Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Punjab Odyssey – a trivia game on Punjab and Sikh history

Punjab Odyssey is a game about Punjab and Sikh History for children and grown-ups alike and encompasses five centuries of Punjab History. Kulbir Kaur of Canada developed this trivia board game to allow children to learn about the basics of Sikhism in a playful and entertaining way. The game comprises 540 questions which cover all major events of Punjab History and would challenge adults too. The game is excellent for some after dinner family bonding, when friends and relatives visit, or for those rainy day weekends. It is reasonably priced at $12.00. Why not buy one for the family? If you would like to order one, you can do so here:

http://sikhfoundation-store.org/catalog/sikh-odyssey-p-262.html?osCsid=faee3852dea0eded21d2f046bb6a774d

Sunday, April 18, 2010

The State of Our Schools....contd

Some time back Punjabi Connection had written about the State of our Schools, here is a news item that sheds further light on the subject

This Punjab school has no students
Gurdeep Singh Mann
Tribune News Service


Prempura (Fatehgarh Sahib), April 17
It’s not a school for scandal but certainly has something queer about it. The government primary school at Prempura lacks the very thing that forms the core of a school: Students. But it certainly has a teacher — 32-year-old Rupinder Kaur.

In many ways, Kaur is a unique teacher as her responsibility extends beyond doling out lessons. Everyday, while on her way to school, she has to convince the villagers and sometimes even plead with them to send their wards to the government facility. But till now her efforts have been in vain as the school has not seen even a single student enrolling in the current academic session.

The villagers, who scoff at lack of basic facilities at the school, are happy sending their children to nearby private institutes. “The private schools are much better as compared to the government school, which even doesn’t have basic infrastructure,” rued Manjit Singh, a villager.

Around seven years ago, the school was closed down due to lack of teachers. It was started a year ago under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyaan. Kaur said she taught two Class I students in the just-concluded session. “But there are no students now. Despite our repeated requests, people here don’t want to send their kids to the government school,” she said.

The villagers maintain that it is a prestige issue for them to to send their children to private schools (there are more than three in the vicinity of the village) where there are teachers, who no teachers give lessons in English, and latest facilities, including computers.

Manjit Singh said since there is no student in the government school, the teacher should be deputed to some other school that is reeling under staff crunch.

“The money being spent on maintaining the school and the salary of the teacher should not go waste,” he added.

Manjit Kaur block chairperson of Human Rights Manch and member of Block Education Committee said that efforts should be made to improve facilities in government schools to attract students. She said that there are some other schools in the area where the strength of students is quite low.

When told that there was not even s single student enrolled in the Prempura school, DEO (primary) Surinder Singh said: “I will have to check it.”