Education

Traffic Warden talks about road safety at Sherwood High School (pic: CMCA)Nearly 130 students from classes 2 to 7 in the age group of 7 years to 12 years of Sherwood High School on Bannerghatta road along with members of the civic club of the Children's Movement for Civic Awareness (CMCA) celebrated the Safety Awareness Walk and Traffic Police Day on 7th January, 2013. Held between 9 and 11 am, the walk started with an inspiring and educative talk by P. R. Rao, Deputy Chief of the Traffic Warden organisation about the importance of road safety. Inspector Diwakar (Traffic) of…

Some disciplines, like health and education, call for special attributes over and above technical skills and expertise -- compassion and upholding the sanctity of life, in medical professionals, for example, and a strong commitment to value systems and ethics, in educationists.In a city known globally as a hub for information technology, with several prestigious institutions like the IIM and National Law School, Bangalore University's (BU) reputation is now taking a severe beating with reports of unsavoury goings-on in recent weeks. Bangalore claims perhaps the largest number of qualified Indian professionals working in the US, and also a large population of…

The response to PNLIT's request for volunteer teachers to help the children from the slum abutting Puttenahalli Lake was overwhelming! 15 people volunteered their services for various subjects. Usha Rajagopalan, who initiated this activity, found out that classes are already being held in the temple located in the slum. She met the temple priest and the teacher Mrs Rajeshwari, who said that some students were in need of supplementary tuition and closer attention in certain subjects.Vivek Krishna and Vijay Kumar are the volunteers coordinating the PNLIT Teachers. Classes are being fixed with students at mutual convenience and any breaks or complaints…

Parachute regiment School (PRS), JC Nagar, near Mekhri Circle, is under legal battle over a major fee hike with the parents' association. Connected to the dispute is the sudden renaming of the school to Army Public School (APS), arousing suspicion of foul play amidst parents.The problem began when school management decided to hike the fees by 130 percent in 2009, according to parents. They reacted by forming an association and filed writ petition in the High Court, which subsequently quashed the fee hike on January 10th, 2011. A writ appeal filed by school management is yet to come to a…

Last year, state government got flak for promoting the teaching of Bhagavat Gita in schools. Activists and educationists had branded this as ‘saffronisation' of education. But, for decades, Hindu organisations have been promoting Hinduism in schools throughout the state. Prominent of these is Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), an organisation that actively promotes Hindutva. VHP holds exams, competitions, sloka classes etc for schools in the city. Ramakrishna Mission in Ulsoor, and ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), are other organisations that have similar programmes. However, such work has continued without getting the ‘saffronisation' tag. Culture comes from religion VHP has been…

The morning started early for some students of  BGS NPS, Hulimavu on Saturday, 14th July 2012. Twenty seven children of Std VIII, accompanied by three teachers, attended a nature walk at Puttenahalli Lake. Bird watcher Jaishree Govind joined Usha, Nupur, Prasanna and Sapana to take the children on a guided tour of the lake that lasted for almost two hours (7:15 - 9:00 a.m.).  Photo: Harish Mahendrakar The water level has reduced due to evaporation and the delayed monsoon but many more birds have shifted residence to our lake. A Grey Heron has joined the resident bird community and the Purple Herons have increased…

It has been our desire to make the visits to Puttenahalli Lake more meaningful for everyone. Towards this, those who have visited Puttenahalli Lake recently, would have noticed that they have the help of sighting boards to identify the birds that they spot.Over the past year, PNLIT Shutterbugs (enthusiastic individuals who keep visiting the lake to bird watch and photo-capture the birds), have been helping us identify the birds that frequent the lake and document their residency and visits. To date, we have spotted and positively identified more than 55 species of birds in the lake vicinity.41 species, belonging to 21 bird families, have been…

A government First Grade College at Frazer town in Bangalore city operates in a Tamil primary school without having sufficient classrooms and infrastructure. Despite being allocated enough funds in 2010 for building construction, the college authorities have failed to get a land for the same. The college has achieved 80 percent result in the last year. Around 50 students have been placed in reputed companies, the teachers are excellent, says B V Krishnappa, Principal of the college. “But we don’t have resources to run the college in a proper way. We have funds, but we could not find a land…

It is Saturday afternoon and the community welfare centre at Dr Ambedkar Nagar, Koramangala 5th block is abuzz with a bunch of excited 8 to 15 year olds. Today is the day the children of this slum get to learn computers and maths from volunteers of Bhoomi, an NGO.Just as this reporter stepped in, she heard cries for Andrew. No class ever starts without Andrew she was told. He is a student of class VIII in Sacred Heart high school, Richmond road. His eyes sparkle with dreams and his smiling face brims with confidence. Andrews S, wants to become a…

In the commoditised world, if you don't like the price of a shirt or even a car, you can shop around to your hearts content.Schooling though is a different cup of tea altogether. It is an investment parents make for their children, and certainly no commodity. So when private unaided schools increase fees regularly, parents will simply not automatically move out in a hurry. Switching costs time, energy, money and stress on children. Some parents straightaway suspect that they are being exploited because they're not about to change schools at the drop of a hat. In market economics, this is…