CBSE schools’ festival from November 2

KOLLAM: The southern regional CBSE schools’ youth festival will be held at the Sree Buddha Central School Karunagapally on November 2 and 3. Students from CBSE affiliated schools from the districts of Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram will participate in the competitions.

The festival is being organised by the Kerala State CBSE School Management Association. M.K. Sanu will inaugurate the festival. The function will be presided over by the chairman of the festival organising committee K. Sasikumar. Karunagapally DySP K. Vijayan will distribute prizes to the winners at the valedictory function to be held on November 3.
 

Upgrade cry for math syllabus

CALCUTTA : Principals and teachers of ICSE schools met in the city on May 9 to discuss changes needed to make the board’s mathematics syllabus more “modern”.

The 100-plus teachers who attended the meeting stressed the importance of equipping students with skills to compete with those following international curriculum.

“There should be components in the syllabus that would help students pursue higher studies in the field of mathematics,” stated Dilip Bhattacharya, principal of MCKV School, where the meeting was held.

Bhattacharya is a former mathematics teacher of La Martiniere for Boys and a head examiner for the ICSE and ISC examinations.

The proposals thrown up at the meeting will be forwarded to the Council of Indian School Certificate Examinations. But G. Arathoon, additional secretary and officiating chief executive and secretary of the council, said: “The council is not aware of the meeting between the heads and teachers of ICSE schools in Calcutta. We will have to examine the proposals.”

A recent revision of the mathematics syllabus triggered the meeting. “The council has deleted topics important for students who want to pursue higher studies in mathematics and allied subjects,” said a mathematics teacher of a south Calcutta school, citing topics like functions in algebra that help in the study of differential calculus.

“We need to incorporate more topics for the benefit of students with the potential to pursue mathematics and related subjects,” said Nabarun De, principal of Central Modern School.

If there was a push towards nurturing brilliance, there were also proposals to pamper mediocrity. The meeting saw suggestions to include topics like banking transaction, tax calculation and share market transaction “to make mathematics more appealing to mediocre students”.

Such market-friendly topics have crept into the syllabus displacing those vital for further studies in mathematics.

Monojit Gupta, head of the mathematics department of Jadavpur University, said: “The mathematics syllabus at the school level does not contain enough topics to groom future mathematicians. Solving tough problems develops a student’s mental faculties. There should be space in the syllabus for such problems.”

Assam student wins CII-NIIT digital art award

CHENNAI : Bhargob Gogoi, a Class X student of the Government Boys Higher Secondary School, Assam, has won the CII-NIIT Digital Art Award 2006 for the senior category.

The award, instituted by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and NIIT to promote creativity among school students in the digital arts, was presented to Gogoi by chess Icon Viswanathan Anand at Kidex 2006, an expo organised for children here.

The the CII-NIIT Digital Art Award attracted 56,000 entries from 4000 schools across the country. Anitek Pratap Khatter, a Class IV student of The Indian School, Delhi, and Marvin Kharsohnoh of Class VIII, Pormlum Deficit Secondary School, Meghalaya, won the first prize in the sub-junior and junior Category respectively.

Distributing the prizes, Anand said students should actively learn new technology that will help them express their creativity. ‘The CII-NIIT Digital Art Festival has proved to be a right platform to bring out the latent talent of children in the field of digital arts’, he added.

Hooda honours CBSE topper

CHANDIGARH: Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Saturday announced that Rs.1-lakh per year would be given to Vipul Gupta for pursuing his higher studies as he had topped in the country in the CBSE examination held in 2005-2006.

Vipul is a student of DAV Public School, Thermal Power Plant, Panipat.

Mr. Hooda also presented a laptop computer to the boy here for his outstanding performance in the examination. He had secured 98.6 per cent marks.

Mr. Hooda said that after the opening up of the economy, the chances of placement had increased manifold and it was vital to impart qualitative education.

His Government had launched EDUSAT system and the budgetary allocation for education had been increased.

Konark is in Uttar Pradesh!

AHMEDABAD: Don't be surprised if your daughter tells you that the family should take a trip to Uttar Pradesh to see the Sun Temple at Konark.

Or that the next time Birju Maharaj is in town, you must go and see his Bharatnatyam performance. For the record,Konark is in Orissa and Pandit Birju Maharaj is a Kathak maestro.

But these are some of the 296 notable errors and omissions that have crept into the class 10 social science textbook of schools across Gujarat.

Most have come about during the translation of the book to English. The errors have been compiled by a former principal of a local school who would not like to be identified.

By her own admission, she is "not interested in publicity but only in the welfare of the students". Her decision to approach TOI with her research came 10 days after a meeting with education minister Anandiben Patel and petitions to principal secretary for education P Panneervel did not evoke any response.

The students learn that "Persian was India's contribution to the Turks"and that "We the Indians should connect religion and caste with political currents."

Liberalisation is constantly translated as globalisation and the socialist system as a capitalist one. Students of English medium have been put at a disadvantage.

For example, while the list in Gujarati mentions 20 Indian festivals, the textbook in English has only two — Mahashivaratri and Pongal.

There are similar omissions across the textbook where entire paragraphs are missing from the English version. Grammatical errors are aplenty and so are spelling mistakes.

Modhera becomes Modhesa, Nandadevi becomes Mandadevi, and fair-price shops become pair-price shops. One funny translation has turned gender sensitivity into gender sanitation!

Teachers contacted by reporters said they were confused about whether to tell students to go by the book or write correct answers. "The examiner may have a reckoner of 'correct' answers based on the mistakes in the textbook."