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Education


Road safety lessons in Pune schools soon

Tuesday, 21 August 2012 06:41 administrator
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The Times of India     21.08.2012

Road safety lessons in Pune schools soon

PUNE: Traffic discipline and road safety education will soon form a part of extra-curricular activities for students of std V to VII in civic and private schools in the city. The traffic police and the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) school board will jointly implement the new initiative.Deputy commissioner of police (traffic) Vishwas Pandhare said the traffic branch had suggested that a traffic awareness activity should be implemented for schoolchildren. "We had been following up the proposal with the PMC.

Finally, a decision has been taken and we have prepared a plan," he said. More than one lakh students are expected to benefit from the programme. The students will get certificates based on tests and activities.PMC school board chairman Pradip Dhumal said the initiative is aimed at creating awareness among students and their parents.

Students will be taught about traffic rules through information booklets and other demonstrations. Dhumal said the school board and traffic branch will jointly print a study booklet on traffic.The traffic branch will also train one teacher in each of the 309 PMC-run schools and will provide all schools with a film about traffic safety.The plan to implement the initiative in civic schools was discussed at a joint meeting of traffic officials and the PMC school board last week.

Several school board members suggested that the programme should be implemented in private schools as well. The meeting approved a resolution to implement the programme in all schools in the city. It was also decided to train security guards of schools in road safety.Dhumal said the traffic police have suggested that the opening and closing hours of schools be changed in phases to ease congestion on roads. "We have discussed the issue and will take a decision soon," he said.

 

 

Municipal schools to maintain students’ profile

Tuesday, 14 August 2012 11:06 administrator
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The Indian Express   14.08.2012

Municipal schools to maintain students’ profile

Faced with tough competition from private schools, the Ahmedabad Municipal School Board has decided to profile each enrolled student and maintain a detailed record of their performance in previous years.

The board believes that regular monitoring and easy accessibility to these student profiles will help it control the “declining” enrollment numbers in municipal schools.

“After deliberations, it was felt that we need to identify those factors that are responsible for fewer children coming to our schools. Students’ performance, their personal and as well as academic background and current status would play a key role in tracking down various decision making patterns,” said AMC board chairman Jagdish Bhavsar.

Each student will have a separate profile of his own with his photograph on the file that will be displayed at a corner in the classroom. These would be regularly updated with various assessments and activities conducted in the classroom as well taken as a part of home assignments. The board agreed that this would ill increase the workload of teachers but once it is maintained, it will be a lot more beneficial for them.

It is said this will not only benefit teachers to keep a track of students’ performance but also assist various inspection teams or cluster resource persons to ascertain and evaluate the overall classroom performance just at a glance. “It will help experts to guide and motivate teachers to pay more attention on weak performers,” Bhavsar said.

Against the target of 30,000 enrollments in the entry class, the board could enroll only 16,562 students in 464 schools. Previous year, the figure was 27,344.Not only the students’ strength has dwindled in the past few years, but also the number of municipal schools has come down to 464 from 541 in 2011-12.The board has also recently proposed to monitor the performance of more than 4,000 teachers.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 14 August 2012 11:07
 

MCD schools yet to get books

Saturday, 11 August 2012 05:19 administrator
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The Times of India   11.08.2012

MCD schools yet to get books

NEW DELHI: Students in MCD schools are yet to get all their books. When Firoz Ansari enquired at his son's corporation school at Pushp Vihar Sector I, he was told, "Sarkari kaam hai, time to lagta hai (It's government work, it'll take time)." His son, who is in Class IV, has received only two textbooks for Hindi and English.

"Books for every other subject, including maths, are yet to come," said Firoz, a tailor. "Even notebooks are not here. Nobody has got them."

Though schools opened on July 9, students are still going without the necessities. An exasperated Firoz wrote to the All India Parents' Association's president and advocate, Ashok Aggarwal, informing him of the situation.

Satish Upadhyaya, chairman, education committee, South Delhi Municipal Corporation, does concede that there's been delay in delivery of textbooks but says that by the time the committee last met — about 15 days ago — 80-85% of schools had already received textbooks. "But it is possible that textbooks of a few subjects still haven't reached. And notebooks aren't there yet because the tender was delayed," he said. 

