinda.

The day’s high was 15.2 degrees Celsius.

The mercury has been in a southward mode for the past couple of days with both the night and the day temperature recording a decline.

The minimum temperature on Tuesday was 3 degrees Celsius while the highest was recorded at 16 degrees Celsius.

The maximum temperature during the last three days has been remained almost similar due to the presence of sun, weathermen said.

Weathermen are attributing the effect of snowfall in Himachal Pradesh and J&K to the sudden “comeback” of chill and cold wave conditions in the region.

Meanwhile, the weathermen also predicted that the weather is likely to remain dry in the next few days with the possibility of fall in the night temperature during the period. — TNS

Bathinda, February 8
It’s time for the budding speedsters and spinners to get on their bowling marks as the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) is on the prowl.

The PCA men is going to set the net for hunting those youngsters carrying the instinct of sharing a new ball with Zaheer Khan, Vinay Kumar, Praveen Kumar and others and also who could share the other bowling-end with Harbhajan and Ashwin.

For ‘catching them young’, the selection committee of the PCA would be waiting for budding pacers and spinners from the four districts of Malwa, namely Bathinda, Faridkot, Mansa and Muktsar, at the Police Public School, Police Lines, in Bathinda on February 18.

“The open trials will begin at 10 am,” confirmed honorary general secretary of the Bathinda District Cricket Association (BDCA) and member, executive committee, PCA, OD Sharma.

Sharma said it was for the first time that the PCA was on lookout for bowlers in such a way as the trials would also be videographed and analysed for proper assessment of bowlers. Sharma also said thrust would also be on to pick the bowlers from rural areas.

The PCA is carrying out the open trials at six venues in Punjab, namely Mohali, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Patiala and Bathinda, beginning from February 12 to spot talented bowlers who could be subsequently trained for the future, Sharma said

The PCA has decided to provide a special intensive training to upcoming fast bowlers and spinners of the state. The selection will be made on the basis of trials and the following criteria would be adopted. The prospective trainees should be in the age group of 16-18 years as on September 1, 2012. For the fast bowlers, the minimum height of the prospective trainees should be 5’10” and he should have a reasonable bowling speed. The spinners should possess the quality of “spinning” the ball.

The PCA has instructed the BDCA to make proper arrangements to ensure the success of the trials. The BDCA is expected to arrange two separate nets in good condition with proper markings and stumps, bowler run-up and outfield in dry and playable conditions, electric connection for the purpose of video recording and others.

These are open trials wherein any player fulfilling the criteria and having the "potential" could participate.

Bathinda, February 8
Due to non-release of funds for the Mata Kaushalaya Kalyan Scheme by the state government for distributing Rs 1,000 each among the mothers who deliver babies in the hospitals, thousands of beneficiaries in the state are awaiting the amount for the past two to three months now.

The state government had announced the scheme last year to encourage the institutional deliveries.

What to talk about other hospitals of the state, more than 1000 women, who have delivered babies since November 1, 2011 in the local women and children hospital, have also not received the benefit (Rs. 1,000 each) so far. Many of them reportedly often come to the hospital to receive the amount but return empty handed as the state government has not made the funds available to the hospital authorities for the purpose so far.

According to information, in the local women and children hospital, 314 women delivered babies in November 2011, 350 women delivered babies in December 2011 and 305 women delivered babies in January 2012 while 56 women have delivered babies from February 1 to February 7 in the hospital.

All these women have so far not received the monetary benefit under the scheme.

It may be mentioned here that the local hospital was provided funds of Rs 15.77 lakh in June 2011 by the government for distributing the same among the women for delivering babies in the hospital. The hospital authorities started giving the benefit to the women from June 21 last and distributed the entire amount till October 2011. After the first cheque of Rs 15.77 lakh, the hospital has not received any other cheque so far.

Dr Kundan Kumar, officiating District Family Welfare Officer, said as they had no money to distribute among the beneficiaries, reminders were being sent to the state health authorities by his office for the release of funds under the Mata Kaushalaya Kalyan Scheme.

When contacted, an assistant director, Health and Family Welfare, Punjab, Dr Veena, today said the health department had sent a file in October to the Finance Department (FD), Punjab for approving the funds for the Mata Kaushalaya Kalyan Scheme, but the FD had not returned the file to the department so far.

