The BMC recently announced that they will give Rs 10,000 as reward to children of all tax payers who secure over 90 per cent marks in SSC and HSC examinations. For this, the BMC has made a provision of Rs 10 crore in its annual budget for 2010-11 which was presented on Wednesday.

What’s more, BMC has announced that the reward will also be given to students who have secured 90 per cent marks in the academic years 2007-08 and 2008-09. Around 1,200 students in SSC and about 1,300 students in HSC scored more than 90 per cent marks in the 2009 exams.

This initiative was taken to encourage people to pay their property taxes on time for if they default, their children would miss out on the reward if they scored more than 90 percent.

Will this initiative by the BMC lead to a more competitive environment among students or will it lead to additional pressures on students by parents?

What’s your take?

Click Here to take the poll

The National Coalition for Education (NCE) will embark on a week-long campaign beginning February 17 to demand allocation of six per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) for education.

“We have already communicated our concerns to the Finance Ministry, Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD), the Planning Commission and the parliamentary standing committee on HRD,” said Ramakant Rai, NCE convenor.

The NCE is a conglomeration of networks working on right to education.

“During the budget session, children from eight States will march along Parliament Street with their teachers, representatives of the civil society and a few parliamentarians to press for their demands,” Mr. Rai said.

In addition, the campaign will seek to implement the right to education “in the right spirit,” Mr. Rai said.

On February 18, the children will walk to the doors of parliamentarians, expressing their concerns.

“Most kids participating in the campaign are from Naxal-affected areas, rescued bonded child labourers, children who dropped out of school and others who have been affected by the government’s inaction on education rights. This will be an opportunity for them to speak their mind,” Mr. Rai said.

Source – The Hindu

Lucknow: Environment education will be a part of the school curriculum in Uttar Pradesh from the next academic session.

State environment principal secretary Alok Ranjan told the media here today: “The government has already taken the first step in that direction by taking a decision to constitute a State Climate Change Board that would chart the roadmap for imparting environment education across the state.”

To be headed by the chief secretary, the proposed board would also set up an Environment Fund to promote research and studies in environment related issues and subjects.

According to Ranjan, Uttar Pradesh was the first state in the country to pave way for setting up a Climate Board, which was being set up as a part of the proposed eight missions under the recommendations of the Climate Change summit.

“Among the areas to be covered by these missions were solar energy, water, agriculture, forests, sustainable habitat, Himalayan ecosystem and above all creating a knowledge base on climate change,” he pointed out.

The Board has also been empowered with a regulatory role in order to ensure that its decisions were implemented on ground.

The state government was in the process of preparing a five-year and a 10-year action plan to set the ball rolling.

“The board would also work towards creating and spreading awareness about the need for preserving our environment, which alone could arrest detrimental changes in the climate,” observed Ranjan, while adding that “making environment education a part of the curriculum would go a long way in that direction.” (IANS)

Why are there many schools coming up in Navi Mumbai?

• Land is cheaper than on the mainland.
• There is also more of it available, so schools have much bigger campuses.
• Lots of professionals are moving there, and they are spurring demand for high-quality schools.
• On average, fees are lower than in Mumbai.
• The region has a more organised road network and transport facilities.
• Admissions are not as cut-throat as in Mumbai — at least so far.

The Schools, in Numbers

Navi Mumbai Corporation:
Primary schools: 49
Secondary schools: 3

PRIVATE AIDED:
(partly aided by the government)
Primary schools: 38
Secondary schools: 30

UNAIDED:
(no government funding)
Primary schools: 95
Secondary schools: 48

To find the best of schools in Navi Mumbai Click here

Admission process is in full swing and as a concerned parent, the importance of sending your child to the right school takes precedence. To make things easier for you, Aviva, along with Hindustan Times put together a survey that identifies the top 10 schools in your area within your city.

The survey was conducted by the prominent market survey agency ‘C fore’. The survey consisted of a healthy mix of parents and teachers that brings you a result that is fitting and unbiased.

You can check out the entire survey here.

The red brick structure of Delhi Public School (DPS) Ghaziabad stands in stark contrast to the dusty road that leads to the school.

Located on the Delhi-Meerut highway and spread over 15 acres, the campus offers Wi-Fi facility and is also home to six international-quality cricket pitches, four basketball courts and a skating rink.

The 29-year-old school is naturally one of the popular choices for parents in Ghaziabad.