 

Last Updated on Saturday, 11 August 2012 05:20
 

Civic panel defers proposal on sops for plot owners

Friday, 10 August 2012 11:17 administrator
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The Indian Express    10.08.2012

Civic panel defers proposal on sops for plot owners

The civic body’s improvement committee once again deferred a proposal to give incentives to owners of private plots reserved for civic amenities.

At present, owners of private plots reserved for schools are allowed to build a private school on the plot and in turn reserve 15 per cent of the total seats in the school for municipal school students.

The civic administration has now proposed that of the total area of the reserved plot, the private owners can be allowed to develop a private school in 50 per cent of the area in lieu of building and handing over a municipal school in the rest 50 per cent of the reserved plot.In turn, the private owners will be granted the FSI prevailing for the structure, said officials.

Congress corporator and improvement committee member Mohsin Haider said, “The proposal is only meant to pave the way for private player entry in the civic education space. The private owners might build a municipal school in the same premises as private school. Slowly when the BMC will fail to efficiently run its own school, it will be handed over to private parties.”

Samajwadi Party’s Ashraf Azmi said, “The proposal is an eye-wash. No real benefit will result from this except the private parties getting easier entry to build bigger schools in reserved plots.”

Officials claim that the new proposal would mean better infrastructure and increased facilities for the children. Under the earlier norm although the private players would promise 15 per cent seats in private schools, the municipal school children could not afford the school fees due to which the seats would lie vacant.

“We are bringing this change in the policy to follow the recommendations made by the Right to Education (RTE) act. As per the stipulated classroom and students’ ratio, we need 580 more classrooms. Hence we need the change in policy as civic body does not have enough infrastructures to build schools,” said Milin Sawant, DMC, Improvements Committee.

Improvement Committee chairman and BJP corporator Ram Barot said the proposal would be brought up for discussion again after relevant data and other details are provided to all committee members.

Last Updated on Friday, 10 August 2012 11:20
 

'39% out-of-school children are from construction sites, illegal dwellings'

Monday, 06 August 2012 10:16 administrator
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The Times of India   06.08.2012

'39% out-of-school children are from construction sites, illegal dwellings'

PUNE: City-based NGO Door Step School's own survey has found 2,680 out-of-school children in the 6-8 age bracket in the city. The NGO's drive is part of its campaign to enroll all 6-7-year-old children in std I of municipal schools.

The survey combed all 76 civic panels in the city and covered 716 sites. It found that 39% of the out-of-school children were from small construction sites and unauthorised dwellings. The study also mapped 41 PMC and six Zilla Parishad schools close to these to assess the capacity of these schools to admit them. It found that of the 41 PMC schools, 40% had potential capacity shortfall (based on 2011-12 enrolment figures and survey data).
 
Transport assessment of 458 sites proved that transport to school was required at 82% sites and for 84% children. ajani Paranjpe, founder president, Door Step School, said, "The campaign is called Every Child Counts. It is a citizens' initiative to enroll every 6-8 year old child in standard 1 of municipal schools. The Right to Education Act directs children to be put in the age-appropriate class, which means that a ten-year-old will have to be put in std V irrespective of not having been in school before that. Hence, the child will have to put in extra efforts and cover all that he/she has missed. Therefore, it is better to enroll these 6-7 year olds in schools now."

"The survey is by no means complete and we have probably covered just 40% of sites in PMC limits. A large number of volunteers are required to continue the work and ensure maximum number of 6-7 yr old children are enrolled this year," said Paranjpe.

"We have admitted as many as 602 children in various schools as part of the campaign. However, transport is a problem for most. Thus of the 602 enrolled, 202 have been provided transport or escort. About 192 go to school walking (82) or by school arranged transport (77) or by PMT bus ( 31) or by transport arranged by parents (2). However, a total of 208 children of the total enrolled are not attending schools due to lack of transport. Capacity shortfall is probably not seen at present, because though children are enrolled, they cannot reach schools," she said. Every Child Counts is a citizens' campaign initiated by the Door Step School in partnership with NGOs Swadhar, Childline and Tara Mobile Creche.
Last Updated on Monday, 06 August 2012 12:06
 
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