She said the Principal Secretary, Health, and the Director, Health and Family Welfare, Punjab, were also following the file for getting the funds approved.

However, she expressed a hope that funds would be released shortly. 

Bathinda, February 8
Students of the department of architecture of the Punjab Technical University Giani Zail Singh campus, Bathinda, have drafted and designed the coveted journal of National Association of Students of Architecture (NASA). The journal was released at the annual convention of the NASA held in Ahmedabad recently.

The magazine was prepared under the guidance of the head of the architecture department Ranjeet Kaur, faculty editor Ripu Daman Singh and the student editorial team comprising BArch students Bhawna Jaimini, Mandeep Singh Dhillon, Jasveen Sidhu, Aviral Sinha, Namrata Deol and Samarth Srivastava.

Faculty editor Ripu Daman Singh said an eminent architect Neito Sobejano from Spain was interviewed for the magazine.

"Neito is the winner of Aga Khan Award for Architecture. In his interview, he has talked about the restoration works he undertake and the reason for his inclination towards such kind of work," he said. Similarly, another architect of an international repute, Kamillo Rebelo from Portugal, has penned an article for the magazine.

The journal was unveiled in the presence of 5000 students and over 100 architects from 125 colleges across India, Nepal and Pakistan. Started in 1956, the journal was discontinued for a period of six years and re-structured in 2007. The team at PTUGZS put in six months of hard work to bring out the magazine.

Of the 125 colleges in the country, the PTUGZS was entrusted the task of publishing the magazine.

An eminent architect Prof Christopher Charles Benninger was also present during the launch of the magazine. As many as 30 students from first to third year of the architecture department at the college attended the convention along with Dr Prabhjot Kaur, the associate professor and NASA faculty coordinator of the architecture department here.

Principal Dr Jasbir Singh Hundal congratulated the students and the faculty for the achievement and motivated them for their future endeavours.

Bhagta Bhaika (Bathinda), February 8
Three people lost their lives while 12 other received injuries as a private bus overturned on a bike and scooter due to potholes on the Bhagta-Bajakhana road today in the afternoon.

The deceased have been identified as Nachhattar Singh, Kewal Singh, both residents of Jalal village and Goga of Jhakkarwala village.

While Nachhattar and Kewal were riding a bike, Goga was driving a scooter. Police officials said the incident took place at around 1 pm when the speeding bus tried to escape a deep pothole on the broken road and overturned. As soon as the bus overturned, two people on a bike and one on a scooter, came in close range of the falling bus.

The trio were killed on the spot and their bodies were extricated with the help of local residents and the volunteers of NGOs.

Police officials said that 12 bus passengers had received injuries and were admitted to a nearby government hospital.

A case under sections 304-A, 279, 337, 338, and 427 of the IPC has been registered against the bus driver, identified as Jatinder Singh of Kishanpura village.

He was driving a private bus belonging to the Hind Bus Service.

Local residents said the deep potholes on the road have lead to many accidents in the past as well but nothing has been done in this regard by the authorities concerned. 

Bathinda, February 8
To create awareness about tuberculosis (TB) among the people, an awareness programme was held at the government dispensary in Jogi Nagar here today.

The awareness programme was organised under the revised national TB control programme (RNTCP) by the communication facilitator of the Punjab Health Society, Gagan Goyal. At the awareness programme, people were informed about the symptoms and treatment for the disease.

The communication facilitator, Gagan Goyal, urged the people to get their sputum examined immediately in case anyone discovered the symptoms of TB, like cough for more than two weeks and blood in sputum. He said the sputum examination is done free of cost in the government hospitals.

Gagan Goyal appealed to the people not to leave the treatment midway. He said in case any patient gave up the treatment halfway, then the disease becomes incurable. So, people should complete the course of the medicine, ranging from six to eight months, to get rid of the disease forever.

He also asked the people to create awareness in their localities to control the further spread of the disease.

District TB Officer Dr Ashok Monga told this reporter that the awareness programmes for spreading message against tuberculosis would be continued.

He said most programmes would be held in the slum areas and outer localities as people residing there required more information to protect themselves from the disease as compared to those residing in posh areas.

Dr Monga also called upon the people to make the awareness campaign a mass movement.