Sibal bats for students' creative instincts

“I wonder why the idea of democracy is only used in politics and not in classrooms. While parents and teachers seek to discipline a child, his aspirations are ignored,” he said. “That I think is anti-democratic,” he added.

Sibal made these remarks at the launch of two secondary level courses—Mass Media Studies and Geo-spatial Technologies (GT) — by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in collaboration with the industries concerned.

To start with, the Media Studies course will be introduced in 10 schools in Delhi, six in Mumbai and four in Pune while the Geo-Spatial course, that will focus mainly on cartography and GIS-based mapping, will be available in nine schools in Delhi, three in Kolkata and one in Mumbai.

The GT vocational course has been launched keeping in mind the growth expected in the Indian geo-spatial market. A market report estimates requirement of 30,000 professionals in the Indian geo-spatial industry by 2013. As part of the certification scheme, CBSE students will have to compulsorily pass two modules of GT in class XI and XII.

Rolta India Ltd has been nominated as the resource institution for the GT course and will provide assistance in various technical aspects, including teachers’ training and availability of the software.

For the course on Mass Media, the CBSE has entered into an agreement with noted filmmaker Subhash Ghai’s ‘Whistling Woods International’.  The course will introduce students of class XI and XII to five principal mass media — Film, TV, print, radio and the Internet.

The CBSE had earlier introduced a vocational course in Financial Markets Management with the help of NSE. Success of the course prompted the board to introduce the new courses.

Child rights body devises norms against corporal punishment

 In the wake of the death of a school student in Kolkata after being subjected to corporal punishment, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has come out with guidelines for dealing with violence in schools.

The Commission had set up an inquiry committee to probe into the complaint received from the father of late Rouvanjit Rawla of La Martinere School, Kolkata. Based on the recommendations of the committee, the NCPCR said the school board should remove the principal and vice principal as they not only used corporal punishment on the late Rouvanjit Rawla, but also condoned its use by other teachers.

“As such they are collectively responsible for creating an atmosphere of fear and trauma in the school,” the NCPCR said, adding teachers inflicting corporal punishment should be denied increment. Schools should review teaching practices and revise service rules for teachers in the spirit of the Right to Education Act, the NCPCR said.

The apex child rights body has also asked state governments to put in place systems and structures in all schools so that matters related to discipline and punishment are dealt within a continuous and comprehensive fashion by students, teachers, school managements and parents. For this, mandating child right cells in schools is also recommended.