“The school has a unique login ID for each student. This system allows us to be in touch with the progress in the classrooms. The teachers are very tech-savvy and are extremely organised,” said Dr Anju Rai, a gynaecologist, whose two sons study in the school.

“If my child is unable to attend school, we can access the lessons taught in class through this system.”

The school has 3,000 students and 160 permanent teachers led by an award-winning principal.

“The teacher student ratio is 35:1. This helps us give individualised attention to every student,” said Kumkum Sahai, headmistress of the secondary wing.

“Personal contact classes are held for students who are weak and teachers are constantly trained to cater to the needs of the students.”

One extra hour of sports before the school starts every morning is proof of how much importance the school gives to sports.

The world-class sporting facilities at the school have borne outstanding results too.

“Initially my parents weren’t keen on me pursuing swimming. But once I won an event and my photograph appeared in the newspapers, my parents agreed,” said nine-year-old Saira Sirohi, a Class 5 student.

She is one of the youngest swimmers in the country to cover a distance of 38 kilometre in the record time of 16 hours and 35 minutes.

Pooja Chaudhry, whose three daughters study in the school, said, “Children hardly go out to play nowadays. So the one extra hour of sports, apart from the usual `sports class’, takes care of all physical activity a growing child needs.”

The school’s other sports stars are Sikandar Ali Khan (13) and Prince Bajaj.

Khan, a Class 8 student, represents India in under-14 football and also captains the Uttar Pradesh under-14 team.
And Class 6 student Bajaj is the the school’s star chess player who has participated in national and international competitions.

Making teaching interesting and lessons more lucid and accessible are the audio-visual modules called interactive technology boards that the teachers use as against the traditional black boards.

“While teaching with these aids one can visualise and this in turn helps kids retain what they have learnt. When children see the interactive board, they are more involved in the process of learning,” said Sangeeta Mukherjee Roy who teaches Social Science in the secondary section.

“We can customise the learning according to the needs of the students and it saves a lot of time too.”

Roy said the laptop provided to every teacher helps them formulate teaching tools better. “Encouraging and bringing the child’s potential to the fore is our prime objective,” said Rita Kapur, the school principal.

New Delhi: Cutting short vacations, filling in niggling details on heaps of admission forms, or sitting at the computer for hours – the capital’s nursery admission process has left the parents of toddlers a worried lot.

According to most parents, the admission process if full of hassles this time – much in contrast to the government’s claim of making it a regularised and smooth process,

Parents say that while all schools started giving the forms on the same date, on December 15, the schools had their own different dates of accepting the completed forms.

Said Amiya Sharma, mother of a four-year-old, “The Directorate of Education (DoE) may be saying that the admission process has been made regular, but the reality is that schools are still doing things as per their own whims and fancies.”

“For one, almost every school has different dates for submission of the forms. Initially when the process began on December 15, the impression was that it will be a uniform affair. But now some schools will start accepting the forms only next week, while there are others that would have closed form submissions by then,” Sharma told the sources.

“I am so worried that we may miss some deadline, that I have cut short our family vacation to Mumbai from two weeks to one. I don’t think I will be able to enjoy the holidays until my daughter’s admission is done,” Sharma added.

Tedious paper work and questions demanding lengthy answers on the application form which have to be filled by parents is another often heard complaint.

Avanti Das, a bank employee, said that she and her husband have been staying up late into the night to fill up the lengthy forms.

“Yesterday for instance I was filling the online form of a school, and when I scrolled down I saw a few questions which needed in-depth answers expressing our opinion. So I had to log out, write down the answers separately, discuss with my husband, and then fill up the form,” Das said.

“Questions like how can the school and parent work together for the benefit of the child, are expected. But to ask me what do I think about the current education system, or have I read any text of Aurobindo is not!” she added.

Sharma further said the process was made “unnecessarily” complicated by some schools that are asking for affidavits which have to be attested by a first class magistrate and photocopies of educational qualifications ofparents attested by a gazetted officer only.

Sharmila Ghosh, an entrepreneur, said, “The government may have said that no school will conduct interviews, but schools are doing it on the sly. I had applied in a south Delhi school for my daughter and yesterday was the last day of submission of the form. I sent my driver to submit it. He called me to say that my husband and I have been asked to come for an interaction immediately.”

“The school had only mentioned the time of submission of the form – but it was actually meant for the interaction. Since my husband was at work in Noida and I was in my office in west Delhi at the time, we couldn’t make it to the interview,” she added.

Ghosh said after the experience, she and her husband have decided to take turns to fill and submit forms personally, and have pushed back their vacation until theprocess is complete.

Since the admission process began for nursery classes on December 15, the education department has received more than a hundred complaints against various schools. Last week the department warned 19 schools after receiving complaints against them.

As per the schedule, schools will stop accepting application forms on January 30 and bring out the first list of successful candidates by February 1, 2010.

New Delhi: Anxious parents, running from pillar to post, not bearing the mercenary attitude of the private schools to get their little ones admitted decided to hold a protest against them at Jantar Mantar on Wednesday.

Hundreds of aggrieved parents in the capital sat on a dharna organized by the Delhi Abhibhavak Mahasangha (DAM) to protest against the manner in which they are conducting the nursery admissions.

Aggrieved parents vented out their grievances and complained of the “mercenary attitude” of these schools “who are interested only in minting money.”

They also voiced their concern upon their arbitrary procedure to conduct admissions in violation of the Department of Education (DoE) guidelines.

DAM’s President, Vijendra Gupta said that, “The DoE’s admission policy has been openly flouted by these private schools for nursery admissions. The parents stand helpless and suffer at the hands of the greedy school managements that are only interested in monetary benefits which they derive after admitting children of influential parents. Every norm of the DoE has been manipulated as the schools still do not deter from taking donations. They are following a very partisan admission policy, interviews are being conducted etc.”

Rakesh Sharma, a parent at the dharna, informs, “The government policy has had no effect on schools, I am still running from pillar to post for my son’s admission. Violating the government and court orders, they are conducting interviews with children and parents. There are hidden costs against the fixed cost of Rs.25 set by the government. I had to pay Rs.800 as syllabus cost made compulsory for the admission form, which should cost only Rs.25. we also thought that the last date for the submissions is January 15 but most of the schools are only giving us two or three days.”

Sumit Vohara, president of admissions nursery dot com, informs, “Private schools are breaching government guidelines for nursery admissions. Schools somehow are using their tactics to extort as much money as possible from the parents. They design the admission forms in such a manner that a parent is bound to mention his salary, which is not a healthy practice to follow. Schools are charging donations and non-admissible fees etc and lower income families are being harassed and also denied forms.”

Parents successfully clearing the rigorous nursery school admission process of their wards in Delhi find themselves staring at one last but big hurdle -fees that even top the annual Rs 50,000 charged for admission by IITs.

With thousands of parents fighting over a few hundred seats in a limited number of good schools, the private institutions call the shots during the admission season.

The current fee structure in the IITs is around Rs 50,000 per annum. Besides, students pay about Rs 20,000 annually for other purposes like accommodation, alumni and admission fees.
But when it comes to reputed nursery schools in Delhi and NCR, the figure increases significantly and quotes anywhere around or above Rs 75,000 a year, which parents have to shell out even after undergoing a rigorous interview and evaluation process.

For instance, a school in Gurgaon charges Rs 75,000 as admission fees, while the composite annual fee is Rs 1,70,000 for 2009-10 school term. Besides, there are extra charges such as Rs 38,000 to Rs 44,000 as annual transport fees, Rs 6,000 to Rs 9,500 as IT fees every year.
A Noida school charges a one-time admission fee of Rs 61,000 plus Rs 26,000 per quarter. Similar is the case with another school in the satellite city which asks Rs 45,000 as admission fees with an additional quarterly fees of Rs 11,000.

Delhi Education Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely said he was aware of violations, but his department could only act against a school if it receives complaints from parents.

One of DPS Rohini’s strongest points, the Hindustan Times-C fore survey found, was its faculty. On the faculty competence front, the school scored 8 on a scale of 10, the highest in North Delhi.

The school uses a rigorous six-level selection process — including demo classes by the candidates — to select teachers who are not only well-versed in their respective fields but are also “young and spirited”, the school principal explains.

The good part about teaching in the school, say teachers, is that they are allowed to work on their own terms.

“Resources are available at the drop of a hat for both the students and the faculty members,” says Minakshi Khurana, headmistress of the junior section.

Working with the school since 1996, Khurana is one of the school’s oldest faculty members. “In DPSR you are given the freedom to teach in the style that suits you best,” she says.

Pallav Gupta, the only male teacher in the school, says: “The best thing about our school is its overall atmosphere.

One doesn’t have to worry about anything except one’s classes.” Class 12 coordinator and accounts teacher, Gupta believes the relaxed academic environment makes him deliver more as a teacher. “Though my day begins and ends with classes, it is just a great school to teach at,” he says.